More food? Time to Cook our Own Meal

How could we possibly eat another bite?  But it was time for our cooking class at Casa Jacaranda.   We met up with our chefs, Beto and Jorge at the Mercado Medellin to discuss our menu and buy ingredients.  After we aligned on the menu, Beto shopped while Jorge gave us a tour of the market.

After about 90 minutes at the market, it was time to head to the kitchen and start cooking.   

We made tortillas, mole, empanadas and a couple varieties of salsa all from scratch.   After a couple hours of chopping, sauteing, mashing and mixing, it was time to enjoy the results of our efforts.   Jorge made us delicious cocktails to enjoy with our food.

Just when we thought we were done, we were told to head upstairs, where there was a lovely rooftop deck set up for lunch.  It was time to enjoy our mole.  But apparently we had all forgotten about the empanadas we made.
      

What a great time we had!  We all truly enjoyed the family style cooking.  It was an intimate group and Beto and Jorge felt like old friends.  The traveling hillbilly highly recommends this experience.

Next up....more food

After a long leisurely lunch at Pujol, we had a brief break to walk around the PLULANCO neighborhood.   Despite the fact we were all still full from lunch, it was time to head over for an evening street food tour.    We were all wondering how we were ever going to be able to enjoy the street foods of Mexico City after such a big lunch, but after our first street taco, those fears quickly vanished.     Suddenly we were all hungry again and had no trouble enjoying the taste of Mexico Cities nightly street vendor offerings.  

After a few stops, it was time to head to the oldest pup in Mexico City, located in the Chinatown neighborhood.  Women were not allowed in the pub until 1982.  There was basically a trough around the bar for men to spit and pee.  Of course it is no longer in use, now that women are classing up the joint. 

A few more stops to eat and then we ended the night with a mescal tasting.  Not sure I've developed a fine enough pallet to enjoy the subtleties of fine mescal varieties just yet but have a feeling there's more mescal in my future on this trip.

It was a long day, a late night but one filled with delicious food, great friends old and new, and good times!

Holiday Traditions

There are many things to like and dislike about the holidays.   For some those are one in the same, some people love shopping, some people hate it, some love travel, some hate travel and so on.  For me, one of my favorite things about the holidays in getting to connect with dear friends.   I love the traditions I have with them.   It's those friends that have been in your life through the good times, the celebrations, the bad times, the heart breaks, the ones you did some crazy things you probably shouldn't have done.   They are the friends that you don't see or talk to everyday.  In fact  you may go weeks or even months without catching up.  But when you do finally get together, you pick up like it was yesterday.  They take you back to a different time, a different place.

It all started on Tuesday 12/22.  I met a group of friends for dinner.   We ate, we drank, we ate some more, we reminisced and as always, they made me laugh til my stomach hurt!   After three hours of fun, I so hated to say goodbye, especially knowing all of us would probably not be together again as a group until this time next year.  Gathering for a meal with this crazy group is one of my favorite holiday traditions.

 The only that made leaving this crazy group easier was knowing I was hopping in the car for a road trip the next morning to see another great group to keep up yet another holiday tradition.   As I type this, I'm sitting in a "cabin" nestled in the Russian River Valley waiting for the rest of my friends to awake.  

Our holiday tradition is to "get away" and celebrate the holidays together.   Our get away shave been anywhere from South America, to Finland or even just a few days in some of the most beautiful locations California has to offer.  I look forward to eating, drinking and catching up with this group as well.

We all have holiday traditions, but spending time with dear friends is truly one of Traveling Hillbilly's favorites!   What's your favorite tradition?

Reflections of a Great Vacation

As I sit here in the Coffee Bean reflecting back on my trip, I realize I’m taking away a lot more than just fond memories of time spent with old and new friends.    I have profound faith in the true goodness of people.    I have a renewed sense of what’s truly important in life.   And I’ve been given a strong reminder of what my true values are.

From the waiter that spent over 20 minutes looking through the bushes under the restaurant with a flashlight to find my friends camera on New Year’s Eve, to the owner of the hotel that personally drove us in his truck to the restaurant, to his daughter, who gave up a Friday night to so show some “gringos” around Valparaiso because she truly loves the city and is proud to show it off!   These are just genuinely good people, who enjoy life and want to make sure others do as well. 

