March 25, 2011
Leaving Little Corn at 6:30am on the panga boat was an adventure in itself. The ocean was so windy and the waves were massive. Our driver was pretty good at handling the boat but a few times when we had to climb a wave the boat felt like it was going to run out of steam. When we finally got to the dock we were bombarded with taxi drivers trying to grab our bags to take us to the airport. One guy selling conch shells and sea stars was outright yelling at everyone about the prices and saying "deese guys have to eat, why you try to only pay dem ten! dis ride cost ya 20!" We paid our 20 cordobas (the last cash we had) and got to their airport with lots of time to spare. Our flight back to Managua was rough and we had to land in Bluefields to pick up more people. I thought we were making an emergency landing because we started to descend while we still over the ocean!
We decided to stay in Managua and try to get Chad a haircut because he was starting to look on the shabby side. His mood is also proportional to his hair length. The longer the hair the crankier the Chad. We took a taxi from the airport to Managua Backpackers Inn which is actually run by a Canadian. It was really close to a mall so we hung out there and ate food court food went to the movies and drank delicious coffee's. Chad finally bought a sencond pair of shorts. I was getting pretty tired of looking at those grubby old red shorts that he has had for 10 years. On the way back from the mall the hostel owner told us to be careful because there was a group of little boys roaming around sniffing glue and might try to grab my bag or something. We were actually warned by a lot of people about how dangerous and horrible Managua is but we didn't really find it too bad. There were definately areas that you would stay away from but generally people were really helpful and nice to us.
Next on our list of shit to do in the city was a haircut. We asked one of the guys who worked at the hostel a good place to go and he told about this place called "Juane's". Apparently that's where he goes to get his hair cut and dyed because he started going grey at 15 and "this is a very bad thing" for him he says. He gave us directions and we found it fairly easily. When we walked in Chad was almost ready to turn around and run away. The place was almost exclusively staffed by very pretty, very fabulous gay fellas! They were gorgeous! The place was decortated all in white and pink and women seemed to have been there all day for various treatments. I plunked myself into a white leather couch and watched as chad tried to pantomime what kind of a hair cut he wanted. While this was going on one of the fabulous ones asked me if i wanted any agua, tea or cafe. I asked for agua and he said "oh no no no!" and brought me out a glass of iced tea that was amazing! They brought one for chad too while he was getting pampered. After his hair was cut chad tried to ask her to cut his sideburns a little more because as we all know they can become quite unruly. She said ok and proceeded to produce a straight blade razor! The woman sitting beside me asked if my husband spoke any spanish and might end up bald if he wasn't careful! She thought this was hilarious and we had quite the chuckle. His hairdresser wanted to put gel in his hair soooo badly but of course chad said no. All in all the whole experience costed $9 and we had the best time ever. I got to sit on a big white leather couch sipping ice tea and watching Enrique Iglesias videos and chad got to have a taste of how a real guapo latino has his hair done. His mood has also since improved.
Other things we did in the city: went to a movie staring sylvester stallone and a bunch of other meat heads and it wasn't even that bad, went out for wings, went out for an overpriced steak dinner and wine in our backpacker grubbyness in a really fancy restaurant, went for a walk around the Plaza de Revolucion and saw some cool statues and a church that looks like its about ready to fall over and went to a meuseum of sorts about the Sandinistas. Over two days we did a lot and actually had a really good time in Managua.
I got really frustrated on our last night there because I was getting sick of living out of my backpack and feeling trapped because your not supposed to walk around at night and always feeling like everyone is just trying to rip you off. Just tired I suppose, so we went for steak and wine. That made me feel better even though they fricken pan fried the steak....you just don't do that to a delicious cut of meat I tell you! It was delicious non the less and so was the wine. The next morning feeling refreshed and a little hung over we went for coffee at the mall again and got a taxi to the bus station. We went to San Jorge which is the town where you catch the ferry to Isla de Ometepe. All our timing worked out perfectly and we got to Finca Magdalena at sundown. We met a Dr. from Prince George and a speech therapist from Smithers on the boat and were going to share a taxi with them but as he spoke fluent spanish he found us a chicken bus for a $1 each instead of a $20 taxi. Super nice of him and I regret not even getting their names.
This is our second night here at the Finca (farm). It supposedly a working organic coffee and produce farm but we have yet to see any coffee or produce. We asked about horse back riding tours and they said they don't do any tours at the farm. We checked down the road and if you go through a different company they will give you a tour of the farm. Fricken backwards here sometimes.
an ant was crawling on chads pillow just now.....ewww. don't worry i got it.
