Holy! 46 days of work in a row in Alaska. I just upgraded from the Cessna 207 to the Cessna Grand Caravan(208B) and each time I upgrade I usually stay in Alaska for quite some time to help get get everything down and get comfortable in the aircraft before taking another big break. I am currently taking this time off in the Philippines. It’s the first time I’ve actually had to pay for a flight ticket ;(. From Incheon to Manila was about $150 one way and it will be $42 using ID90 on the way back. This place is awesooooooome.
The people are incredibly kind people, although they can very often come off as aggressive when selling things. You can’t really chill much because there will always be someone trying to sell you something you don’t want. I spent my first night in Manila which is a little gross. The streets are crawling with dogs, rats, and everything soaked in AC unit drippings. I stayed at a place called Adriatico which sold me on their pool(it’s a cool pool). I found a hidden bar in the back of this American food restaurant and proceeded to get quite drunk and passed out.
I’ve been using Uber to travel around, and every uber driver tells me I’m gonna get murdered while I’m here(especially if I take taxis). But honestly, I hear that in every country and I have yet to have a legitimately bad experience anywhere. The worst I have to deal with are those minor scams where you dish out a few bucks for a tip you think the dude doesn’t deserve.
I got off work in Aniak on the 15th and shot on Delta to Denver Colorado. I met up with Amy at the airport, we rented a nice little grey VW and drove off to Boulder Colorado(where I used to live as a flight instructor). We had beers at Mountain Sun Brewery downtown on Pearl street. We proceeded to eat the best burgers we would have on this trip. After beer and burgers we drove deep into the mountains to Estes park where there was a really cool Airbnb that was more of a little resort getaway in the mountains. I’ve never had better service. Marie the frontdesk lady was a champion who insisted on more than 3 occasions that, “it is just so good to have you here.”
We woke up, ate mediocre pho, and left for Vail where my fellow pilot friend Rick resides. We spent $100 for some of the worst burgers I’ve had in my life and then spent the night at Rick’s flat. The next morning we hit the slopes. Even with Rick’s 50% off passes Vail was still CRAZY expensive. The ski resort itself was absolutely gorgeous though. Mountains and mountains filled with different ski courses. I crashed time after time and still feel as if I don’t really grasp the concept of how to turn.
We packed our bags up and then headed to Glenwood springs. The main attraction there was to experience the hot springs. For only $17 entrance cost and a $2.5 towel fee you can see the biggest hot springs pool in the world. I think it had something like 1,000,000 gallons. I was pleasantly surprised with how cool it was. There’s one smaller pool that is very hot and then another one that’s slightly less so. The less hot one feels like it goes on forever. It’s cool to see the steam at night as it limits your view and makes you feel like you’re a character in Pirates of the Carribean in the middle of the ocean. We hot springed ourselves into pizza-hungry monsters so we headed to a hotel and 20 minutes later we had a dude knocking on our door giving us pizza and asking for money. We drank wine and ate pizza until we floated off into dreamland.
In the morning we hiked to hanging lake which is quite a gorgeous hike. But the bottom of my boots consist of perfectly worn rubber so the ice had me bobsledding every other step. Once I slipped and came quite close to falling off a 15 foot ledge. Another time I was sliding down on my boots(really fun) and they wouldn’t relent so I took out 2 other hikers. We then headed down to Colorado Springs where we spent the night at another Airbnb. There was a laundry machine so I was able to wash my 1 pair of socks which was great.
In the morning we hiked the incline in Manitou springs that goes to Pike’s peak and limped down. We then explored garden of the gods and drove up towards Denver. It was Amy’s last night so we balled out $75 for the Hilton Hotel Inverness with a view of the golf course. We checked in, drove into Denver and proceeded to find no restaurants that we liked the look of or that would pass Amy’s yelp interrogations. We drove back out of Denver and went to Pappadeaux. A cajun style seafood restaurant chain that I used to work at in Chicago. Our waiter Mateo was pretty great but refused to give us extra fries. He said that the 336 that came with the seafood platter was enough. I guess he was right because we only finished 20 of them.
We paid our bill, gave the man a handsome tip and rushed back to the Hilton. The hot tub would be closing in an hour and that was the main reason we were there. We put our white robes on and proceeded to walk around the hotel telling everyone visually that we were there for one reason and one reason only: the tub. We proceeded to dip our bodies in the hot tub broth and I lasted a solid 10 minutes until I was sweating and itchy.
We slumbered and woke up in the morning to a good 6 inches of snow everywhere. Amy would be going home that day so we tried to fit a lot in. We held a tarantula at the butterfly pavillion, toured a few breweries and got sad at little man ice cream when we realized it was outdoor and it would be cold. I dropped Amy off at the airport, we said our goodbyes, and then I headed up to Fort Collins to see my cousin Adrian. We played Catan, a really cool board game, until 0430 and drank beers I got from the brewery.
I slept on the floor for a few hours and woke up to people stepping over me as I was in the way of the door. Adrian had to work at 1030 so I followed her and her coworker to the bar/restaurant they work at. At this point we were addicted to Catan so I set up the board at the bar where Kevin was bartending and Adrian would find gaps in hosting and come do a turn or two at a time because it was slow. It wasn’t a bad day. Kevin kept a steady stream of free drink coming at me and I even got some free gumbo.
After I crushed them in Catan a few times I got back in the trusty rental and drove down to Boulder to see my brother. He was back from a trip to Hawaii finally so I stayed with him and his girlfriend Kelley. He enthusiastically showed me the 1037 photos he took in Hawaii while I nodded/nodded off. I will still be in Colorado a few more days and will hopefully see a few more of my old mates while I’m here.
Back in Aniak after a nice refreshing break seeing some of the people I love in Bogota, Boston, and San Diego. We brought in the new year here in Aniak with a bit of RnR(genuine Alaskan booze) and lots of guns fired at midnight.
In the morning I set off with Brett to do some icefishing. It was my first time icefishing and Brett’s first time in the last 7 years. We were a little skeptical that the ice was good enough to drive the four-wheeler on but we eventually took the risk. We chiseled through about 10 inches of ice and set out lines. I tried fishing for 20 minutes without a bite on the line so I chewed up some moose sausage and spit that in the hole hoping it would attract some fish. It did nothing either and we fished for a total of about an hour before I realized I was way underdressed and we headed home.
My fingers and toes were frozen real good be the time we got back so I sit in front of the furnace for a good hour defrosting.