Everywhere we went people were generally warm and friendly.  They always went out of their way to make sure we were having a good time.   I can’t tell you how many times, people apologized to us for not speaking English!    Apologizing to us?  Completely unnecessary!     I mean we are guests in their country.  

I’m sure there is greed, laziness and thievery everywhere, but in general the people in Peru and Chile seem to have found peace and balance.   Regardless of their economic situation, they seem happy and much less harried and stressed than most of the people I know.    They value their families and community and don’t seem so focused on just themselves.

A couple of my friends have already gone back to work and their first day back they were working until midnight, right back into the craziness and stress.   I really want to try and have a broader outlook on life, be more focused on others and the greater good.  Find a way to enjoy work without it becoming all consuming.   How long will it last?   How long will it take me to get completely wrapped up in work again?  How long before this vacation and my renewed outlook is just a distant memory?  A week?  A month?  Three days?  Only time will tell.

For now, I sit at the Coffee Bean with the hope that this is a new and fresh beginning.  That it is not just a fleeting vision that will only be renewed with my next vacation.

The Charming Alvaro at the Casablanca Hotel, Ruta del Vino

After many hours, we finally get the rental car situation finalized and it’s time to head off to our hotel in Casablanca.   We have 4 nights of luxury, wine tasting and beach lounging ahead of us!   After so much traveling about, I can’t wait to get settled into a hotel and relax for a few days!  Given we left during “rush hour” we are expecting a lot of traffic heading out of the city in anticipation of the long weekend  New Year’s celebrations.  We are pleasantly surprised by the lack of traffic and it only takes an hour to get to Casablanca, our home until it’s time to head back to the states. 

I must admit the hotel has all the amenities one could want, a pool, a spa, a restaurant etc.   However, it appears to fall just a little short of the luxury I was expecting based on the website, especially considering I had just come from the W in Santiago. 

It appears to be under expansion and renovation.   It looks like it was a much smaller place with just a few rooms and a couple of cabins.   However, they have added a whole new section of rooms, along with a sauna and another pool.   I think within the next year, it will be beautiful, but right now it’s still in the “construction phase” and not quite up to expectations. 

However, the owners Alvaro and his wife Monica are the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet.  Alvaro greets us and has gone out of his way to make sure we are happy.  He is a very charming man and you can’t help but forgive the place its shortcomings because you can tell he has a vision for the place and is putting his heart and soul into it.   He and his wife run the place together.   It truly is charming but I guess the Traveling Hillbilly has become a little spoiled and was really hoping for a little more luxury the last few days of the trip.

Wine Tasting in Casablanca

So we decided to spend our first full day in Casablanca wine tasting.   We had four wineries we wanted to go to which seemed easily do-able.  However, after 6 hours on the road, we only made it to 3 wineries and we barely made it to the last one!   Wine tasting here is very different here than in California.  It is a more formal presentation and personalized experience.  Plus, it is actually more expensive than most of the wineries in California.   The first winery we go to tells us the tour is 2 hours!   It includes a “rodeo” show, a carriage ride through the vineyards, a tour of the wine museum and of course the tasting.   We are starting to understand why the hotel told is we could visit two wineries today and two tomorrow.   After some discussion with the winery, we settle on just the rodeo show and wine tasting.   We want more time to visit other wineries.   The tasting pours are very generous and they take the time to explain the process of how to truly taste the wine.   You can still get this in a lot of the California wineries, but they’ve just gotten so busy these days, you usually just get a quick pour off the menu. 

All in all it was a good day.   The wines were much better than I expected based on the wines from Chile I’ve had in the states.   I actually found a truly organic wine that I loved at Emiliana. 

The Traveling Hillbilly LOVES Santiago!

Based on what a couple of people had told me, my expectations for Santiago were low.  I was expecting a big city, smoggy, hot and humid!   I was very pleasantly surprised.   I think Santiago is a beautiful city.   The Traveling Hillbilly could live here.   Granted my friends and I stayed in Las Condes the newer business district, not in downtown or other older parts of the city but our experience here was great.   We had great restaurants nearby and lots to see and do, all within walking distance or a metro stop or two.  It is actually a lot like Los Angeles, very cosmopolitan, great weather, lots of outdoor activities and cool evenings.  I stayed at the W Santiago and felt the view from my room looked like the Hollywood Hills.   It was like I was staying on Sunset Plaza, but with better weather!  My only regret is we don’t have more time to spend here.    In hindsight, this would have made a great “home base” for doing day tours of Casablanca, Vina del Mar and Valparaiso.   Oh well. 

