Mind of Migg

I was really excited to see Up this summer season. I haven’t seen all the Pixar movies, but I have yet to be done wrong by one. None of the remaining dumbed down action movies sound exciting to me, so I thought it’d be a nice change of pace for the summer too. I made the right decision.

Up is about an old man, Carl, who sees his neighborhood transforming into skyscrapers, and is moments away from being moved into a retirement community, when he makes a decision to go on the adventure he’s longed for. He inadvertently brings along Russell, a Wilderness Explorer anxious to help the old man and earn a merit badge. Carl and Russell do make it to South America, and Paradise Falls, the location Carl and his deceased wife Ellie always dreamed of visiting. The balloon ride is just the beginning; the adventure truly begins when they “land”.

The film was surprisingly touching, especially the opening sequence capturing the true love between Carl and Ellie from childhood through her death. The trailers and ads portray him as a grump, but that is not the case at all. Carl is a warm-hearted man with an adventurous spirit. Russell may have a lot of merit badges, but he earned them reading about the wilderness, not actually experiencing it until they’re in the jungle, helping his new pet Kevin.

I had a great time, and I think between me, Violet, and the other couple we went with, we laughed louder than all the little kids at some points. It’s nice to see such a moving movie, one that can make you laugh out loud, tear up, and leave letting out a deep breath and smiling, having enjoyed the ride.

I’ve been excited to see this movie since I saw Carlos Cauron interviewed at the 2008 NALIP conference last March. I’m a big fan of Carlos: he co-wrote Y tu mama tambien with his brother, Alfonso. He’s written a few scripts but this was his feature debut in directing. The film also had two of my favorite actors, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.

I really enjoyed the movie. It had some really funny moments and a quick pace. James saw it before I did and also enjoyed it. He pointed out that there was very little soccer played by the stars onscreen, which is usually a good thing. I had no idea how little he meant until I saw it, but it was surprising. I don’t think I saw Gael near a soccer ball for more than five seconds. It was effective though. James is absolutely right that it’s better to have the action happen off screen than show how bad they really are. I hate watching movies when it’s clear that the actor isn’t very good at the sport they’re supposed to be a star in (think the entire roster of High School Musical).

I wish the subtitles had been a little better though. I’m pretty sure they either sent it to England or used an English guy because I saw “wanker” and “mum” multiple times. Violet said it was funnier because they used serious hick slang because that’s the type of characters they were. Since I’m in the midst of learning Spanish with Rosetta stone, I tried to listen and get a sense of what was going on before glancing down at the subtitles to see if I was on the right track. I think I’m going to start recording Spanish shows to start doing this regularly. But that’s completely off-topic. Go see Rudo y Cursi. It’s a fun movie and a good time.

I realized (okay, I was told) that I hadn’t made a single mention of the first Doctor Who special of the year. This is very poor on my part, considering how many times I watched the one minute trailer and how excited I was in general. It came out on Easter weekend and I watched it as soon as I could. Unfortunately, BBC America is slacking and it still hasn’t aired here, so I couldn’t watch it on my big screen, but I was happy just to see it.

Planet of the Dead is a stand-alone episode that finds the Doctor traveling by himself on Easter. He happens to be on a double decker bus that inadvertently passes through a wormhole and winds up on the desert planet San Helios. Also on board the bus is Lady Christina de Souza (played by Michelle Ryan, who is on the run after a botched jewel heist. The survivors on the bus have to figure out how to return home with the help of Unit officers and scientists back on Earth, as an unseen threat grows closer and closer.

The Doctor is brilliant as usual and played nicely off of Lady Christina. They made a good team as they ventured off into the desert, coming across the wreckage of a Tritovore ship. I’m not sure what a Tritovore is, but they turned out to be friendly. The Doctor learns of the giant swarm of metallic, sting-ray looking creatures that are creating the dark cloud approaching in the distance. There is little time for them to get back to the others on the bus, get them home, and of course, save the world.

I really enjoyed this episode. I wouldn’t put it in my top 5, but it was entertaining and it was a nice “welcome back” after an extended Who break. Stand-alone episodes are always difficult because there’s not as much vested interest as there is in season long stories like “Bad Wolf” or “Doomsday”, or even the spectacular two parters like “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” or “The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit”. They have to create meaningful characters and a story that is introduced, told, and wrapped up all in one shot. I’m sure that is extremely difficult to do, and Planet of the Dead did a great job. It had funny moments, suspense, and some interesting characters for the Doctor to meet. There was even some great foreshadowing for the 10th Doctor’s final adventures in the last 3 specials of the year.

