Tamarindo Beach

So it turns out that surfing isn't as tough as I always thought it was. After using the morning to sleep in, get breakfast, write in my journal, and e-mail home, I grabbed a board and headed out to the ocean. I got out to the coast at about one o'clock and ran into the water with my board, excited to try my luck at surfing again. The first few times I tried to catch a wave I was about as successful as yesterday, but after a few sets I started to catch on. It helped a lot that I was in shallower waters. Yesterday I thought I had to be really far out into the ocean and wait for the perfect wave to come and catch it at just the right time. Today I went for just about any wave that came my way. Some waves had already broken before I even hopped on my board and others I had no chance of catching but tried anyway. It also helped that the surf was a lot better today. Wave after wave after wave came and all I had to do was keep trying to catch them.

Originally I considered paying for a class on surfing, but I ended up getting more than enough tips just by listening in on surf instructors who were teaching other people (I listened from a distance, of course). The best tip I got the whole day was to remember to keep my head up. In the past my main problem with surfing was that I could never really catch a wave in the first place. I'd always paddle with a wave but then the tip of my board would dip underwater. The whole thing would get pulled under and I'd always get smacked around underwater until the wave finally passed. After I heard that tip to keep my head up I caught almost every wave for the rest of the day. It felt so good to paddle along with a wave, feel my board start to catch, and then actually be riding the thing because I had kept my weight off the front of the board and avoided going under. Another useful tip I got was to push my arms up, pull my knees under my chest, and stand up all in one motion. Just those two tips was enough to get to the point where I had caught the wave and was standing up. All I had to do after that was learn how to balance.

Every so often I'll meet someone on a ski lift who tells me that what you learn snowboarding really helps out when you learn to surf. I never used to believe those people because I snowboarded a lot but still was still such a crappy surfer. Now I realize those guys knew what they were talking about. My problem was that I couldn't catch a wave in the first place so I never got to the point where my snowboarding experience could help out. Once I figured out how to catch a wave and stand up today, the rest came pretty naturally. For the first couple of hours after I figured out how to stand up I wiped out just about every time because I didn't know where to put my feet on the board to balance correctly. Once it clicked though it became automatic, just like learning how to ride a bike. By the end of the day I was catching every wave, popping up to my feet, and riding almost every one to the shore.

There's something captivating about surfing. It's one of those things where after every wave you want to run right back out there again to see if you can do it better the next time. For me there is a moment each time I catch a wave where everything clicks and it just feels so good to know I've caught the thing. I love feeling the board catch behind me, watching out of the corner of my eye as the tip of the board skims against the surface of the water, pushing up with my arms, and feeling myself stand up on another wave. The whole thing is so captivating but it's also so relaxing. Between sets I love laying on the board, feeling the sun and water on my body, and staring out into the ocean.

Even though I was so exhausted I still wanted to ride every last wave I could before I called it a day and my trip was over. Many surfers came and left during the time I was out there and when I finally grabbed my board and headed in there were only two or three people left in the water. As I walked along the beach back to my hotel I stared at the horizon, where the sun had gone down just minutes before. I reflected on how amazing the past three weeks has been, looked forward to future trips, and wondered if I'll be able to surf in Zanzibar during my visit to Africa this summer.

Monkey Head Island

This morning I headed out on a boat with Rich Coast Divers to a dive site called “Monkey Head Island”. I quickly figured out that diving in the Pacific is a completely different ball game than diving in the Caribbean. Before today the only dives I had done were the four to get my open water certification in the Gulf of Thailand and the twelve dives I did in Belize and Roatan earlier in this trip. In all of those places the water is crystal clear and perfectly warm, there's a huge reef that divers swim along to see the wildlife, and if there are any underwater currents, I didn't feel them. The Pacific is known for having lots of large underwater wildlife, but the trade off is that the water isn't nearly as warm, there aren't as many reefs, and the underwater currents toss divers all over the place. Despite the additional challenges, the dive at Monkey Head was amazing. The first thing I noticed after dropping down into the green Pacific waters was that there were puffer fish and porcupine fish all over the place. When I saw the first one I was really excited because I hadn't seen one before, but then I saw that they were everywhere. The fish only puff up when they're intimidated and we didn't see any of them in that condition, but they're still pretty funny looking even when they aren't puffed up. I watched hundreds of those things drift back and forth with the currents, twisting their lumpy heads to look around and paddling along with their stumpy tails. Most of the puffer fish and porcupine fish were only six or seven inches long, but I saw one massive one while I was down there that must have been two or three feet. I can only imagine what that guy looks like when he's puffed up. Our guide from Rich Coast pointed out a few other interesting things to the other diver and I while we were down there. We spotted an octopus that was so scared when we swam towards him that he wrapped his entire body around a rock and clung to it until after we left. We also saw a green moray eel like the one I saw at the shipwreck in Roatan and a round sting ray resting on the ocean floor whose coloring blended perfectly with the sand underneath it.
Only a couple of minutes into our second dive we saw a bright orange seahorse resting on the sand. Most of the rest of the dive was filled with a lot of the same sightings - a sting ray, a small octopus, and tons of puffer fish. I actually enjoyed the more challenging conditions in the Pacific because it was so different than everything I've done before. I tried to find a rhythm with the currents, kicking my fins to keep my position when the current pushed against me, and then using the current to surge forward when it turned the other way again. Occasionally a current would bring a patch of cold water and in a split second the pleasantly warm water surrounding me would be replaced with an ice-cold wake-up call. After a few of those temperature changes I noticed that I could see the cold water coming. The warm water was relatively clear, but in the distance a cold patch looked like a mirage in the desert.

Towards the end of the dive I followed our guide around the corner of a massive rock and saw a large white-tipped shark resting under it only a few feet away. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that this thing was the biggest shark I've seen since the last time I watched “Jaws”. He must have been eight or ten feet long and had the perfect shark shape that everyone seems to recognize. Fortunately he was more afraid of us than we were of him and he quickly swam off to find more isolated waters. After returning to the boat my guide said that during some dives he'll spot three or four sharks and sometimes even more. Playas del Coco is great for large marine wildlife, but nearby there's a place that's absolutely legendary for diving. About a thirty-six hour boat ride into the Pacific is an island called Isla del Coco. One of the guys from Rich Coast said that at Isla del Coco it's common to see entire schools of hammerheads and other types of sharks, not to mention the other incredible marine life. Of course I'd love to go diving at Isla del Coco, but there's one catch - a trip out there and back costs $4500. Someday I really will dive there, but it probably won't be one of my next few trips.

This afternoon I caught a public bus to Playa del Tamarindo to finish up my trip with a couple days of surfing. I was absolutely exhausted after diving this morning, but I rented a board anyway and tried my luck at surfing for an hour or two this afternoon. Surfing isn't easy to get the hang of. I knew that already because I've tried it before, but I figure that as long as I'm down here I might as well give it another shot. I paddled my longboard out to where most of the local surfers were and tried not to be embarrassed that I was the only one not catching any of the waves when they came in. Despite the fact that my surfing skills are lacking, it was still tons of fun to be out there. I enjoyed floating on my board out in the ocean and basking in the warm sun as I waited for each set. The anticipation of the next wave and the challenge of catching it kept me entertained the whole time I was out there.

Finally a more experienced surfer pointed out to me that I had the wrong kind of board for catching waves so far out in the ocean. I thought that I knew what I was doing by paddling past all the beginners catching waves that had already broken towards the shore, but it turns out that they were trying to catch those waves because they all had longboards like I did. Someday I'll finally figure out how to surf and I'll trade my longboard for a shorter one that I can paddle further out into the ocean. Until then though I'll spend my time catching the smaller waves on a board that could pass as a small boat. With any luck I'll be able to figure out how to actually stand up on the thing when I head out there again tomorrow.

Ocotal Beach

I left my wonderful eight-dollar hotel room early this morning to catch a six o'clock bus that would begin my journey to Playas del Coco. I've spent a lot of time juggling around the itinerary for my last three days in my head and until yesterday I really hadn't come up with anything solid. I finally decided I'd head to Playas del Coco, famous for it's scuba diving, for the first of the three days and I'd spend the last two days at Playas del Tamarindo learning to surf. After yet another long jouney by hand-me-down busses from the United States, I finally reached Playas del Coco at one o'clock this afternoon. The idea was to do one or two afternoon dives and then head down to Tamarindo, but since I arrived so late the earliest I'll be able to dive is tomorrow. Diving tomorrow is fine, it just means that I'll spend one less day at Tamarindo. The thing that really disappointed me though was that I would effectively have to chalk this day up as another one burned in transit.

