I love Oreos. I have since I was a little kid. Actually, writing this post is making me hungry just thinking about them. They're so good!
Fortunately, Oreos are available in Costa Rica, though the packaging is a bit different than U.S. standards. Also, although one can find the double-stuffed version, there apparently is no 1/3 less fat version to be found, nor are there the myriad of colors (Easter pastels! Halloween orange!) you'd find in the U.S. But that's OK. I'm an orig type of girl, anyway.
I'd packed a few snack-sized packets on my trip to La Fortuna and Arenal Volcano, thinking surely they'd come in handy. As it happened, I stashed a few on our five-hour, grueling hike up to Cerro Chato, an inactive volcano that has great views of the biggie, Arenal, plus a lake in the old crater that you can swim in.
I should've known better, I guess. I'd never tired anything that physically grueling since I attempted a 50 km bike tour in Bariloche, Argentina. Like then, I found myself contemplating alternative methods of completing the return trip. Helicopter rescue extraction? Rolling down? Spending the night up there and waiting till my muscles decided to recover?
We did make it to the top, where we met up with this really industrious Dutch couple who had totally passed us on the way up. As we sat by the lake, I broke out the Oreos - sweet nourishment! - and the male Dutch guy goes, "Hey, Oreos! So are they really America's favorite cookie?"
I like getting questions about the U.S. like this, because even though my first instinct is something like, "nahhhhh," upon further thought, I inevitably realize that our cultural depth is far more limited than I thought it was. For instance: I love Oreos! If I had to pick a store-bought cookie, I would probably choose them. And so would any number of other Americans, I imagine. I mean, gimme home-made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies any day, but if we had to choose one unifying cookie for the entire country - the cookie equivalent of the bald eagle, let's say - it's probably gonna be an Oreo. Pass the milk, please.
Ah, the Dutch couple. I wonder how often I live up to people's standards of what an American is or should be. As we started down the mountain, the Dutch couple (and the other 5 souls that attempted this hike) passed us, until we were basically the only ones up there (thwarting my ideas of rescue). Such hardy folk, the Dutch. Andrew and I were seriously sore - like my-bones-are-aching-like-an-old-person's sore - for the next few days. Meanwhile, I bet they were bungee-jumping into the volcano.
3 comments:
Dude, that buffet dinner was a heck of a reward, though. Oreos, though? Meh. Gimme a box of Nilla Wafers any day of the week.
Twice on Sunday.
I used to LOVE Nilla Wafers. Haven't had 'em in a long time, though. Seriously. Coulda ate 'em by the box when I was a kid.
maybe there is a cookie hierarchy in the united states. i, too, love oreos, especially when they've soaked in milk for five seconds. nilla wafers are awesome, too, but only because they remind me of days spent at the neighborhood pool when i was a kid. animal crackers (which, let's admit, are more cookie than cracker) are pretty high up there, too. they remind me of kindergarten.
in the end though, oreos have been a mainstay into my adult life.
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