Aventuras de Hoolia en América Central!: March 2008

No but seriously. Whose idea was that?? I can´t even open my eyes upon resurfacing without wiping them off first - god forbid there be a droplet of water still lingering on my eyelashes! Not anymore my friends, not anymore.

One 17 hour day of travel, one $25 ferry ride (?!?!), two hours of most-legit-dive hater dive shop shopping, three two hour classroom lessons, two confined water dives practicing skills, and two open water dives to 14 and 18 meters later..............................and I´m a certified Open Water Scuba Diver.

I´ll make this snappy since

a) im missing sunset as we speak (I type)

b) ive spent about 4 hours on the computer today, which is 3 hours and 45 minutes too long

c) pictures really can describe better than words!

<-----setting up our tanks on the dock

<--Our first dive spot.......crystal clear Caribbean waters! No complaints. Except maybe that I was getting a little toasty in my wetsuit. Ok, I´ll be quiet now.

Definitely one of the cutest creatures Ive ever seen....just hoppin along the oceanfloor, all casual styles.

Me, being.........well, me. But underwater.

Doing some serious investigation....

This is Moises. He was one of the instuctors at Parrot´s Dive Center where we got certified. He was probably the funniest, kindest, most wonderful Honduran guy we met. (Thank you Jen for being obsessed with the Patriots, noticing the big guy wearing the jersey, introducing yourself and confessing your love for the team, thereby guaranteeing us longlasting friendship and jersey borrowing priveledges!!

Crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-style-ninja-combat.................at 18 meters depth.

Well its been a while since my last real post, so let me attempt to catch you up on the last week and a half without boring you to death... (ha! as if one could get bored with the intricate details of the happenings of my life!)

After a fantastic week or so in Bocas, Jen and I headed to San Jose to catch a bus the next morning to Nicaragua. We were not looking forward to this one night in San Jose because....well, San Jose sucks. And this is coming from a girl who truly loves big, bustling, dirty, scary, smelly, smoggy cities (did someone say Bangkok? Or....La? :0 ). But we figured we´d make the best of it, so we showered, got in pj´s, gave ourselves manis and pedis (much needed after the beach) and went to bed relatively early, (since our bus the next morning was at 5:30am) only to wake up and find our floor (and jen´s shorts!) entirely soaked. IN PEE. Yes, our lovely little dorm roommate decided that 47 beers was an appropriate amount to consume, and thus was not sober enough to know that our floor was in fact, not the baño. GRRRRRRRRRR.

Anyway, after our little pee fiasco, we headed to the bus station where we luckily scored two seats on the Tica Bus (nicer, pricier bus line in Central America) which was supposed to make border crossing much quicker and less painful. Uhhhh, right. Tica Bus or no Tica Bus, the border requires 14 hundred thousand hours of standing in lines and attempting not to get robbed.

So.... 14 hundred thousand hours later....we made it across the border, and bused it to the small port town of San Juan Del Sur. The hostel we found happened to have an extremely large flat screen tv, which is funny because it also happened to be.....OSCAR SUNDAY!! w00t w00t!

You better believe I claimed the remote as soon as it was available, (which I was sure would make me every guy´s enemy), but as soon as I found the channel and saw all those shiny red strapless dresses, I knew it was going to be worth it. (Sidenote: whats up with Renee´s new hairdo??)...So I missed you all for my mom´s awesome Oscar party, but I was there in spirit!

The next morning Jen, Sonja (wonderful girl from Vancouver we met at the border) and I hopped on a collectivo and headed to Maderas beach, about 30 minutes north of San Juan....

Walking out the front of our cabaña....

It took me FOREVER to get this picture, and I´m pretty pround of it...humongous sting ray!!

The freshest ceviche you could imagine....por dos dollares!

The hammock in front of Ceviche Man´s stand...I spent many an hour in that!

