Day 6: Mexico City —> Teōtīhuacān —> Mexico City.

We had a relatively early start this am to head out to the Pyramids, which are about an hour outside of Mexico City. Rodrigo, our guide, explained some basic things about Mexico City on the way out. For example Mexico has 32 states and you can see colors on houses, which represent political party affiliation. You’ll see pink, yellow, blue and red/white. The current President is a member of the National Regeneration Movement, which has a pink color. So it is why many of the taxis that we have seen have a pink trim on the outside.

We went out to first visit the Temple of the Feathered Serepent (aka Quetzalcoatl). It was incredibly impressive to see how much of the carvings are intact and how detailed they were. When we were at the Anthropology Museum yesterday, we saw the replicas. Now we were seeing the real thing. [Note to anyone thinking of visiting Mexico City: Hit the museum first before you hit the Pyramids.] So ‘quetzal’ means birds with beautiful feather and ‘coatl’ means serpent. We had time to climb to the top of the pyramid and take in views of the other two pyramids that were on tap for today. It was steep! Let’s just say these stairs wouldn’t pass US building codes in terms of slopes!

Rodrigo then took us to the entrance of the Pyramid of the Moon. Before getting to the pyramid itself, we walked through the Temple of the Butterflies (aka Quetzalpaplotl). We saw murals that were created in 100 AD. To say that this was really interesting is really not giving this enough credit. Much of the temple had been restored around the 1960s. We climbed up to as far as we could of the Pyramid of the Moon, which was also steep. Fortunately they had ropes to help you navigate the way up, and more importantly, the way down. The views were excellent and we had really good visibility in all directions.

After that, we walked along the Avenue of the Dead, where all of the governors lived. Believe it or not, citizens picked leaders based on actual intellectual knowledge in topics such as astronomy, geometry and geography. Ah, the good old days. It was incredible to find out that only 7% of all of the Aztec ruins have been excavated at this time. Lots of ruins, including pyramids, under grassy hills. We climbed up to the much taller top of the Pyramid of the Sun. It was crowded and step, but they had ropes to help navigate the climb up. And it was also a good workout, especially at that elevation!

Rodrigo then took us to a place where we learned about agave plants, which play a big role in mezcal production. These trees literally produce 2 liters of honey water 2x per day. The honey water is use for pulque. The tree we were checking out is 12 years old, and they typically live twice that time. 20 different kinds of agave are produced in the country of Mexico. We also learned how the worm in tequilla tends to add a smoky flavor, which I was able to smell. Finally learned about the different kinds of obsidian and how you can see through it!

We then headed off to lunch at Nico’s, which came recommended by a few sources, and said farewell to Rodrigo. The lunch at Nico’s was pretty insane in terms of the amount of food that came out. Tortillas of all kinds for days. I think I have eaten more tortillas in the past week than I have in my entire life. If you think I’m kidding, wait until you see the food photos on Dropbox. Excellent food and in a fun atmosphere. They did tableside salsas, guacamole and café de olla.

After that, we all headed back to the hotel and I went to the gym. The Maccabi Games are in Mexico City and throughout the week, more athletes and their families have been arriving at the hotel, and thus the gym. One person asked me while I was on the elliptical, “what event are you here for?” I responded with, “I’m here to eat!” Apparently I looked just athletic enough, I suppose. You can’t make this stuff up. I think I have a cousin who participated in these games a number of years ago, but I’ll need to check with my folks on that when we get back home.

We had the closing ceremonies with Rebecca and with Jason at Bistrot Maximo. Again, really good food and the sommelier really was into the fact that we were doing  only Mexican wines all week. So we talked about some different styles and were able to enjoy 2 more labels that we hadn’t tried yet. During dinner, we were recapping the worst meal of the week, which belonged to Rebecca. When we were at L’Opera watching the Women’s World Cup semi, she ordered something that ended up being “mayonnaise with a side of shrimp” as opposed to the other way around.

That led to the discussion of the escargot starter that we got. Rebecca then chimed in about how that dish really teetered along “the gross/goodness line” and she wasn’t sure where it would end up. This put Marc in stitches as he started crying from laughing so hard. As many followers of this space know, it isn’t a party until someone can get Marc crying from laughing too much. Well played, Rebecca. We ended the evening at the hotel bar, where more mezcal may have been consumed along with another Mexican wine.

Day 5: Mexico City

Happy 4th of July everyone who will be reading this sometime after the holiday.

We started in the gym with Jill on an elliptical machine. I biked for 10 minutes to warm up. I did our homework WOD that is supposed to be with a kettlebell but they only have dumbbells so used that which was awkward. Jill did the WOD after me and we got breakfast.

We all met up and walked into Chapultepec park for the scenery and then over to the Anthropology Museum.

This was a worthwhile museum to spend a couple of hours wandering around. Lots of well preserved artifacts from different eras and presentation of temples and tombs and art and society and traditions. I saw Jill a few times as we meandered separately around. At one point she told me to go get a picture of "the big wooden thing". The specifics beyond that became it's at the top of the stairs/escalator. When I saw it, it reminded me of Fazzino which Jill's family has many his works. I texted her that I got picture of the pre Fazzino. 3D art from way before this last century.

Too many photos to post here, but a small selection at the end of this post. For those that want even more, you can browse all photos on Dropbox.

Next up was a walk back over to Pujol again but now for a lunch taco omakase. Someone else's take on this from last September saves me some presentation and typing time. Notable differences now include it being 10 courses and they have you choose the pairing. Mezcal, wine/sake, beer, or mocktails.

I was asked about my food preferences since they had a list. At the end he asked if insects are ok and I said sure. Yes, ants were involved. Ant larvae to be specific which one server or bartender referred to as Mexican caviar.

The 10 courses were great and they substituted shellfish well. The mole at course #9 was great like Tuesday (and 2 days older!). The accompanying Mezcal tasting all afternoon was spectacular. All 4 of us agreed that the taco omakase was the one to do if you couldn't do both this and the regular dinner menu we did on Tuesday night.

While sitting at the bar, we got to interact with an Australian bartender who gave us some great pure agave syrup that was amazing. Plus more than one staff member recognized us from Tues and warmly welcomed us back. Jason and I both agreed that the two best Mezcals of the 6 we were served were Mezcal Real Minero (Largo) which was just solid daily goodness and Mayalen which was peppery for particular occasions.

We also learned that as the shift ends at 2am, the pastry staff start showing up for the next day. And the prep crew shows between 6 and 7am as the fresh food deliveries arrive to get the next full day of meat and vegetables going. 24 hour full operation!

We got out just before 4pm and got an Uber to the Frida Kahlo Museum. This was an interesting view on her life and what she endured while also persevering and creating some legacy. I don't watch many movies so I have not seen Frida.

We got back to the hotel 2 hours before dinner to relax just a little bit. Could have used 3 hours. Off to Sartoria to complete our very international 4th of July by going Italian for a great meal. It was very nice to take a short break from Mexican cuisine after almost 5 full days of it. We were all too full and tired to take on dessert. I know this may shock some readers.

Day 4: Mexico City.

Marc slept in and I ventured to the gym to attempt to minimize the damage from all of the awesome food and wine we have been consuming. All hail cardio this week. We got some breakfast and then headed over with Rebecca and Jason to Mercado Medellin to meet with the chef who was going to lead our cooking class for the day. We had 2 other students joining us - an expat who lives in Mexico City and his friend visiting from Nashville. Chef Beto and his sous-chef, Mario, were on time and gave us the lay of the land for the day.

We walked around the market and sampled loads of things. Chicharrón. Mole paste. Some meat. Mexican coffee (followers of this space know that this is ALL Marc). Cheese. Chocolate. We learned that Mexico has 143 different chiles! We also tasted tlacoyo, which is a tortilla that has beans and chicharrónes in the tortilla itself and then you put in a filling, which in our case had chicken. Yummy. Beto took us by a tortilla maker that makes 14,000 tortillas per day and it happened in a room that was smaller than my garage. Amazing.

Amongst other tidbits gleaned from the tour, piñatas were actually created as a religious object used for teaching. The original ones had a 7-point star, one for each of the deadly sins. You were supposed to hit it 7 times at Christmas. Fruit used to be inside as a reward for eradicating the sins. At some stage, it was commercialized for birthdays and other fun events with candy coming out, but no one really knows when that transition happened. We also learned that chocolate didn’t always have a positive connotation when it came to Mexico. Sacrifice was involved. Anyway, the more you know....