We went for the longest walk in the world today. We thought that the town was close but it was actually a two hour walk away. The good thing however was that we ran into our friends from Quebec and Mexico. They were part of the big group we traveled with from Utila to Leon. They had picked up a Beligian along the way. They were headed to meet the other girls from Switzerland and the Netherlands on the beach. On Donnagee's head was a little baby white faced monkey. They picked him up at the restaurant and he liked to cuddle so when they tried to leave he wouldn't leave her. The owner said they could take him to the beach if they wanted. So of course the logical thing would be to take the monkey along. This particular monkey had a bit of cold and was a little on the boogery side. He was also deathly afraid of water so taking him to the beach was not a good idea. When Donnagee went swimming he decided he wasn't going to stick around and so he took off and they couldn't find him again. When we got back to the restaurant the owner asked where the monkey was and luckily Donnagee being from Mexico told her in spanish the whole story and the lady didn't seem to mad. This restaurant was filled with animals just hanging out everywhere, there were two parrots on a chair, a piglet had run of the whole house and a rooster made a home behind my chair and crowed right in my ear! Fidelio will make it home sooner or later. Poor little Fidelio is out there swinging in the trees probably having the time of his life...i hope! He even "made a pee pee" on me! Poor Donnagee felt so bad..."i loose so many thing today! first my earings, my pink bra, a monkey and now my washing soaps!".
This island is alive with farm animals. Everywhere you look there are actually well fed, decent sized horses, pigs, chickens, goats and big huge brahma looking cows. I tried to rent a couple horses today and I said that I didn't want a guide because I have "mucho experience con cabellos!". He didn't believe me so we didn't go
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Adventures on Little Corn
March 20, 2011
We ran out of money a few days ago but have kept a little stash in order that we may go to Tranquilo today after snorkeling to have a delicious bbq'd cheese burger on coconut bread buns! But alas is it is very difficult to get what you want, when you want on this island. Sunday being a day of rest here among the god fearing means closed for business and no burgers for us. We have had to eat at our hostel everyday for every meal because we have a tab and can pay for it with a credit card when we leave. Lots of places around the island have signs that say they accept credit cards but when we ask they always say..."no not right now" or its only for guests of their hotel. There is a particularily good restaurant just down the beach that we long to eat at but even after schmoozing the owners they can still not accept payment in credit card or dish washing for that matter. We are very preoccupied with food lately...mostly because we are spoiled rotten 1st worlders who always get what they want.
The hostess at our accomodations is a little girl named Shanelly who speaks creole and spanish and likes to boss the customers about. She can get away with most everything becuase she knows she is adorable. Her mom does her hair in braids every morning and every morning she wails her head off. But once she is set free she roams about the hostel seeing if anybody has any cool sunglasses that she can try on and is also a fan of having her picture taken. I think she is about 2. She likes to count to 10 before she jumps off the bench into the sand and thinks that 6 comes after 9 and won't be told any different. Shanelly likes to put her tooth marks into crayons and eats paper and flowers. She says: "mmm tastes like mango!" about everything. She tried to feed me a flower to prove it to me. Shanelly has a little baby brother but she can't remember his name. I drew her a flower and she went and told all the other customers and her Dad that she drew it, what a stinker. No one believed her though because we have all seen her artwork scrawled into the tables with crayon and know that she is still in the scribbles stage.
We did one dive yesterday. We were a bit disapointed because the visability was pretty bad and there wasn't much in way of large sea creatures. We did get to spot a couple of squid which was pretty cool and a monster lobster and a pair of dinner plate sized grey angel fish. There aren't any dive boats going out to the shark reefs this week because the wind has been pretty heavy. We saw one boat go out there but they were from a dive shop on Big Corn Island. Talked to a guy from Nova Scotia and he saw hammerhead and nurse sharks and sting rays. We're gonna go out on the boat to snorkel tomorrow with they guys who run our hostel because at least then we can charge it! We Canadians are out-numbering every other nationality we are finding. Met a family from the Yukon here on spring break vacation with thier teenagers.
This guy named Igor who is originally from Yugoslavia but has an Australian passport asked us if we wanted to go to Bocas Del Toro in Panama on his sailboat on tuesday. For $100 each we could ride on the boat for 180 miles. We'd have to pay for food and our entrance to Panama by boat ($75!!). We were pretty tempted because after our weeny sailing trip in Belize this one seemed legitamately a sailing trip. No motoring the whole way but actually using the sail to move the freakin boat! He came down here from Utila and it took about 16 days and they hit a few storms. The guy from Vancouver came down with him and said it was pretty scary at times. One night they hit a bad storm and had to take down the main sail and the boom wasn't tied tight so it was swinging around and they went over a big wave and the boat lurched and was inches away from slamming into Igor's face. Very close call. Plus nobody else on the boat knew how to sail so if they lost Igor they were all lost too. Sailing is so cool....its still seems like an adventure.