I wonder what the quarantine period is for bringing hound dogs into the area?    HHHHHHmmmmmmm, I might just have to look into that.

A Magical & Mystical Christmas Day

Wow!   Words cannot describe what an amazing day I had today.  Today was the day we went to Machu Picchu.   Given our last minute travel plans, it was too late to get a permit to hike the Inca Trail, so we opted to take the train up to Machu Picchu.   I know it seems like cheating, however, we were able to secure a ticket to the Huayna Picchu entrance.   Huayna Picchu is a mountain high above Machu Picchu and they only give out 400 tickets per day to climb it. 

The train ride itself was truly a scenic journey.  The traveling hillbilly loves a great train ride.  The 30 minute bus ride however is quite another story.   The rain made the roads wet and muddy.   As we drove up the mountain, weaving our way around the mountain, the bus was just inches from the mountain on one side and there was just a steep drop off on the other side.  The bus ride two and from was quite a scary adventure!

We arrived at the station, walked to the entrance of Machu Picchu and immediately went to the Huayna Picchu entrance.  We decided we wanted to do that first and then make our way back down to explore Machu Picchu in the afternoon.  We hiked up to Huayna Picchu which is almost 1,200 feet above Machu Picchu!  It was often a very steep climb but luckily there were ropes in some of the steepest parts to help you pull yourself up.  The trail itself was wet and muddy so we were slow going.  The climb up provided the most stunning scenic views!   At times, we were completely shrouded in clouds, which only added to the mysticism of the experience.  I know the pictures will never do it justice. 

We finally arrived at the top, both winded and excited!   The view from up there makes you feel like you are on top of the world!   You realize how high you truly are when you gaze upon Machu Picchu so far below.  

Going down was an even bigger challenge but we knew  we would be rewarded with an depth exploration of Machu Picchu once we got back to the bottom.  We were not disappointed!   On the train ride to Machu Picchu my friend and I were wondering if we would be underwhelmed with Machu Picchu since we’d just done Ollantaytambo the day before.  Would it be just another Inca ruin?  Boy, were we wrong to even think such a thought!   We were completely taken aback and overwhelmed by how magnificent this lost city of the Inca’s is.   It is amazing what they were able to build and how much of this city still stands.   Incredible!

 Only 400 people in the world got to do what I did today.   It truly was a once in a lifetime experience made all the better because I got to enjoy it with such amazing friends!

 Hydrotherapy or Peruvian Water Torture?

This post is for my sister who might better understand the benefits of hydrotherapy.   So after a night of room service, relaxation and sleeping in past 7am, all I needed was a relaxing massage.   I decided on one of the spa’s “luxury therapies”, the Yucamani Stones.   It was a 2 hour treatment for the bargain price of $125 US dollars.  It was a combination of hydrotherapy followed by an hour massage with hot and cold stones. 

The treatment started out nicely with some time spent in the dry sauna (10 minutes).   After that I had a choice of the cold shower or the ice tower.  Neither sounded relaxing.   I had just come from having lots of cold showers in the Amazon and now I was paying to take a cold shower?!   The ice tower didn’t sound like a great option either.  However, I decided on the ice tower after I was informed all I had to do was place some shaved ice on any places that ached or were tense.  That was followed by  10-15 minutes in the steam room.   As I settled into the steam room, they actually brought in fresh eucalyptus leaves!  Aaahhh, what a nice touch.    Now, back to the ice tower, ugggh!

It was time to head to the pool.  They actually had these metal chairs, kind of like lounge chairs at one end of the pool.  I was told to pick a chair and relax.   I thought this will be nice.   Then they turned on these jets and water jetted out everywhere, including in my face, in my eyes and in my ears.  Plus as we all know, we tend to float in the water so I had to hold on tightly to the chair to keep from being pushed off!  Not as relaxing as I initially thought.  This was followed by a few minutes standing in this small circular wall in the middle of the pool as water shot up at all angles.  I honestly thought it was going to blow my bathing suit off.   Then at the other end of the pool, I stood under a water fall that pounded on my neck and shoulders.  Finally time to get out of this crazy pool, only to discover I now had to walk down a few steps into ICE WATER.   Finally, time to get into the hot Jacuzzi.    Ahhhhh this is more like it. 