We headed to Casa Jacaranda to start cooking. It’s a really beautiful space that is very contemporary but also very comfortable. Linda and Colin, the 2 other guests on the tour, were a lot of fun and it was great having them join in because we had no idea how much food was going to be made today. Spoiler alert: MUCHO (my Spanish skills are over the top, as you can read).

The group ended up making tamales (a single one is called a tamal - no ‘e’ at the end), green mole with shredded chicken, salsa verde, tomato salsa, tortillas from scratch, and some other things. Beto and Mario had us vote as a group if we wanted to do savory or sweet tamales, and Marc took a leadership role and immediately piped in with ‘SWEET!’ They were excited as most people choose savory. They weren’t super sweet by Marc Beck standards but it was fun to make those.

As we were eating mid-afternoon (with an 8pm dinner reservation - hmmmm.....), we also sampled some more Mexican wine, which has really turned out to be a great exercise. The wines have been unique and we have learned a bunch. It’ll be interesting to see what we can procure back home. Last night, one wine from Pujol was a star performer. The food that we all made was very tasty and the 2 other folks got to take out some leftovers since one of them was local. Great - nothing went to waste. After the meal, Beto and Mario led a mezcal tasting for whomever wanted to try. I think Marc and Jason tried about 5 or 6 of them. I’ll let Marc talk about the different styles, if he chooses. The cooking class was a great time and a nice way to learn about the food of Mexico.

We got back to the hotel after 5:30pm, which was a tad later than expected, with a quick turnaround time for another big time dinner at Quintonil. I crafted a plan so we could slow our roll at dinner and not eat straight away, plus we all agreed that we already were so stuffed to not have the tasting menu. The food at Quintonil was pretty outstanding. The wine service could have been a bit better, but overall we had some standout dishes with innovative presentation. I have never seen a salad presented as a profile within lettuce. Marc ate more seafood (amberjack in case you are wondering), which is a win for everyone. Escalmoles (aka ant larvae) are a regular thing on menus in Mexico. And the panna cotta was not what we were expecting, but enjoyable all the same.

So there you go. An action-packed and fun-filled day. Special thanks to Lisa for watching the other Women’s World Cup semi that was boring as heck and keeping me up to date via text.

Day 3: Mexico City

Got up to work out. Hot and humid in the gym but we did the work - 18 minutes of burpees, DB snatches, and sit ups.

Got some breakfast food and showered then met Jason and Rebecca to head over to the historical center to walk around.

We started in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.  We then zigzagged all over the historical area including the Postal Palace until back in the huge square known as Zócolo with the cathedrals and Palacio Nacional. It was cleared of all the concert setup we saw on Sunday and was magnificent without the clutter.

We entered Catedral Metropolitana which was beautiful. We then wandered even more streets getting into the very busy section of small businesses in every spot plus spilling onto the streets.

We started wandering back toward our lunch location and Jason spotted churros. That reminded him that we had seen an Eater Mexico City entry on churros so we mapped it at .8 miles away and went to El Moro. A great churros y chocolate appetizer before walking to lunch at La Opera with a TV tuned to WWC semi final game between USA and England.

We got some food and sat for 3+ hours resting from the morning walk and watching the game. It seemed better played by USA than last game but still intense, stressful to watch and full of fouls. But they won and play the final on Sunday.

We rested for about 90 minutes at the hotel before heading to Pujol. This was our highly anticipated dinner excursion. 3 out of 4 of us had the vegetarian maiz (corn) tasting menu and the other had the mar (sea) tasting menu. Everything was delicious and we are going back on Thursday for lunch taco tasting menu. It should be amazing too.

Day 2: Mexico City —> El Nevado de Toluca —> Mexico City.

Since we had the extra 36 hours before our friends arrived, I thought it would be fun to go for a hike to mix up the itinerary a bit. I checked out some websites on fun day hikes and settled on one that is ~2 hours outside of Mexico City that reminded me a bit of when we went to Crater Lake.

Marc was not really excited when I told him that our guide for our hike was picking us up at 6am this morning. But we managed to get up on time and Marc got his pastries for the ride out to our hike. Crisis averted. He also promised to return when we got back to try the chocolate cake.

Our guide, Carlos, was on time and ready to go. It was still dark for most of the ride out but as we got closer, we were able to see lots of fog over in the direction we were slated to hike at. Admittedly, I was also a tad nervous about the hike. The duration was fine, but I experienced some altitude sickness on a hike at a similar altitude during Operation Cincuenta. I wanted to be careful (see that, DAD!) and smart. Carlos gave us a couple of options, so we took the easier one that was ~3 hours of hiking and about 5 miles.

Off we went and we started at 13,500 feet to climb to a max of 14,500 feet. Doesn’t

seem like a ton of elevation gain, but at this altitude, you feel it quickly. We took our time and got to the top where we could see both lakes, although one of them was covered in fog at that particular moment. Then the fog quickly dissipated as we walked down to the lakes.

First up was Lago del Luna, the smaller of the lakes. As we approached, it started to get sunnier and sunnier so it was time to shed some layers. The lake started to show different colors, which was really pretty. We continued on to Lago del Sol, which allowed us to get a close-up of the summit of Nevado del Toluca. The fog was moving around rapidly, so we were trying to be efficient in getting photos. What was great was that we had the whole circuit to ourselves. No one else out there. Carlos said that on the weekends that this trail is packed.

We made our way to the other side of the lake and decided to eat a little before the climb out of the craters. Marc and I told Carlos about Crater Lake, which is still one of my favorite places that I have visited in my time in the PNW. He definitely wanted to learn more as we were trying to compare both locations. The fog started to roll back in as we made our way back up. It was a workout, for sure, and then I wanted to see if we could hike to a higher lookout point to get a better shot of Lago del Sol, which is obscured at the top of the official trail loop.

Fortunately Marc and Carlos were game, and we hiked up a bit more because we needed more elevation, right? The fog was pretty thick but since it wasn’t windy, we stayed up there for about 5 minutes and guess what, the fog moved out a bit. More photos. After that, we headed back to the car and started the ride back to Mexico City. Along the way we were held up by a traffic accident (no injuries) and then we saw a government car of some kind in a drainage ditch in the middle of a major highway with a bunch of police around. Hmmmm. You can’t make this stuff up. I wish we could have stuck around to find out what happened there!

All in all, Carlos was a fantastic guide and we were lucky to have him. We made it back, Marc got his afternoon pastries and we just chilled for a bit waiting for our friends to arrive.

While waiting for our friends to get settled, Marc got his 1st mezcal tasting in at the hotel bar. Honestly, it smelled absolutely revolting to me but Marc seemed to enjoy it, so that’s good. Him and Jason sampled another mezcal at dinner. I’m sure Marc will have more to say on this topic as the week progresses. Later on, we had a great meal at a local restaurant that included duck buñuelos (SO GOOD), pork tacos, chicken with mole negro, manchamanteles and escamoles (look this one up - we have precedent on this one from Operation Cincuenta). On the dessert front, Marc had a whole page on the menu dedicated to chocolate. All in all a good day.

PS - We will have a later blog post on food. Have no fear.

Day 23: Bogotá, Colombia

After the chaos of the past few days, and yesterday in particular, Marc and I had a much needed ‘sleep-in’ day. We didn’t really have much planned for the day since we were originally supposed to be coming back from the Amazon, so we just kind of rolled with it. Fortunately for all of my travel in my previous job, I was able to use my status to get us a pretty late check-out time as our flight is not until 1:30am tomorrow.

The city of Bogotá does a number of cool things fitness-related on Sundays. They close streets for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. They also run fitness classes in the street. We were able to see one from our hotel window. It was entertaining to watch. The sun was shining and the temperature was very pleasant (mid-70s). Marc and I had some re-arranging of our clothes in our luggage to take care of, and then we wanted to get outside since the weather was nice.

Our friend, Marcelo, is a Bogotá native and happened to be in town with his family. We were meeting them later for dinner, but he texted me in the morning about a good local market near our hotel in the neighborhood of Usaquin. Marc and I walked through it and he said it kind of reminded him of the booths at Pike Place Market back home. It’s always fun to see what people sell in markets in other places. We also checked out a local mall called Hacienda Santa Barbara (Go Gauchos!).