The place we are staying is called Cool Spot or Grace's Place. It seems like every place has a name and then who run's it. We've got a cabana that's about 20feet from the water with a hammock out front and even our own bathroom. Its super basic and looks like it would fall apart in a hurricane for sure. We were reading with the light on and all of a sudden it went out a little burst of flame came out of the light switch. Its a good thing we only have power at night or the whole place would burn down. We tried to cook itchyban with our little water heater element thing and a bucket and the water refused to boil so we gave up and went and had lobster instead. We each got two lobster tails for about $12 each. Lobster is about the only thing that is not proportionately priced. A burger and fries is $8 and hey for $4 more you can have a lobster feast!
Last night we found a crab in the bathroom. The floor is half concrete and half dirt behind the toilet and that must have been where he was hiding. I was doing my business and was about to throw the toilet paper in the trash (you can't flush your toilet paper down the toilet anywhere in central america!) when the crab grabbed the toilet paper out of my hand and tried to eat it! eeww. freaked me out i thought it was a mouse or something. Chad chased it around for a while but it eventually slipped thought he crack in the wall.
We went for a snorkel today but we only have one set of fins and mask. So we borrowed one mask and Chad had to tug me around. There isn't much to see in front of our place, mostly sea grass and sandy patches. We found a couple big conch's and a little sting ray and a few fish hanging out around some sunken palm tree logs. The channel where all the sharks hang out is actually directly in front of our place but you would need a boat to get out there. We went out pretty far but I got scared so I made Chad tug me back closer to the shore. I would rather be closer to a boat if I saw a shark. They say that the nurse sharks and even the hammerheads have never hurt anyone around here but still they are big fish with big teeth, that's enough to make me nervous. On a dive last week this guy from Vancouver went out and sat on the bottom and the sharks just swim around and basically ignore you so he decided to grab a hammerhead's tail. Obviously the shark was not impressed and took off pretty fast but as they were ascending he noticed the sharks starting to circle below them. That was enough to get him onto the boat in record time.
There are no cars here on little corn, nothing motorized at all actually. We have walked around quite a bit and did some exploring. Ended up in this German lady's yard where we thought there was supposed to be a restaurant. There was a sign that said "Farm Peace and Love" but apparently it is not a place to eat. She came out of her house and asked us what we were doing wandering around her yard. She had a massive Great Dane and a Bull Mastif and a couple other mutt style island dogs and some horses and cows. I think that you can stay out there but I don't believe she advertises or makes it well know. Plus she seemed kinda cranky especially for one who owns a farm called "Farm Peace and Love". After that place we tried "Derek's Place" which apparently has food sometimes. We strolled in and he also looked perturbed as to our presence. We asked if we could get some food, no dice....of course. But the lady who ran the kitchen said she could make us some fresh squeezed juice. Sounded delightful to us. But she only had one orange and some passion fruit so we had one watered down orange juice and a delicious passion fruit blended with ice. The cost: $5US!! If we would have known we would have kept on our way. Our precious cash funds depleted on juice! They seem to like using US dollars here for some reason. Not sure why but our place here charges in Cordobas.
I tried to find a place with internet to call me mum. I try to call every sunday but it doesn't always work and today was no exception. The power being out for more time than the power being on here leaves the wifi connections useless most of the time. Oh well, hopefully they will be in Costa Rica soon to hang out with us at the beach learning to surf! Only 8 weeks left of this trip and I have a feeling its going to go fast.
We ran out of money a few days ago but have kept a little stash in order that we may go to Tranquilo today after snorkeling to have a delicious bbq'd cheese burger on coconut bread buns! But alas is it is very difficult to get what you want, when you want on this island. Sunday being a day of rest here among the god fearing means closed for business and no burgers for us. We have had to eat at our hostel everyday for every meal because we have a tab and can pay for it with a credit card when we leave. Lots of places around the island have signs that say they accept credit cards but when we ask they always say..."no not right now" or its only for guests of their hotel. There is a particularily good restaurant just down the beach that we long to eat at but even after schmoozing the owners they can still not accept payment in credit card or dish washing for that matter. We are very preoccupied with food lately...mostly because we are spoiled rotten 1st worlders who always get what they want.
The hostess at our accomodations is a little girl named Shanelly who speaks creole and spanish and likes to boss the customers about. She can get away with most everything becuase she knows she is adorable. Her mom does her hair in braids every morning and every morning she wails her head off. But once she is set free she roams about the hostel seeing if anybody has any cool sunglasses that she can try on and is also a fan of having her picture taken. I think she is about 2. She likes to count to 10 before she jumps off the bench into the sand and thinks that 6 comes after 9 and won't be told any different. Shanelly likes to put her tooth marks into crayons and eats paper and flowers. She says: "mmm tastes like mango!" about everything. She tried to feed me a flower to prove it to me. Shanelly has a little baby brother but she can't remember his name. I drew her a flower and she went and told all the other customers and her Dad that she drew it, what a stinker. No one believed her though because we have all seen her artwork scrawled into the tables with crayon and know that she is still in the scribbles stage.
