don’t call me a backpacker…

I was determined to get my money’s worth out of my dive vacation this time, to make ammends for my lame planning last time.  I did.  Bush, the Fed, and the treasury are trying to bankrupt us all anyway so might as well spend it while I got it right?

12 dives in 11 days!  I chose Coconut Tree Dive shop as they had the best boats of all the dive shops in the West End, professionally run, highly recommended, and seemed to have cool divemasters that greeted me when I walked in.  In planning the trip I did think for a minute about trying to do a resort package, where you pay more for a nice place and then dive all you want.  But I thought the budget method would be cheaper for one person.  We’ll see…

Overall, the QUANTITY of marine life  was a bit disappointing in Roatan.  Lots of small fish, not many big ones.  I think it’s a combination of over-fishing the surrounding area of big fish, and just all the dive boats busy day in and day out. Who knows.  But the weather and water were mostly very clear, the coral walls and shapes were very nice.  The coral was noticibly healthier and more colorful on the day trip to Barbaretta island and the keys. The night dive was also a highlight.

After 10 dives with Coconut Tree, my buddies Arjen, Johel, and I wanted to do the big shark dive, which is only offered by one shop on the other side of the island, and come to find out – some of the resorts will do it too.  I couldn’t hook it up, but Sea Grape resort managed to talk me into an all day excursion with them to the northern keys of Roatan.  I did it, and it provided some serious sun and a surprise along the way – a whale shark! more about that below.

My Dive Log

1. 12-29 : 1pm : Grape Escape : 50 feet : 51 minutes : reacclimation dive

(more…)

Not as if anyone is noticing, but I’ve been too busy having fun or relaxing to blog.  Great days here.  Not a drop of rain since New Years Eve.

more to come…

About 6 or 7 years ago, I was walking somewhere in San Francisco, to work or home from work, on just an average day commuting.  This was long before my “days of more dedicated traveling” began.  Just going about my daily grind.

This older, well dressed, asian man walked straight up to me, a panic stricken look on his face, and started speaking to me in what I think was Japanese.  Not one word of English.  He kind of put his palms up, looked around, giving me the distinct impression that he was completely lost, and spoke no English.  I tried for a minute to ask him anything in English but I only got gibberish.  Also, this IS San Francisco, crazy people can come up and start talking to you anytime and you learn to ignore it.  I remember feeling bad for him at the time, but ultimately was thinking, ‘I have to get to work, someone else will help him out,’ and moved on.

Later I felt guilty for not helping him, and never forgot this incident.  But this scorpio rat also clearly holds on to things way too long.

On my round the world trip, while never actually panic stricken, I felt his pain, and this story came back to my mind.  Also interesting is reading others’ blogs when they are in this situation in say, Iran (true story) and literally 10 people, none who speak English, will gather around to help them find their way.  Sometimes we are just too self centered and self important to take the time and look around to help people.

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This might sound strange, but I’ve had a weird incident early on this trip.  The Costa Ricans are 4 girls and one guy, close friends of a wide age range, the guy being fairly young at 26 or so, and the oldest my age.  Anyways, hanging out with them all night on the pier drinking beer, at one point he and one of the girls ran off with a local to buy something.  I automatically assumed it was pot, but they said that he was buying them a whole fish to cook at their guest house.  I was like, oh sure, a fish, ok whatever.  Well as it got late and they hadn’t come back yet, we started gathering our stuff and my wallet was gone.  I was like, ummmm, did it fall in the water?  Me and the 3 girls started looking for it, and they seemed kind of nervous.

About 10 minutes later the two finally came back and he said “oh Chris, i’m sorry i picked up your wallet, i don’t know what happened.” His English is not so good.  First off, I didn’t have much money in there, I keep the bulk of it in my room and don’t carry it around (after this incident I stopped carrying my wallet altogether!)  One of them said “check your money” which I already was, but I replied “I don’t care about my money” and one of them was shocked I said that. I said I care about all this plastic and my drivers license!  I did however suspect a $20 bill was missing.

They told me to come back and hang out with them but I was a little confused at this point by their body language and what seemed to be embarrassment, or that they wanted me to leave.  I wasn’t sure.  None of them gave me the impression that they were criminals by any stretch.  The older girls are in their 30’s and have careers for crying out loud.

On the walk back the group was not all walking together, they’d broken up a bit.  When we got back to outside their place, it just felt weird.  I decided to say good night instead.  As I was walking away, he chased after me and handed me a $20 and said, “I’m sorry, it fell out.”

Awkward!

I mean, it had already been established that we’re all here all week, and pretty much going to run into each other almost every day.  This left me with very mixed emotions at first.  The next day I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  He was drunk, this was probably some old childlike behavior that came out when he saw an opportunity and grabbed it.  They were all embarrassed, and he DID give it back.