After the Jacuzzi, it was time to go back down the steps into the ICE WATER.  It must be time for my massage by now.   Oh, but a quick shower first.  I was told to step into the shower and push button 1.  I stepped in, pushed button 1 and cold water starting pouring down!   After a few minutes it shut off automatically.  Now I was told to step into the next shower and push button 1 again.  There were four separate showers in all, primarily cold water, each focusing on pouring, shooting or pounding cold water on certain areas (legs, arms, neck and shoulders).   I was really starting to feel like this was some form of Peruvian water torture and I paid for this!  Finally, a walk across some cold stones as water shot out pounding on my legs.

Finally it was time for my massage.   The massage was absolutely amazing!   I was instantly relaxed.  Those hot stones felt so nice after all that hot/cold/hot cold treatment.   My massage was over an hour and I still didn’t want it to end.   After the massage I was led to a wooden lounge like chair to sit and relax.  As I sat down, the therapist plugged something in and suddenly the chair began to heat up.  I was ready to take a nap!

Finally rain and lots of it on the day of departure!

The Traveling Hillbilly must admit I was truly looking forward to a thunderstorm while in the Amazon.  The weather report called for thunderstorms everyday while we were there, but despite multiple threats (dark clouds, rolls of thunder and some lightening in the distance) we never had more than a few minutes of light rain.   Well that all changed today!   A sudden downpour came on our ride down the river heading to the airport.    It made the boat ride quite damp and the muddy roads made the slippery bus ride all the more adventurous!

All in all, we got to the airport safely and arrived in Cusco only about 30 minutes late.  I am now safely in my hotel room in the Sacred Valley, thrilled to have electricity, hot water, internet access and even DirecTV.  

I’m ready for the 2^nd leg of this trip.   I’m sure Christmas Day on Machu Picchu will be an incredible experience, even if the forecast for rain is accurate.

For now, I have the wonderful memories of my Amazon tour and the truly beautiful people I met.   The Traveling Hillbilly really lucked out and had some great people in our small group.  You would never know the eight of us had just met and weren’t old friends.  We all got along so well and had such a blast!  To our guide, Eder, who we all adored, we know we drove you crazy, but thanks for making this trip so special.    I hope you get to meet Drew one day.   Just know that if I ever run into her in Los Angeles, I will send her your love!

Butterflies, Piranha, Lizards and Alligators oh my!

So after my first day in the jungle, I was thinking this is a little more touristy than I expected; hiking through the jungle, touring a local farm, and boating down the Amazon.   HOWEVER that opinion has changed a little.   This has truly been a great adventure!

After two days in the jungle, the Traveling Hillbilly has logged multiple hours hiking through the jungle and boating along the river, both during the day and night (scary dark), sat for an hour at the clay lick watching the macaws, (stunningly beautiful birds), gone caiman (alligator) searching along the Amazon at night (we even saw a couple of caiman), seen several monarch butterflies (such a bright blue hue) , got stuck knee deep in mud (more than once), seen multiple capybara (the worlds largest rodent), seen a few monkeys  and kayaked down the Amazon.   But it is still early, day 2 is not over.   At 4pm, we go to the “mammal lick” in the hopes of spotting some mammals.   We’ll see what happens.  

Well the Traveling Hillbilly needs to pack before the 4pm departure.   It will be too dark to pack by the time we get back tonight and we leave tomorrow for Cusco and the Sacred Valley!  I hope my time here in the jungle has prepared me for the challenge of Machu Picchu!

The Lodge Deserves Its Own Posting

So we arrive at the lodge and the first thing we see when we step in is the bar!   The Traveling Hillbilly is liking this place already.   The bar is all open air and made of local wood.   It’s very cool.   After the long journey getting here, I’m ready for a drink!  But first we have to learn about the lodge.   It’s a very environmentally friendly lodge and they have made every effort to make it “at one with nature.”     Their goal is to combine tourism with environmental  education to support conservation of the areas in which they operate.

