Want Costa Rica in the palm of your hand?

If you’ve got an iPhone, a Touch, or an iPad, you’ve probably noticed that there are two and a half zillion apps out there to choose from, many of them barely worth the space they’re taking up on your handheld. But when one of our contributors puts one together, I know it’s going to be worth downloading.

So take a look at Costa Rica Pura Vida! by Christopher Baker. He’s the writer that put together many of our reviews of luxury Costa Rica hotels and he knows the country inside-out. You want credentials? OK, he’s the author of Moon Costa Rica and National Geographic Costa Rica.

Here’s the official description. For a mere $2.99, here’s what you get:

+ 250+ description entries, including Hidden Gems.
+ Photo slide-shows with almost 2,300 colorful photographs displayed in stunning high definition.
+ Driving directions where appropriate, plus fully interactive Google Maps that let you browse based on your exact, real-time location.
+ Entries organized by useful criteria like ACTIVITIES, BEACHES, CULTURAL & HISTORICAL SITES, PARKS & RESERVES, and more, including the author’s recommendations for MUST SEES.
+ Entries sorted by name, neighborhood, distance, and price.

After you buy it, you get upgrades and updates for life! Click here to go to the App Store.

Related post: Cool Cancun and Isla Mujeres App

Many times a new hotel or resort, especially an independent one, takes some time to get it’s bearings. If you stay there in the first year or two of operation, you may have to overlook a few problems you can chalk up to newness.

That is not the case with the Puerto Vallarta region’s Garza Blanca Preserve Resort, just south of the city near the Los Arcos rock formations. Led by a skilled manager who used to be at Las Alamandas in Costalegre, this is a finely tuned operation with great staffers and two terrific restaurants. These support large and well-equipped rooms, many of them suites or sprawling multi-bedroom penthouse-type condos with wraparound terraces. Every room has a balcony of some kind with a direct ocean view.

I’ve already raved enough about it in our review to repeat it all here, so go check out the photos and see our full review of Garza Blanca Resort.

I’ve written before about my underwhelming experiences flying LAN Peru and their annoying two-tiered pricing system, but last week marked the first time I’ve flown on a proper long-haul LAN international flight. I flew round-trip from Mexico City to Santiago, Chile and this was a whole different story. It was an impressive experience all around, even though I was stuck in economy class.

When you spend eight hours or more on a plane, little details can easily make or break the trip, so fortunately LAN gets a lot of the details right on these long flights. There was a blanket and pillow waiting on every seat, in contrast to the penny-pinching ways of most U.S. airlines. There was also real food that was edible—with two meals even. The trays came with real silverware, they served decent Chilean wine in coach, and all this was delivered with a friendly smile. (It was love at first sight with my flight attendant on the way back too, but I can’t guarantee you that same experience.)

Each seat on these long flights has an entertainment console on the seat in front. I could watch a movie or TV show in English or Spanish, play a video game, or listen to one of many music channels or specific albums—good ones too. A remote control attached to the seat controls the screen and the overhead light. Well in theory anyway. On my second flight it wasn’t working and I had to keep pressing the screen to choose anything, which I’m sure the guy in front of me wasn’t thrilled about. But everyone else’s was working fine.

A few other nice details: a cup holder on the seat in front and headrests with adjustable flaps on the sides to make it easier to catch some sleep during the flight.

The seat configuration on my flight was 2-3-2, so only one poor sap gets stuck in a middle seat for each row. SeatGuru says the seat pitch is 32 inches, which is certainly not generous, but this Boeing 767-300 version has an extra inch of width (18 inches) at least and all the diversions sure helped make it more bearable.

I couldn’t try out business class first hand, but there was clearly far more space than I’ve seen on the U.S. carriers, Taca, or Copa. LAN says the seats recline to full lie-flat position and the pitch is 72 inches—six feet. I assume the wine selection is a showcase for what Chile has to offer.

Lan flies to South America from 30 cities in North America, so there’s a good chance you can get on one of these frmo where you live and be far more comfortable than you would be on a U.S. alternative. See more at LAN.com

I just spent a week checking out the Wines of Chile in areas that are not far from Santiago. Part of the experience—which you can book yourself with a group or on the right wine tour—was a wine blending session at the Undurraga vineyard in Talagante, in the Maipo Valley.

After touring the facilities and learning a bit about Undurraga’s wines, its history, and social projects, we got down to business. First one of the winemakers presented one of their finished blends for us to taste. Then we set about tasting four varietals to figure out what we wanted in our own personal blend: Merlot, Cabernet Savignon, Syrah, and Chile’s own Carmenère. Sniffing, swirling, and taking notes, we each settled on a different combination.

We could test different combinations by using a sort of large plastic test tube that the winemakers use in their lab. If one is a little off, you can adjust the mix and try again.

Once you’re happy with the results, you then mix them for real in the proper proportions in a larger vessel and transfer the blend through a funnel into the bottle. For this exercise they had an old fashioned cork plugger on hand (after the more modern practice of putting in some elemental powder that would eliminate the oxygen in the top of the bottle).

I labeled mine “Sarah and Carmen Catch a Cab.” It’s 25% Syrah, 25% Carmenère, and 50% Cabernet. It’s a structured wine that should hold up to hearty food, but the blending grapes smooth out the tannins of the Cabernet.

I brought the bottle home and it’ll soon make it into some glasses. Will it impress my dinner guests? Time will tell.

See more here on visiting Viña Undurraga.

Shrimp gnocchi

This past week I’ve been touring some of Chile’s wine regions and had the pleasure of spending my first night at the lovely Hotel Aubrey in Santiago. This is a 20-room boutique hotel in a walkable nightlife district near the mountains and the gondola ride that will take you up for a good city view.

The restaurant at the Aubrey—Pasta E Vino—is a huge draw, to the point where you should make dinner reservations there when you make your hotel reservations. It’s that popular, especially on weekends. It’s a sister restaurant of one in Valparaíso, with the husband-chef managing one and the wife-chef managing the other.

The menu is modern Italian, with a dash of Chile and plenty of local seafood integrated into the gnocchi and ravioli selections. Naturally there is a terrific wine list with the cream of the crop from all over the country. Here are a few photos to give you a visual taste. For more see the restaurant page at the Aubrey’s website.

Scallop ravioli at Pasta E Vino