On the walk to lunch, I saw a sign for a place that teaches English called ‘Wall Street English’. Hmmm. Do they teach students how to speak like Gordon Gekko? Or is it more like this scene (see #4) from the movie “Stripes”? We had lunch at Local by Rausch, and Marc had a rum and coffee concoction called an ‘Aroma Café’ that he seemed to enjoy a great deal. Plus we tried a local dish that we hadn’t had before called ‘mazorca desgranada’ with braised brisket. Very tasty!

We walked back and watched Red Zone as we packed everything up. Marc and I have been getting a kick out of the Spanish announcers doing Red Zone (they use 2, as opposed to 1 in the US) during our time in South America. Interceptado! That was my favorite line. LOL. Unfortunately the Giants defense couldn’t do their job.... again, so it was a loss for Big Blue to the evil Cowboys. The game between the Cowboys and the Seahawks next week is going to suck as I despise both teams. 

Anyway we checked out and stored our bags before heading over to dinner with Karin and

Marcelo. On the way, we saw some more Christmas lights in one of the squares. They really do a great job with the lights in Bogotá. When we met up with our friends, they said that Medellín does an even better job with the lights. Dinner was way entertaining as we recapped our South American adventure, and Marc had some more fish. The choice of having some wine may have been suspect as we had to stay up for our 1:30am flight that was still 3 hours away.... And so it goes. 

You can find more pics of our adventure HERE.

Day 22: Calanoa --> Leticia --> Bogota, Colombia

Plans change sometimes and flexibility is important.

It was muggier and warmer overnight than the previous night if that is even possible. At some point, probably 3-4am, I saw lightning across river taking a good 10+ seconds to hear thunder. It was dumping rain. It felt cooler and I rolled over back to sleep. I didn't know until we got up around 6:30 that the warmth/humidity was causing a lack of sleep for Jill. She mentioned that she wanted to see if we could get back to Bogotá a day early. I said ok but also felt very glad that she booked the Amazon. She likes to enhance travel itineraries. Galapagos was the base. Amazon was the spice.

I am glad we hiked 11k yesterday with two guides through the jungle. We saw some interesting stuff and sweated far more than any other hike of that distance and relatively slow pace with barely any elevation change. Just high heat and a humidity sweat box while walking through mud. But we've done that!

Calanoa staff and Ramiro our guide were super accommodating as they easily helped us get the flight a day early as well as a boat down the river to get to the airport. Ramiro came with us and since we left a little earlier than we would have the following day he said we'd hit one or two spots along the way with pink dolphins since we only saw the grey ones yesterday afternoon. After about 45 minutes we pulled into a calm area in shallow water and BINGO! Pink dolphins! They don't come out of the water as high as the greys so spotting and capturing on camera is more difficult. We hung there for 15 minutes and I took tons of photos that were late. But I got one that might show a bit despite dolphin being further away than desired.

We then finished journey to Leticia and went to the airport. Once there, Jill could communicate with the outside world again on her phone so we arranged extra night in Bogotá plus dinner.

Seated next to me on flight was Brazilian dude in green and yellow shirt who appeared to have purchased a scarf with Colombia colors and wording. He literally took dozens of selfies in this dual outfit before takeoff as well as halfway through the flight. He just kept adjusting something like the scarf or the window lighting or the phone angle. Then he threw on his jacket and did it even more. A lot more. Somewhat entertaining.

As we appoached Bogota airport, the plane suddenly turned up engines and aborted landing. They said something in Spanish and then another sparse announcement in English. Several minutes later they indicated that we were flying 30 minutes to Cali rather than circling for another landing.

We finally got explanation that there was something preventing landing so we were landing nearby and refueling and waiting to hear when we can fly safely to and land in Bogota. Once on the ground, we could look things up and found no issues on Twitter or Google. FlightAware was showing flights landing in Bogota. Not making any sense. THEN we got story from flight attendant in first class. There was a dog on the runway and they couldn't get it off. Our flight was "low" on fuel so had to land somewhere rather than circle indefinitely. Dog probably was cleared after it was too late for us to just turn around and go back.

When we walked out of airport the car we had the W Hotel hire for us wasn't there. Unsure if the flight issue caused this but after being unable to contact hotel we hired a taxi. They were quoting strange amounts and switching between pesos and dollars. We finally settled on 35,000 pesos which is just over $10.

We minimally unpacked and got our big bags we left there a week prior and Jill showered. We then went to a good dinner at El Chato and then back for some COOL AIR sleep (and I showered). Crazier day than expected...

Day 19: Ibaque, Colombia.

Regular followers of Team Beck are likely aware that I am a non-coffee drinker. I have never liked the smell, texture or taste of it. No coffee ice cream for me. No espresso-laced desserts for me. On some level, this is good and bad for Marc. He gets almost a full 2nd dessert I may only want a spoonful of, but as the baker of the house, he tends not to experiment with coffee in desserts as much as he would probably like because of my dislike of coffee.

So why are we in the ‘Coffee Triangle’, you may ask? It’s Operation Cincuenta and since it’s all about Marc, we go for coffee given his love of artisanal coffee. I promised Marc that when we got here that I would participate in any and all coffee tastings scheduled. I couldn’t promise loving coffee when all was said and done, but I was going to give my best. 

But first we had our private cooking lesson with the head chef of the hacienda - Ruben. We met him and went to the market with Guillermo, our guide, and Giovanni, our driver. We picked up some veg, meat and other goodies. Along the way (with Guillermo doing an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC job of translating), Marc and I asked Ruben about weightlifting plus we talked about specific seafood and veg that we have in the Pacific Northwest. 

The questions about lifting came from the fact that Ruben is built like a tank and has arms that could probably break people like they’re a twig. Not sure if Guillermo has ever translated on these topics, but we all seemed to have fun talking about lifting weights, burpees, and other crazy workouts plus sharing videos and pics. We found out later that the boys in the kitchen were impressed with Marc’s shoulders (well, duh - those swimmer shoulders are pretty dreamy) and my front squat PR video.

Ruben walked us through how to make empanadas with cheese only and with beef and

cheese. Plus we learned how to make carimañolas, chuletas and a combo dessert that is best described as chocolate, coffee, dulce de leche and Oreo cookies.  Guillermo stayed on to translate and we all had lots of laughs in addition to learning how to make some tasty food (and have bad carbs for days). And yes, the food was really tasty if I may say so myself.

As Marc mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry, some candle torch blew up towards the end of the meal and almost hit me. Today, Ruben was attempting to showcase the texture of the dulce de leche mixture and as he squeezed the bag, it went flying towards me which also required some agility and dexterity to avoid it all from landing on me. Never a dull moment. As we were finishing up the meat course, we figured that since the dessert would benefit from a ‘set’ period to firm up that we should do the coffee tasting now and have dessert later. Off we went!

Given my dislike for coffee, I decided to treat this activity almost like an academic exercise. Going back to the book reco we made earlier in the week, the way coffee moves from plant to bean to cup is somewhat similar to wine. I kept the bulk of my questions focused from that angle and actually learned a great deal more than I was expecting on this topic. Guillermo also informed us we were going to have a test, which I thought put me at a disadvantage since I don’t like coffee but his reasoning was my wine knowledge would help counter Marc’s taste buds. Hmmmm.

We tasted at an old estate that is owned by the family of César Gaviria, who was President of Colombia when they killed Pablo Escobar. It was very traditional and we learned a bit about how those homes were laid out in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Marc and I also learned how houses with red indicated a liberal political belief from the family in those times. Blue meant conservative beliefs. 

Guillermo explained to Marc and I about the process from seedlings to harvest to being sold to a coffee producer. Coffee here is harvested 2x/year. We learned how it takes 2.5 years from when the seeds are first planted in a nursery to the 1st harvest of the coffee fruit. The peak of a coffee fruit tree is the 3rd harvest and they are pruned in a major way after the 5th harvest cycle. As with wine, the branches are pruned in a less aggressive way throughout each harvest to ensure the best fruit gets the right nutrients.

During the tasting, we first reviewed flavor profiles and aromas, and Marc and I had part 1 of our test. We were given individual water glasses with salt, sour, sweet and bitter and had to guess which one was which. Tie. Then we had part 2. Again, we tied each other using a set of aromas developed by Jean Lenoir. Then we tasted 2 coffees - one was beyond horrible. Guillermo said it was ‘aggressive’ in the favor. I used the word ‘obnoxious’. Then we had a 2nd coffee where it still wasn’t great but I’d call that one ‘aggressive’ instead! Anyway, the test ended in a tie between us.

