Home. Huh.

So, after nearly a straight 48 hours of boats, buses, and airplanes, I arrived home in one piece--if not a little tired--last Tuesday. I almost can't believe it. Being home is (so far) a little like the twilight zone and I am almost a bit scared at how normal it seems to be here. I mean, there are little things, but overall it's just home. I do still keep trying to throw my toilet paper in the trash can rather than the toilet (no where in Central America are you supposed to flush the paper) and keep trying to wear the same clothes everyday, even though I now have a closet full to choose from; I can now check my e-mail on my own computer and don't have to pay for internet time or schedule in internet time to my life, it's just always there. The first night I slept in my bed I felt like a princess, it was so soft and large and plush and luxurious!! I hadn't even realized how accustomed I had become to mediocre mattresses. But in a way, if you don't know you're missing it, it doesn't really matter! It is great to see my family though and good to be back in such a familiar and safe place, at least for the time being. Probably the best thing ever about being back though is 1)Drinking fountains and 2)Drinkable tap water, something I've always grown up with and taken for granted, but something much of the world does not have.

We have had my dad's family here the last few days on through the weekend, so I feel that I have not had much down time, between socializing, looking for my cell phone (my mom donated to the local second hand store, it's still somewhere in their donation area), and getting back to work already at the bakery I was working at this winter. It's strange to be looking forward to the next months and thinking about jobs or apartments rather than bus schedules and travel stops, but forward does seem to be the best way to go! (I can see though how easy it would be to get depressed with "normal" life and start wishing yourself back to the wonderful, hassle free travel world where everyone is looking for new experiences, good times, new friends, and adventures. . . and if things don't always work out, you can always move on...) My plans from here? Who the hell knows!! I think I'll be around home for a little while, working a tad and regrouping, then, the sky is the limit! Thanks for letting me share my adventure!!

The last breath

So, two days until I find myself on a plane home, incredible! I have managed to drag out my last weeks here on Utila,and have loved it. Diving is something that I have enjoyed a little more every time I´ve gone. I decided not to do the advanced course, and have just been fun diving, but have been down 15 times, that seems a good start to me! I moved dive shops for my second week, which has been fun. I am enjoying the people I am staying with at the new spot more, but prefer diving with the other. Some of us took a special boat tour with my shop on Thursday to the north side of the island and it was fabulous. Probably my 3 best dives, plus we had lunch, drinks, hung out in the water, a full day of it1 I´m going to miss the ocean quite a bit when I get home I think. I´ve basically been living on it for the last month...and Idaho doesn´t have many oceans as you all know. Ok, I know that is not much but that´s all I can do for now!
See you all in the states. Call me next week when I get home!

60 feet under

Wow, I was 60 feet underwater yesterday. More than once. That's pretty crazy. I am now officially an open-water certified diver...quickest diploma I've ever owned! Diving is pretty cool, I'll have to say, although I'm not quite hooked like some people...yet, I think you have to do it a few times after you get used to not worrying about all your equipment and equalizing your ears and everything. But, I'm still on Utila, course completed, trying to decide what to do next. I may stick around here, buy a few fun dives a couple of days, or even (maybe) do the advanced dive course, which basically is a bunch of dives, no theory like the first course. The money is a bit of an issue though. Whatever, day by day. The trouble is, I really like this island that I'm on! It's a great place to hang out, but if you're not working or diving and are by yourself...it's a pretty quite place during the day. Not that I'm exactly complaining or anything :). Plus, I think it is a great spot for me to spend in denial of the fact that I'll be home in (relatively) so little time! All for now, since the internet is a little pricing out here on islands in the Carribean. My ears are still clogged and I can't hear things so well, send me some ear popping vibes!

Rum punch in hand, freshly caught fish dinner in the stomach, hangining out in the water just off a deserted island that we called home for one night...I´d say there are worse places to be. That was night one of the 3 day 2 night sailing/snorkeling trip I took last week from Cay Caulker (in Belize) to Placencia (also in Belize, further down the coast). It was amazing. The only thing that would have made it better was for there have to been just a little less wind...I don´t know how our tents managed to not blow away that first night. We spent the day on the boat all three days, hanging out, sailing and made at least one stop every day at a snorkeling sight and at least one more stop for general swimming/lunch eating. We had two guides who cooked everything for us, actually caught and cooked a lot of it (spearfishing...). There were 13 people on the trip, some couples, some solo travelers, myself and my friend Robbert who I met way back in Semuc Champey (and then ran into him again while with Dad). It was an incredible trip, the water is so beautiful and blue, there weren´t a bunch of other boats around, the sun shining, and just the wind the water and us. Awesome.