 Now let me tell you about the rooms.  It turns out the bar is the only place that has electricity!  There are three “walls” and then just an open space facing out into the jungle.  The door to the room is just a pair of curtain panels, no locks, no keys.  There is a nice “refreshing” shower.   By refreshing, I mean very cold, no hot water!  We have mosquito nets over the beds.  The room is very nice, but I am going to miss electricity.    Plus it is difficult to navigate if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night! 

It gets dark around 6pm and I mean very dark.   But you can actually see the stars here at night.   They are simply amazing, such an beautiful sight.  The electricity in the bar shuts off at 9:30pm, but the bar remains open until the guests are ready to leave.     And there are a couple hours during the day, when you can “charge” your electronics in the bar. 

It’s going to be nice to be unplugged for a few days!

The Traveling Hillbilly Arrives in the Amazon

As we fly into Puerto Maldonado in the southern Amazon region of Peru, I notice how green everything looks from the plane.   Everything is so lush and tropical.  I half expect to see a T-Rex traipsing through the jungle knocking down the trees!    The river looks like a dirty brown ribbon wrapping its way around and through the jungle.   I wonder if that is same the river I’ll be going down soon.    The pilot announces the current temperature, which translates to 88 degrees Fahrenheit.  I can feel the humidity already!   Surprisingly, it’s not raining.  When I checked the forecast the day before departure, it looked like thunderstorms every day in the Amazon and rain every day in Cusco!

The airport is very small.  It reminds me of the one in Siem Reap, Cambodia.    It’s a much different experience than the arrival in Lima!   There is much less chaos.     I’m very excited for the trip to begin!

I’m even more excited when I see the bus we’ll l be taking.   It’s one of those smaller, rustic buses where all the luggage goes on top.   I feel like we are heading off on an African Safari.   We have to take the bus 45 minutes, through dirty and very muddy roads, to the “port.”   The port is basically a set of wooden steps that lead down to the river.  At the port, we board what is basically a motorized canoe and start our 2+ hour boat ride to our lodge, located deep in the jungle.

A couple hours in to the trip with no sign of wildlife.   I am anxiously waiting for my biggest fear to be realized.   I just know that a snake is going to fall out of tree into the boat.   Luckily, the river is wide and we have a canopy over the top of the canoe, so hopefully we’re safe.  And yes, the dirty brown ribbon I saw from the plane is the exact river we are heading down.  Again, it reminds me of a prior trip.  It’s similar to the river raft ride, Huckleberry Finn style; I did in Chang Mai a few years ago.  But this time, there are no elephants.   

The Traveling Hillbilly Goes off the Grid!!!!

So for my loyal followers, I apologize for not having posted anything for a few days.   I’ve been in the Southern Amazon region of Peru with no access to the internet and limited access to electricity!   However, I have been keeping a log of my journeys so you will see multiple postings appear.   

I had quite a few adventures in the Amazon and I hope you enjoy following along.   While you’re catching up on those, I’ll begin chronicling my adventures in the Sacred Valley.   If you’re ever been to Cusco or the Valley, please feel free to pass your words of wisdom along!  Or if you have any advice for Santiago and the surrounding areas, please share those stories as well.

Burlesque Show

As promised, here are the details on the Burlesque/Variety show we saw on New Year’s Eve. First, it was amazing; very entertaining and so funny. One of our favorite acts was “the hula hoop girl.” She came out acting stumbling drunk and then proceeded to hula hoop like we’d never seen. She was incredible! Next up, we saw an act that did the ultimate mash ups. They managed to squeeze in Justin Timberlake, Paula Abdul, Madonna, Wham and even Barry Manilow, without skipping a beat! It was truly incredible. We also saw a marvelous and laugh out loud funny ventriloquist! Now keep in mind this was all early in the evening, when we were still on our first cocktail. Plus the food was really good as well. I’m not sure this type of show is a regular event, but the Traveling Hillbilly highly recommends this as a totally unique experience on your next visit to London. Just go for dinner and stay and dance at the nightclub after. Check it out @ www.cafedeparis.com

New Year's Eve in London!

What a fabulous New Year’s Eve we had in London! How cool is it that the Traveling Hillbilly got to spend New Year’s Eve in London with friends from LA and San Fran, plus some new friends from London?! We spent it at a cool club/restaurant called Café de Paris. We had dinner, got to see a burlesque/variety show and then it turned into a night club after dinner and the show were over. We were worried about being able to stay up to ring in the New Year since we had to be there by 6:30pm. However, we had no problem partying until 3am! A truly great time was had by all.