We came back, packed and had the tasting menu offered by the hacienda. Trout is the local fish in Armenia and I had it for dinner the night before. Tonight they had a ‘trout ceviche’ on the menu. It was really good, and even better, Marc finished all of his! I don’t think Marc has collectively consumed (willingly) as much seafood in his life as he has on this trip. I consider this a victory. Unfortunately I am still not a convert to drinking coffee but I really enjoyed learning about how it was made. We also had a surprise frog visitor during our meal.

We knew we were going to have an absurd amount of dessert between the 2 of us because

of the tasting menu and the 4 desserts we had from the cooking class. Marc and I met a nice family from Brooklyn a couple of nights earlier and in that party were 2 parents and 2 “kids” in their mid-20s. We knew they likely had the metabolisms to take on our “donation”. The dessert with the tasting menu was too “coffee oriented” for me. That said, the tasting menu dessert had a liquid nitrogen component and any leftovers were thrown into the pool, which generated a very cool visual. The dessert we made was great and when the crew from Brooklyn tasted it, they concurred. Score. It must have been the Oreos. 

Marc and I are off to the Amazon tomorrow morning. Internet, if they have it where we are staying, will likely be limited. So if you don’t hear from us for a few days, let’s hope it is because of no WiFi and not because the jungle animals came after us. We hope to be back online on Sunday afternoon. Thanks for tuning in!

More pics HERE.

Day 18: Armenia, Salento, Cocora (Colombia)

Colombians eat/celebrate with family on Christmas Eve and open presents at midnight and often stay up all night drinking. Then they like to go out for lunch, dinner, movies etc to escape mess of a house on Christmas day. Many are also apparently severely hung over. So we started our full day a little early in an attempt to beat crowds by 11am and later.

While driving to Salento, we went by former house of Carlos Lehder Rivas and heard how he flew drugs over an island in the Caribbean then power boated it to Miami. And then when extradited to the US how he attempted to take down everyone including Pablo Escobar. And then the crazy stuff Escobar did to avoid extradition by offering to build his own prison to avoid being turned over to the United States.

We then learned about the Juan Valdez coffee character and how the first guy portraying a farmer from Colombia was neither a farmer nor a Colombian but rather a foreign actor.

We hired a Willys Jeep in Salento to take us to Cocora with our guide. Our Jeep was from 1954 and had the engine rebuilt once. The ones that have all original parts are worth over $30k because they are beloved.

Hike over 500 meters in altitude gain to Finca la Montaña ending at 2860M (9400ft) early enough in day to be ahead of the crowds and with some gorgeous weather with great view of Morogacho at the top across a valley. This view happens less than 5x per month. Then we hiked back down taking about 2.5 hours total for high altitude hike.

I told our guide, Guillermo, over lunch about eating ants and worms the other day in Bogota and he said he could not do that. I also told him about the Coloma coffee liqueur and he said that and one other one are good and he'd show me as we walked through town. So we went into a store while walking the main street toward Plaza Bolivar and he pointed it out. The proprietor offered a taste of another one that was sweeter but not as good in my mind. Then she offered Jill and I a small chocolate piece. Jill ate it to discover coffee bean inside and made the greatest face that had me and Guillermo laughing so hard.

During lunch our guide also told us about one of the great wonders of Colombia that nobody knows about that he wants to visit. It's the Caño Cristales - the river of five colors. It looks amazing but getting there isn't easy and only colorful part of the year (July-September). First you fly from Bogota to Villavicencio then another plane to La Macarena then a guide can potentially take you the rest of the way which might be multi-hour hike. But wow. Just read more about it.

We went to Jesus Martin coffee shop for coffee. This guy really started the good coffee revolution in Colombia for locals. The country was exporting basically everything and keeping the crap locally and he wanted Colombians to also enjoy the good stuff.

We had dinner with Kyra and her mom Adele who we spoke with this morning. I noticed last night that Kyra got up more than once to visit the chocolate table while we were still halfway through our meal. I was starting to think some chocolate needed to be saved for ME! So I told them this morning I was worried about the chocolate supply and found out that she lives in Gig Harbor (near Seattle). At the end of our meal just as we finished dessert, one of the candle torches by our table blew up and in slow motion I watched the fireball in the air flying toward Jill and I'm just thinking "don't land on Jill, don't land on Jill". It landed between her and the person at the table behind us. I was relieved there was no "stop, drop, roll" necessary. But we all got up and I moved us into the courtyard away from the other 5-8 candles. Staff even told us that this happens from time to time. Yikes!

Day 16: Bogota, Colombia

We met a private tour guide named Juan at hotel at 9am to show us around until lunch. As we drove to first destination on a Sunday, we saw so many folks on bicycles and learned the city shuts down many roads on Sundays and people love it. They've been doing it since the mid 70's.

We learned about the legend of El Dorado and the Spanish search for gold. They even heard about Lake Guatavita and attempted to drain it for gold.

We then reached Monserrate to visit the top. You can hike it and we would if we had more than a full day here but we want to see much more before lunch. So we took the funicular up for the great views and to look around the top then ride it back down.

We then headed over to La Candelaria to see the buildings on main square and the surrounding area including some sanctioned graffiti art. We went into Museo del Oro to learn just a portion of the history that gold has played in this area.

We then went to have some delicious lunch at Harry Sasson since it was closed for dinner because they close on Sundays like many places in Latin America.

After lunch we walked 4.2k back to hotel and managed to enter a couple of shopping malls looking for Coloma Licor de Cafe Gran Reserva. The first place didn't have any but directed us to VIPS which had it so we bought a couple bottles to bring back.

We relaxed a bit and prepared bags for final leg of trip. Plan is to store large checked luggage at hotel we are in now in Bogota since we are coming back here in a week before having dinner and flying out late overnight. So small backpack carry ons for coffee plantation and the Amazon forest bug festival.

Day 15: Galápagos Islands (Isla Baltra) —> Guayaquil, Ecuador —> Bogotá, Colombia.

Today is mostly a long travel day. Bags were pretty much packed for phase 3 of ‘Operation Cincuenta’ last night. Got up, had breakfast, enjoyed the last views of the islands, chatted with our new friends, and then we all took our final zodiac ride to land to head to the airport. The lounge at the Baltra airport was a hot, sticky mess. We were joking around with our fellow passengers. A few were continuing on with their adventures. Most were heading home. 

When we got to Baltra on 12/15, we were immediately told that the WiFi on the boat didn’t work. I got in touch with 5 groups of people immediately to tell them how to reach us in the event of an emergency and that was it. And when I was able to re-engage on 12/21 after we docked in town for a day of tortoise watching and an afternoon of shopping, nothing had changed in the world. 

I mean - the political situation is still a cluster. My New York Giants still suck. I’m still getting the crap kicked out of me in my weekly pick ‘em NFL pool. Nothing new. Yes, lots of drama going on in the world and stuff did happen this week that I would have normally kept tabs on, but did it matter when I reconnected 7 days later? The lack of internet also caused something amazing - people actually engaging with each other. WTF? Mind blown! Anyway.....

For Marc and I, the size of the ship was perfect. 40+ passengers — so not overwhelming in terms of lining up for excursions, food, or whatever. You were able to get to know your fellow travelers and also have your own downtime, if you chose to do that. We had a pretty social boat and people mingled about even if they came on with a group. The bar *MIGHT HAVE* been running so low on provisions that the crew needed to restock when we got to Santa Cruz on Friday to get us through the last night of the cruise. Don’t judge.

In addition to celebrating Marc’s 50th birthday, we had a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with their daughter and their son-in-law. Another couple was celebrating their 35th anniversary. All goes to show you that you should always embrace the positive and “eat the damned cupcake”. Good role models for the Becks’.

So we landed in Guayaquil, and had about 3 hours before our next flight to Bogotá. The lounge here was an utter oasis compared to the one in Baltra. Air-conditioning, plenty of chargers, decent WiFi to upload the 600+ pics we took in the Galápagos and a shower, which was lovely since we were literally landing in Bogotá and heading straight to dinner. 

When Marc and I landed in Bogotá and while taking the car service into the city, I was struck by the Christmas lights that were up all over the place. John, one of the guys from our trip, gave us a heads-up about this and he was right. It was really pretty. Based on what I was able to discern in the dark about the skyline, I was excited to see what the city looked like during the day knowing it is surrounded by the Andes.