Before the sailing trip, Robbert and I traveled from Flores into Belize where we stayed a few nights at a town called San Ignacio, taking a cave river tubing trip one day, that was fun, but not as great as it could have been. Apparently, during the rainy season, it is almost like white water tubing through these natural caves, which is what we wanted, but the water level is low right now, so it was pretty mellow. Plus, it was a Thursday so we were sharing the park with hundreds and hundreds of cruise ship passengers on a day trip from Belize city where the cruise ships dock. There were 15 buses of people, 45 people each bus and then 2 or 3 buses of just intertubes. Crazy. The culture/economy of cruise ships just fascinates me. The night we stayed in Belize city we walked around town in the afternoon and pretty much everything at the water was closed and locked up-in particular this whole dock full of probably 50 store fronts right where the passengers un-dock, mainly because there was no ship. So, theorhetically, they do business only 2 days a week for most of the year (I think more during cruise ship high season). And, the crazy thing is that they probably make enough, if not more money, than a 24/7 shop owner somewhere else. Really, it´s just such a...fabricated environment to a degree. Seeing that whole line of shops all closed reminded me of where our family undocked in Cozumel Mexico on our family reunion cruise and how we had to walk through this seemingly teaming, busy little mall/local shop area and I wondered if on off days it looked as closed up and abandoned as the dock in Belize City...

Overall, my crash course in Belize (really very few days) was quite enjoyable. The country is definitley different than the surrounding places in Latin America, I think mainly because it was a British Colony rather than a Spanish Colony. It struck me as a very diverse country where English, Spanish, and Garifuna are regularly spoken, not to mention all the Chinese we saw. Also, I would classify the country as a place more geared for vacationing tourists rather than backpackers-partly simply because the exchange rate is less favorable (2 belize to 1 US $) but there are little to no hostels and not a lot to do other than beaches, water sports and hanging out. I was impressed at how seriously I think the country is about protecting their barrier reefs etc, since that is where a large part of there economy comes from. I guess I don´t know the reality of how well their protection laws work, but at least the intention is there. We (randomly) ended up in Caye Caulker during the annual Lobsterfest, which was fun, although not too special. We did manage to eat some pretty fabulous grilled lobster...nearly accidentally as we thought we were ordering the much cheaper lobster kabobs...but, after first getting over the shock of the restaurant bill, we decided that we were probably going to ever be in Belize at Lobsterfest once in our lives, so spending a little more than we´d prefer on some lobster was OK...It was amazing how empty the town felt after it ended though! However, if I were to go back to Belize for a beach vacation, I would go to Placencia (where our sailing trip ended) not Caye Caulker (the more normal haunt). So if any of you out there were thinking about a beach vacation to Belize, check that out first :).

So, the reality is that in 2 1/2 weeks I will be once again back home in Idaho--a concept I am beginning to daily struggle with getting my mind around. I can´t believe how fast time has gone and can only be so prepared for what it will be like to go back (although, one of the guys on the sailing trip pointed out to me that home is sort of like a soap opera-there are a million and one things going on when you don´t watch it regularly, but you can turn the TV on and pick the story line up right way, as if you hadn´t been absent all those other episodes...I thought that was an interesting way of looking at home, and true to a degree.)