The next special is titled The Water of Mars and it looks like a great kick off to the 3 specials, which will all air around Christmastime. I’ve heard a couple of spoilers, but I’ve tried really hard to stop sneaking peaks so that I’m surprised. Christmas is a long time to wait though. Fortunately, we have an awesome five episode Torchwood Special coming up this summer to tide everyone over. I love the BBC Sci-Fi!

I made it back from a fun filled weekend in San Diego alive and with all my limbs still attached on Sunday so I was happy. After 3 days filled with entertainment, I was exhausted.

Things kicked off Thursday afternoon. I picked up Victor and after a quick stop at Costco for some supplies and lunch, we were on the road. Since we left early, we were able to avoid traffic and made it to San Diego by 5. The place was awesome. Jerry did most of the organizing for me and Eric, and he did a great job finding a place. It was a three story condo, one block from the beach, and one block from the roller coaster in Mission Beach. There were patios on both levels and an open air deck on the third floor between the bedrooms me and Eric took.

Victor and I killed time watching the basketball games and waiting for everyone else. Jerry, Eric, and Rich arrived about five minutes before Abe, so they got the other garage spot and Abe was left circling the area for half an hour until he found a spot. Unfortunately, Tridi’s flight was delayed, so he and James didn’t arrive until some time after 1am. We all had a great time and it was a fun evening to start the weekend.

The first morning was for paintball. Unfortunately for me, I was in no condition to paintball after Victor and I finished the entire bottle of tequila on night #1. I spent the morning and early afternoon resting up for the remainder of the weekend. Everyone got back full of welts and paint and after lunch we all headed down to the beach. Under bad conditions (overcast, very windy), we played one of the longest, lowest scoring whiffleball games in history. We wrapped up at the beach and headed to the grocery store to grab supplies for a bbq. We grilled up some burgers, brats, and hot dogs and stuffed ourselves. After the food coma we headed out for a night on the town.

Day 2 started off with an 11 am tee time. We all overslept and it was a struggle to make it there one time. There was no time for warmup shots, since we had about two minutes to spare, so things started off rough. Not that I’m good anyway, since it was only my second time on a course, but it got better even for me by mid-afternoon. Since Victor wasn’t able to make it to golf, and James wasn’t playing, we had two groups of four. Since I suck, our group of four slowed down everyone, so we had to speed it up the last three holes (which meant tossing my ball a little closer to the course sometimes). We played a full 18 holes and the sky cleared up as we reached the back 9 so it was a beautiful day. I made it through the course losing only 2 balls, narrowly avoided hitting a car windshield by a few inches, and even made par on one hole. I considered it a huge success. After a couple hours in the sun, everyone went home and fell asleep; either in a bed or on the beach.

When everyone was up again, we headed downtown to catch the Padres vs the Cincinnati Reds. Petco Park is a really nice place to catch a game. It had it’s quirks: the corner of a building comprises the left field foul pole, there’s a lawn area in outfield, and there’s a patio on a nearby skyscraper where people can watch the game from a distance. It was a bit chilly since we were in the upper deck and it’s right next to the ocean, but it wasn’t too bad. The crowd left something to be desired though. I missed two big plays because I was distracted by the wave. It’s not that I’m against the wave at ballgames, but a crowd shouldn’t do it in the middle of a one run game. That, and it wasn’t very crowded to begin with.

The game wound up going into extra innings, but we weren’t interested in staying any longer in what had already become a late game. We hit up the gaslamp area downtown for the night and stopped in a few pubs. We saw the end of the Padre game in the 15th inning while at a bar and were relieved we didn’t stay for the entire game. After the big night on Friday it was tough to keep the energy going as high on Saturday night. We headed back fairly early (for a party night) and made our usual stop at Roberto’s. My diet that entire weekend consisted of Burgers, Hot Dogs, and a late night Carne Asada burrito from Roberto’s each night.

We had to be out of the place by 10am, so most of us woke up relatively early to pack and make sure everything was in order. Tridi and Victor hopped in the car and we were on our way by 10:30. It was a great weekend, or “epic” as Abe called it. I’m glad everyone was able to come out and have a good time, and I’m glad I was able to share the weekend with Eric (mostly because we’re in a recession and I couldn’t afford to do that twice). Now we get to do it all over again for Tridi in Tahoe in 3 weeks!