We had dinner at Restaurante Leo, which came highly recommended. Let’s just say that

while the food was very good, it was definitely on the esoteric side. Literally bugs and worms esoteric. The kitchen offered Marc an opportunity to see the worms up close after he said the momojoy dish “wasn’t bad” and he politely declined. While at dinner, a couple got engaged and we applauded. Our server informed us that the gentleman is a regular at the restaurant and is a native English speaker. Most of the back of the house staff come out to congratulate the happy couple. His new fiancée speaks Spanish. Neither knows more than maybe 500+ words in the other language. Whatever works, right?

That said, Marc had a local coffee liqueur at dinner that we literally started investigating while still at the restaurant if we could get it at home. If not, clothes are going to be left in Colombia to make room in our luggage. Make no mistake about that! Tonight is also the night that we start the 15-day cycle for our malaria pills, which I am not looking forward to. I’ve heard nothing but unpleasant side effects when taking these pills. Let’s hope these are kept at a minimum for the both of us.

Day 12: Isabela Island --> Bartolome & Santa Cruz Islands (Galápagos)

We sailed all night from the northwest part of Isabela Island over to Bartolomé Island. There is a short hike to a peak on this island with gorgeous views that happen to be photographed a lot. If you Google the Galápagos you probably see a photo from this lookout without looking very long.

There is a pinnacle rock visible from there that would become our morning snorkeling expedition once we returned to the ship for a quick change. We were on the first zodiac for snorkeling.

SHARK! I finally saw a shark on this one. It was white finned and perhaps 4-5 feet long but not huge in diameter. It was just cruising along and I turned on video and kicked with the fins to keep up. In person it was visible but barely since the section of shore I was closest to was sandy and the water was murkier than I'd like. The video does a poor job of revealing the shark despite following it for 10-15 seconds while recording. I'm going to have to get video from others on board and also perhaps see more sharks!

We ate lunch and chilled on the upper deck for a couple of hours after lunch. Mostly a nice breeze that helped induce a nap for me... All these activities are awesome but also energy draining.

We stopped near Las Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island and there was a beach walk with optional snorkel or swim or skip the walk and head to beach for snorkel, swim or beach time. I signed us up for the walk, but we switched to skip that. We were last group to the beach and the conditions weren't great for snorkeling. It was tough just doing a wet landing and getting out of the zodiac.

I went in with mask no snorkel but couldn't really see anything as the waves were churning sand too much. Nobody else came out as far as I did (past the break line) so I came back in and took off wetsuit and mask and just swam a bit. Fortunately they let us leave shortly thereafter as there was nothing visible other than birds and a marine iguana and we were originally going to stay for sunburn for 2 hours. We got first zodiac back to boat to clean up for the evening.

The walking tour that we skipped saw flamingos! That would have been better use of that time but the WaterClown in me wanted more water time when we skipped the walk.

The cocktail hour at 6 involved a ship circumnavigation of Daphne Island just north of Santa Cruz. It's a volcanic cone that has a crater floor that is an important breeding ground for Blue Footed Boobies. We have many pictures of these birds.

So we had another good evening at dinner on the boat. Then I saw a tray of dessert drinks delivered to a table that had the couple celebrating their 50th anniversary this week (Friday) and their kids and those that joined them. It looked amazing. I walked over to ask about it then ordered one for myself.

They called it KAB - Kahlua, Amaretto, Bailey's plus ice and an Oreo cookie. Wow! I don't know proportions and cannot look it up as I write this with no internet access, but yum! Great end of evening dessert.

We went up to top deck after dinner and hung out in cooler air chatting a bit. I learned a new phrase from some 60 year olds trying to make the best of everything. They know I'm turning 50 shortly and told me that your 60s are the "go go" decade, your 70s are the "slow go" decade, and your 80s are the "no go" decade. They didn't give me the 50s decade phrase so perhaps add several go's to the 60s phrase. So enjoy it now! Seems about right...

Day 11: Galápagos Islands (Isla Isabela), Ecuador.

Gosh. It was a full day even though the itinerary didn’t make it seem that way when we went through everything last night.

Because we have a decent amount to travel on the boat today, we got off to an early start with a walk around Urbina Bay on Isla Isabela to hopefully see some land iguanas and tortoises. Marc and I got out on the 1st boat so it meant we would be 1st on the trail before the other 3 boats. We had a wet landing for this morning’s walk, which means no dock, and while we were getting out of the zodiacs, we saw some more penguins and pelicans. 

Not 5 minutes into the walk, we see a tortoise come out of the brush. It was a “small” one and our guide guessed it weighed about 80 lbs. In last night’s briefing, they told us that if we see a tortoise on our walk that we needed to be very quiet so they didn’t get alarmed. But our guide was talking so loud because she was so excited, we were kind of worried that it would retreat. It actually kept it’s head out for a long time as we were standing there so we snapped a bunch of photos.

Along the way, Marc and I spotted a few land iguanas, which are more colorful than the marine iguanas. All in all, we ended up seeing about 10 of them on this hour long walk, which was pretty cool. Some of them were well camouflaged into the habitat so it was hard to get good pics of some of them. As we came around the bend, our guide saw a massive male tortoise walking away from us. She guessed that this one weighed about 400 lbs. 

This was one big dude. We knew we needed to get past the tortoise at some point to

finish our walk so we had to wait for an opportunity where we could pass on the side. Our guide was pretty stoked. We continued our walk, saw a couple more tortoises in the distance and then as we turned another corner we saw two tortoises walking towards each other - a huge male and a female. We didn’t know if this was going to be a mating thing or what, so we all were watching with a fair amount of anticipation.

As it turned out, the female wanted nothing to do with the male and just “scurried” past him. I didn’t know tortoises could move THAT fast but hey - we are learning. We definitely got lucky with how many tortoise sightings we had and our guide said that we were one short of her record. She was psyched at the different sizes of tortoises that we saw. It was really a great walk and it was only 9:30am when we returned to the boat.

After we got back, I decided to improv a workout on the top deck. Jumping rope on a moving ship is a bit of a challenge but I didn’t kill myself, so that’s a plus. Then they had a movie for us that is hard to explain called “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came To Eden”, which is based on a book. Somehow Marc and I got sucked in and then it ended at a weird part, so now we are committed for part 2, which they are showing tomorrow. This movie definitely falls into the ‘you can’t make this stuff up’ bucket. 

After lunch, we had some time to relax so I finally started one of the books I downloaded to my Kindle - “The Bettencourt Affair”. So far, it has been an interesting read - it’s about the family who founded the L’Oreal company. Then we went out for a deep sea snorkel at Vincente Roca Point, where you jump in the water from the zodiac and not the beach. We saw more sea lions, turtles, penguins and tropical fish. Others saw sharks, but we didn’t see them unfortunately. Then we had a quick turnaround for a ride on the zodiac to see more wildlife. We were expecting to see more flamingos, marine iguanas, penguins, etc.

If we have an activity that mostly everyone opts into, we will have 4 zodiacs out on the water with a naturalist and a driver for each one. They do a great job at keeping us safe while ensuring that we have fun. As we are out on the water, they are typically communicating with each other in Spanish via walkie-talkie about timing, conditions, etc. It’s generally pretty measured in terms of tone..... until this afternoon.

All of a sudden, lots of loud chaos is coming over the radio and I’m trying to make it out since I was sitting right next to the naturalist. I thought I heard “orca” but I wasn’t sure but all I know is that in a few seconds that all 4 zodiacs were heading in the same direction past the boat. And then I saw why - we were in the vicinity of not just one killer orca whale, but two killer orca whales! 

The drivers of the boat did a great job getting us close, but “mostly” not too close. At one point, we were about 20 yards away from one of the orcas in some decent chop so it was not a dull 15 minutes by any stretch. We got some great pics and one of our fellow passengers captured an awesome video of a poor sea turtle and one of the killer orcas (watch carefully). 

Everyone was pretty much buzzing when we all got back to the boat after that whole

sequence of events! The way the guides were acting reminded me of this episode when we were in Tazzie on the Australian Walkabout in 2013. And we still had our official “Equator crossing”. Yep, we crossed over the Equator into the Southern Hemisphere before dinner and had the opportunity to watch it all from the bridge of the boat. Super cool. We had crossed the Equator a few times on this trip, but this time we were actually awake for it! After that, cocktails, wine, dinner, laughs and some more bevvies under some starry skies.

