Sprinter Check-up - All Systems Go

They say the best way to stay healthy is to practice preventative medicine. That is why we spent the entire day at the Mercedes-Benz dealership in San Jose. I knew that Costa Rica was probably going to be the last really good dealership until we get to Chile, and that's a long ass way from here over rough terrain and high mountain passes. In addition to routine maintenance, (oil change, filters, tire rotation, etc), I also had the front brake pads replaced, the transmission fluid flushed, and the brake fluid changed. I of course sat out there being an armchair quarterback all afternoon, something I would never get away with in the US. The patience these ticos have for an annoying gringo borders on sainthood.

"What's that over there? Is that a brake pad? Need any help with that? Is this where you put the brake fluid? Do you think it will rain today? Got any kids?"

I'm sure they were really happy when I left.

Coincidentally, it was the 125 year anniversary of the first Mercedes-Benz car. The dealership was prepping for a huge party. Vintage cars started rolling in and we sorta blended into the party. We got a great free lunch and free cappuccinos all day long! Que Suerte!

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Good Friends Last a Lifetime

I love reconnecting with friends I haven't seen in years. We hooked up with Madrigal, who we nicknamed "Mad Dog" back in 1992, and it was like no time had passed. He represented Costa Rica in the 1996 Olympics and became somewhat of a celebrity in the country. Today he runs his own tour company, Costa Rica Experience. He bent over backwards to show us a good time, including taking us on a private, organic coffee plantation tour which Stevie really wanted to do. Guys like this are rare. He came from humble beginnings and worked so hard for everything he has now. But he never forgot where he came from and helping his community and country is his primary focus. If you are looking for an amazing vacation, let him show you around Costa Rica. I personally vouch for him. You WON'T regret it. More info here...Costa Rica Experience

Our friends Espen and Malin from UnUrban tracked us down in Turrialba.  We love these guys. They are from Norway and are driving a bad ass Nissan Patrol from Alaska to Argentina, then from the tip of South Africa back to Norway. We first saw them in Mexico, then hung out again in Guatemala. Now they have another couple from Germany caravanning with them. Gorge and Andrea from Toyotours are driving a beautiful converted Landcruiser. We hit it off right away and are hoping to catch up with them in Colombia. I absolutely love Euros because they are such skilled nomads. Mad respect.

Our new friend Luis runs Hotel Interamericano in Turrialba. This guys speaks Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, and some French. Yet another person making me feel es-stupido.

We also reconnected with my old friend Ferdinand and his girlfriend Ruth. If you're heading to Costa Rica for class 5 kayaking, this is your guy! The lights of San Jose below...

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Stevie's World Class River Running Resume Grows

Stevie's river running resume is ridiculously impressive, especially considering she was born and raised in LA. She's only been on 5 rivers in her life, but they are all trips that most whitewater enthusiasts dream about doing their entire careers. There was no doubt when we arrived in Costa Rica that I wanted to take her down the Pacuare River.

I've got a lot of friends in the business down here, but when we arrived in Turrialba I called our friend Lee who owns Locos Rafting. Despite the fact that it was Easter sunday, Lee gave Sprinter Life true V.I.P. treatment. Not only did he give us a private trip with his top guide down all 18 miles of the Pacuare river, but he also sent along a professional photographer to take pictures (see below). And then he did something that even surprised me. He came out of retirement and personally drove our shuttle with Kiki riding shotgun. Thank you Lee. We love you man!

The Pacuare is rated as one of the top 5 most beautiful rivers in the world. I don't know who builds the list, but I ain't gonna argue with them.


Had you shown me this photo below 20 years ago I would not have believed it was me. I come from a very elite snobby level of kayaking where I often did not even wear a helmet, as shown in the second photo below. (Yes, we already covered my stupidity in the last post). But the pink helmet, the bulky commercial lifejacket, and even the river guide yelling commands at me was worth it just to be able to do this river trip with Stevie, as opposed to on my own in a kayak. I am rediscovering the river through her eyes and her smile. It's better and fresher than ever, even if I do look like a dork!