We did one dive yesterday. We were a bit disapointed because the visability was pretty bad and there wasn't much in way of large sea creatures. We did get to spot a couple of squid which was pretty cool and a monster lobster and a pair of dinner plate sized grey angel fish. There aren't any dive boats going out to the shark reefs this week because the wind has been pretty heavy. We saw one boat go out there but they were from a dive shop on Big Corn Island. Talked to a guy from Nova Scotia and he saw hammerhead and nurse sharks and sting rays. We're gonna go out on the boat to snorkel tomorrow with they guys who run our hostel because at least then we can charge it! We Canadians are out-numbering every other nationality we are finding. Met a family from the Yukon here on spring break vacation with thier teenagers.
This guy named Igor who is originally from Yugoslavia but has an Australian passport asked us if we wanted to go to Bocas Del Toro in Panama on his sailboat on tuesday. For $100 each we could ride on the boat for 180 miles. We'd have to pay for food and our entrance to Panama by boat ($75!!). We were pretty tempted because after our weeny sailing trip in Belize this one seemed legitamately a sailing trip. No motoring the whole way but actually using the sail to move the freakin boat! He came down here from Utila and it took about 16 days and they hit a few storms. The guy from Vancouver came down with him and said it was pretty scary at times. One night they hit a bad storm and had to take down the main sail and the boom wasn't tied tight so it was swinging around and they went over a big wave and the boat lurched and was inches away from slamming into Igor's face. Very close call. Plus nobody else on the boat knew how to sail so if they lost Igor they were all lost too. Sailing is so cool....its still seems like an adventure.
The place we are staying is called Cool Spot or Grace's Place. It seems like every place has a name and then who run's it. We've got a cabana that's about 20feet from the water with a hammock out front and even our own bathroom. Its super basic and looks like it would fall apart in a hurricane for sure. We were reading with the light on and all of a sudden it went out a little burst of flame came out of the light switch. Its a good thing we only have power at night or the whole place would burn down. We tried to cook itchyban with our little water heater element thing and a bucket and the water refused to boil so we gave up and went and had lobster instead. We each got two lobster tails for about $12 each. Lobster is about the only thing that is not proportionately priced. A burger and fries is $8 and hey for $4 more you can have a lobster feast!
Last night we found a crab in the bathroom. The floor is half concrete and half dirt behind the toilet and that must have been where he was hiding. I was doing my business and was about to throw the toilet paper in the trash (you can't flush your toilet paper down the toilet anywhere in central america!) when the crab grabbed the toilet paper out of my hand and tried to eat it! eeww. freaked me out i thought it was a mouse or something. Chad chased it around for a while but it eventually slipped thought he crack in the wall.
We went for a snorkel today but we only have one set of fins and mask. So we borrowed one mask and Chad had to tug me around. There isn't much to see in front of our place, mostly sea grass and sandy patches. We found a couple big conch's and a little sting ray and a few fish hanging out around some sunken palm tree logs. The channel where all the sharks hang out is actually directly in front of our place but you would need a boat to get out there. We went out pretty far but I got scared so I made Chad tug me back closer to the shore. I would rather be closer to a boat if I saw a shark. They say that the nurse sharks and even the hammerheads have never hurt anyone around here but still they are big fish with big teeth, that's enough to make me nervous. On a dive last week this guy from Vancouver went out and sat on the bottom and the sharks just swim around and basically ignore you so he decided to grab a hammerhead's tail. Obviously the shark was not impressed and took off pretty fast but as they were ascending he noticed the sharks starting to circle below them. That was enough to get him onto the boat in record time.
There are no cars here on little corn, nothing motorized at all actually. We have walked around quite a bit and did some exploring. Ended up in this German lady's yard where we thought there was supposed to be a restaurant. There was a sign that said "Farm Peace and Love" but apparently it is not a place to eat. She came out of her house and asked us what we were doing wandering around her yard. She had a massive Great Dane and a Bull Mastif and a couple other mutt style island dogs and some horses and cows. I think that you can stay out there but I don't believe she advertises or makes it well know. Plus she seemed kinda cranky especially for one who owns a farm called "Farm Peace and Love". After that place we tried "Derek's Place" which apparently has food sometimes. We strolled in and he also looked perturbed as to our presence. We asked if we could get some food, no dice....of course. But the lady who ran the kitchen said she could make us some fresh squeezed juice. Sounded delightful to us. But she only had one orange and some passion fruit so we had one watered down orange juice and a delicious passion fruit blended with ice. The cost: $5US!! If we would have known we would have kept on our way. Our precious cash funds depleted on juice! They seem to like using US dollars here for some reason. Not sure why but our place here charges in Cordobas.