Today I find myself once again in La Ceiba, Honduras, preparing to take a ferry out to the Bay Islands. I managed to catch a boat from Placencia to Puerto Cortes in Honduras yesterday (meaning that I finally have that Honduras stamp!) but am still reeling a bit from the boat ride. The ocean just had a grand time with the motor boat we were on, basically the trip was equivalent to a 2 1/2 hour intense amusement park ride. I have no idea how I managed to not get sick, especially when the children sitting next to me started throwing up on the ground next to my feet and all the windows to the cabin were closed so the water wouldn´t get in (loosing ventaliation). I guess I´ll have to give some credit to the three days on a sail boat...but it is not a trip I would choose to do again I don´t think. But hey, it makes a fun story! And really, the most important part is that I am now here in Honduras (with that stamp...) and, with the exception of my return trip to Guatemala to fly home, am practically done with long travel days. I stayed last night in La Ceiba with a couple of Irish girls who also came from Placencia and was planning to stay another night here and catch the morning ferry tomorrow, but I´ve managed to get more done this morning than I planned online and my laundry was done quickly, plus I was having a bit of difficulty finding an affordable room for one person...so, I´ll just take the afternoon ferry out to Utila. So there. I´m looking forward to doing my open water dive, as time has gone on I have grown more excited about the idea of diving, plus I am looking forward to just staying in one place for more than 2 or 3 nights.

Well, I find I may be rambling now so will move on to my other computer duties. Love to all!!

Adventures with pops: lava, fincas, ruins, rivers, and of course, a lot of buses...

Well! The last 9 days have been fun filled and packed with daughter/father time (for the most part). It started with an early morning pick-up at the Guatemala city airport after an overnight flight for my dad (and few hours of sleep for me). We spent our first day in a daze mainly, but talking and catching up. Our second day in Antigua, we went on a Pacaya Volcano tour, which is an active volcano near Antigua. Last year there was a large lava flow (6 ft wide) and now, while not so impresive, is still active with a bit of flowing lava. The tour was a bit of a trip really. The walk up wasn´t too bad, until we got to the hardened lava field that we walked over, and whose heat increased the higher up we went, trying to get as close to the flowing lava of course. One girl in our group actually melted the bottoms of her tennis shoes. It was a pretty intense experience, so hot and really quite dangerous, but definitely an experience worth having. We spent the rest of the day resting/sight seeing in Antigua and the next morning found us up early (yet again) looking for a cup of coffee for dad on the deserted streets of Antigua before starting our long travel day to Finca Tatin, our home for the next 4 days.

Needless to say, it was one long day, nearly 12 hours later, 2 buses, 1 taxi, two boats and minutes of wait time in between, we found ourselves at Finca Tatin just in time for dinner. Finca Tatin is located along the Rio Dulce River, closer to Livingston/the coast rather than Rio Dulce, but is in the middle of the jungle on the river. The heat and humidity were a bit of a shock, especially for dad, who granted was still just trying to get adjusted to being in Guatemala, much less the tropical smothering climate! Our time and Finca Tatin was divided between card games, backgammon, jungle walks, a kayak trip to a nearby reserve, swimming, reading, and a trip to a nearby Mayan village where we had lunch in the house of a local family.

From Finca Tatin, we took a boat to Rio Dulce and a bus from there to a place called Finca Paraiso that was listed in the guidebook as this spot with a natural hotspring waterfall cascading into the cold river where you can swim, hang out and...even stay the night! There was indeed this incredible natural phenomenon of hotspring mixed with stream water, but we didn´t get there until later in the day. When we got of the bus, there was just this old, dilapidated sign that said Finca Paraiso, bungalows-restaurante in one direction and Aguas termales in the other direction. Being weighed down with our backpacks and wanting to first unload our stuff before a relaxing afternoon by the water, we started walking the direction of the bungalow/restaurant sign. I was sure we were in the completely wrong place. We were walking by fields and peoples houses, with the lake still looking a ways a way...plus, the guidebook mentioned nothing about the place being over a mile of the main road! We persevered though and eventually ended up at the hotel, although we quickly learned that if we wanted to enjoy the cascadas and hot springs, we needed to walk all the way back from where we came! We did do this though, after checking into a room and taking a quick swim to "cool" off (the water was so warm). Our night at this finca was worth it though, although we ended up walking a lot more than we planned to! Twice with our backpacks on...

The last adventure of the last week or so was Tikal, up in Northern Guatemala. We traveled up on Monday, opting to stay in the park at one of the slightly more expensive hotels (rather than busing from Flores as many do). It was very worthwhile to do. We entered the park both in the evening on Monday and then also on Tuesday. The ruins were so different from Copan-mainly, they were simple huge. Plus, the whole place is in the jungle so you are walking under all this jungle canopy and then come out to a clearing with all these large ruins of an ancient civilization. Not something you get to experience every day. The one downside was that our tour guide was a little lazy/not good and our tour was very short and not as thourough as we´d like, oh well. that is life.