Having a private trip with Lee's top guide was a real gift. I was able to relax and have fun. And the whitewater was great.

Having a personal photographer on the trip was wicked cool. We would have never had photos like this without him...

The scenery and wildlife on the Pacuare are insane. Check this out...

And for those of you who are curious, here are Stevie's 5 river trips, listed in order of execution. I can guarantee you that nobody else in the world has such a world class river resume for its length...

1) Deschutes River - 3 day solo trip. This is the river my Dad had his rafting business on so it will always be special to our family. My brother and I were the youngest guides on the river at 10 and 11 years old rowing the bag boat.

2) Grand Canyon - 21 day private family and friends trip. Epic. See photos here.

3) Rogue River - 4 day solo trip. The Rogue was one of the first rivers in the US to be designated wild and scenic. See photos here.

4) Grand Canyon - 16 day solo trip. We got engaged. See photos here.

5) Pacuare River, Costa Rica - Rated top 5 most beautiful rivers in the world.

Next up for Stevie's resume, the Futaleufu river in Chile.
TREE

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Turrialba 20 Years Later - Just glad to be alive

Rolling into Turrialba was like stepping back in time 20 years. This was where we (the US Kayak Team) spent the winters training. We were a bunch of young crazy boys with big dreams and no fears. We trained during the day and got shit faced at the Farro disco club at night (there was no enforced drinking age in Costa Rica back in those days). I don't know who was supposed to be in charge of us back then, but they should have been fired. We were out of control.

The apex of our stupidity might have been when Wick and I, (see adjacent photo), went bungee jumping before bungee jumping legally existed. A local guy took us to an old abandoned bridge that hung about 400 feet above a small river. He tied a bungee off the back of his rusty little pickup truck and pulled the emergency break with a smile. Yeah, I jumped. Twice. Many would say, however, that my personal apex of stupidity occurred the following winter when I picked and ate a poisonous mushroom. We had been picking hallucinogenics for weeks so I guess it was only a matter of time before someone made a booboo. That little mistake sent me on an emergency flight home and put me in the hospital for 2 weeks.

I love this photo of me and the boys after a river workout. We're sitting on the bridge over the Reventazon River outside of Turrialba. It's February, 1992. From left to right, Eric 'Wick' Southwick, Tree, Adam 'Rodeo' Shandro, and Billy Brennan. (Adam, we forgive you for throwing up all over Wick after that night at the Farro. Wick never should have put you in the hammock right above his bed, and I never should have kept swinging it. I miss you man. Rest in peace my brother).

20 years later I sit on the same bridge remembering my friends and the good times we had...

July, 1992. After a winter in Costa Rica I took a silver medal at the JR World Championships in Norway. So we must have done some training?


Stevie below digging the graffiti art of the area. We're trying to do Turrialba a little safer this time around. We'll see how it goes. If I see a good cow pasture though, I might have to go picking...  TREE

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Is Religion Pure Insanity?

Apparently there's this little holiday in Latin America called Semana Santa. I never knew about it because it didn't show up on Stevie's "Fireman of The Year" calendar that we use for event planning. I later learned that this is just Easter without the bunny, so the little kids down here are getting hosed in my opinion.

On this particular holiday everyone in the entire country heads for the beach. So we decided to go inland to the mountains. The surf sucked anyway and we've been wanting to see the cloud forest. The mountains of Costa Rica are surprisingly large. We left the beach and drove uphill for damn near 3 hours. Finally we topped out at what I assume was the famous cloud forest. I'm sure it is beautiful if you can see through clouds. I cannot and found the driving incredibly challenging.

Our destination for the day was a little mountain town called Orosi. Back in the 90s a couple friends of mine had started a kayak company and named it after this town. I wanted to go see why. It was also on the way to our next destination which was Turrialba. This was the town I went to back in 1991 when I was training with the US Olympic Kayak Team. We spent 3 winters here training for the race season. I have many fond memories of the place and can't wait to see how it has changed in 20 years. Oh my god, did I just say that? Man I'm getting old.