It stinks to have only three weeks to travel and to have to burn a few of those days just to move around in a country. I usually try to do at least one thing that's worth while on my transit days so that I don't feel like the entire day is wasted. In Coban I went to the coffee plantation, in Copan I went to the bird park, and before leaving Roatan I went to the local butterfly garden.

I had to make a serious effort today to find anything remotely worthwhile to do. After booking a diving trip for tomorrow I asked one of the staff at Rich Coast Divers what there is to do in Playas del Coco except for dive. The guy got a blank look and said, “Ummmm... dive”. Coco is great and I'm glad I'm here, but the beach is nothing to speak of. I'd just as soon hang out on the beach at Utah Lake as I would on the beach at Coco. The guy at the dive shop did mention one other thing to do though. He said that two miles south of Coco is another beach covered in volcanic sand and rock called Ocotal beach. With my options limited to the garbage-can-brown sand of Coco or the mysterious volcanic formations at Ocotal, I chose Ococtal.

While in India I visited a black sand beach on the southern coast that was absolutely spectacular. I remembered how amazing that beach was, but only with hesitation. I figured that no beach so close to Coco could have too much to offer and I didn't want to get my hopes up for something that would likely turn out to be sub-par. When I got to Ocotal the beach was about what I expected, but I walked along the shore anyway for the sake of doing something besides just walking back to Coco.

As I walked towards the south end of the beach I noticed a small outcrop of volcanic rock stretching out into the ocean. Having nothing else to do, I kept walking as the sand met the lava rock and followed the shoreline around to a spot where the rocks jutted into the sea, forming a tiny peninsula. As the sun lowered past it's late afternoon position I pulled the lens cap off my camera and started taking pictures.

At first the rocky peninsula didn't strike me as a very impressive place, but as I started looking for photo opportunities I discovered more natural beauty. My first discovery was a small rocky overhang that caused waves to crash in unique patterns as they came into the shore. After a few pictures I noticed pools of calm water that provided perfect reflections of the cloudy sky. Next came experimentation with different textures. I tried to capture the rough ocean in some shots and the calm pools in others. Occasionally I would frame both the pools and the ocean in the same shot. The wet lava rocks were another opportunity to experiment with textures. I found one rock with two orange mineral formations growing on it that provided a colorful contrast to the dark brown surrounding them. After two hours of snapping pictures and wandering around the edges of the peninsula, Ocotal beach had become a completely magical place.Working to discover natural beauty in a place when it otherwise would not be there is a completely new concept to me. I used to think that beauty is either there or it isn't. Now I wonder how many places like Ocotal Beach I passed up without realizing how amazing those places really are. There are some places that anyone could see the beauty in. Take Semuc Champey for example. A blind man could see the natural beauty at Semuc Champey. Places like that are great because they're so incredible and inspiring. At the same time though, when it takes work to see the real beauty in a place it's easier to appreciate the beauty that is there. Also, after learning to enjoy a place like Ocotal Beach, places like Semuc Champey become that much better.

I love the flood of new thoughts and ideas that comes with traveling to a new place. When I travel, and especially when I travel in exotic places, I'm exposed to so many new cultures and people and places that it's impossible not feel a little creative inspiration. There's opportunities every day for new things to write about, new ways to take photographs, and new ways to experience a culture. After going so many places that contrast so differently with each other I feel like I have such a better understanding of the world and where I fit in. Of course I hope to have more opportunities to travel and to continue to be exposed to inspiring new thoughts and ideas, but even if I don't have opportunities for travel in the future, at least I'll always be able to better recognize what is worthwhile and inspiring about everyday life.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Today was pretty mellow. While traveling I usually keep a pretty loose itinerary and try to make each day more exciting and more memorable than the one before it. It's tons of fun because every single day is amazing and even though I don't always know where I'll be or what I'll do the next day, I do know that I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Traveling that way is such a blast, but it also takes a lot of effort and gets pretty draining after awhile. I always tell myself that I need to pace myself and that I'm going to sleep in the next morning and spend some time relaxing the next day, but there's always a reason why I have to keep pushing. I've told myself every day this trip that I'd sleep in the next morning, but out of seventeen days so far, I've only slept in three times. If I don't have to catch a bus or a ferry early in the morning then I have to wake up early for a tour or to go on a dive. It's definitely worth it and it's tons of fun, but like I said, it also gets pretty draining.

Fortunately today was one of the three times that I was able to sleep in. I laid in bed until nine or nine thirty and then I ventured out of my room to get a shower and a bite to eat. Breakfast was “Gallo y Pinto con Huevos”, rice mixed with beans and sauce and served with fried eggs. I love the meals down here. Four or five bucks will buy a giant plate of beans and rice with either eggs or steak, chicken or pork, depending on what meal it is. The rice and beans probably would get old after awhile, but that won't happen before I fly home on Friday.

The hotel I'm staying at is kind of funny. When I got off the bus yesterday morning I walked into the first legitimate travel agency I saw to book the eXtremo. The place asked if I needed a place to sleep and ended up giving me a clean room, my own bathroom with a hot shower, and unlimited internet access all for only eight bucks a night. This is easily the nicest room I've stayed in during my whole trip and it also happens to be the cheapest room I've stayed in. I almost want to stay in Monteverde longer just so I can stay in this awesome eight-dollar room. The funny thing about the hotel is that it doubles as a popular travel agency. My room opens up into the lobby/office of the agency and there are people coming in and out all day to book different tours. My private bathroom is across the hall from my bedroom, so when I shower sometimes I have to sneak across the hall all wet with no shirt on and hope I don't offend anyone in the crowded lobby.

After a hot shower, a filling breakfast, and a few hours of relaxation, I headed off on a public bus (see: former US school bus) to Monteverde Cloud Forest. I hiked through the cloud forest for a couple of hours and I have to say it probably was the most legitimate rainforest experience I've ever had. I read about this place several months ago and wanted to be sure to come here, partly because I was curious to see what a cloud forest really was. It was easy to figure it out after only a few minutes of hiking. A cloud forest is a forest filled with clouds. I had read that in my guide book but for whatever reason I didn't believe it. I figured that the weather is so unpredictable that it would be unreasonable to expect any place to have clouds all the time. Monteverde is different. Something about the climate in the mountains here causes clouds to always cover the forest. I was really impressed with how well cared for the place is. There's a dirt pathway about the width of a sidewalk that winds through the forest and is very well maintained. A lot of times when I go hiking it's fun to wander off a ways and explore different areas, but this path was so great that all I really wanted to do was follow it through the cloud forest and enjoy the views. Most of the scenery was made up of dense, fern-covered trees, roots, and vines, obscured in the distance by the ever-present clouds. Occasionally I would pass a small, exotic flower near the side of the pathway that was a burst of color, contrasting well with the green and brown rainforest surrounding it.A lot of people hire a guide at Monteverde to help them spot wildlife, but I was lucky enough to see a few animals without one. Towards the beginning of my hike, as I was concentrating on taking a picture, I heard some small animal rustling through the forest nearby. I looked through the trees and briefly spotted a small black furry creature, but couldn't quite make out what it was. Later I heard leaves and branches shaking above me and looked up to see a small monkey climbing through the canopy. As I pointed my camera into the trees, hoping to get a picture that I knew would never turn out, the monkey stopped and peered right down at me. I snapped a shot of the thing but got only a silhouette of the monkey and the leaves. After pulling my camera away I stared right back at the creature. He waited and stared back at me for a few seconds before finally disappearing upwards into the canopy.I booked a night walk through the rainforest during which an experienced guide was going to point out nocturnal wildlife as we hiked through the trees. Unfortunately the clouds of the cloud forest often bring rain and that was the case tonight. The combination of the rain and lightning made bad conditions for humans and animals alike and the tour was cancelled. Instead I bought a few delicious pastries from a bakery next door and spent an hour chatting with other travelers in the lobby of the hotel/travel agency. Of course I wish that I could do the night walk through the cloud forest, but it'll have to wait until my next visit to Costa Rica. Tomorrow I'm headed to the Pacific beaches for some real relaxation. I want to get a couple more dives in before coming home and there's no better place in the country to do it than at Playa del Coco, known for it's large marine wildlife. With the exception of tomorrow morning, when I have to wake up early to catch a bus to the coast, I swear I'll sleep in every day for the rest of the trip.

eXtremo

Zip lines seem to be the can't-miss activity in Monteverde, Costa Rica and there was no shortage of options when I pulled into town on the bus this morning. One zip line in particular leaves such an impact on it's riders that many people, myself included, hear of it's reputation long before coming to Monteverde. I didn't consider any of the other zip line providers for even a second. My first priority this morning was to book a ride on... the “eXtremo”.