So, now I am in Flores, frantically trying to get myself ready (aka this blog, buy a new toothbrush, get dad to the airport...) for the next leg of the trip. Dad is flying this afternoon from Flores to Guatemala City where he will stay with the same lady who I stayed with when arriving in the country, and she will see him off tomorrow at the airport in Guatemala. What a whirlwind! This afternoon I´m setting off for Belize with a traveling friend, Robbert (who we actually ran into at finca tatin, although I met him in Semuc Champey) where we will make our way accross the country up to Cay Caulker to go on a 3 day sailing/snorkeling trip starting the 3rd of July. What fun!

P.S. due to internet snaffoos-way to common down here-it is now Thursday and I'm in Belize. I haven't yet heard if dad got home yet, but I hope so...

Quetzales and Semuc Champey

So, after leaving Robin at the airport, I began a marathon bus day, spending nearly 11 1/2 straight hours on a bus ( or 6 to be more exact) with hardly time for a bathroom break, finally arriving back in Guatemala at a little hostel called Los Ranchitos up in the mountains in central Guatemala near a national park. The draw of this little stop is that it is one of the only places in the country were it is possible to see a real live Quetzal (national bird, endangered species...). they come to feed in the ttrees around the hostel in the mornings and evenings. I stayed two nights here which was perfect. there were not many other people and I spent most of my time by myself, but it was just what I needed. Saw a few Quetzales, recharged my batteries, read my book, took a little walk through the cloud forest surrounding the hotel and then took off for Lanquin/Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey (A mayan name that means "where the river runs under the earth") is this natural wonder where a 300m limestone bridge (more or less) was formed over hundreds of years, where the river runs underneath the bridge while on top, there are all these natural limestone pools filled with rain water from the mountains. They are blue and green (depending on the time of year) due to the minerals in the water. One of my days was spent on an all day tour here, which was incredible, the tour also included this excursion into one of the many cave system that are found in this area. We were swimming with candles in the dark back into this cave, climbing ladders...it was pretty neat, although quite cold after awhile. The place I stayed at was called El Retiro lodge and is located in the closest little village to Semuc Champey, called Lanquin, and it was pretty much like a backpackers resort. It is located along the river (which we rented intertubes one day and floated down), all the beds are in these bungalow, straw houses with hammocks outfront, and everything (including the food at the reastaurant etc) was just put "on your tab." It was a really great place to relax for a few days and I spent my time with this group of 7 british folk traveling together and another single traveler from Holland, we had a lot of fun. (I taught them my new card game, they were hooked.) One of the nights it was the birthday of one of the girls of the large group, leading to a "fancy dress" party, meaning crazy dress up...who knew the crazy things other backpackers carry around with them...In addition to the day tour at Semuc Champey, I also went to the Lanquin caves, another large cave system that goes on forever. The caves themselves were cool, but only so impressive, what was incredible was sitting at the entrance of the cave at sunset when all the bats began to fly out for the evening. There were millions of them, just swishing by. In the dark you couldn't see them, but when you take a picture, you see bats all around you. Pretty crazy.
From here, I headed back to Antigua on Thursday, spending another long day on the bus, but arriving in Antigua early enough to still get a dorm bed in the hostel I wanted to. Since then, I've been getting things in order for my dad's visit (he's coming on Monday, yay!!!), doing laundry, spending money, and just taking it easy. I was hoping to get to see some of "los chicos de Guate" that always ate lunch and dinner at Lili's house, but they're men and Guatemalans and so far I have not been able to get a hold of them on the phone. Who knows, the weekend is not over yet.
Today I changed my return plane ticket to a week later than planned, I know, a week hardly seems like much, but it's just going to make all the difference! After I leave my dad, I'm hoping over to Belize for some general traveling, but mainly this 2 night 3 day sailing snorkeling trip that is supposed to be incredible (and am hopefully going to run into the solo holland traveler from Semuc Champey there again) and then will make my way back to Utila to do my open water dive and hopefully a few fun dives, leaving myself just enough time to get back to Guate and then home! Crazy that it seems so close now, the return, although I know there are many more adventures waiting for me before that comes!!