However, some of my friends seem to be getting a rather late start today.

More details on the dinner and show later.

Theater Reviews

First up, Sherlock Holmes – Robert Downey Jr. is great! Jude Law isn’t too bad. He would not have been the Traveling Hillbilly’s first choice for the role, but you can actually forget that it’s Jude Law at times. Rachel McAdams was not right for her role. She can be great, but she didn’t seem to be the appropriate choice for this role. However, all in all the film was fun and entertaining. The Traveling Hillbilly recommends.

Next up, Grease – Rizzo steals the show! The actress that plays Rizzo is an amazing performer and was by far the best thing about the whole show. The guy who played Danny was good, but the girl that played Sandy, not so good (she was the understudy). She was a terrific singer but she could not act or dance. However all in all, the show is fun and energetic. The music is great and makes you want to sing along. The Traveling Hillbilly recommends if you really want to see a musical and you’ve already seen the other popular musicals like Wicked, Mama Mia and Jersey Boys. If not, I’d recommend seeing one of those first.

The Traveling Hillbilly Goes to the Theater

Well the Traveling Hillbilly went to the theater twice today! How cultured am I? My friends and I had talked about seeing Grease while we were in London. We figured we had to see at least one show.

Turns out one of my friends knew of a place where you can buy “half-price” tickets the day of the show if they still have seats available. So we got up this morning to check it out. First of all, I can’t believe how many shows are playing here, several of which I have seen, but many that I would still like to see.

After some discussion and texting, we decided to stick to Grease. We were in luck, we were able to secure great center seats for ₤37 (these seats normally go for ₤60). So while they weren’t quite half price, they were still a great deal.

As we walk away from the ticket center, we happen to notice there is a couple of theaters right around us. There are two things showing we really want to see, Sherlock Holmes and Avatar. Okay, so that’s not the kind of theater you were thinking but it is called a theater. We hated to spend our first day at movies, but it was so cold and wet outside and Sherlock Holmes was starting very soon so we decided to head in.

The Traveling Hillbilly will post reviews of shows soon!

Eating My Way Through London

So I’ve heard the food is not so good in London, which I was actually excited about. After eating so much in Amsterdam, I was kind of looking forward to some bad food which would cut down on my eating. Well if my first dinner experience is any indication of what the food will be like, then I’m really in trouble.

We meet up with some friends for dinner our first night in London. We meet at a little Italian place called Sale e Pepe in the Knightsbridge area. I started with a baked eggplant and mozzarella appetizer. Most of you may not know this, but the Traveling Hillbilly loves eggplant, except when I make it myself. Anyway, it was delicious and so was the main course, Penne Arrabbiata. Dinner was great and I was glad to see we were all passing on dessert, finally a step in the right direction. However, a few folks decided to have coffee or after dinner drinks. Not only did Sale e Pepe have Sambuca, my favorite after dinner drink, but they had black Sambuca! I had to indulge.

Fabulous food, terrific cocktails and excellent company, all in all a great first night in London!

Eating My Way Through Amsterdam

So Amsterdam is a complete melting pot when it comes to food. So far I’ve had Indonesian, Italian and Argentinean. I hear they have great Chinese food as well. My friends and I even had some great fondue in a little fondue restaurant near the red light district. It was a very quaint little place, the service was great, the fondue was wonderful and I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me. So sorry for that! Aside from the breakfast at the Pancake Corner, all the meals have been great. The one thing I have not had since I’ve been here, is true Dutch food. There are at least three Argentinean Steakhouses, four Italian/Pizza places and at least one Chinese Restaurant on every block, but you don’t really see any restaurants touting, “Dutch” food. So after four days in Amsterdam, The Traveling Hillbilly has not sampled any Dutch food. Well unless of course you count an Apple Tart and a Chocolate Covered Waffle (well waffles), both are sold everywhere around the city and both are delicious! Oh and there was also the quick sandwich grabbed at the train station. The Traveling Hillbilly highly recommends the chocolate covered waffles on your next visit to Amsterdam!

The last time I was in Amsterdam, I had the best gyro ever! Now granted that was many years ago, but I still remember it fondly. I really wanted to try one again but sadly did not get the chance on this trip. Well I guess I’ll just have to come back for that!