Mark Feenstra

Manuel Antonio: Ants

Mark Feenstra — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:04:52 +0000

I’m trying something new here. After shooting a bit of shaky video in Manuel Antonio National Park, I decided to put it together to post here with a bonus awkward narration by yours truly. Seriously… have you tried narrating over a video in your thin-walled hotel room? It’s weird. More videos from the park to follow, [...]

On How I Am A Weak And Spoiled Traveller

Mark Feenstra — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:11:28 +0000

I like bus rides. I like sweating in a cramped seat next to a fat local guy with too much aftershave. I like trying to sleep on a long-haul night bus while a class of teenage girls giggles and shrieks with delerium. I even like sitting on the fold out seat with no backrest for [...]

A Costa Rican Hippy

Mark Feenstra — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:30:01 +0000

It was 1965 when a seventeen-year-old Costa Rican boy found himself in New York city for the first time. Not knowing what to do or where to go, he wandered through town, his footsteps coming to a halt before a dance club where pretty girls writhed and gyrated in large windows facing out towards the [...]

Slow Travel

Mark Feenstra — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:59:16 +0000

My first big trip overseas was two months in Thailand. Somewhere in the middle of that, a series of scheduling issues, including a friend from China coming to meet up with me, led to my spending ten days in Bangkok. Several people have told me I’m crazy for spending that much time in such a [...]

Tamarindo Tsunami – A Fiction

Mark Feenstra — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:03:50 +0000

The recent flooding and stranding of hundreds of people in Macchu Pichu and Aguas Calientes, Peru, has wondering what Tamarindo would be like if it was hit by a natural disaster of epic proportions. What follows is a fictitious account of this alternate reality. When the first wave rolled in high off the horizon on that [...]

Doppelgängers and Las Drogas

Mark Feenstra — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:00:27 +0000

I met Marc at the bus station in Liberia. He was of similar height and build, but with a broken noise, and lacking the longer hair that I’ve only recently adopted. We were both looking for the same Tamarindo bus, and along the way I learned that he was fresh off the plane in Costa [...]

My Pack: Costa Rica

Mark Feenstra — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:03:46 +0000

As has become a bit of a custom, and because people have been asking, here’s what I’m packing while in Costa Rica for 2 and a half months. Bag one is an Arc’teryx Cierzo 35 L daypack. The bag is fairly light, expands to hold a fair bit, and still compresses down when only partially full. [...]

Clean Lines

Mark Feenstra — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:53:21 +0000

7:45. Wake up. Pull on board shorts. Sunscreen on face. Pull damp rashguard over my head and tie it into the laces of my shorts. Board under arm. Lock room. Walk barefoot down rocky driveway, across the road, and through Witch’s Rock Surf Camp. I scan the beach and it’s quiet. The sun has been [...]

2010: The Year In Books

Mark Feenstra — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 07:01:04 +0000

I didn’t quite meet my goal of reading 52 books in 2009, but this year I’m upping the ante to a cool one hundred. As last year, the list in progress will be maintained here. See also: 2009 Reading Wrap-Up for highlights. Current [Mar 7]: American Pastoral, Philip Roth, 1997 (423p) On Deck: Whatever I can get [...]

2009 Reading Wrap-Up

Mark Feenstra — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:59:29 +0000

The year is up, and although I didn’t meet my goal of 52, I am still happy with the time I managed to devote to reading. A few major life shifts happened in the end of 2009, and I allowed myself to fall behind. I probably could have found a few more days to sit [...]