I tried to find a place with internet to call me mum. I try to call every sunday but it doesn't always work and today was no exception. The power being out for more time than the power being on here leaves the wifi connections useless most of the time. Oh well, hopefully they will be in Costa Rica soon to hang out with us at the beach learning to surf! Only 8 weeks left of this trip and I have a feeling its going to go fast.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Off to Little Corn
March 16, 2011
To get to Corn Island: take a bus to Managua, take a taxi to the airport, take a plane to Big Corn Island, take a taxi to the dock, take a panga to Little Corn Island, walk to your hotel and your there! Every form of transportation is put to use, besides a dog sled.
The flight to Corn Island was a nice change from hours on a bus. Almost as soon as we were settled into our seats we started our decent. We landed on Big Corn Island and had to get a cab to the docks where we caught to panga (little boat) to Little Corn Island. The crossing is notoriously rough. We hit a few big waves but overall it was more entertaining than scary. We met a couple from Colorado who opened a hotel/restaurant here and when we got off the boat they showed us the short cut to the beach cabanas out of the village. We had to stay in a leaky room last night because all the rooms were full! But this morning we snapped up a sweet beach cabana with its own bathroom! It is so much more expensive here than we realized. We took about $200 with us thinking that was more than enough for a week because it has been so far. As soon as we got here we realized the hostels are about double the price they are on the mainland and food is about quadrouple. Last night we went for dinner at the coloradian's restaurant and were blown away by how much the food was. I had shrimp and it was $12 and chad had a tiny piece of chicken for $9. We had to try their ceasar's though! They told us on the boat that they get so many Canadian visitors that they had to start making them because they all hated the bloody mary's. They decided to quit making bloody mary's all together because these were so much better. The only catch was that they were $4 each! Our whole bill came to $32! oops. They accept credit cards at some places so at least we can pay for our room but eating out is going to be tricky. Have to dust off the ole calculator.
Today we spent the day wandering lost around the island. Amazing how lost you can get on an island that only takes an hour to walk completely across. We started in the village and thought maybe we would walk the beach until we got back to our hostel on the other side of the island. We found some beautiful golden sand beaches with not a soul in sight but we also neglected to bring any water or sunscreen. We walked a bit faster and at every turn we seemed to find more beach or impassable cliffs. The first path we took from the beach ended up in this family`s yard and they were quite reluctant to tell us the correct path back to the village, pleading `no english!` . So we guessed. After we found a bunch of cows we found another house and a much more helpful family that pointed us in the right direction back to the village. If we weren`t lost and hungry and thirsty it would have been a great hike! Once back in the village we had a beer and decided it was lunch time. Ritz crackers, chips and cookies were on the menu to conserve much needed funds. Although the damn chips were as much as a small meal! Back to the Cool Spot for us and we settled in with a nice bottle of Nica Rum a coke and a tub of ice. We rigged up the laptop and the ipod and are having quite the happening cabana party.
To get to Corn Island: take a bus to Managua, take a taxi to the airport, take a plane to Big Corn Island, take a taxi to the dock, take a panga to Little Corn Island, walk to your hotel and your there! Every form of transportation is put to use, besides a dog sled.
The flight to Corn Island was a nice change from hours on a bus. Almost as soon as we were settled into our seats we started our decent. We landed on Big Corn Island and had to get a cab to the docks where we caught to panga (little boat) to Little Corn Island. The crossing is notoriously rough. We hit a few big waves but overall it was more entertaining than scary. We met a couple from Colorado who opened a hotel/restaurant here and when we got off the boat they showed us the short cut to the beach cabanas out of the village. We had to stay in a leaky room last night because all the rooms were full! But this morning we snapped up a sweet beach cabana with its own bathroom! It is so much more expensive here than we realized. We took about $200 with us thinking that was more than enough for a week because it has been so far. As soon as we got here we realized the hostels are about double the price they are on the mainland and food is about quadrouple. Last night we went for dinner at the coloradian's restaurant and were blown away by how much the food was. I had shrimp and it was $12 and chad had a tiny piece of chicken for $9. We had to try their ceasar's though! They told us on the boat that they get so many Canadian visitors that they had to start making them because they all hated the bloody mary's. They decided to quit making bloody mary's all together because these were so much better. The only catch was that they were $4 each! Our whole bill came to $32! oops. They accept credit cards at some places so at least we can pay for our room but eating out is going to be tricky. Have to dust off the ole calculator.
Today we spent the day wandering lost around the island. Amazing how lost you can get on an island that only takes an hour to walk completely across. We started in the village and thought maybe we would walk the beach until we got back to our hostel on the other side of the island. We found some beautiful golden sand beaches with not a soul in sight but we also neglected to bring any water or sunscreen. We walked a bit faster and at every turn we seemed to find more beach or impassable cliffs. The first path we took from the beach ended up in this family`s yard and they were quite reluctant to tell us the correct path back to the village, pleading `no english!` . So we guessed. After we found a bunch of cows we found another house and a much more helpful family that pointed us in the right direction back to the village. If we weren`t lost and hungry and thirsty it would have been a great hike! Once back in the village we had a beer and decided it was lunch time. Ritz crackers, chips and cookies were on the menu to conserve much needed funds. Although the damn chips were as much as a small meal! Back to the Cool Spot for us and we settled in with a nice bottle of Nica Rum a coke and a tub of ice. We rigged up the laptop and the ipod and are having quite the happening cabana party.