I first heard of the eXtremo from the four Swedish girls I met in Guatemala. I was intrigued by the talk of a zip line that not only runs through the rainforest like the others, but is also built for speeds that will leave a rider's legs shaking for hours afterwards. One of the girls spoke of looking at the landscape below, in an opening in the forest, and seeing cows that were barely recognizable because they were so far down. Another girl told of being absolutely terrified and taking the rest of the day to recover from the experience. My mind had been made up and I placed one solid item on my agenda for Costa Rica. With a classy name like “eXtremo”, I knew this zip line wouldn't let me down.

Now for some cold hard facts. The eXtremo was built by a local Costa Rican landowner in response to the plethora of pansy zip lines operating in the area. The series of fourteen lines crosses several times over a wide canyon and winds through the rainforest on each of it's ends. The forest is impressive and the canyon dotted with grazing cows, albeit barely recognizable ones, could pass for a snapshot from Switzerland. The scenery in itself is spectacular enough to draw visitors, but of course the real draw is the anticipation of wild thrills while soaring through the air and dangling from only a thin cable. The zip lines of eXtremo reach up to a half-mile in length each and tower 450 feet from the base of the canyon.After suiting up in a harness, helmet, and pair of leather-padded gloves, I was off to the eXtremo with nine other riders. An employee briefed us on how to brake and how to stay in control while on the zip lines and within two minutes my body was barreling down the first cable. One by one an employee clipped each of the riders onto a cable, put a second clip on for safety, and gave them a hard shove that began their rapid acceleration downwards towards the next platform. As I waited for my turn I listened to the clip riding against the cable. The sound conducted all the way back to the platform and made the cable scream like a banshee, the pitch rising higher and higher as the rider flew further down the line.

When it was my turn I crossed my legs, leaned back, and waited for a good hard shove. Screaming through the air was one of those surreal experiences - one of those moments when I asked myself if this actually was for real. As I descended from the platform I clung to my harness with one hand and with the other I looped my thumb and fore-finger around the cable in back of me to keep from spinning out of control. I looked down to see that the cows were barely there just before soaring through the rainforest at the other side of the canyon. I jammed my right, glove-covered hand against the cable and came to a sudden halt just as my body rested above the next platform.

The fourteen zip-lines would have been well worth the forty dollars I paid for the experience, but leave it to the good people at eXtremo to throw in a few extras. About half-way through the series of zip lines each rider took a turn rapelling ninety feet straight down through a narrow opening in the forest. When it was my turn I clipped in and dropped about seventy of the ninety feet in pure free fall before an employee quickly stopped me, beleeing from below. The second extra was called the “Tarzan's Swing”. I clipped into a rope and stood backwards with my feet at the edge of a high metal platform. One of the eXtremo men held me by the harness and tilted me away from the platform before dropping me into a free fall.I fell backwards about fifty feet before Tarzan's Swing caught me by the harness, gave me a good jolt, and sent me flying hundreds of feet into the rainforest. After a few good swings back and forth two eXtremo guys caught me and I was off to the next zip line.

At the last zip line, as each of the riders went on his way, clouds started to gather in the distance. The eXtremo guy started clipping couples together in tandem and sending them down two at time so that we would beat the coming rain storm. As the last rider I rode together with the employee and pulled into the last platform just as heavy drops of rain began to fall from above.

The eXtremo was a fine introduction to Monteverde, Costa Rica. I enjoyed Guatemala because it felt like authentic Central America, but Costa Rica is fun because it is so tourist-friendly and because there are so many wild ways to experience the country. With my fix for thrills satisfied for the time being, I can spend the next two days exploring the nearby cloud forests, hiking through wet, canopy-covered trails and searching for exotic rainforest wildlife.

Cano Negro

I left La Fortuna at eight o'clock this morning on a guided tour of Cano Negro, a nearby national nature reserve. During the drive to Cano Negro we stopped at “Restaurante Las Iguanas”, a touristy place well known for the iguanas that gather in the nearby trees. The restaurant sits right against a gully where trees grow from the bottom right to the height of the base of the restaurant, so it's a perfect place to see the animals in the tops of the trees. There's even a man-made lookout point where tourists view the trees and from which the good people from Restaurante Las Iguanas throw food to the iguanas to keep them coming. It's kind of a funny little enterprise they've got going - they throw food into the trees to bring the iguanas and the views of the iguanas draw the tourists. Regardless, though, of the motives of the restaurant or the iguanas, the whole thing was pretty entertaining. I got within just a few feet of a five foot iguana resting in the top of a tree and walked across a bridge crossing the gully and spotted fifty or sixty more iguanas covering the canopy of the forest. I read in my Lonely Planet book that the best time of year to spot wildlife at Cano Negro is from January to March, so I decided I had to make the trip there. After a quick snack I boarded a small boat with about twenty other tourists and we were off with our guide to spot wildlife along the banks of the “Rio Frio” (”Cold River” in English). The river trip reminded me a lot of one I took down the Kinabatangan River in Borneo. The Kinabatangan was unique because the animals were so exotic. Also, it was much more isolated than Cano Negro - I went searching for proboscis monkeys and wild boars while riding in a canoe with only four other travelers and a guide. Unfortunately American tourists have already discovered Cano Negro, but the wildlife is still incredible.

Our guide had a pretty good knack for spotting birds and animals, but even without him they wouldn't have been hard to find. During three hours on the river we passed a wild cayman (like an alligator) about every five or ten minutes. We also passed flocks of white great heron birds as well as many different species of falcons and kingfisher birds. My favorite sightings were the monkeys. A few times during the trip we spotted howler monkeys or spider monkeys perched in the trees. One time we saw four spider monkeys at the top of a palm tree, one of which was hanging upside down by his tail and picking and eating seeds from the tree. Another time we saw a spider monkey swing from branch to branch through different trees along the banks of the river. The monkey soared fifteen or twenty feet through the air when needed to grab on to the next tree branch.The most interesting (and grossest) sighting of the day was of a snake on the side of the river eating an iguana that was about two feet long and five or six inches across. The snake had wrapped his mouth completely around the iguana and had it about half-way down when we showed up. I don't know whether it just takes snakes a long time to swallow those things or if it was a classic case of biting off more than he could chew, but progress seemed to be slow. Our driver put the boat right up on the shore, only a few feet from the snake. The creature was so preoccupied that it pulled his body under some tree roots, but still clung to the half-eaten iguana. After the snake sighting we headed back to the dock, accompanied by the sounds of howler monkeys barking like st. bernards in the distance. After a quick lunch we took a bus through Cano Negro and past Restaurante Las Iguanas back to La Fortuna.

Independant travel is usually much easier than people seem to think it is. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I won't book ahead for a room but it still is easy to find a vacancy at an affordable hotel. Unfortunately tonight was that one time out of one hundred when it isn't easy.