The next night, of course, I saw them at a back table at one of the bars.  I went up to them, they looked a little nervous, until I said “Hola!  El Bandito!” and patted him on the head.  Last night we all had fun together again.

One irony was that I brought $50 worth of vitamins, toothbrushes, lotion, and baby formula from Walgreens for the island clinic, based on recommendation of a local.  Or maybe that bit of karma is what made it work out better than it could have been.  There have been a lot of robberies lately, because of the holidays, and crime is very high in this country to begin with but the islands are relatively safer and better policed than the mainland.

Why is it so easy to forgive sometimes, and so impossible at others?  Betrayal of trust with a piece of paper is much different than betrayal of trust with your emotions.  Not to mention, coming clean helps.

Hurray for a new year.  Adios Bush!  I hope the door hits you on the way out, although the shoe dodge was pretty swift.

I am ready for 08 to be done.  It’s not been an easy one, although i am not going to complain about my life because all things considered, it’s very good.  Settled into my great job which only had a few months of stress during the summer, a very lonely vacation in April, an on-again off-again relationship that was a fucking awful disaster in May and then wonderfully fun in other months, insomnia, starting yoga, high blood pressure, more first dates than I can remember, another miserable Cowboys season, and of course… in November turning 36.

Ah thirty six.  Welcome to middle-aged-ness.  All year I’d meant to write a blog post about the magic number 35 and what it’d meant to me and my career and goals, but I didn’t.  I will.

So… Honduras.

Roatan is as expected, if a little noisier, but that just may be the holiday week.  Even ‘full’ as they are now the number of tourists and noise is totally tolerable.  Apparently it’s dead here most of the fall, the heart of the rainy season, so they are happy to see visitors for the holidays.

Today, Jan 1 we had an absolutely gorgeous sunny day.  Slept in, ate a big breakfast burrito and banana smoothie, read more of Hotel California in my porch hammock, went on the 30 minute walk down to West Bay beach (the nicer beach than West End where I am) and got some sun with my Swedish friends who were more than a bit hungover.

New Years eve was great. It didn’t match the wild NYE I had in Bali two years ago, but I ain’t complaining.  The day started with back to back dives in which I saw my first green moray eel, and he was a whopper, about 5 feet long I think.  I borrowed my coworkers digital camera with underwater housing, so I’m getting a few decent shots, but underwater photography is another skill you have to learn.

Last night I went out to eat lobster with dive buddies, 2 Swedes (guy and girl) and a guy from Holland who is working in Houston.  We had a great outside table, until a downpour started right after we got our food.  Everyone started jumping up and trying to figure out where to go.  It was hilarious the guys were like, “lets just pick up the table and move it inside” and we did.  After dinner we hit the bars up and down the main (and only) road in West End.  We passed my Costa Rican friends along the way, and I spent the rest of the evening hopping between two bars.  One called Nova, a cool bar with a tree-house kind of feel, where all the divers were hanging out, but the music wasn’t to my liking (80s and house).  (sidenote: i can’t tell you how sick I am of reggae, soca, and dancehall after Trinidad and this trip. gah!)  But the Costa Ricans were at the other bar- a new, nameless, and slightly pretentious place. But they were playing more latin music and I danced til 3 AM with the ticas.

Pics are up on flickr for now, more to come.  But so far this trip is a winner.

Next up, New Years in Roatan, Honduras!  Some of the best diving on the second largest reef in the world, and just a few hours away (well kinda, two quick flights.)  Also, my first *actual* third world country.  Many websites and blogs I read encourage visitors to donate to various causes, the schools, medical clinics, or a Red Cross donation earmarked for Honduras.  Even just bringing items to donate is useful. I’m going to do that this time.

I was seriously thinking about not going anywhere this time around.  I will admit I am a bit tired of traveling alone.  I put some feelers out, I had a tentative trip to Iran in the works with a friend, but the visa hassle appeared to be too much on short notice. (A U.S. citizen has to be in a tour group, or to have someone in Iran set up an invitation for you to get your visa here, and her family in Iran was being too flaky. But it would have been awesome.)  With 12 straight days of not having to be at work, I would go crazy sitting around my apartment, and I just saw my family a few months ago.

I figured I could go diving and during the holidays, there should be more people out and about than there were in sleepy Tobago in April.  I might also try to take Spanish lessons, 5 days of 1 on 1 lessons for $120!  Another friend had just been to Roatan this summer and encouraged me to go, so I’m going.  December is the end of rainy season there, so I am getting mentally prepared for some rainy days.

That gap in the reef is called Spooky Channel.  As you can see the reef is so close to the shore, there’s ample snokeling too.  Whale Sharks, the worlds biggest fish, are nearby.  Admittedly, this will be a bit more of a vacation than a traveling adventure.  But we’ll see.