What a day. More pics posted here.

Day 5: Lima, Peru.

We started out the day with a tour of Pachacamac, which are Incan ruins just outside of the city limits of Lima. On the way out to the site, our guide, Ursula, explained about how bad the traffic is in the city and how it can take her almost 2 hours to go under 20km from her house to where all of the hotels are on a given weekday. We also spent a fair bit of time talking about all of the amazing food to take in while in Lima. She encouraged us to come back to Peru and visit other regions of the country as their cuisine is very different and just as wonderful. Let’s just say I concur.

During the drive, we also talked about the recent elections from Sunday and how mandatory voting has pros and cons. A con is that many people do not care to get educated about the candidates and/or the issues, so they just vote for “whatever is easiest” so they don’t get a fine from the government. We also discussed the complicated legacy of Alberto Fujimori, the former President of Peru, who made a lot of tough choices that benefitted the people of Peru but also got the corruption bug in the latter part of his tenure.



We arrived at Pachacamac and walked around the various archeological sites that have been unearthed to date. The site was first settled around A.D. 200 and was named after the "Earth Maker" creator god. It flourished for about 1,300 years until the Spanish invaded. We saw pyramids, which are not in the style of the Egyptian ones that most people think of when they hear that word. The main pyramid that we were able to walk around was the “Temple of the Sun”, which has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean.

After walking around that location, Ursula took Marc and I down to the Recinto de Mamacones. The area was an enclosed space in which the prettiest young girls would be trained to be either the wives of nobility, sort of nuns and lastly sacrificial offerings. We saw some men working on drawing sketches of Incan artifacts that had been recently unearthed, which was pretty cool to observe.

We headed back to the car and drove back into Lima, where Marc and I were going to be dropped off for lunch for traditional Peruvian chicken. Yesterday I called “an audible”  our lunch plans for today after Ellie, our guide from a couple of days ago, started talking about Peruvian chicken. I couldn’t believe I didn’t make the connection for our trip because our neighbor makes Peruvian chicken and it is one of my favorites (she actually made it for my birthday this year!). And based on Marc’s epic performance on eating lots of seafood yesterday both at lunch and at dinner and admitting it was “pretty good”, I figured he deserved a break from creatures of the sea. So I switched our reservation to a chicken place recommended by Lourdes, our guide from the food tour on Sunday.

Ursula somehow encountered very little traffic on the way back into town, so Marc and I went for a walk in a residential neighborhood called San Borja with lots of greenways and parks. It was a bit humid but it was nice to still be on our feet and see a different section of Lima. We then got to lunch at Don Tito’s and the roasted Peruvian chicken was epic. The sauces, including the one with aji chiles, did not disappoint. The place had a great atmosphere and I think we were the only non-locals in there and based on our lack of Spanish speaking skills, we were fortunate that the menu is very simple. LOL.

After lunch, it was good that we had about a 40 minute walk back to the hotel. After getting most of our packing done, I decided to head to the gym to torture myself some more. Of course, we then had to test out some of the chocolate that we made yesterday. It’s not easy being us but we try to persevere in these circumstances.

Dinner tonight was at Rafael in the Miraflores neighborhood. Marc and I decided to go “a la carte” as opposed to the “tasting menu” track, and we were rewarded for that choice. We both enjoyed all of our dishes, although Marc said that Sunday’s version of the “arroz con pato” was a tad better than what he had tonight. So we spent time analyzing the differences between the two so I could attempt to replicate whatever he thought was awesome at home. 

We also sat next to a lovely couple from Lima who said that Rafael was their fave restaurant and gave us some pro tips on dessert. I also really appreciated it how when I asked the server for a reco between the ceviche and the tiradito dishes that he didn’t hesitate and chose the former. Plus Marc had some unique choices for rum and I had the opportunity to enjoy a Malamado dessert wine from Zuccardi in Mendoza (for newer members of this blog, Marc and I are very “pro-Zuccardi” - here is why). All in all, a fun evening.  

We are sad to be leaving Lima but we are excited for the next phase of Operation Cincuenta. Plus I have some great inspiration for cooking at home! Thanks for tuning in so far!

For more pics, please click here.

Day 4: Lima, Peru (ChocoMuseum)

We started the day a little earlier with breakfast so that we could walk about an hour before starting our chocolate bean to bar making class at ChocoMuseum. We walked South out of the hotel in the San Isidro area along neighborhood streets heading into the Miraflores area. The streets interconnect at strange angles in places and I slightly lost track of the direct route so by the time we crossed Av Jose Pardo we were further West than I had planned but only 7 minutes too far that direction so we still made it in time to start the class without a problem.

Marcelo was our instructor and was great. He talked us through the cacao plant and where they grow in the world (equatorial regions in South America and Africa). We tasted an opened one that had a gooey white stuff that was slightly sweet. That fruity and sticky white stuff is fermented with the beans for almost a week and then the beans are removed so that they can be dried in the sun. For most chocolate growing regions, this is where they bag and sell the beans to countries like Switzerland and the United States to finish the process into various chocolate products.

So we started the chocolate bar making process by roasting the beans about 15+ minutes constantly stirring until you could begin to hear popping like popcorn. After these cooled on the counter in front of us, there were about 25 beans for me, Jill, and Marcelo. We cracked the roasted beans and put the outer shell into one bowl and the inner bean into another bowl. We used the shell portion to make a tea with. While it was seeping, we used some mortars and pestles to grind the beans. The goal is to grind for a long time into a paste such that you can actually separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder but Jill and I were not as experienced as Marcelo nor did we have enough time to just keep doing that. He looks like a paste at least - ours were still just fine grains but we had to move on from there.

So after we drank the tea, which was pretty good, we made two different chocolate beverages with the ground beans. The first was more Mayan traditional. We added honey, chili powder and hot water. The second was Conquistadores style with sugar and hot milk. That one was really good when the bean remnants were strained out.

Now that we knew but didn’t accomplish the cacao butter/powder separation, we heard about the process. That takes about a day. After that, you decide your target chocolate percentage which indicates how much cacao powder is going in. For the 50% range, you have less than half cacao powder, then some of the cacao butter, then some sugar, and the rest is milk powder. For the 70% range or higher, you have about half cacao powder, some of the cacao butter, and the remainder is sugar. The closer to 100% you get, the less sugar involved. 100% is about 90% cacao powder and 10% cacao butter and no sugar. That is powerfully good for you but you generally can only eat about 1 (perhaps 2) square(s) of it a day.

Once your target percentage is determined, you put those into a machine that blends them for 24 hours. This breaks down the crystals in the components to make things really smooth. It takes time! When that is done the liquid rests for several hours and then it is time to temper it so that it is shiny! If you don’t temper it, it will taste just fine but it will be a lighter brown look that appears raw. But if you temper it by cooling it on a marble stone and then mixing in some more and cooling that and eventually refrigerating it, then when you use that chocolate to pour into molds it will hold the shininess and will have a snap when broken.

So we got to the point of choosing 47% milk chocolate or 70% dark chocolate for the bars we would be making and both chose to get the 70% for our bars. Then we had to choose a mold from about 25 options. Jill went with a bar mold while I chose chocolate egg mold. We then could choose any of about 20 fillings for the bars. I went with coffee beans and m&m’s while I cannot even list all of the stuff Jill chose for her chocolate bars. We filled the molds slightly and then made sure the chocolate had covered the interior of every mold. We then had to get the air out by dropping and tapping the mold pans several times. Then we put in fillings as desired. Jill elaborately put all kinds of stuff in there making me proud. I just put a few of either choice in my eggs. After this we covered our fillings with a drizzling motion and had to ensure none of them were “above” the bottom of the chocolate mold when they’d be turned over to remove later. They were put in the fridge for about 20 minutes and dropped from the molds. Nice popping sound coming out. And after 2 hours working with chocolate, we had our own bars to enjoy!

We bought a little from the store and walked 15-20 minutes over to a seafood restaurant that is well known called La Mar. I didn’t see a single thing on the menu that was not some kind of seafood dish. Jill knew this going in. So we ordered a shared scallop appetizer and two other “cebiche” dishes. The scallop thing was ok - perhaps a bit fishy for me but both of the “cebiche” items were actually good and I had seconds of each. Jill was impressed with my ability to consume more than a few bites with the ugly face of yuck. It was admittedly pretty good.

