In an earlier post, I mentioned that some advice I’d received from Andrew was particularly helpful while traveling to France. Equally as helpful, is the back pack that Andrew loaned me many years ago for a canoe trip, which I have since used in all of my travels, from camping trips to road trips to far reaching travel. A commonality among all these trips is that I loved to tell Andrew about them.
Earlier this month was no exception. Once again I grabbed Andrew’s pack and this time packed with the necessities to make my way to South and Central America for three weeks. Although there were countless things I would have loved to tell Andrew about, there were certain aspects of this journey that I would have been excited to share with Andrew.
After an extremely long and particularly hot and sweaty journey into the Amazon Rain Forest I was “getting low” trying to beat the high noon heat, when out of perfectly blue skies blew in a quick thunderstorm. I always associate thunderstorms with Andrew, given his love for a good thunderstorm. A much-cherished memory I have of Andrew was standing in the garage at my family’s home with Andrew and my dad as a wicked thunderstorm lit up the golf course across the street. I felt just like that, that afternoon in the jungle and for the remainder of the trip, as every day a quick rain storm would roll through just after lunch. Although I first experienced the daily rainstorms in the Amazon, it wasn’t until I was in Costa Rica that I got to see some spectacular forks of lightning touch down. I really wish I could have told Andrew about how exciting those storms were.
Latter on in my trip, while traveling in Costa Rica I toured a coffee plantation. As has been well documented in past entries, Andrew loved (reads: addicted to) his coffee. As the tour guide showed us how coffee was made from sapling to fresh brewed dark roast, I thought of Andrew and even took a little moment to hold my hand over a cup of steaming coffee only to blow on in before taking a sip.
At the next stop on my trip, I traveled to a little surf village call Montezuma at the southern tip of the peninsula in Costa Rica. Many people recognize the term Montezuma’s revenge as being a particularly unpleasant experience, for me I think of video game that Andrew and I played on the Apple II. Slightly goofy I know, but when I found out that there was a place called Montezuma I decided that I would go there simply because of the video game I played with Andrew all those years ago. I figured I’d get a good laugh out of Andrew when telling him that I’d traveled to Montezuma.
While in Montezuma I lined up a horseback ride on the beach. Also documented was Andrew’s love of horses and horseback riding. I recall that Alison wrote about Andrew’s love for The Black Stallion. I’d hoped that I would get to ride a giant black stallion along the beach and surf just like I’m sure Andrew had dreamed about doing as a kid. Although the ride ended up being away from the beach and sand I still figure that I could tell Andrew about it and he could think back to watching The Black Stallion and his love for horses.
Like I said there were many things I would have loved to tell Andrew about from my travels, but most of all I would have liked to tell him about the foliage of Costa Rica. I can’t recall if it has been raised prior in the blog, but Andrew loved and was fascinated with dinosaurs. I recall on Christmas he got a green and grey Valosa Raptor and spent a couple of days repainting it to be more appropriate colours… or at least cooler colours. Well given his fascination with dinosaurs I would have loved to tell him about the jungle in Costa Rica, where Jurassic Park was filmed. While I was trekking through the Cloud Forest (a jungle forest at high elevation that feels like your in the clouds and often are) I pictured seeing a dinosaur around every bend. I know that Andrew would have loved that.
I know that Andrew would have loved to hear about all of it. I know that as Andrew’s little kid brother, many of the things that were of interest to him are still of interest to me. I wish that I could have the chance to tell Andrew about all the things that I’ve seen and done. Whether it be while traveling or just doing to day to day, it’s tough not having him around to share my adventures with.
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