Friday, March 11, 2011
The trip to Nicaragua!
March 10, 2011
Well after a 1 hour ferry ride, 4 hour bus ride, a night in San Pedro Sula, then a 13 hour bus ride we finally made it to....Leon. We were originally going to head all the way to Grenada today but after joining up with a group of travelers and enduring more than enough time in that freezing cold stinkin bus we decided Leon it would be. Its supposed to be Grenada's rival city. We formed a nice little group of 9 when we all got on the ferry from Utila. Made up of 5 Canadians, an Israeli fella, an English lass, a Swiss girl and a girl from the Netherlands. Three out of the five of us Canadians are of the Quebecois variety but thankfully forgive our uni-lingualness and speak mostly English in the group. I do however enjoy the ocasional exclamation of "tabernack!". We make quite the formidable group. We took every last dorm room here at the Bigfoot Hostel. We just got back from an authentic Nicaraguan buffet! I couldn't tell you the name of anything that we ate but it was all delicious. Much better than last night's beleada run. We were warned that walking anywhere in San Pedro Sula was not advised as it the murder capital of Central America. We figured a couple thugs wouldn't mess with our crew so we went 2 blocks to find some food. The first thing we found was a fast food style beleada place. A beleada is a tortilla with beans and rice and egg and whatever other type of mixture you want in it. Chad's was stuffed full with a chilly type mash and I went for the egg...tasted like a nasty olive. The hostel we stayed in was really nice actually. It felt like we were at someone's house. There was a living room where we all sat on futons and drank beer and watched a movie before bed. We stayed in the dorms and it was so hot we couldn't really sleep that well. The bus ride here was absolutely brutal and it was supposed to be the first class bus. First of all we had to be at the bus terminal at 4 in the morning to leave the city at 5. Our cab didn't come to pick us up until 4:30 so we were a bit late but at least we made up about half of the passengers so they wouldn't leave without us. The shoved all of us into two taxis including all the bags. For some reason they charge by the person and not by the trip so we didn't even save any money being packed in. Once we finally got on the bus we were getting ready to sleep the rest of the morning away but the AC was on full blast and because it was 28degrees out at night no one was wearing sweaters or pants or touques (which were almost necessary). I complained once and got the typical shrug response. Thankfully we got a flat tire and had to stop at a service station to get it fixed, at which time I had to sort through all the bags to find mine and get out all my warm gear. Had a coconut sugar cookie and an OJ for breaky and we hit the road again. No more stopping breaks for us until the Nicaraguan border. Crossing took slightly longer than the other crossings we did and they even searched some bags (didn't happen any where else so far). It cost $15 to enter Nicaragua and some of the group didn't have enough money. We did a pool and got them through, we think maybe the drivers took a bit of the cut because all the guide books said it would cost only $7. Another currency to learn! Here in ole Nica its the Cordoba. I already think that I'm going to like it here. There is a cathedral in the center of town that is supposed to be the biggest in Central America. That's the plan for tomorrow...walk...church...walk...church...food....walk....drink....walk....sleep! Once big difference already that I have noticed is that there are fruits and vegetables!! Yay! Starting to think I'm coming down with scurvy! or the bends or whatever.