When the NBA Finals matchup was set – the Lakers vs the Orlando Magic, I knew it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. The Lakers would be champions again. I resigned myself to this and accepted the exponential increase of Laker flags on the 405. As much as I despise the Lakers as a rival team to the Suns, from a simple unbiased fan of basketball perspective, I was very disappointed with this year’s Finals.

Full disclaimer: I hate the Lakers. I enjoy when they lose. I enjoy being in the city of Los Angeles when the Lakers are losing. I hate Kobe Bryant. I know he’s one of the greatest players ever to play, but I don’t like him. He doesn’t appear to be a good teammate. He’s so image conscious it’s a joke. So there you go.

Besides my own personal hatred of the Lakers, this was an ugly series in general to watch. As Bill Simmons wonderfully covered a few weeks ago, NBA refereeing is at an all time low. The calls are so inconsistent. It’s like strike zones: sure, each ump is going to have to their own interpretation, but the players adjust. The umps don’t change their strike zone in the middle of the same game though. This is exactly what’s happening in the NBA. Players get roughed up until someone gets pissed and then the slightest touch is called a foul the rest of the way. Not only that, but home court advantage in terms of calls has reached WWE levels of ridiculous. The calls being made in this series were so frustrating to watch most of the time, for both teams.

The coaching by Stan Van Gundy was awful too. I hate listening to games on ABC and ESPN because it means being forced to hear the jaded, funny once every ten attempts musings of Jeff Van Gundy. Jeff Van Gundy goes out of his way to rip everyone he can – except of course his brother, even when playing the entire fourth quarter of a crucial game 3 without a point guard. Seriously, Stan Van Gundy couldn’t have screwed up his rotation any more than he did in his handling of bringing Jameer Nelson back. He overplayed him in Game 1, underplayed him in Game 2, and then had no clue what to do after that. Yet never a word from Jeff. If Stan had eased Jameer into the rotation, not thrown ball handling responsibilities onto Hedo in crunch time, and adjusted more quickly to the Lakers’ defense of Dwight Howard, we would’ve had a series. In spite of all his efforts, the Magic still came two tough shots (Courtney Lee’s missed lob layup and Derek Fisher’s clutch 3) away from a 3-1 series lead going into last night’s game.

The fact that it was closer than the final series outcome indicates goes to one other point that bothered me throughout the playoffs. Once it was down to the final four teams, it was clear there would be no great team this year. Every team had some flaws and none of the teams had that championship mindset that so many other great teams have had. We all knew Denver was full of headcases and would fall apart eventually, but during the regular season, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see the Lakers or Magic get blown out by the Grizzlies on a lazy night. You couldn’t say that about teams like the early 2000’s Lakers, the Spurs, or even the recent good Piston teams. It’s been said better than me by many others already, but teams were so conscious of cost savings that there were no big trades this year for that “missing piece” on teams that were close. Everybody showed up to the playoffs with whatever weapons they had. That led to some close, exciting games at every round, but no great teams. It’s fun to watch a great team click, even if they do so finishing off the team you’re rooting for.

Finally, one thing I got sick of was hearing how badly Kobe wanted this. Sure Kobe’s great, but it takes a team to win it all. I don’t think he’ll ever know this, holding up four fingers and congratulating himself on a job well done at the end. Let’s not forget that this was a below .500 team with Kobe running the show until a highway robbery trade landed them Pau Gasol. Kobe’s personality reflected the image of the entire team. This Laker team was so boring to watch. They clocked in at tip off and clocked out at the final buzzer. They had the player talent to be a dynasty, but they’ll settle for flawed champion in a tough economic year. You want to see the anti-Lakers, look at the Cavs. They were fun to watch. That was a team that played as a team to exceed expectations. When you see the roster on paper, there’s no way they should have been so close to the Finals. Besides Lebron, there’s nobody on that team that can be considered a viable second option.

This year’s NBA Finals was definitely anti-climatic. I only hope that the league will take a long hard look at their referees and how they’re developed in the coming seasons. I also hope that the lack of a dynasty team and a more level playing field will continue to lead to some very exciting games next year. I just hope I don’t have to watch Kobe jut out his lower jaw and scream at his teammates because he really wants it anymore than I did this year.

