Floating in a Glass-Bottomed Gondola over the Wet Tropics

February 28, 2014 by Loren in Australia, DTour, News, Outdoors, Travel

Raindrops fell as we floated up above the canopy in a glass box and disappeared into a cloud. For a minute we couldn’t see anything except off-white and a few stolen glimpses of wet, green leaves. But the rain wasn't a surprise; we were in a rainforest after all.

We were lucky to have three nights in the northeastern city of Cairns (pronounced “cans”), which would be just enough time to explore the two UNESCO World Heritage sites that sandwich the city: off the coast, the Great Barrier Reef; on the land, the Wet Tropics.

Since we were limited to a one-day rainforest trip, we took to the skies. Just outside of town, Skyrail runs gondolas above the treetops. The “diamond” gondola was enticing, as is anything with a glass bottom, so we paid a tad extra for it and hopped aboard. The floor-window didn’t necessarily offer much better of a view, but it was neat to be standing on nothing, watching lush greenery flow under my feet.

Down in the dense tropical forest is one of the most ancient ecosystems on the planet. If you’ve seen FernGully (which takes place in Australia), you get the idea. Virtually untouched by humans, it represents a massive living record of the ancient world, the closest modern-day counterpart to the extremely old Gondwanan continent. This is where Australia’s marsupials came about and primitive flora can still be found. The region’s weirdest fauna award goes to the flightless cassowary, the second heaviest bird on earth that sports a blue face, red wattles and a huge horn-like spike on top of its head.

Though we didn’t get to see any super-amazing wildlife from our viewing post, the skies did clear to reveal a jaw-dropping view. We saw steamy tree-covered mountains, families of pure-white cockatoos and ribbony waterfalls.

There are multiple stations throughout the journey to hop off and have a look around - umbrellas provided. The wide rope-lined boardwalks (there to preserve the environment) meander through the trees, filling people's ears with sounds of rainfall and dozens of bird calls.

At the end of the line, the town of Kuranda offers more sights and attractions to fill a day. Unfortunately, we had a late start that morning and got delayed by a passing storm at one of the mid-points, so we just stayed on the gondola to head back down the mountain. Though this coastal rainforest takes up only 0.2% of Australia, it contains the most diverse selection of plants and animals in the country. It’s a spectacular sight to witness first-hand, as long as you can see it through the clouds.

Disclosure: I am traveling around Australia on a DTour for DoubleTree by Hilton.

Getting To Know Puerto Rico (Again)

August 13, 2013 by Loren in Caribbean, Dining Out, Food, Places

Once a part of Spain, and a territory of the United States since 1898, the beautiful island of Puerto Rico has plenty of charm to go around. Full disclosure: I may be a little biased about this since I'm half-Puerto Rican, and have visited a few times before with family, but hear me out.

The beaches are gorgeous and relaxing, and the old capital city is a joy to explore, with its narrow cobblestone streets lined with Spanish architecture. Plus, the whole interior of the island is lush with greenery and spiked with amazing views.

Our two-week visit was sponsored by my mom (who was born in Utuado, PR), and included her 95-year-old parents, my sister and her family and my brother and his family. Accommodations were planned as such: a couple nights with my mom's cousin, a week in Rincón at a beachside six-bedroom house with a pool, and five nights in a high-rise condo in Isla Verde, near San Juan (the capital and largest city).

After a few days of beach, pool, and dominoes, we all headed to the Arecibo Observatory, famously seen in the 90s film Goldeneye. You'll marvel at this thing's size and achievement; it is, after all, the largest radio telescope in the world. The view of the massive science project is only topped by the sharp karsts surrounding it. The museum ain't bad either.

The unofficial mascot of Puerto Rico is the coqui, a tiny tree frog heard everywhere on the island come nightfall. Its name is derived from its signature call, a whistle that sounds like "coqui." We got to see about five of the little guys during our trip, and since frogs are some of my favorite creatures, I was totally stoked.

About an hour's drive southeast of San Juan is an incredible experience: the only tropical rainforest in the United States, El Yunque. We spent the day hiking paths and embracing the dampness, and I enjoyed the best experience of the trip by far - wading in a freezing-cold tall and raging waterfall. As it poured down more cold rain, my heart raced and I couldn't contain the giant smile plastered on my face.

From the surfing town of Rincón on the west coast, to the glitzy beaches of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico is the place for beach lovers. We had a blast snorkeling and swimming, but our favorite beach experience happened to be a short hike along the rocks overlooking Playa Sucia, a popular beach cove with pristine white sands lining turquoise surf in the southwest corner of the island. We spotted at least 15 iguanas crawling around on the cliffs and soaked in the view of the entire beach down below.