The sister's last fling on Roatan

After our fabulous night swim with the glowing plankton, the afternoon at an internet cafe in La Ceiba and a taxi ride out to the dock, Robin and I found ourselves once again playing cards while waiting for a boat to the bay islands (although this time we found ourselves in the fancy waiting area with AC...). While doing so we met a single girl coming from Utila headed to Roatan for a week long course being trained how to train dolphins--a childhood dream (Zara from Finland). We made immediate friends with her when she mentioned how much she loved to play cards and offered to teach us anew game called Yannif (from Israel) on the boat ride to the island. There was no going back after that...
While waiting to claim our luggage we met two other (rare) backpacker types-two boys from North Carolina-and found that all of us were headed to the same hotel in West End, pretty much the only "budget" place on the island. We ended up arguing/bargaining for an (expensive) taxi ride to West End (two taxis, $10US for each taxi). When we first arrived in West End the driver first took us to a hotel that we didn't ask for (I believe they drivers would have received a commission) and we then spent another few minutes arguing again that we asked to be taken to a different place and that we would not pay them if they did not take us there...ugh. At this point is is almost 7 pm and we finally end up at the right place and choose to share a room with Zara because it was cheaper for us all as the place didn't have dorm rooms. When I went to pay for our share of the room 7 minutes after our arrival, I realized that my coin purse was gone. I quickly caught the taxi driver of the other car that came with our group from the dock (the one I came in had left) and asked if he could phone his co-worker who drove the other taxi because I left my coin purse in the back of the car. The other driver was very unhelpful saying he had no telephone (and what's that at your waist?--"I mean, I don't have his number...") He offered to take me around to look for the car (me paying how much?) and, knowing I only had about 100 or 150 lempira in the purse-maybe 5$-figured I'd swallow the loss. The tragicness is, if I had realized then that my USB port had also been in that wallet rather than 6 days later...that's life I guess. What a mini fiasco, really. Eating dinner that night we were all hit by extreme price shock (things were listed in $US everywhere) but were so hungry we didn't care much (but had Ramon noodles for dinner the next night...). It is a remarkably different experience to arrive somewhere after dark, it leads to a different sort of disorientation and mystery waiting for you in the morning (which is what happened here, because it gets dark at 6:15/6:30 here).
The two islands Roatan and Utila could not have been more different from one another. To start with, the simple size difference between the two makes a difference but the main difference is that Roatan is a fancy resort sort of place. Tourism is huge there, but huge with the higher class luxury resort sort of traveler-not with us backpackers, which is more Utila's style. The beaches however, were far superior to those of Utila. Our first 2 days, we walked about 1 mile along the beach to West Bay(the best beach area on the island) with Nick and Win (the NC boys) and rubbed shoulders with the high rollers for the day, hanging out in the bright blue water, snorkeling, trying no to get sunburned and enjoying our budget lunches of PBJ sandwiches on "economic mold" white bread.
We ate two nights in a row at this wonderful place on the water called The Lighthouse with Zara, Win, and Nick, playing cards every evening with one or all 3 of them. Our 3rd morning Nick, Win, Robin and I took a morning bus to a botanical garden 15 minutes from West End (Zara being at Dolphin training every day) where we walked up to a view point and enjoyed the garden/jungle. After that Robin and I headed to Coxen Hole (the main/largest town on the island and where the cruise ships dock) to go to the bank and change a traveler's check. It wasn't as run down of a town as we were expecting (I mean, with a name like Coxen Hole...) and rather enjoyed our little walk through town. Plus, we ate probably one of the best mango ever after the bank. The rest of our time included some more swimming, a beautiful sunset, more card games...what a rough life. We left Thursday on the afternoon ferry for La Ceiba and caught the last bus back to San Pedro Sula at 5, arriving there at 8:15, eating dinner at the same place we have every other time we've stayed with Luis at Los Molinos, hardly slept that night, got up at 4:15 to take Robin to the airport and say goodbye to my wonderful travel companion of the last 2 weeks...and here begins my next adventure to be given in my next entry.