Of all the summer movies this year, I was probably most excited to see Star Trek.  At least until another loud trailer with slow motion and epic choral music reminds me otherwise.  But I really was excited for Star Trek.  I grew up on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  After watching Reading Rainbow when I was younger, how could I not love anything LeVar Burton was in?  I even followed Deep Space Nine some and watched nearly every episode of Voyager.  I saw all the original movies and a few episodes of the Original Series here and there whenever it was on Sci-Fi.  Sure my Star Wars obsession eventually overpowered it, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I owned a technical manual, a Klingon dictionary, a model of the Klingon cruiser from Star Trek IV, and model ships of the Enterprise A, D, and Voyager (all of which are biding their time in storage until I get a home with my awesome game room someday).

I didn’t know much of anything about the plot going into the new Star Trek movie.  I had heard whispers of time travel coming into play, but all I really knew was that JJ Abrams already had my love, and the trailer gave me chills.

First, a review of the actual movie.  I say this because for someone who loves Star Trek and knows Star Trek, it always goes much deeper than what plays out on screen.  There are ramifications for every scene, every line of dialogue, especially with a prequel.  I know how bad that sounds.  I don’t care.

The movie itself was awesome.  If I knew nothing about Star Trek and was looking for a way to kill two hours while stuffing myself with popcorn, I would’ve loved it.  The battle scenes were intense, it was beautifully shot (with exception of the overindulgent lens flares), and the CGI looked great (unlike Wolverine).  I even thought the comic relief was well timed and actually funny.  The cast did a great job capturing the characters while making them their own.  With exception of the random ice monster chase, everything fit together and the movie was well paced.  For the most part, this is how summer movies should be made.

So why did I leave with a sour taste in my mouth?  After everything I just said, combined with the fact that there were tons of inside jokes and creative “first moments” to please hardcore fans, I should’ve made my pre-order for the DVD already, right?  Not so fast.  There were two things about this movie that bothered me, one as a fan of Star Trek, and one as a fan of movies.

The first thing that bothered me was the whole time travel thing.  Cover your ears for the next two paragraphs, unless you want STAR TREK SPOILERS:

The whole alternate reality thing bothered me.  If they wanted to create early adventures of the starship Enterprise and its crew, fine.  But they decided, “nah, we can do whatever we want if we do it this way!”  In essence, this storyline means that none of the other Star Trek we’ve seen ever happened.  Maybe something similar to the events that already played out, but not exactly, because we’ve fallen into “alternate reality” area.  This means they can create all kinds of crazy stories with this young new crew, but it also means we can have a young Picard and Riker a decade from now in “alternate reality” land.

I suppose if they treat it as two parallel timelines, I’d be ok with it.  They could even play with some cool storylines in that regard (imagine more wormholes and alternate reality characters meeting), much like the DoctorDonna and Rose trapped in a parallel universe in Doctor Who.  If that is the case, I could get used to it and enjoy it.  I am bothered that they took it to extremes and destroyed the planet Vulcan though.  For the rest of the movie, I kept telling myself there was time travel and it would be brought back, but it wasn’t to be.  I couldn’t believe that a franchise would destroy a planet that plays a major role in much of its history.  Then I reminded myself that Alderaan was destroyed in the beginning of Star Wars.  Then I remembered that while Alderaan plays a large part in the canon of Star Wars, nobody knew this when it was destroyed at the beginning of the first movie, so it wasn’t as great an impact as losing a planet as vital as Vulcan.  Then I got a nerd headache and had to lie down for a bit.

Moving on, I’m done with spoilers and have a more serious issue.  Yes, I saw the Onion video and yes I thought it was funny, but there’s something to it.  Why is it that to be appealing to the masses, things have to be dumbed down?  I can kick in my sense of elitism and answer that one, but I’d rather not, because I know films like Iron Man or the Harry Potter movies were able to find a good combination of style and substance.  It pisses me off that highbrow fare can be so openly mocked: “oh look at them doing all that…talking”.

Not only that, but also the fact that we praise and seek out bright flashy lights.  The new standard is to make thing faster and shakier than ever.  I love it as a style, but in moderation.  If the general public agreed that chocolate ice cream was the best, we wouldn’t all switch to an all chocolate diet, would we?  So why must we do this with our films?  Why does every event film need to have A.D.D. cuts, lens flare, pretty people everywhere, and a resistance to dialogue with depth?  Films can be fun and intelligent, I swear.