The server talked me into finishing the meal with a glass of Pisco to sooth the stomach. While I went through that, we saw some cookbooks in the back and took one to the table. The one we will get has lots of interesting stuff in it and it is available on Amazon so we don’t have to carry around an extra 5+ pounds to get it back to our kitchen.

We then walked back to the hotel via a different route to see some other parts of the city and ended up walking past the place we will be going to dinner later. So it was a productive walk and good way to burn off some of the chocolate and lunch before we go workout in the nice hotel gym for the day.

We went into the hotel gym which is really nice and started warming up on some bikes before doing our workout. The same guy that stretched us after our workout yesterday was there and he was happy to see us. I went into the room where we can do some Crossfit like moves without machines in the way and he came in there to turn up the music for me again. He doesn’t speak a lot of English, but he asked what kind of music I like. I told him rock. He said “metal?”, and made a guitar motion. I said no just rock. He thought about this a bit then asked for a band. I said Rush. He eventually had me type that. Then he plays Tom Sawyer and he seemed pleased and walked out of the room so a few Rush songs played while I stretched and did some mobility movement waiting for Jill. Eventually we ended up on songs that had the word “rush” in the song but were no longer by the band.

For dinner, we walked to Astrid and Gaston for dinner. I had no idea that we were in for a 10 course tasting menu PLUS 3 courses of dessert PLUS take home box of chocolates. I’m confident Jill didn’t expect that either. They worked around my food restrictions perfectly. At the END of the marathon meal, they brought complimentary bubbles and wished me a happy birthday. I could write AS MUCH about this dinner as about all the paragraphs of chocolate earlier in this post. Instead, I will summarize with the following and if you want more please ask or talk to Jill :-)

Jill thought every course was great which is saying something given the number of courses there are usually one or two “whatever” moments for her. The only exception was the palette cleanser dessert starter that she wasn’t fond of. For me, thinking back to any 7+ course tasting menus I HAVE EVER HAD, I can say with certainty it was the best I have had. My favorite memorable item was course #5 (early) which was a Cantonese Peruvian taco that was simply amazing and not outdone by any savory courses after that. I’m including a photo of the menu and you can click the link to view all of our photos if you really need to see this stuff.

Day 3: Lima, Peru.

Well the day started out with the power in our room going out 2x at 4am. Other than that, the day kicked off normally with some brekkie and then off to meet our guide for the morning, Ellie. Today we focused on the neighborhood of ‘Cercado de Lima’ aka ‘Centro de Lima’. 

Ellie walked us through some of the history of Peru, including the Spanish invasion led by Francisco Pizzaro. He conquered the Incan Empire in 1532 and claimed it all for Spain. Pizzaro ended up being the founder of what is now known as Lima in 1535. Peru ended up being liberated from Spanish rule by José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar in 1821. 

We walked around Plaza San Martin as well as Plaza de Mayor. In between, we walked down a major shopping thoroughfare for locals and learned about how Peruvians love their chicken, cerveza, chocolate, coffee, coca, chifa, ceviche and casinos. Of particular note is that chifas are commonly next to casinos as they are owned by the same person typically. 

They also love their Pisco Sours. So much so that a controversy exists between Peru and Chile over who “owns” the Pisco Sour. I can say from both of the times I was in Chile, I never saw the pride and the ownership on the drink like I have seen in the roughly 48 hours we have been in Peru. So there’s that. In fact, once a year they empty out the main fountain in Plaza de Mayor and fill it with Pisco. And yes, they pour people tiny shots of Pisco.

We then ventured over to the Museo Convento San Francisco y Catacombas. Marc and I both enjoyed the explanations over the course of the tour by Ellie. Unfortunately no pics allowed but saw a fascinating Peruvian-based rendition of ‘The Last Supper’ as well as some really interesting looking “andas”. They can be described as thrones that are used in religious processions. We also walked through the catacombs and learned about the history on who was buried or how people “donated” items to the church so they could be buried there. Check out the pics in the link above.

After our tour, we went to lunch at a restaurant called Osso - known for the meats (BEEF) selection and for being one of the best in Peru. I figured if I am going to make Marc sit through eating ceviche (and many of you are well aware of his “love” for fish), I should at least ensure we get some good red meat.

Osso didn’t disappoint; Marc and I split a steak as opposed to getting something larger after yesterday’s shenanigans. I’d post some of the pics from the bathroom that were very funny but may not be appropriate for a family-friendly blog.

We walked back to the hotel and rested (aka ‘digested’) before hitting the gym at the hotel. It’s probably one of the best hotel gyms I have experienced, which is saying something. I created a “High Intensity Interval Training” workout for Marc and I, and then one of the trainers (who was watching and encouraging us in Spanish) offered to stretch us out after.

It was time to walk to Malabar for dinner. For being one of the “Top 50 Restaurants in Latin America”, it was refreshingly laid back with respect to service and had wonderful food. Since we were now allowed to consume alcohol legally in Peru, we seized the opportunity to try some Peruvian Syrah. Marc and I had some tacos and tostadas that had some unique flavor combos to us. Then I had a “hot ceviche” with the massive corn kernels that are known in Peru. It was just yummy (yeah, I said it like that). Marc had a local duck dish, which had some equally delicious action going on. Wine was good.... better for duck than my dish, but that wasn’t the point. 2 days in Lima has already led to lots of home cooking ideas. Success.

For those wondering about Peru producing wine, the country has 28 out of the 32 world climates within its borders. So not a complete shock that it is producing wine. 

As for dessert, Marc decided to go for something completely different with ‘Chirimolla with Meringue’ which had mangoes and oranges in it. I actually chose the chocolate as an insurance policy for Marc. Both were good, but I really enjoyed Marc’s dessert dish and all of the different textures. Surprisingly, Marc also enjoyed the mango dessert (but I think he was thankful that I ordered something chocolate).

All in all, another fun and stomach filling day in Lima. I’m hoping we will have more of the same as we progress on the trip.

For more pics, please click here.

Day 2: Lima, Peru

We got out of the airport with bags and into the hotel faster than we expected. We got a decent amount of sleep before getting a small breakfast at the hotel. We were going on a food tour at 9:30am so we had to save room....

We started in Barranco at a church built when the Spanish first came. The roof of the church was destroyed in the 1940 earthquake that the government has promised to restore. Our guide, Lourdes, said “they’re working on it”, which is about how it looks. We then walked across the “Bridge of Sighs” while holding hands and our breath. Legend has it that is you make a wish and make it across without taking a breath with your beloved, it will come true. We took some more photos and went for a coffee tasting.

Tostaduria Bisetti selects and roasts their own beans on site. I had an Americano and we got Jill a Mochachino with Peruvian chocolate so she could taste. Jill doesn’t drink coffee so I finished mine and most of hers. We did more walking on Barranco and then went into a place for a shake. It has a Peruvian fruit called lúcuma along with ice cream and sugar. It was fairly tasty!

We used the toilet here since our next stop would be the market and it’s much cleaner here. While Jill was away, I talked to Lourdes about awareness of thieves. She said that they are so good they can unzip a backpack and take something without you noticing. She said someone took her wallet from her front pocket and she did not notice it. She called this “manos de mantequilla”. Hands of butter. So smooth.

We then went to the market. We looked at a veggie stand for a while inspecting at least 10 different types of potatoes. We saw many other veggies with variations including black corn and a white corn with HUGE kernels. We learned there are about 3000 varieties of quinoa grown here although only a few are actually known on the market. We were also shown a bunch of fresh seafood and fish caught today. We then hung out at a fruit stand for a while learning about several variations of some fruits and even saw some raw cacao that with some work could become chocolate with the stuff on the inside. We were then given forks and bowls of several fruits to try. One had this gooey seed stuff we were told not to chew - just scoop onto fork and swallow it.

We then over to Miraflores to do two things: 1. learn how to make a Pisco Sour and 2. learn how to make a ceviche. For the Pisco Sour, it’s important to note that today is ‘Election Day’ in Peru. This means no alcohol is allowed to be served through Monday morning so I’m not naming where we went. We got there before the lunch hour so the staff showed us how to make them and then we got to make our own! It was fun AND foamy good!

Once we got that down, we sat down at a table and made our own ceviche with assistance from the chef. We then ate the “appetizer” and it was good. We still had lunch to eat.

