Tag Archives: Coffee

Joshua Tree

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Although this is the second time I’ve been to Joshua tree, wanted to actually write down this one for future logistics.

First, we went here in early November. Weather during the day is actually pretty nice (around 25 degrees). However at night it can go to around 14 or 14 degrees, which is pretty cold if you’re sleeping without a heater (which we accidentally did the first night out of the three nights we’ve been here).

We stayed at an Airbnb that is 12 minutes away from the entrance of the actual national park. I think the location is pretty good (3946 Anita Ave). Also less than 20 minutes from downtown Joshua tree (where we usually got our morning coffee, at a place called Joshua Tree Coffee (haha yes, very original)).

One thing to also note is that Door Dash is available (which is useful since there was an initial stop at the Costco at Palm Springs, but some things were forgotten). Vons and other eateries were door dash able.

The Airbnb we got had a hot tub, corn hole, and pickle ball court. Utilized them fairly well during this trip.

We ended up going to Joshua Tree national park the third day we were here. We went to the trail called Skill Rock trail. It’s only 1.7 miles, but we took around 1.5 hrs with it since we stopped by to take photos. I recommend the trail because of how easy it is, and the scenes. Also it loops back to where you parked your car!

A couple of things to mention about this trip is that we did go for a friends 25th bday. And so she had some theme nights like PJ night, ABG/ABB night and cocktail dress to impress hour.

Hawaii – Kona Day 9

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This day was used to explore the eateries / bars in Holualoa.

Started off by going to a “dive” bar called Humpy’s Big Island Alehous, which has a really good view of the water. Of course I ordered the Pina Colada. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/humpys-big-island-alehous/

Next, we stopped by a place with an even more dope view, a place called On the Rocks. Had lunch there, with a mai tai. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/on-the-rocks/

Needed to get some orange juice and tide detergent, so ended up going to a Hawaii convenient store chain called “ABC”.

After some solid morning/lunch drinking, decided to get some coffee at a HiCo. Got an iced mocha, which was really delicious. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/hico/

We then chilled at Janie’s place for a bit (which is where the sunset picture is from), and then had dinner / tried Kava at Kanaka Kava: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/kanaka-kava/

After drinking kava, we chilled at the volleyball courts for a bit at the same complex the Kava and Island Lava Java places were at.

Ended off the night drinking back at Janie’s place, where we played a game called Therapist (basically two rules are made up and two people designated as the therapists have to try and guess the rules). Great game.

Touring La Candelaria

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We met our waking tour guide at El Chorro de Quevedo around 2pm.

She started off the tour by briefly talking about the importance of Graffiti (apparently a past president once endorsed it).

She then went on about Chicha, which was the main alcoholic drink before beer came into play. It actually tastes pretty good (like orange cream soda and vodka).

We then went on to try some various popular fruits in Bogota (not sure about most of them, but apparently Guanabana is believed to get rid of cancer. That fruit is green, with pointy sides).

We then made our way to Embajada de la coca. There we tried coca leaves (by chewing them on one side of the mouth, which had a bit of a numbing effect on the tongue and side of the cheek). We also tried some tea, which also had an interesting neural effect. In addition, we tried some cookies, which didn’t really do anything.

They also talked about a device that they used to mix coca leaves with one of three ingredients, which helped connect the “coca leaves to Mother Earth”.

After, we made our way to where the Senate and the Justice building were (and apparently Narcos spun the story a bit different about the Justice building being attacked by Pablo Escobar. Apparently the M19 was not hired by him, but did it on their own since they wanted to put president at the time on trial for trying to disrupt the peace process).

After, we made our way to the president’s buildings.

The last stop of the tour was a coffee shop, where we had some drip coffee (forget the exact name, but it had 60 degree in it). Apparently most of the best Colombian coffee gets exported while only some stay within the country. This place had some the good stuff that stayed inside.