It doesn’t bother me that people loved this re-imagining of Star Trek.  It bothers me that people talk approvingly about it by citing the fact that it’s not over their head, nerdy, or too involved.  That’s part of what made the original great.  It’s what makes sci-fi as a genre great.  This is a growing problem with people’s approach to cinema in general, and the studios are running a business, not creating art, so they bend to the appetite of the masses.  I only hope that other filmmakers out there can continue working hard to keep that appetite honest.

I wanted to write a post about this right after I got back from Phoenix in March, but it was way too busy at the time and things haven’t settled down until now. I went to see the show, Rent, with my mom, brother, and sister on my last night in town before heading back to LA. The four of us caught the show back on it’s first tour through Phoenix in 1998. Seeing it again, older, wiser, and with it now ingrained as part of our youth was a great experience.

I know it’s kind of cheesy. I know some people think it’s awful. I know it looks and sounds extremely dated if you didn’t catch it when it initially caught on in popularity. But screw all that, I love it. We were fortunate enough to see all kinds of plays and musicals when I was in high school: Evita, West Side Story, Camelot, and others. Was it strange that I would listen to Phantom of the Opera on my walkman while doing yard-work, then switch to hip-hop while playing basketball, and eventually convert to 80’s electronic music? Probably. I consider it versatile (and it explains the completely random songs here and there on my iPod).

Honestly, I wasn’t fully sold on it the first time I saw it. At intermission my mom and I wondered if we shouldn’t leave. It was just so different than anything we expected (this was before the era of live twitter reviews and facebook updates), but we gave it a chance. The second act sold us. After we saw it, we had to buy the original broadway recording soundtrack. We wore out those 2 CD’s that summer. We’d practically perform the whole thing each day, and if we weren’t trying to sing along, we’d at least have it in the background.

When we were that young, the whole artist and bohemian ideals thing was attractive because it was so abstract and distant. Seeing it again now was a different story. That’s not to say I’m some type of live on the street, struggling to pay the rent artist. Far from it, for better or worse. But it is funny that I chose to pursue filmmaking, my brother dance, and my sister acting. The struggle between making money and selling out, finding your voice, and love and passion for art that plays out in Rent really hit home this time around. I could relate to it this time, rather than only imagine the romanticized version. We all could, I think, which is why we still love it so much.

The other aspect of the play I appreciated more this time around was the aspect of characters sick and dying, or, as one character puts it, “because I’m used to relying on intellect, but I try to open up to what I don’t know.” That moment, when they’re in the life support meeting, got to me. It was the idea of health defying logic, of being close to death and struggling with what that means. I don’t know why, but it touched me when I saw it.

We had decent seats and we were excited because the original Mark and Roger were back touring with the company. As soon as the music started, I got chills. Actually, I got chills at the start of most of the songs. It’s one thing to hear the soundtrack on CD hundreds of times, but it’s another to see it live and feel it. The other amazing thing was the crowd. We weren’t the only ones who wore down our CD growing up. It was like an encore performance, and I’m sure the entire tour plays out that way now. Everyone knows what is coming, so there was a self-conscious aspect to parts of the performance and some of the songs. I loved seeing the crowd going crazy. You could feel the emotion in the theater, and I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house by the end of the performance.

It was great to see the musical again, from a different perspective this time. I still love it, and I’ll still play it from time to time. It’s nice to see how certain things can age along with you, and Rent is something that I think will always age well in my eyes.

We woke up early on day 5 since we had crashed before 9pm the night before. It was nice to take in the view from the back porch and front porch of our little bungalo before leaving. We didn’t have much free time since it was a travel day back to San Jose, but we made the most of it.

We headed into La Fortuna for breakfast. We found a little soda (small, roadside mini-restaurants. I have no idea why they’re called sodas) that was recommended by the front desk of our hotel. The funny thing is, the place we were staying was full of older, American or European people who chose the spot because it had standard food and was away from the locals. They seemed surprised that we wanted a simple, local meal.

The food at the soda was solid, but the best part was the coffee and the juices. All natural blended juices from all kinds of fruit is standard fare there. After breakfast, we walked around town, getting in all of our souvenir shopping and then taking in the town itself.

