Costa Rica

I know what you are thinking, didn't Markham go to Costa Rica way back in May. Why in the world has it taken him so long to update his blog. Well, if you're reading this blog right now then you know me and you know that I don't ever update my blog, so this is nothing new.

Anyway, my friend James and I went to Costa Rica at the beginning of may. It was more or less my last big trip as a SkyWest employee. (I got laid off a week later) Anyway, this was a really great trip. We had loads of fun, never really figured out what the exchange rate for the money was but we had a blast riding 4 wheelers, dodging sting rays in the ocean, flying down the mountain on zip lines and telling every other Costa Rican that we were not interested in buying weed. So, enjoy the pictures and video.

After flying first class from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica we needed to find a place to stay for the night and a ride to that place. As is customary in South America, for the most part if you own a car you are also a taxi driver. So, we found a guy hanging out at the airport and he took us to a hotel that was actually pretty decent. After conveying our plans for the trip he volunteered to drive us to the beach town of Jaco for a price of course and he would also drive us back to the San Jose the next day. We kept telling him that we might stay longer but he insisted on taking us back the next day. Anyway, after spending the night in San Jose our taxi driver showed up with his wife ready for a little vacation to Jaco. This next video shows part of the drive down to Jaco.




On the way to Jaco we stopped on a bridge to check out the crocodiles that lived under it. There were a ton of them. Even more on the other side of the bridge. I think if I lived down there I would raise chickens and sell them to tourists to feed to the crocodile. It's a living.



After arriving in Jaco we checked into a super scetchy motel and I think that our taxi driver told us it was more expensive than it really was so that he could squeeze some extra money out of us, but 8 dollars a night isn't that bad at all. Not wanting to spend more than 30 seconds at the motel we headed for the beach.



This is James somehow flying out of the wave.


Swimming in the ocean in paradise can be extremely painful. At least that is what you would think by the expression on my face.


So, James and I kept getting hit by Rays that were riding the waves in and I try and explain it in this video by I think I drowned at the end of it.


Evidently Costa Ricans like cheerleading as much as Americans because this competition was going on by where we were swimming.

After hours of beach time we went and got some dinner and decided to walk around. We got stopped by the Policia because they assumed that since we are Americans we were looking for drugs. They were wrong, we were just walking. Thanks to James' superior spanish skills they let us move along.


This is James being hardcore and jumping over a creek on the beach that ran into the ocean.

Since our Taxi driver wanted to go back the next day and we wanted to stay we had to hide from him in the morning and go find another place to stay. We did it was a little more expensive. 9 dollars a night. This is it.

Somewhere my picture is hanging up in the hostile, it was great, I'd recommend it to anyone.

Next came one of my favorite parts of the adventure. Spanish Karaoke, good times.

This guy had some skills. This next guy was really really bad.


I don't know what universe that tune is Hard Days Night but wow, I really should never sing. To be fair I sang a really good La Bamba that James didn't record.

And here's James.


Great Times! And we don't even drink.

We decided to rock the 4Wheelers which was a really good idea. We saw some cool stuff.

Our guide just pulled out these coconuts drilled a hole in them, put a straw in and boom, best drink ever.


So if you look close you can see that James has a girl on the back of his ATV now. And so does our guide, evidently he thought we should give them a ride. I guess our guide was down with hitting on 14 year old girls.

We also went on a zip line tour that day. This video is the only evidence of that.



The next day we hit up Manuel Antonio state park. It was good times in the rainforest.


A Snake A Snake, OOO It's A Snake


Silouettes of Monkeys


Beach Monkey


I wasn't sweating, it was humid...right.

Awesome beach inside the park.

This was an awesome cluster of Bamboo.

And finally a video from the Rainforest. Until next time. Peace Out.

My trip to Hawaii

Hawaii

I spent last week in Hawaii, the weather wasn't the greatest but we made the most out of a rainy week in Hawaii. These are some videos and pictures of the fun. All my pictures are on facebook if you want to see more.

This was our tent, it may be the best investment I've ever made. It is awesome and kept us dry, except when we were putting it up in the rain.