Lunch was at Huaca Puallana right next to some Incan ruins. The restaurant is helping to unearth then somewhat. We had a great chicken dish along with  guinea pig (tastes like chicken) and beef heart (a little tough, but not bad). Of course, they then cleared our plates and then brought out 4 different dessert cups like a shake/ice cream. A couple of them had fruit that were good. 3 of them had some or a lot of chocolate! 

It was all so well balanced and tasty - we were so full..... Great way to start the trip in a food city which I’m sure Jill will be talking about in detail over the next several days.

After this food tour, we headed back to the hotel to rest and digest. Eventually I swam in the pool for about 25 minutes and Jill worked out in the gym.

For dinner we went to La Rosa Nautica - the same owner as the place the tour happened to take us for lunch as our final stop. They had a Perry Como & Frank Sinatra Christmas music on a 10 song repeat loop. We heard it at least 3 times and we weren’t really there that long since the voting prevented ordering a bottle of wine. Jill ordered a ceviche starter and a seafood main while I got a pasta dish in a cheese sauce and Arroz con Pato. That duck was a superb Peruvian dish. Jill’s main came first which kind of confused us and the other dish never came. By the time we got the staff to understand what was missing we realized we had eaten so much today that we should just get back to the hotel. We had eaten 2 days worth of food in a single day.

For more pics, please click here.

Adele, Jennifer Lawrence & Emma Stone Follow The Becks

Oh yes. It's true. Read on.

We don't like to travel around Thanksgiving. Generally getting anywhere is a hassle and is way more expensive so why bother. But circumstances from earlier this year surrounding Marc's health forced us to change our travel schedule for the year and so we ended up in NYC for the entire week. 

The line-up of restaurants was pretty deep but the list of people we were seeing was even deeper. We had a pretty ambitious schedule since this was our only trip slated for 2015. We had plenty of family and friends to see, and we were so grateful for the many who could work with our crazy schedule. In terms of catching up with folks, I was inspired on multiple occasions by the risks that some of them are taking personally and professionally. 

As someone who has taken their fair share of risks with mixed results, I know what is involved in making these decisions. Putting yourself out there as a founder/co-founder, trying to execute a career change or making a big life decision is hard work. And even after you make the decision, it's not uncommon to second guess your decision. On my end, it has been a somewhat tumultuous year on a number of fronts. But fortunately over the past 2 months, I've experienced and now see bluer skies ahead.

OK, back to the food and wine. I'm asked regularly on how I find the restaurants we eat at. A few are old stand-bys, a couple are recos from others and the rest I source from either Eater and/or Zagat.

We really didn't have any misses on this trip with respect to the restaurants, although Gabriel Kreuther is a challenge for anyone who is a picky eater. While they did accommodate us without a complaint, they didn't seem to have as many options as other places. I enjoyed the food and the wine, and thought the menu was innovative. The service was excellent.

My faves from this trip were The Modern (Dining Room) and Cosme. As it turns out, Adele, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone were at Cosme the day AFTER we were there. Aren't we just the trend setters? Seriously the food at Cosme was excellent thanks to their signature dish of duck carnitas and if you know me, you know I love duck.

Other places that are worth recommending are Rebelle, Wallflower, Fuku and Orient Express (cocktails). We did enjoy the Todd English Food Hall at The Plaza Hotel, and Toloache. Volare was always Volare. And the breakfast sandwich place, aptly named BEC, was pretty tasty.

The wine list at The Modern was probably one of the best that I have ever seen in terms of diversity. A friend of ours that we met in Sydney, Australia is now the Wine Director there and really recommended some standouts. Well done, Michael, and congrats on all of the accolades.

Thanks to this article in Food and Wine, I was able to bring something different to Mom's Thanksgiving table from The Lobster Place. Score. 

We were very fortunate to get tickets to see "Hamilton" and I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype. I was wrong. The lyrics were so well done and the acting/singing was really well executed. I hear the waiting list is LONG to get tickets. It's worth the wait. Go see it. And by the way, I learned some interesting things about Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr in the process. 

Now I have to read Ron Chernow's book on which the musical was based on. Good thing I just finished my last book on Whitey Bulger yesterday on the flight back. Other recent reads include The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales and Enduring Patagonia by Gregory Crouch.

1 Mar: Cerro Aconcagua (ARG).

We woke up to very blue skies and no clouds to be seen, which seemed to be a good omen for our day trip to see Cerro Aconcagua. Aconcagua is one of the 'Seven Summits' and is the highest mountain outside of Asia at almost 23,000 feet. Marc and I actually summited one of these peaks in Australia known locally as Mt. Kozi.

The road we took connects the Atlantic (Buenos Aires) with the Pacific (Valparaiso, Chile) so it is actually well paved (a luxury in Argentina) and heavily traveled by tourists, truckers, etc. We stopped off at Puente del Inca, which is a natural arch that forms a bridge over a local river. The rock formations have some really interesting color combinations and we heard some legends associated with the arch.

Side note: CrossFit always talks about functional fitness. Well on this trip, it has been quite functional when using banos (aka toilets) on the road. The movement I am referring to is the squat, which requires you to shove your rear end back and not push your knees forward. Using some of these "facilities" has required me to really leverage those squatting skills picked up at CrossFit. I know many of our friends are competing in the CrossFit Open, but I have my own competition going on the road....

OK, back to the tour. The Andes in Argentina have 3 sections and they all have different elevations, characteristics, etc. The clear skies made it ideal to appreciate the differences. After 3 hours, we arrived at the Aconcagua Provincial Park at just over 11,000 feet. The skies were still very clear and the mountain had snow on it. It was a gorgeous backdrop.

We did a relatively easy 2 mile circuit, saw some horses bringing supplies down from one of the base camps, and really enjoyed the views. Definitely lucky on the weather. And yes, 2 miles at 11,000 feet is very different than at sea level or even half of that elevation.

After our walk and snapping some photos, we headed back to Mendoza, had more meat (because that's what they do in Argentina) and laughed about the playlist from the driver's CD collection that focused on 80s love songs. Think Peter Cetera, Debbie Gibson, Billy Joel, Spandau Ballet, Michael Bolton, Christopher Cross and Air Supply. I started to get disappointed that I didn't hear any Barry Manilow. We also spent part of the ride back monitoring how our 5 friends (and running buds) were faring in the Napa Marathon. Gotta love technology.

We walked around Mendoza after our tour and it was pretty quiet. The 4th largest city in Argentina pretty much shuts down on Sundays. Marc and I then had dinner at a restaurant called Nadia O.F. within a few blocks of our hotel. For whatever reason, we were the only people there and we left after 11pm. The food was great, the courtyard was pretty and the service was excellent. Our server was able to tell us more about Mendoza and the wine scene, so bonus for us.

Dessert came and Marc spotted a liquer that he was keen on trying with his chocolate, which seemed similar to one of his faves, Nocello. Marc enjoyed the wine to the point where we are going to be throwing out some clothes so we can fit these 3 bottles in our respective backpacks for the trip back home. I stuck with my new favorite "faux dessert wine" - Torrontés.

18 Feb: Lago Torre (ARG).

Today was the 1st day that we were hiking as a group. The gang seemed pretty prepared for all of the elements, so we knew we were amongst some experienced hikers.

Our guide, Muti, told us that he expected minimal rain today, which was a bonus. Then again, you never really know here in Patagonia because of the ever changing weather in the mountains. So we packed for different conditions.

We started out and one of the gentlemen on the trip, who could easily be the Dad of Marc and I with respect to his age, pretty much sprinted up to the top of the 1st lookout point. Marc and I kept pace and it was a nice way to get to know some of our other travelers since 6 out of the 10 were friends beforehand. By the end of the day, Marc and I felt that we could pass any name test that the group put to us.

The weather was mostly cloudy but visibility was good to see most of Cerro Torre and enjoy our lunch at Lago Torre. The walk was mostly fairly easy with some rolling hills here and there, but it was a good way for the group to get their legs stretched out and find their feet.

By the end of it, we had walked about 14 miles but felt ok. A few of us went to the local microbrewery aka 'cervezeria' in El Chalten. We had a nice dinner with the group and I continued reading my current book, "Ready Player One", which is a cross between sci-fi and thriller with a big focus on the 80s. I think Marc will like it once I pass it off to him.

We know we have a big hike in terms of difficulty tomorrow, so we just tried to rest up as much as we could. I believe I have done this hike before and if I remember correctly, it's a pretty challenging one although it is hard to tell because I was woefully out of shape when I was here in 1998. So we shall see.