Well after a 1 hour ferry ride, 4 hour bus ride, a night in San Pedro Sula, then a 13 hour bus ride we finally made it to....Leon. We were originally going to head all the way to Grenada today but after joining up with a group of travelers and enduring more than enough time in that freezing cold stinkin bus we decided Leon it would be. Its supposed to be Grenada's rival city. We formed a nice little group of 9 when we all got on the ferry from Utila. Made up of 5 Canadians, an Israeli fella, an English lass, a Swiss girl and a girl from the Netherlands. Three out of the five of us Canadians are of the Quebecois variety but thankfully forgive our uni-lingualness and speak mostly English in the group. I do however enjoy the ocasional exclamation of "tabernack!". We make quite the formidable group. We took every last dorm room here at the Bigfoot Hostel. We just got back from an authentic Nicaraguan buffet! I couldn't tell you the name of anything that we ate but it was all delicious. Much better than last night's beleada run. We were warned that walking anywhere in San Pedro Sula was not advised as it the murder capital of Central America. We figured a couple thugs wouldn't mess with our crew so we went 2 blocks to find some food. The first thing we found was a fast food style beleada place. A beleada is a tortilla with beans and rice and egg and whatever other type of mixture you want in it. Chad's was stuffed full with a chilly type mash and I went for the egg...tasted like a nasty olive. The hostel we stayed in was really nice actually. It felt like we were at someone's house. There was a living room where we all sat on futons and drank beer and watched a movie before bed. We stayed in the dorms and it was so hot we couldn't really sleep that well. The bus ride here was absolutely brutal and it was supposed to be the first class bus. First of all we had to be at the bus terminal at 4 in the morning to leave the city at 5. Our cab didn't come to pick us up until 4:30 so we were a bit late but at least we made up about half of the passengers so they wouldn't leave without us. The shoved all of us into two taxis including all the bags. For some reason they charge by the person and not by the trip so we didn't even save any money being packed in. Once we finally got on the bus we were getting ready to sleep the rest of the morning away but the AC was on full blast and because it was 28degrees out at night no one was wearing sweaters or pants or touques (which were almost necessary). I complained once and got the typical shrug response. Thankfully we got a flat tire and had to stop at a service station to get it fixed, at which time I had to sort through all the bags to find mine and get out all my warm gear. Had a coconut sugar cookie and an OJ for breaky and we hit the road again. No more stopping breaks for us until the Nicaraguan border. Crossing took slightly longer than the other crossings we did and they even searched some bags (didn't happen any where else so far). It cost $15 to enter Nicaragua and some of the group didn't have enough money. We did a pool and got them through, we think maybe the drivers took a bit of the cut because all the guide books said it would cost only $7. Another currency to learn! Here in ole Nica its the Cordoba. I already think that I'm going to like it here. There is a cathedral in the center of town that is supposed to be the biggest in Central America. That's the plan for tomorrow...walk...church...walk...church...food....walk....drink....walk....sleep! Once big difference already that I have noticed is that there are fruits and vegetables!! Yay! Starting to think I'm coming down with scurvy! or the bends or whatever.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Still in Utila...
March 8, 2011
The past few days have been spent trying to see a doctor about our ear issues. There is an eccentric doctor in town named Dr. John who is an American and is apparently absolutely stark raving mad. He works very minimal hours but when an emergency happens he is there. Supposedly he drinks a lot and does a fair amount of drugs but is the best doctor on the island. He has long hair and a big beard and an ample belly. His wardrobe of choice is a pair of short jean cutoffs and a t-shirt...maybe if your lucky. He sells these ear drops for divers that prevents what we have now. They are called: Dr. John's Eardrops. We went to see him yesterday because Chad's ear is just getting worse and mine were starting to hurt. The clinic was open but no doctor on that day because the night before they had an emergency. Today we figured he had to be open...we waited all moring but he didn't show up again. We met a dentist outside his office who said that he works with him from time to time and this is pretty typical for him to not show up or to show up drunk but that he was the best doctor he ever met. We found a doctor eventually but she only spoke spanish. Our problems were pretty standard so it wasn't difficult. She gave us each some antibiotics pills and drops and some anti-inflammatories. She said no drinking or diving for a week! The whole visit and meds were actually fairly expensive: $2072 Limperas or like $100. We advised our friend David who just arrived in Utila on Monday to invest in some ear drops before he even gets in the water so he could avoid this issue altogether.
Back to Dr. John. So the emergency that had him up all night on Sunday was actually a good ole fashioned wild west shootout. We heard the story today from a friend of one of the shooting victims. There is this crazy German guy who has lived here for some time who runs the BBQ at Evelyn's Restaurant. He has two dogs and they were poisoned for whatever reason. He decided to blame this group of three other expats who live here on Utila, one was a guy named Steve (nationality unknow), a girl from scottland and another girl (name and nationality also unknown). He found them at a bar called Quervo's and told them that "this is war!". They didn't really think anything of it and just shrugged it off and told him they didn't know anything about what happened to his dogs. The next night they were at the same bar having some beers at around 11:30 and he came in through the side entrance to the bar. He had a 38 magnum with him this time. He pointed the gun at Steve's head and pulled the trigger! It grazed the top of his head and left him with a nasty abrasion. The German then pulled his gun on one of the girls in the group. This was a Scottish girl we had actually been served by at a different restaurant the night before. He shot her in the back as she was trying to duck out of the way. While the German was doing that Steve grabbed a cooler that was behind him and used it as a shield, the German shot at him again, hitting the cooler. Amazingly the bullet didn't go through and he was able to hit the shooter with it and elbow him in the face and the gun fell to the ground. At which point he grabbed it and ran outside and screamed for help. The German followed him and spread out his arms and asked Steve to shoot him. Steve decided that was probably not a good idea and there were no more bullets in the gun anyways. Once the police got there he calmly put his arms behind his back and was completely content with being taken to jail. The Scottish girl was hurt pretty badly and that's where Dr. John had to be called. They brought her to the clinic and he stayed with her all night and got the bullet out. She had lost a lot of blood and had to be taken to the hospital in Roatan. Everyone is amazed that no one was killed. This guy was obviously off his rocker and will spend a long time in jail...or the mental hospital. This kind of thing really never happens here so everyone is talking about it. Anyways I guess we could forgive Dr. John for not being able to come to work to fix our ear infections.