Sunset in front of my favorite rock yet

So happy to be in nica

Sorry, I was midly obsessed with this rock, and how it cradled the sun for about 45 seconds before it set

For sunset one night, Jen, Sonja and I headed up to this place called Surfcamp Hideout where an eccentric character known to all as Crazy Dave cooks up a mean dinner for a bunch of skaters and surfers who stay at his hostel on the hill. We meet some really great guys from Montreal, had some delicious chicken fajitas, listened to (blasted?) some great music, and took in some killer views of the coastline...

The three chicas

Sonja and I in the fajita line!

The next morning at the ungodly hour of 6, I woke up to a POUNDING on our door, and a man´s voice yelling "Good morrrrrrrrrrning! Rise and shine! This is your activities director, Christie! We have a special surprise in store for you!" (It was just Mushroom Mark - apparently everyone has a nickname - a totally hilarious, quirky guy from Whistler who has lived on Maderas beach for a few years renting surf boards and spearfishing gear). So I rolled myself out of bed, followed Mark down to the beach, trying to hide my grumpiness for being woken up so early, only to find that there were tons of baby turtles hatching in the sand right in front of our cabaña.

Mark, thank you for waking me up.

After an unexpectedly amazing morning (see above pictures??!!)....we hopped in a van and waved goodbye to our precious Maderas beach and all of our new friends. On the ride back, we started chatting with a guy who was sharing the van with us. The conversation started out normal enough...

Me: ¨Hi where are from?"
Him: "La, what about you girls?"
Me: "Oh really? Cool. Jen and I lived there for 5 years for school. Im from Northern California."
Him: "Oh ok. I´m actually from the East Bay but I just say LA because Ive lived there for so long."
Me: "Oh crazy, I´m from the East Bay too. What part are you from?"
Him: "Umm this really small town. Moraga?"
Me: "SHUT. UP."

Small world much? Turned out I had even been in his house in Moraga. (I´m friends with his sister). Craziness.

Anyway, back in San Juan Del Sur, it was time to part ways with Sonja who was headed to Granada for a couple days before her flight home to Vancouver. Jen and I truly enjoyed the 3 days that we got to travel with her - she has such a positive spirit, and is just a great energy to be around in general. She even donated her coconut body oil and leavein hair conditioner spray which may sound insignificant, but were MUCH NEEDED and appreciated!

Next up for Jen and I was Isla Ometepe, an island set in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. The island is formed by an isthmus between two volcanoes, Maderas and Concepcion. After settling in for a couple days (one of which I spent a total of 6.5 hours to go to the lone ATM on the other side of the island!), we geared up to climb the smaller (and inactive!) of the two volcanoes: Maderas. ....

At 6 am, we had a power brekky at our favorite little restaurant by the water near our hostel, and were taken to the base of the volcano by the restaurant owner who also arranges trips to the volcano and guides to take people up. Around 7:45am, with walking sticks in hand, Juan Luis (our guide), Jen and I started up the trail, admiring the beautiful and unique vegetation, the whitefaced monkeys (which I spotted even before the guide), the intense ant fincas (ant farms haha), petroglyphs, banana trees, coffee plants, anis leaves (which I instantly rubbed all over my skin as soon as our guide mentioned that it works as a natural bug repellant....yesss)!

Two and a half hours in.. so far so good, a little muddy, a little steep, a little out of breath....and oh! Sure! Whatever you want, KNEE. Just stop bending. See if I care. Oh wait, I do care. Because now, well, I can´t bend my knee (which apparently is an integral part of hiking straight up a volcano). After about 20 minutes of silently enduring the pain and cursing my knee for failing me (like it has once before, at the top of Yosemite Falls) I decided to apply something that I have learned from practicing yoga these past few years, which is to listen to your body, and let go of your ego. I knew what I had to do. I sent Jen and Juan Luis continuing up, and began my slow descent, solo. The next few hours actually turned out to be an incredible experience. Descending through the mist of the clouds on a volcano...on an island....in a lake....in Nicaragua...by myself. It definitely provided for some quality introspection..

Ok Im tired of writing, and these chairs are uncomfortable, and I´m hogging the computer, and our friends just got back from the market, and its almost time to start celebrating..................JENS ACCEPTANCE INTO USC!!! Congrats bubba. I´m so damn proud of you.

Dinner at our fav place in Ometepe..