This weekend there is a triathalon near La Fortuna and the hotels booked up months in advance in anticipation of the event. When I found a room last night the owner of the hotel told me he had a room for one night but was booked for the weekend. I was sure that I'd be able to find something when I got back from Cano Negro, but I didn't have too much luck. After an hour of searching for a room I hopped on a bus to Tilaran, about an hour away, which would make a nice stopover on my way to Monteverde Cloud Forest. When I got off the bus in Tilaran there was a huge party in the town's central park for the triathalon - great news except it meant that Tilaran was probably booked up as well. A local kid told me that Tilaran was, in fact, booked for the weekend and that my next option was to take a cab to a city called Canas, about thirty miles away. The kid had a vested interest in me taking a cab - he just happened to have a car which doubles as a cab to Canas when needed. There may have been a room in Tilaran, but I didn't want to take the chance of being stranded without one either, so I paid the kid fifteen bucks to take me to Canas. As far as I'm concerned, taking a cab to a hotel under desperate circumstances is breaking every rule in the book. Cabbies always get a kick-back from hotels if they can bring someone in, and the traveler foots the bill. Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of options tonight, and sure enough, I ended up paying twenty bucks for a room that wasn't worth five bucks. All things considered though, it's not such a bad situation. If that one time in a hundred costs me a fifteen dollar cab ride and a hotel kick-back, that's not such a bad price to pay for things to work out the other ninety-nine times.

La Fortuna

I woke up early in the morning today and decided that it was pretty ridiculous that I was planning on burning two days just to see an old Spanish fortress in an obscure part of Nicaragua. Part of the reason I wanted to head up there was to avoid the typical tourist route that every last person does while in Costa Rica. After thinking it through though, I figure it's alright if I do the touristy stuff while I'm here. The experience won't be quite as authentic as those that I've had in lesser developed countries, but that's part of the trade off of traveling in a country that's tourist friendly and has a good infrastructure. Later today, after taking a bus to La Fortuna, Costa Rica instead of San Carlos, Nicaragua, I looked up picutres of the old Spanish fortress online just to see what I missed out on. I have to say that I'm really glad I didn't trade two days in Costa Rica to see that thing. It looked kind of cool, but for how difficult it is to get to it's definitely not worth it. With that said, the adventure in going to the fortress would be in the journey - floating past tiny Nicaraguan villages down a river formerly used by pirates and foreign invaders. The journey would have been great, but I've already done plenty of journeying this trip, I need more relaxing to balance it all out.

This afternoon was amazing. I arrived in La Fortuna at eleven in the morning and booked a tour for today and one for tomorrow. After dumping off my stuff at a hotel, e-mailing home, and getting a quick lunch, I was off to a nature reserve just a few miles outside of town. I forget the exact name of this place, but the “organization”, as I guess I'll have to call it, has purchased 1400 acres of land near La Fortuna for conservation. They use a couple hundred acres for guided tours and the rest is left completely natural. When I paid for the tour I thought I was getting a hike through the rainforest to a waterfall, which would have been great in itself. It turned out though that the tour also included two hours of horseback riding to and from the trailhead with my own personal guide - not bad for thirty-five bucks. After a training session on how to ride a horse that lasted all of thirty seconds, I was off with my guide to see the waterfall.

I don't remember if I've ever ridden a horse before, but it isn't nearly as easy as it looks on TV. As long as the horse was walking slowly there was nothing to it, but as soon as he went faster than just a couple of miles an hour I started bouncing all over the place. My twenty-five year-old Costa Rican guide told me to just relax and let my body ride with the thing, but I felt like if I didn't anticipate every move of the horse then I'd get bounced off like a rag doll. It was still way fun though, and the fact that I had no idea how to ride a horse probably made it even better. We rode for about an hour uphill through large grassy fields, shallow rocky streams, and narrow muddy trails. On the way my guide pointed out several wild turkeys, as well as a grey falcon perched in a tree.

From the trailhead it took about a half-hour to hike through the rainforest to “La Catarata de Fortuna”, or in English, “Fortuna Waterfall”. Fortuna Waterfall spills over the edge of a cliff and hits a pond in a grotto about two hundred feet down. The waterfall was made even more impressive by the ponds surrounding it and the views from the bottom. I hiked across a shallow stream to a viewpoint where I could get pictures of the falls and then I took a dip in the pools. The water was a little chilly, but just warm enough to be refreshing and not uncomfortable. I swam through one of the pools that feeds into a stream at the bottom of the waterfall and when I turned to look back at it the view was perfect. I didn't get a picture of it because I left my camera on the side of the stream, but it was just perfect. In front of the pool were giant grey rocks through which water flowed from another pool and above the rocks was a towering view of the waterfall crashing into one of the pools below.
It feels great to visit places like Fortuna Waterfall every once in a while. I enjoy work and the rest of the stuff I'm involved with back home, but it feels so good to break up the routine every once in a while. It literally feels good just to get a change of scenery. In the future I may not always be able to travel as much or to places as exotic as the places I've been during the last few years, but even back home there are great ways to get a change in scenery. If I get to the point where I can't travel like I do now then I want to be sure to do road trips on the weekends to all the awesome national parks in Utah and any other place that's worthwhile that's within a few hours' drive.Hiking through a rainforest is always worthwhile. I know I've done it a few times before while on a Caribbean cruise in 1998 and once or twice in Brazil, but I don't think I always paid attention to what was going on. This time I listened carefully as the guide pointed out fern covered branches, roots that had adapted to gather nutrients out of shallow soil, and trees that grew at ninety degree angles to reach the sunlight. That's another thing about the rainforest, the whole thing was so thick that it was difficult to even see the sky.

After the horse ride back I took a quick look in a butterfly garden and a frog garden at the nature reserve before heading back to La Fortuna. I'm really excited for the rest of my time in Costa Rica. This really is such a beautiful country and it's so tourist friendly and there's so much to do here. During the next six days I'll visit a national park famous for it's thousands of species of animals, I'll ride a zip line hundreds of feet above a cloud forest, I'll scuba dive at the famous “Playas del Coco”, known for it's large underwater marine life, I'll spend a day or two surfing, and I'll still have a day or two to fit in other stuff. I'm really excited to finish up my trip here, it's going to be awesome.

Roatan Bird Park

My flight to San Jose, Costa Rica left at one o'clock this afternoon, which gave me just enough time to have a quick breakfast, e-mail home, and visit a local bird and butterfly park before heading to the airport. The butterfly park was alright. It wasn't nearly as nice as the bird park near Copan, but for half the entrance fee I guess I should be satisfied with half the experience. The highlight was an enclosure near the entrance filled with hundreds of butterflys. There really were only a few different species in there, but it still was fun. It literally was hard to walk even a few feet without seeing a few butterflys fly right in front of me. The place reminded me a little bit of a butterfly park I went to in Kuala Lumpur, except that one was a lot bigger and had much better landscaping and tons of different species of exotic butterflys. I think it even cost less to get into too. This place was still fun though, they also had a small enclosure that visitors can walk through that has five or six toucans in it. I got within just a few inches of a couple of toucans to snap some pictures. I also watched as a toucan picked up bits of melon from a pie tin, tossed them up into the air with his beak, and caught and swallowed them.

After a flight to San Jose that took five hours, included three layovers, and netted me only a four-hundred mile trip south of Roatan, I headed into the city to find a place to stay for the night.

I feel like I'm becoming a more competant traveler than I used to be. As I left the airport in San Jose there was a hoard of taxi drivers offering their services to incoming tourists. The problem with taxi drivers at airports is that they figure that they can charge whatever they want because tourists have no idea how to get into the city except to catch a cab. When I arrived in Belize City two weeks ago a cab from the airport to the pier, about a ten mile drive, cost twenty-five dollars - a ridiculous amount of money for a developing country. What's worse is that there was a big foul-mouthed Belizian man there regulating the cabs and making sure that tourists didn't arrange to share a taxi and split the cost with each other. I was a little uneasy about traveling alone in Central America at the time so I just forked over the twenty-five bucks instead of finding a cheaper alternative, but now I feel a lot more comfortable with those situations. At the airport here in San Jose I knew just enough Spanish to ask where the nearest bust stop was, how much the bus cost, if the bus went to San Jose, and if the driver had change for a large bill. The net result was that I paid less than a dollar for the ten-mile ride to San Jose and another dollar for a cab in town to take me to my hotel. That felt a whole lot better than succumbing to a demand for twenty dollars from one of the cabbies at the airport.

Wreck Dive

I headed to Happy Divers at eight o'clock this morning to complete my fourth dive for the advanced PADI course. During the first three dives I worked on required skills for advanced certification, but for the fourth and fifth dives I was allowed to choose from a list of approved skills. I really wanted to do a wreck dive and EJ was happy to accomodate me.