On our way to Orosi we saw displays of Semana Santa everywhere. Stevie and I had just watched an amazing documentary called Constantine's Sword (more info here). Watch it, it's good.  It explores the dark side of Christianity. I found it very interesting that the cross did not even exist in the religion until over 300 years after Christ died. It was introduced by Constantine as a symbol for conquering others in war. It had a tag line that read "In Hoc Signo Vinces", which means "By This symbol you will conquer". Millions of people have been murdered over the last 2000 years in religious wars. And the madness continues today.

"Religion is an important part. I believe we ought to love our neighbor like we love ourself. That's manifested in public policy through the faith-based initiative where we've unleashed the armies of compassion. I believe that God wants everybody to be free. That's what I believe. And that's part of my foreign policy. I believe that freedom is a gift from the Almighty. And I can't tell you how encouraged I am to see freedom on the march. And so my principles that I make decisions on are a part of me. And religion is a part of me." 

- George W Bush

The armies of compassion have incidentally murdered tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children in the middle east over the last 10 years. But when freedom is on the march, we just call that collateral damage. Newsflash all you nutty religious zealots - Jesus didn't kill! He didn't even fight. He would not have supported any war no matter how it was justified. He was an enlightened, peaceful, loving man and he would have thought you were F@CKING crazy. Why do people blindly follow this madness? Because religion is pure insanity.

Ok, I'm sure that will piss some people off. Happy Easter. Carry on. TREE

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I suck at being a MAN

I suck at doing manly stuff. I don't know engines. I'm not technical or mechanical. Need something fixed? Don't call me. I don't know how to use half my tools. Seriously, I only bought them to fill the box. Plus I don't like to get dirty.

My gifts lie in identifying the things I'm NOT good at, and then surrounding myself with people who are. Arriving back in Costa Rica I had 3 critical manly things that needed to get done on the van. So I went on a mission to find the manliest man I know, my pal Chad from Pleasure Device. Luckliy Pleasure Device wasn't far away. They were set up in a little surf town called Esterrillos Oeste only 30 mintutes south.

After arriving in the heat of the day, I proceeded to rope Chad into the projects. First up was to install the new van refrigerator. The guy at the store told me, "the installation is a slam dunk, plug and play, a monkey could do it." That last part was enough to convince me that I needed Chad's help. Turns out it wasn't plug and play, and thank god Chad knew all about wiring, shimming, fuses, and capping propane. He did let me hold the lighter and melt a plastic thingy.

Next up was replacing the turbo resonator again. If you follow the blog you'll remember that this part died on us back in Honduras (read that post here). Luckily I was carrying the spare factory part. But there was no way I was gonna let that happen again. The best offense is a good defense. I found a custom built all metal version of the plastic part online and brought it back from the States. It's called the ELIMINATOR! Won't have to worry about that little problem again suckas.

Chad's next job wasn't so easy. I wanted him to build wood panels that block off all entrances to the cabin of the van. Why would we do this? Good question. For those who don't know, there are no roads that connect Central and South America. There is a 100 mile stretch of jungle between Panama and Colombia called the Darien Gap. The only way around this is to ship your vehicle on a freighter. Our van won't fit into a container, so we're going to have to hand over our keys. Someone will drive the van onto the boat and we'll fly south and pick it up in Columbia 2 days later.  All we can do is hope that nobody is motivated enough to cut through our protective wood panels and rob us blind. Joy. FYI, We plan to ship to South America at the end of May.

After the work was done, Pleasure Device sprung a little birthday surprise on us. They had secured a really nice bottle of champagne. We love these guys. They are so amazing! The sad thing is that we're not going to see them again for a long time. They are heading to Tierra Del Fuego as well, but they plan to lurk in Costa for another 2-3 months. By the time they leave we'll be deep into South America. Eventually we'll see them, but probably not until fall or maybe even winter.


I think Chad was pretty shook up about it. As we pulled away he followed the ADVENTURES OF PLEASURE LIFE tradition of waving and running next to the vehicle. He even tried to climb into my window. He was doing well until I hit the gas, which sent him spinning and almost falling to the pavement. It was awesome. Goodbye Pleasure. We love you guys. TREE

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