We even ran into Anthony and Vivian walking around town too. We grabbed a few snacks for the drive back and then stopped off at the soda for another blended juice before heading back to the hotel. We packed up, took some more pictures to kill time, then had a quick lunch before leaving.

I was a little nervous about the trip back. On the way up, we were on the inside of the steep narrow roads, but heading back meant we would be on the outside, where we saw random sink holes that dropped all the way down the hill. Fortunately, I think our driver was thinking the same thing, because we took a different road back, that had less steep, narrow sections. It was a nice drive, taking in even more of the countryside as we went along.

We reached our destination, the Holiday Inn Express next to the airport, around five in the afternoon. We were a little bummed to be there. On the one hand, it was nice having normal amenities and a quiet room. On the other, we had grown used to the buzz of the jungle and the occasional bug in our room. Our trip was pretty much over by that point. We went for a swim in the evening, and stayed up late packing and getting everything ready. We also stayed up late to monitor our flight. Our TV had a local Denver station and the newscast showed all kinds of snowstorms. On top of that, our flight wasn’t listed on the departures screen in the hotel lobby. We triple checked the airline website and official Denver website to make sure our flight wasn’t delayed our cancelled.

Fortunately for us, it wasn’t. We left our hotel at 4am and were on our way. We were lucky that Denver had cleared up the night before, so it was freezing, but clear and sunny. The flight there wasn’t bad, but by the time we boarded for LA, I just wanted to be home. We landed with the usual relief of being home combined with the sadness that our trip was over. It was a great vacation and Costa Rica is a beautiful, amazing place. The people are super friendly and the sights are awesome. I can’t wait to go back someday.

Day 4 in Costa Rica felt almost like 2 days because of how it was broken up. We woke up, packed up our things, went and had breakfast, and said goodbyes to people who were leaving. A large group of us planned to drive up to La Fortuna, next to the Arenal Volcano. Janiva didn’t mention until we arrived that it’s actually one of the most active volcanoes in the world, making it a little uncomfortable knowing that our planned hotel was next to its base.

After our morning goodbyes we did some shopping, buying some organic coffee as we checked out. We hopped on our bus and then took the hour or so drive into La Fortuna. Everyone was moving a little slowly though, so by the time everyone got checked out, figured out the shuttle situation, and finally left, we didn’t sit down for lunch in La Fortuna until nearly 2pm. I think our group of about a dozen overwhelmed the little restaurant next to the hotel a few people were staying at. It took a while for our orders to come out, but it was good food.

The shuttle dropped us off at our hotel, since it was the last one on the way, and then took everyone else to the hot springs. We were shocked at how nice our hotel was. Violet had booked online, where there’s not much description or pictures. We were mostly looking for a decent price, and the place was actually cheaper than the Holiday Inn Express next to the Denny’s and an engine rattling distance away from the airport. The hotel, Lomas del Volcan was a mile up a small dirt road and right at the base of the volcano. It was a resort style place with an open air bar and restaurant that opened to an amazing view of the volcano, and private, bungalo style rooms. I only wish we had been able to spend more time there.

We quickly changed and took a cab to meet up with everyone at the hot springs. The hot springs had a series of pools, going from one that was freezing, to lukewarm, all the way up to hot tub levels. It was so cool because it felt like they built the park around an already existing river. The river flowed down a waterfall into the top, warmest pool, and out into the river below the lowest, lukewarm pool. The guy at the front told us to make sure and switch pools regularly and not stay in any one pool for too long. There was one small pool that was boiling hot, but it was out of the way. The highest pool had the waterfall and some cool water shooting out from above, so it wasn’t bad. We spent most of our time in the lowest pool because it was easy to move back and forth from that one to the cool one.

Unfortunately, a large part of the group didn’t get to spend much time there since they were heading back to San Jose for flights the next day. We were able to stay later though, as were a couple of others who had additional travel plans. The jungle trees surrounded the hot springs, and a group of monkeys moved around above us. One of them even had a little baby on its back. It was so cool lying back in the water and watching the monkeys hop around from branch to branch.

When it started getting dark we decided it was time to go. Another couple, Anthony and Vivian, had also stayed behind so they joined us for dinner back at our hotel. Since it was dark, you couldn’t really make out the volcano in the distance, but it was still a beautiful night to have dinner on the patio.

Day 4 was so relaxing and a great way to come down from the high of the wedding and partying. We went back to our room after dinner and collapsed.