In 1987 Anthony's Key Resort, near the west end of Roatan, sunk an old Peruvian cargo-liner just off the coast to allow divers easy access to an underwater shipwreck. There are other wrecks near Roatan, the newest of which is a cargo ship that went belly-up while bringing rum and hammocks to the island, but the Peruvian wreck is apparently the most accessible and the most interesting. EJ briefed me on the wreck before we got in the water. He mentioned that there are several grouper fish that hang around the wreck waiting for food from divers, as well as a giant green moray eel that lives in the sunken ship. EJ nodded approvingly as he told me about the eel, “He's real friendly, you'll like him.”

I descended into the water and followed EJ as he pulled himself along a rope leading 100 feet down to the site of the wreck. For a couple of minutes all I could see was EJ, the rope, and the dark blue ocean beneath me. Slowly, as I reached the sandy bottom, the wreck came into view. Diving the wreck really was an out-of-this-world experience. From the bottom of the ocean I looked down the side of the massive cargo liner. I followed it's main mast up with my eyes until the top of it ended about fifty feet shy of the surface of the water. EJ and I thoroughly explored the wreck, swimming past metal ladders and beneath giant masts that have long since been covered with coral. The experience was like something out of a video game or a movie, it was almost hard to believe I was really under the water looking at the thing.

We swam to the rear of the ship and as I turned to my left I saw the eel that EJ had told me about. I quickly grabbed my camera and swam towards the eel, who was hiding under a sheet of metal, excited to get a picture of the thing. After snapping a couple of shots I realized the eel was slowly slithering towards me through the water, as if to tell me to quit invading it's space. Being approached by a six-foot, girthy eel while 100 feet down was an experience I wasn't prepared for. I was pretty startled and I quickly swam backwards. Finally the eel retreated back into it's hiding place. EJ led me away but spoke up later in defense of the eel. “You did sneak right up on him”, he told me matter-of-factly.

For my final dive of the advanced PADI course I visited a site called “Hole in the Wall”. The idea was to work on underwater photography and I did get a few pointers from EJ and took a few good shots, but more than anything the dive was just another fun underwater experience. EJ led me 90 feet underwater and up into a swim-through that led to a more shallow reef of coral. The swim-through opened up about thirty feet beneath the surface and we spent the rest of the dive in shallower waters, searching for a few good photo ops. The highlight of the dive was spotting two trigger fish; a blue one that swam by us at the beginning, and a silver one that we passed towards the end. I couldn't help but be reminded of diving at Ko Tao in Thailand, where it's easy to spot a few giant, multi-colored trigger fish on every dive.

During the last few days I've been pretty unsure about my itinerary for the remaining week of my trip in Costa Rica. Originally I wanted to spend some time at Monteverde cloud forest as well as a couple Pacific coast beaches, one of which is known for it's diving and another which is known for it's surfing. After really giving it some thought though I've decided that I don't need that much more time on beaches this trip. Beaches are great but I'm more satisfied with adventurous, cultural experiences than with beaches. It all finally came together late this afternoon when I made a small discovery in my Lonely Planet book. Only five hours by bus from San Jose, Costa Rica is a Nicaraguan town where visitors can take a boat down a narrow river, lined with trees and winding past tiny villages. After a three hour ride the boat arrives at a seventeenth century Spanish fortress, strategically placed to stop foreign invaders and pirates from reaching the colonial town of Granada. The Spanish fortress thing is perfect for my itinerary. Not only will I get to visit Nicaragua and have an experience that contrasts well with the rest of my trip, but it also sets me up perfectly to visit a couple of national parks, a waterfall, some caves, and Monteverde forest on my way to spending my last day or two on a perfect Costa Rican beach.

PADI Diving Course

I woke up this morning to my iPod alarm clock blasting rock music through the headphones at the other end of the room. I could tell from the song that the playlist had been going for a while and it turned out that I had slept thirty-three minutes through the alarm and was already late for my diving class. The great thing about Caribbean islands though is that everyone is late for everything, so it really was no big deal. I brushed my teeth and pulled on my swimsuit, bought some breakfast at a grocery store next door, and headed to Happy Divers.

I found out pretty quick today that Happy Divers isn't exactly a run-of-the-mill dive shop. I originally chose the place because it was the first dive shop I went to that could offer me an advanced PADI course on Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn't pay much attention to anything else, least of all to the fact that no place could fit the description “hole-in-the-wall” more accurately than Happy Divers Dive Shop. The place is run by two Jamaican guys: a fiftyish manager named James and a younger boatman named David (his introduction to me was classic, “David is de name!”). The great thing about a smaller dive shop though is that they can offer each individual diver more attention. When I got my first level of diving certification at Buddha View Dive Resort on Ko Tao in Thailand I was one of six or seven divers sharing the same instructor. This morning when I walked into Happy Divers there was a freelance PADI diving instructor named EJ waiting for me. I'm his only student for the duration of the course.

I loaded my equipment into Happy Divers' fifteen foot fishing boat and headed out with James and EJ to “Lighthouse #2”, the first dive site of the day. The advanced PADI course is two days long and requires five different dives. On each dive you work with an instructor to improve a different diving skill. At Lighthouse #2 I completed the “Deep Dive” requirement for the PADI certification. EJ and I descended to 120 feet and found a patch of sand to kneel on. For the first few minutes EJ completed a couple of demonstrations. First he cracked an egg and let the yolk out into the water. The pressure at 120 feet kept the yolk from splitting open and it floated freely in a spherical shape into the ocean. Next he pulled out a card that he had showed me while we were at the dive shop. The card had the words “Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Brown” written on it, each in their respective colors. Above water the colors matched, but deep in the ocean the word “Red” looked purple and “Brown” looked black. Apparently red light is filtered out under the water. Finally EJ had me work out some math problems, spell my last name backwards, and draw an elephant on a small chalkboard. I passed the test easily enough but the demonstration was interesting - my mind was impaired a bit due to the high level of nitrogen breathed in at such a deep depth. I wouldn't want to take the GMAT at 120 feet down.

After a short break we headed to “Blue Channel”, another dive site near the bay. This time the test was navigation. I took a few minutes at the beginning of the dive to demonstrate that I could accurately swim patterns through the ocean using a small compass. For the remaining forty minutes of the dive EJ and I went exploring for a massive seven foot eel that other divers had spotted in the area. EJ led me through a swim-through at Blue Channel (like a cave but with an entrance at one end and an exit at the other) where we spotted a bright blue and yellow spanish hogfish. Later in the dive we did spot an eel, but not the seven-footer. EJ pointed out a golden-tailed moray eel peering out of an opening in the coral. Eels apparently will stand their ground pretty well. I swam right up to the thing and took a few pictures and it didn't back even an inch away into it's hole.

The last dive of the day was at a site called “Divemaster's Choice”. EJ and I spent the first ten or fifteen minutes of the dive working on buoyancy. One of the greatest challenges for beginning divers is learing to control their movement under the water. Ideally a diver will be able to maneuver using only small kicks of the fins and the natural buoyancy resulting from air breathed into the lungs. Flailing the arms and legs is a no-no and is a revealing sign of an inexperienced diver. It can be a lot of fun learning to get the hang of buoyancy control. A lot of times I'll see a mound of coral directly in front of me and by taking a deep breath of air I become more buoyant and rise above it in time to pass over it. It's equally fun to spot a creature fifteen feet below and blow all my air out to sink down and take a closer look. The concept sounds simple, but really getting the hang of it is like learning to walk all over again. The natural reaction is to flail the arms and legs in a desperate attempt to get where you're going.

When I finished the buoyancy tests EJ led me along the side of a one-hundred foot wall of coral as we looked for creatures under the water. He pointed out to me a sea cucumber covered with yellow spots and winding three or four feet through the coral. Towards the end of the dive I noticed a couple of sheets of corroded metal resting sixty feet down on the ocean floor. A few minutes later we came to the remains of a thirty foot boat that probably sunk years ago. I enjoyed observing the small bits of coral that had started to grow on the sheet metal and the engine. As EJ signaled that the dive was over I noticed a giant grouper fish near the bottom. He had made a home of the small wreck and was peering around the edge of the boat, looking up at us as we ascended to the surface.