Perhaps my favorite part of traveling is eating food you can't find anywhere else. Puerto Rico doesn't disappoint, with its mix of Spanish, Caribbean and American flavors. One of the most iconic of these is lechón, in which a whole pig is roasted on a spit til it has a wonderfully crispy and salty skin. The best place to find it is on a Saturday in the tiny town of Guavate, where a short strip of a local road is dubbed the "ruta de lechón."

Another culinary delight is mofongo, a mashed plantain dish (akin to like America's mashed potatoes) filled with seafood, chicken, pork or veggies. It's hard to come by in the states so we sampled it as much as we could while we were on the island.

I had traveled to Puerto Rico a few times growing up, the last time being as a teenager. Getting to explore Puerto Rico all over again as an adult, and look at my family's heritage first-hand, was a truly meaningful experience.

Want to see PR in action? Watch the video of our trip.

Olympic National Park

September 04, 2012 by K & L in Cooking, Food, News, North America, Outdoors, Places, Roadtrip 2012

Even though it wasn’t initially in our plans for this trip, we’d heard great things about the Olympic Peninsula, a wild section of incredible rainforest, mountain and coastline in Northwest Washington. How could we miss out on that? We joined back up with 101, the first time since California, and soon realized that we’d hit the jackpot with weather: blue skies, warm sun - this isn’t the Olympic Peninsula we’d thought we’d encounter.

Without a clear plan of where we’d try to reach by nightfall, we started following the brown signs towards a Big Spruce tree, and were pleasantly surprised by the heavily wooded two-lane road lined with full-bloom blue hydrangeas that opened up to a small town strip and a magnificent lodge, at the edge of Quinault Lake. Practically entranced by the beautiful 1920s-era structure towering above us, we walked into the main lobby wide-eyed, snapping photos here and there, and made our way out to the back lawn which was dotted with Adirondack chairs looking out to the beautiful lake. If we’re ever looking to splurge on lodging, this seems like a perfect place. We glanced at a window sticker that proudly proclaimed the lodge had been rated as one of the “Best Places to Kiss in the Pacific Northwest”. Duly noted.

Driving around the small town, we decided we’d already seen enough incredible trees, so we turned back to 101 and made our way to a scenic beach turnout. We left the car at the roadside and paid a visit to the amazing expanse of smooth-stone and driftwood beach, a small hike through the wooded buffer from the road.

Finally deciding that we needed to hurry up and get to a campground, we anxiously walked into a ranger station asking about the status of the camps in the park. Her worried look didn’t put our minds to ease, and we took her recommendation (which fortuitously jived with the recommendation we’d received from a friend) to get to the Hoh River Campground as soon as possible. From there, it was strictly business. We drove a few loops of the campground, noting that some of the spots amazingly boast river access, before claiming one of the few remaining sites.

We needed to get some cash in order to avoid grossly overpaying for our site, so we again got into the car, unknowingly needing to drive another 45 minutes before reaching the next grocery store and ATM. We were losing sunlight, but Kristen got her wish of touring Forks. That’s right, the same Forks from the Twilight books. We grabbed groceries at the same store Bella shopped at, we drove by the Forks Highschool (the wooden sign which was replicated for the movie), and we drove by “Bella’s” house, which wasn’t the same from the movie but still photo-worthy. Armed with cash, wine, SoCo, and a couple of food items, we made the trip back into the forest to our home camp.

Unfortunately we’d run out of sunlight, so we didn’t get the chance to do any hiking that night, but we did get to make a yummy dinner. We reheated our Pok Pok chicken wings over the fire while roasting foil-wrapped yams (purchased at the grocer in Redwoods Natl Park), in the fire. Once they were soft to the touch, we pulled the yams out and mashed them into a pot with half a can of coconut milk (from Trader Joe’s in Corvallis). The combination of sweet potato/yam with coconut milk is Loren’s signature dish, which has become a staple in our home, though this marked the first time we’d tried the fire-roasting technique. Worked perfectly.

After dinner, we put the rest of the can of coconut milk on the fire grate and let it heat up. Then, we added some hot coco mix (courtesy of the hotel in Sedona), and passed the hot can back and forth for a sweet, silky, warm dessert drink.

The next morning, we were determined to get a hike out of the Hoh area, so we left our campsite on foot to do the mile and a half Nature trail, lamenting that we couldn’t do the 18.5 mile hike to the Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus (maybe next time...). But what we saw was enough to get us excited about the area. We learned about the different phases that the riparian rainforest ecosystem goes through, with winding riverbeds changing, literally paving the way for certain kinds of trees to initially thrive, which are then replaced by the towering Douglas firs and Western Hemlocks. It’s interesting to think about the different phases of growth that forests go through, which take decades upon decades to transpire. We as humans have such a warped sense of time; when we see forests of Ash and Cottonwood, they seem permanent, don’t they? But everything in nature is constantly changing, always.

As we left Olympic and drove through the northern peninsula town of Port Angeles (yes, also from Twilight) we realized we’d made our first big turn East, marking the end of the West-Coast portion of the trip.