Drinking this stuff was like drinking pure sugar water, which is exactly what it was.

This is the view from above Waimea, simply gorgeous, even on a cloudy day.

This next picture shows in detail a little canal that some kids were trying to build to empty out the lake you can see on the left in the picture above into the ocean. I thought it was cool but would never work.


Well, when we went to the beach the day after we were on top of the mountain, this is what we saw.


It was crazy how much water was flowing. Thes next videos will give you an idea how crazy it really was.


This is a view from the lake.


There were boogie boards, skim boards and surf boards everywhere.




This kid was the best.


This is a kid showing off for the Ladies.


We went on a Hike and I felt like this was a good bench to sit on and pretend I was waiting for a bus.


This is a big tree I had to climb.



On another hike I got to walk through a tunnel of trees.



And this is a waterfall and my feet.



By some crazy coincidence Bear and I were in Hawaii the same time. Bear stayed at Turtle Bay and we had an amazing breakfast together.



This may be my favorite part of the trip. This dog just came over to us on the beach and chilled with us. He seemed really cool. I named him Surf Dog. I'd like to think that he was like a dog from the movies and was winning over the hearts of children and adults everywhere, all while getting into crazy adventures.

If you go to the Dole Plantation you have to feed the fish.


This is me jumping off a waterfall. Hooray!



And this is for Gary and the rest of you lovers of waves.

My Trip to Syracuse

Here are a ton of videos from my trip. I had a great time visiting my family.






This next one is my favorite.

Calorie Man

I wiped the dust off this one. It was made for my friend Phil's english class. Not sure what it had to do with anything but, here you go.

24 hour film festival

Some of you may have heard that I have been in a couple 3 minute movies for the 24 film competition in conection with the LDS film festival here in Utah. Well here they are.

This first video we made two years ago, it was really fun to make, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to most people that watched it. It really didn't make a lot of sense to some of us that made it. Enjoy.


This next film was from this years film festival. It premiered last night, it got a lot of laughs. Jeff and Blake did all of the editing. I think Jeff was the best actor of the bunch. I think you can see we improved our skills.



This final film I did on my own. It took one take, 10 minutes to write and no time to edit. I think it went well. It got a couple laughs. Oh and it was all done at 3:00 A.M.

Some Videos For You

This is probably the best commercial that I have seen made on a local level. I mean seriously, if this doesn't make you laugh, I feel bad for you. Evidently here in Utah we had a problem last summer with Crypto something or other spirosis. Whatever that is. I think this add will solve the problem.



And this is an inappropriate video of me with some friends about a year and a half ago. Go ahead, laugh at my pain.

Another Story

I'll try and do a little better throwing in some more of my stories. I've received some requests from some of my readers for more and I appreciate the support. This is a story I wrote a while ago, I'm not sure when, I wrote it on the back of a "to do" list which has, register car as one of my things to do. So, that would place it somewhere around October of 2007. Anyway, here it is. Let me know what you think.

"We'll never make it", Travis screamed. "Of course we will", shouted Truman. "And this wouldn't happen everyday if you'd just get your butt outta bed." "So now this is my fault", replied Travis. "If you're willing to admit you have a problem, I guess that's the first step on the road to recovery", joked Truman. "I don't know why we're even friends, all you ever do is piss me off", said Travis, his voice struggling to come out, now feeling the effects of running several blocks. "You've got a real problem Travis", said Truman, "you just take yourself to seriously, that's why you can't tell when I'm just joking". "Oh, I can tell when you're joking, your whole life is a joke", said Travis, feeling like he got the best of Truman on that one. "Oh, get out the pooper scooper folks", shouted Truman, "because Travis is talking crap". "That's pretty brave coming from the kid who's winded after running two blocks", Truman added. "I'm not winded, it's called controlled breathing, it helps my asthma", said Travis, now wheezing a little. "Well, you better keep controlling that breathing because we missed the bus", Truman said with a partial laugh in his voice. Travis stopped, attempted to catch his breath, looked at his best friend and said, "I hate you".