Roatan

This morning I took a pretty sickening ferry ride over the bumpy Caribbean to the Honduran island of Roatan. I rode with the Kennedys, the Irish couple who I had dinner with last night. Their company was enjoyable, but I'm pretty sure that mine wasn't. Before getting on the ferry I had a pretty gross breakfast taco at the cafeteria at the pier. By the end of the ride I had regurgitated the entire thing into a garbage can, along with whatever else was in my stomach at the time. After wiping my mouth and staring at the floor for about twenty minutes I looked up and saw that the Kennedys had relocated to the other side of the ferry. I've never been seasick before but I guess there's a first time for everything. This trip has been full of first-time experiences, some more enjoyable than others. John Kennedy and his wife took a chance on me and split a cab to the west end of the island and I was off for some more classic Caribbean island scuba diving.

Roatan is a scuba diver's paradise. The island is packed with hole-in-the-wall Caribbean restaurants and local dive companies. The competition for business is so fierce on Roatan that the island has become widely known as the cheapest place to scuba dive in the world. Twenty-five bucks here will buy you a boat ride and a one-hour guided tour of the bottom of the ocean. For five more bucks the rental of your fins, mask, wetsuit, and diving equipment is included.

After hopping off the cab I wandered into the nearest dive shop, “Happy Divers” and booked an advanced open water PADI course for Tuesday and Wednesday. The advanced PADI course will earn me my next level of PADI diving certification, which will certify me to dive up to thirty meters deep instead of the current eighteen and will also certify me to go on wreck dives and night dives. It probably doesn't really make a difference if I have the advanced certification or not, as most dive companies will take you on any dive as long as you have the first level of certification, but I figure it'll be fun to go through the course and all the different dives that are required for the advanced class.

I booked a couple dives for this afternoon with “Coconut Tree Dive Company”, down the bumpy dirt road from “Happy Divers”. In the hour before my first dive I found a hotel and dropped off my stuff, e-mailed home two days worth of stories and pictures, got a quick lunch at a grocery store, and gathered up my rented diving equipment and hauled it onto the boat.

The first dive of the day was at a site called “Fish's Den”, about a ten minute boat ride east of the Coconut Tree dive shop. I don't think that Roatan has the giant eagle rays, sea turtles, and sharks like Belize has, but there's lots of smaller stuff that's worth seeing. I probably could ever get bored with diving in the Caribbean. During the hour spent at Fish's Den I saw many of the incredible coral formations typical of Caribbean diving as well as a giant blue parrot fish and a small sea turtle.

Fish's Den was a lot of fun and I figured that would be the highlight of the day but my next dive, at a site called “Dixie's Place”, turned out to be even better. The dive started off pretty normal, with lots of smaller stuff, but a couple sightings later in the dive were pretty enjoyable. Martin, the guide from Coconut Tree, pointed out a hawkbill sea turtle in the distance and I swam over with a few other divers to check it out. It really was a pretty funny sight, the turtle was shoving his head into a cluster of coral and pawing at it with his fin like a dog searching for his bone in a hole in the backyard. I can only guess what was in there but regardless of what it was the sight was pretty funny. The turtle was completely oblivious to the fact that six divers were hovering only a few feet overhead. He just kept pawing away at the coral, determined to evict whatever was inside. Only a few minutes later we crossed paths with another sea turtle, this one about three feet in diameter. Sea turtles aren't shy by any means. I swam right up to the thing with my underwater camera and he swam even closer to me, completely unintimidated by a larger creature in the ocean. I snapped a few shots as he paddled by and went about his business.

I think I've finally figured out the underwater photography thing. For the first six dives of the trip it was so hard to get any pictures to turn out because there's so little light sixty feet down in the ocean. All my shots looked great when I framed them up and snapped the shutter, but later when I looked at them they'd all be deep blue with a few barely distinguishable figures in the distance. The trick is that to get any color at all you have to use the flash and get as close as possible to the subject. On my last dive today at Dixie's Place I finally figured that out and even got some pictures with bright red, green, and yellow hues instead of the typical blue mess.

I chatted with our guide, Martin, for a few minutes between dives and he has a pretty interesting story. Martin spent two years diving in Thailand and Malaysia, five years diving elsewhere in the Caribbean, and has been on Roatan for one year so far. Most of the diving he has done has been commercial and industrial - building and recovering stuff under the water, but for the last little while that he's worked as a scuba guide leading people in explorations under the ocean.

It's interesting to hear about the lives of the people I meet while traveling. Most of these people have such a unique outlook on life. At home it seems to be so easy for people to stretch themselves into a mortgage and car payments that they can't afford. A lot of people will accumulate every last material thing that banks will give them credit for and then they spend so much time working to pay for it that they forget to live. The result is hundreds of millions of Americans who devote their lives to paying interest and creating a profit for financial institutions. In the meantime there are guys like Martin who live a simple life and don't have a whole lot of material things, but do have an incredible lifestyle and amazing experiences literally every day. I think everyone just has to have their balance. Nothing's wrong with having material things and living a traditional lifestyle as long as you make time to really live.

Dinner tonight was at a tacky place called The Cannibal Cafe, “Where weed like to have you for dinner!!!”. The food wasn't too memorable, but the rest of my night was alright. Later on, as the sky grew darker, I wandered aimlessly along the coast. An older guy with a British accent rushed to introduce himself to me and was excited to introduce his friend as well. His German buddy supposedly was the driver for Heimlich Himmler during World War II. These older guys were way funny. I was in more of a philosophical mood than a laughing mood tonight, but these guys got a few chuckles out of me. Most of the humor was so profane that I tried not to laugh and would never repeat it in the journal, but some stuff was good clean fun. The British guy showed me a few quotes scrawled onto his food kiosk with a Sharpie marker. All of them were good for a laugh, but my favorite was probably one that read, “It's not your fault you're American, it's ours. Signed The British Empire.”

Copan Ruins

This morning I enjoyed a tasty Honduran breakfast at a local restaurant and then took a rickshaw half a mile out of town to the Copan Ruins. The Copan Ruins aren't nearly as massive as the ones at Tikal, but there are hundreds of intricate Mayan carvings that draw all the visitors. As I entered the site the jungle opened up to reveal a massive grass-covered plaza, at least the size of a football field. Covering the plaza were several “stellas”, Mayan carvings depicting animals, ancient hieroglyphics which told complete stories, and depictions of the rulers of Copan. Many of the carvings were of a ruler named “King 18 Rabbit”. It was easy to spend over an hour just in that first plaza snapping pictures of the Mayan artwork. It really is pretty amazing how much of it there is and how well preserved it all is. Ancient artwork is always an interesting insight into lost civilizations, and the artwork at Copan is no exception.

After an hour or so in that first plaza I wandered past the “ball court” which, according to an English speaking tour guide that I overheard, was used in ancient times for athletic competition.The ball court was a strip of grass running down the middle of two stone ruins that were slightly inclined on each side. Carvings of macaw heads line the sides of the ball court. It was fun to imagine what kind of games the Mayans might have played in such a structure.

I wandered further through the ruins past the “hieroglyphic staircase”, sixty-three steps, each of which is inscribed with Mayan hieroglyphics. I followed a path through the trees and up a hill leading to the top of the largest pyramid at Copan. The pyramids at that end of the complex were impressive, but my favorite part over there was the amazing views. While climbing up the hill I looked to my left through dark sillouettes of trees and vines and saw the ball court and other ruins gleaming in the sun below me. I snapped a few pictures of the view, but nothing is quite as impressive as seeing and wandering through it in real life.

I had a quick lunch at Glifo's and then it was time for another journey by bus, this time to La Ceiba, Honduras, a gateway city to the country's famous Bay Islands. The novelty of traveling by bus through Central America has worn off a bit, but the time still passes quickly, especially when I meet a few interesting people along the way. On the way to La Ceiba I talked for a while with an Alaskan guy who lived for two years in Nicaragua and comes back down to Central America often to travel and to visit friends he made while he was down here. Everyone I've talked to who has really spent time in Nicaragua says that it is a less developed country, but it's an incredible place to visit and every bit as safe as the rest of Central America.

I really wish I could visit Nicaragua now, but it might be too much of a stretch with the limited time that I have left. I'm flying to Costa Rica on Thursday and could easily catch a bus up to Nicaragua, but I'm not sure that I want to burn that much time heading all the way up there and all the way back down again. In retrospect I should have booked my flight to Managua, Nicaragua instead of to Costa Rica, then I could fly in and work my way down. In hindsight, though, everything is twenty-twenty. There was no way I could have known when I booked my flight that I would have wanted to do that. Costa Rica should still be a lot of fun though. I think I'll visit the Monteverde rain forest, scuba dive at Playas del Coco, and maybe take surfing lessons at Playa del Tamarindo, another beach further down the Pacific coast.

After arriving in La Ceiba I arranged to split the cost of a room with a German guy named Thomas, who I met on the bus. After dumping off our stuff at the hotel we met up with an Irish couple named the Kennedys (ironically enough the guy's first name is John) and we all headed off to a local restaurant for dinner.

You know a place is good when everybody else there is local. The place we ate at tonight was that kind of place, it was awesome. I ordered one of the cheaper meals and was expecting something pretty meager. When my plate came though it seriously was massive. My five dollars bought me steak, chicken, and chorizo, accompanied by beans, onions, some kind of awesome Honduran cheese, and a stack of warm tortillas. It was fun to have dinner and chat with such a diverse group of people. The Kennedys traveled through Southeast Asia a few years ago so it was a lot of fun to talk with them and compare our experiences.

Tomorrow I'll head to Roatan, one of the Bay Islands, for more scuba diving and relaxation. It'll feel good to chill out for a bit before moving on and cruising through Costa Rica.

Copan Town

People are so laid back down here that nothing seems to run on a schedule, the time for anything to happen is whenever people feel like it. Take bus rides for example. In the United States you'd call ahead to a Greyhound station, ask about their schedule, and buy a ticket for a bus that would leave at a specific time on a specific day. Down here you wait on the side of the road and wave down the first bus going in your direction. During my journey today from Coban, Guatemala to Copan, Honduras I rode on no fewer than six different busses. Fortunately all the locals down here are very helpful and they were happy to point me in the right direction so I was waiting in the right place for the right busses. One bus I rode was a van built to hold nine or ten passengers that had a roof piled high with avacados and thirty-two people inside. I can only imagine how Guatemalans could fill the St. George house.

I was surprised by how beautiful the town of Copan is. I was expecting a dusty little Honduran village, existing only to facilitate the needs of travelers visiting the nearby Mayan ruins. It really is a very nice place though. The town is set in a lush green valley and has a beautifully designed Central Plaza surrounded by a whitewashed colonial-style cathederal and several tasteful restaurants and shops. It is a bit touristy, but it's classy at the same time, it isn't overdone.

This afternoon I took a rickshaw to a place just outside of town called “Parque de Aves”. The Parque de Aves is a reserve and rehabilitation center for exotic birds indiginous to South and Central America. This place really was outstanding. Again it was a bit touristy, but not kitchy or tacky, it was the real deal and was very well done, even by United States standards. I don't even really like birds but this place had some pretty awesome ones. During my one-hour tour by a park employee I walked through an enclosure with ten or fifteen colorful scarlet macaws, saw several varieties of bright green and red birds from all over the amazon, and even let a toucan gnaw on my fingers (trust me, it wasn't painful at all). My favorite part of the park though was an area where visitors could have their picture taken while holding one of several different varieties of birds. I gave my camera to a Honduran kid and had my picture taken with several different species of macaws as well as a smaller exotic bird that was perched on my finger.

As the sun set over Copan I hiked up a cobblestone street to the “Mirador de Cuartel”, which I think means, “view from the jail”. The jail is a whitewashed building that looks like it was built to sell Whitecastle burgers, but I'm pretty sure it isn't being used - either to house prisoners or to sell burgers. The view was worth the short hike though. I climbed a little ways down the hillside and snapped a few pictures of the town at sunset against the green hills, as well as a few pictures of a local soccer game taking place at a field nearby.

I figured that ten dollars wasn't an outrageous price to eat dinner at Copan's finest restaurant, so I went to “Glifo's” for a tasty meal. I enjoyed minestrone soup with garlic bread as well as filleted fish with a Mayan corn sauce and mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side. I was still hungry after such an exhausting day of bus rides, so I went to the Central Plaza and paid another dollar for a grilled sausage with tortillas, beans, and picante sauce.

Copan is a fun town at night. As I wandered around after dinner I stopped to watch a man performing Native American sounding music (Mayan, perhaps?). I also passed a semi-tasteful night market where for less than a dollar I bought a Mayan statue that is clearly manufactured, but still worthy of my collection back home.

I'm really looking forward to visiting the Copan Ruins tomorrow. With Tikal they are the most famous Mayan ruins outside of Mexico. Tikal was great because each of the temples was so huge, but Copan is known for it's abundance of Mayan carvings. My friend Mark, who I met in Belize, said that he enjoyed Copan even more than Tikal, so I'm pretty excited to see what it's all about.

Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey is easily one of the four or five most beautiful places I've been to in my life. My expectations were high after seeing the photos that my friend Mark who I met in Belize showed me and I was not let down. Originally I was somewhat paranoid about Guatemala because of everything that's written and said about the dangerous conditions down here, so I was planning on spending one day to see Tikal and another day to hustle South to Honduras. Everything I've heard from travelers who have been here recently though is that it's perfectly safe and it's an absolutely gorgeous country. That description has turned out to be far more accurate. After talking to Mark about Guatemala I changed my entire itinerary for the first part of my trip so that I could spend more time in the country, and after four days here I wish I had planned for more. Tikal, Antigua, and Volcan Pacaya were all outstanding and were well worth the time I budgeted for them. Budgeting time for Semuc Champey was a risk because I had to burn a day to get here and a second day to see it, but the experience was well, well worth it.

This morning I took a bus three hours through winding dirt roads in the mountains to a tiny village called Lanquin. From Lanquin I was planning on catching a cheap bus or pickup truck the remaining six miles to Semuc Champey, but after waiting on a street corner for a half-hour, I decided I had better get walking. A Guatemalan man who lives near Semuc Champey shared my predicament and for several miles I walked with my new Spanish speaking friend, Secondino.

The people in Guatemala really are so friendly. Secondino didn't speak a word of English, but using my very limited Spanish we were able to communicate. We joked around a little bit and Secondino showed me several “mascortos” (shortcuts) through tiny jungle paths, which saved me quite a bit of walking. I hope that when people stereotype Guatemala as a dangerous country they don't include the people here in their stereotype. Everyone I've met in Guatemala is at least as friendly as the people I know from back home. Everyone has been very welcoming and is excited to get to know foriegners and even help out a little bit with Spanish. Several times while in the country a local has noticed me flipping through my guide book and has come up to see if he can help me find what I'm looking for. I think that, as is unfortunately the case with many cultures and ethnic groups, a very small minority of troublemakers give the entire population of Guatemala a bad reputation. I'm sure that ninety-nine people out of a hundred here are as friendly and genuine as people come.

After a six mile walk that was pleasant because of the views but tiring because it was up and down mountainous dirt roads in my flip-flops, I finally arrived at Semuc Champey. There are only a few places I know of in the world where people say the water is “so clear that you can see to the bottom”, and when you get there it actually is. A few of those places I can think of are Koenig See in Germany, Kwang Xi Falls in Laos, and Ko Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. Now I can add Semuc Champey to the list. Semuc Champey is a series of sparkling turquoise waterfalls and pools cascading down the middle of a massive jungle-covered canyon. The fact that it's so hard to get to does great things for this place, because otherwise it would be absolutely swarming with tourists and anyone else who found out about it. As it is, I enjoyed one of the most beautiful sights in the world with fifteen or twenty other people who made the trek from Coban this morning.

After a refreshing swim through a couple of crystal-clear pools at the base of the canyon, I hiked about a mile up a trail to see a classic view of the natural wonder. The view from the top of the canyon really was incredible. The narrow green canyon opens up at the beginning of the falls and tapers outwards to reveal the gorgeous, turquoise pools. After enjoying the view and chatting with some other travelers for a few minutes, I headed down the canyon and made conversation with a Guatemalan tour guide.

To avoid having to walk back to Lanquin or possibly being stranded and having to return to Coban tomorrow morning, I arranged with the tour guide to pay to ride their van back at the end of the day. It worked out well for everyone because the tour guide got an extra fifty quetzales from me and I effectively became part of a tour that would otherwise have cost two hundred seventy five quetzales.

After some more diving and swimming in the pools, I followed my new tour group along the pools to a spot where a rope ladder was draped over the side of a thirty foot waterfall. One by one each of the travelers climbed over the edge of the waterfall and onto the precariously hanging ladder. This was one of those times when I looked at what was going on and thought to myself, “this would never fly in the United States”. In the US a tourist will scratch his arm or bump his knee and sue the travel agency for thousands of dollars. Then he'll go after the National Park Service and the individual travel guide who led him over the side of the ladder. So the result is that travel agencies in the US are limited to what is deemed acceptable by the legal system, and even then they'll have their clients sign a pile of liability waivers before they can do anything. The great thing about countries like Guatemala is that the legal system is so backwards that travel agencies are free to do whatever they feel is adventurous.

I climbed carefully down the ladder and at the bottom a giant cave opened up behind the waterfall. Inside the cave were dark pools filled by showers of water dripping down from the stalagtites above. Our guide threw a rope down a slope leading further into the wet cave and we each took turns sliding underneath a low ceiling of stalagtites and down the side of the dripping cave wall. From the bottom this cave bore a serious resemblance to The Penguin's cave in the movie, “Batman Returns”. A giant underground river raged past me and underneath the massive cavern of grey mineral formations. I could picture The Penguin and all his clown friends standing on the other side of the river and peering right back at me. Danny DeVito would feel right at home here.

Before heading back to Coban we stopped at a place called “Grutas de Lanquin” (Lanquin Caves). For an hour or so we wandered through a second, larger set of caves. Our guide told us that the Mayans used the Grutas de Lanquin for animal sacrifices. The human sacrifices were apparently done elsewhere. The most entertaining part of the Grutas de Lanquin was the different natural formations resembling animals and the accompanying signs placed by locals to mark them. The formations resembling a soaring eagle, a toad, and a hanging, dead sheep were interesting, but my favorite was “El Mono”, a natural rock formation resembling the wiley-eyed face of a mischevious monkey.

Coban

My friend Mark, who I met in Belize, showed me some pretty incredible pictures of a place in Guatemala called Semuc Champey, so I decided I had to go there. Semuc Champey isn't exactly in a convenient part of Guatemala. I'd have to burn a day on a bus to a city called Coban, near Semuc Champey, but I decided it would be worth it.

One great thing about spending a day on a bus through Guatemala was that I got to see several different parts of the country, and I got to see the lanscapes change from one place to the next. After heading a few hours north of Antigua the lush, green hills had changed to a grassy, cactus filled desert. The bus passed through several small villages on the way, a few of which resembled miniature Antiguas, complete with pastel-colored storefronts and small, colonial style cathederals. Soon enough the landscape turned back into tree-covered mountains and hills and by the early afternoon I was in Coban.

My sightseeing time was limited today since I spent so much time on the bus, but I was able to visit a place called “Finca Santa Margarita”, or in English, Santa Margarita Farm. During the 19th century German immigrants moved to Guatemala and settled in Coban. Many of them founded coffee farms and became very influential in the area. During World War II the United States pressured Guatemala to deport the German immigrants, many of whom were supporters of the Nazi party, but the coffee farms remained.

Fortunately I showed up just in time for the last tour of the day and I was off to explore the coffee farm with four Swedish girls and a Guatemalan guide. Despite the fact that I don't drink coffee and really am not interested in coffee except to see how it is produced, the tour of the farm was enjoyable. The guide began the tour by leading us through narrow paths lined with different varieties of coffee plants. She picked the beans of several of the plants and gave some to each of us to smell. Later in the tour we saw a small facility where the beans are separated from the fruit, an area where beans are laid out to dry in the sun, and a room where coffee beans are roasted and packaged. The whole factory was pretty low-tech as far as manufacturing is concerned, but it was funny to me that at the very end a Guatemalan hombre was packaging the beans in attractive bags that would look tasteful in any American coffee shop. People buying Guatemalan coffee beans in the United States would never guess that the coffee they are buying is packaged at factories using equipment that was out of date fifty years ago.
I always enjoy long conversations with people of different ethnic backgrounds. At the end of the tour I sat down with the four Swedish girls as we were all given a cup of coffee to try (I pretended that I just don't like coffee). We talked a lot about stereotypes of different cultures. For some reason I asked if everyone in Sweden genetically has blonde hair and blue eyes (a really lame question on my part, especially considering I've been to Sweden and have seen people there without blonde hair and blue eyes, but in my defense, all four of these girls had blonde hair and blue eyes). One of the girls made a good point and asked if everyone from Salt Lake City has blonde hair and blue eyes. She said that everyone asks the same questions about Sweden: first, if everyone has blonde hair and blue eyes, and second, if it snows all the time. One girl said that while traveling in China she met quite a few locals who thought that polar bears roam freely in the streets in Sweden. The stereotypes they had about America were about the same as I've heard from other travelers. On the bright side Americans make the greatest TV shows in the world and we're very patriotic. On the ugly side we're generally known as being ignorant of other cultures and we drink a lot of Coke and we're fat. I told them that I'm fat too, but that I hide it with a girdle.

Late this afternoon I really wanted to visit the “Templo el Calvario” on a hill overlooking the city. Unfortunately the sun was already setting and I've promised myself that I won't wander around alone after dark while I'm in Guatemala. I feel like Will Smith in the movie, “I Am Legend”. Everything is fair game during the day, but when the sun starts to set I've got to head straight for my hotel in fear of the wild creatures that might appear outside after dark. With any luck I'll have some time tomorrow, after visiting Semuc Champay, to see the Templo el Calvario before the sun sets.

I did have a chance to (cautiously) brave the dark city streets near my hotel as I searched for a place to eat dinner tonight. I played it better-safe-than-sorry, hid my money belt with my passport underneath a mattress in my hotel room, and left for dinner with only my room key and one hundred quetzales in my pocket.

I decided it was high time for me to have some really authentic Guatemalan food and I figured there was no better way to do it than to eat like many of the locals do - from a street vendor at the city's central plaza. Using my best Spanish, which is more accurately described as “severely mangled” than “broken”, I ordered two plates of “churrascos” from a street-side booth. I don't know exactly what a churrasco is, but what I got was a pile of grilled tortillas with steak, onions, and Guatemalan picante sauce on the side. Guatemalans know how to make a good taco (for the sake of simplicity, we'll call these things tacos). The street food from Coban would rival the best tacos at a Mexican restaurant in the States, and would absolutely blow away the concoctions at Taco Bell. After getting my food I sat on a flimsy plastic stool next to two Guatemalan men and piled my tortillas high with steak and picante sauce. I must have looked like a high-roller ordering two plates of the stuff on a whim, but for twenty quetzales (two dollars and fifty cents), it didn't exactly break the bank.

On my way back to the hotel I stopped at a kiosk on the side of the road to buy a bottle of water. Again, my Spanish fell short and there was a lack of communication between myself and the guy behind the counter, so to save face I just ordered an orange Fanta instead. After another struggle to communicate I realized that the bottle wasn't included in the price so I sat at the kiosk and sipped my Fanta, which I really didn't even want in the first place. While sipping away a lady next to me noticed my Spanish phrasebook and was completely intrigued by it. The lady, Gladys, asked how much it cost and flipped through several of the pages and suddenly I was in the middle of a conversation with her as well as Enrique, the guy manning the kiosk. I joked around a bit with the two Guatemalans and we taught each other a few words in our respective languages before I finished my Fanta and was off.

Trying to have conversations in Spanish is a lot of fun, even though I usually have no idea what the other person is saying or how to respond. It would be nice if I had learned a bit more before I came down here, but I find it much easier to learn now that it's a necessity to eat and get a hotel room every day. Even though there was no mind-blowing sight or experience today, it has been worthwhile just to keep things low-key for a change. Wandering around in Coban today gave me more opportunities to speak Spanish than I've had during the last few days combined. Originally I counted this day as one that would be “burned” in transit, but it really has been worthwhile. After visiting Semuc Champay tomorrow I think I'll feel like I've seen quite a bit of Guatemala.