Yesterday was actually very eventful, other than the shooting. Nate and Becca had a brand new baby boy, it was my brother's birthday and our friend David came to the island. I am pretty ripped that we couldn't be there to welcome the new baby and enjoy his brand newness, but we will see him soon.
We are still trying to figure out when we are leaving. We keep saying tomorrow but it keeps becoming tomorrow and we keep putting it off. The next leg of our journey will take us through Honduras and into Nicaragua. We don't really plan on seeing anything more in Honduras. It will be about a 3 day journey to Granada but we take the Tika bus which at least has air conditioning. After that its off to Isla de Ometepe and then San Juan del Sur for some surfing. We actually have a bit of a plan for the next couple weeks which is unusual.
The past few days have been spent trying to see a doctor about our ear issues. There is an eccentric doctor in town named Dr. John who is an American and is apparently absolutely stark raving mad. He works very minimal hours but when an emergency happens he is there. Supposedly he drinks a lot and does a fair amount of drugs but is the best doctor on the island. He has long hair and a big beard and an ample belly. His wardrobe of choice is a pair of short jean cutoffs and a t-shirt...maybe if your lucky. He sells these ear drops for divers that prevents what we have now. They are called: Dr. John's Eardrops. We went to see him yesterday because Chad's ear is just getting worse and mine were starting to hurt. The clinic was open but no doctor on that day because the night before they had an emergency. Today we figured he had to be open...we waited all moring but he didn't show up again. We met a dentist outside his office who said that he works with him from time to time and this is pretty typical for him to not show up or to show up drunk but that he was the best doctor he ever met. We found a doctor eventually but she only spoke spanish. Our problems were pretty standard so it wasn't difficult. She gave us each some antibiotics pills and drops and some anti-inflammatories. She said no drinking or diving for a week! The whole visit and meds were actually fairly expensive: $2072 Limperas or like $100. We advised our friend David who just arrived in Utila on Monday to invest in some ear drops before he even gets in the water so he could avoid this issue altogether.
Back to Dr. John. So the emergency that had him up all night on Sunday was actually a good ole fashioned wild west shootout. We heard the story today from a friend of one of the shooting victims. There is this crazy German guy who has lived here for some time who runs the BBQ at Evelyn's Restaurant. He has two dogs and they were poisoned for whatever reason. He decided to blame this group of three other expats who live here on Utila, one was a guy named Steve (nationality unknow), a girl from scottland and another girl (name and nationality also unknown). He found them at a bar called Quervo's and told them that "this is war!". They didn't really think anything of it and just shrugged it off and told him they didn't know anything about what happened to his dogs. The next night they were at the same bar having some beers at around 11:30 and he came in through the side entrance to the bar. He had a 38 magnum with him this time. He pointed the gun at Steve's head and pulled the trigger! It grazed the top of his head and left him with a nasty abrasion. The German then pulled his gun on one of the girls in the group. This was a Scottish girl we had actually been served by at a different restaurant the night before. He shot her in the back as she was trying to duck out of the way. While the German was doing that Steve grabbed a cooler that was behind him and used it as a shield, the German shot at him again, hitting the cooler. Amazingly the bullet didn't go through and he was able to hit the shooter with it and elbow him in the face and the gun fell to the ground. At which point he grabbed it and ran outside and screamed for help. The German followed him and spread out his arms and asked Steve to shoot him. Steve decided that was probably not a good idea and there were no more bullets in the gun anyways. Once the police got there he calmly put his arms behind his back and was completely content with being taken to jail. The Scottish girl was hurt pretty badly and that's where Dr. John had to be called. They brought her to the clinic and he stayed with her all night and got the bullet out. She had lost a lot of blood and had to be taken to the hospital in Roatan. Everyone is amazed that no one was killed. This guy was obviously off his rocker and will spend a long time in jail...or the mental hospital. This kind of thing really never happens here so everyone is talking about it. Anyways I guess we could forgive Dr. John for not being able to come to work to fix our ear infections.
Yesterday was actually very eventful, other than the shooting. Nate and Becca had a brand new baby boy, it was my brother's birthday and our friend David came to the island. I am pretty ripped that we couldn't be there to welcome the new baby and enjoy his brand newness, but we will see him soon.
We are still trying to figure out when we are leaving. We keep saying tomorrow but it keeps becoming tomorrow and we keep putting it off. The next leg of our journey will take us through Honduras and into Nicaragua. We don't really plan on seeing anything more in Honduras. It will be about a 3 day journey to Granada but we take the Tika bus which at least has air conditioning. After that its off to Isla de Ometepe and then San Juan del Sur for some surfing. We actually have a bit of a plan for the next couple weeks which is unusual.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Utila dive-a-thon!
March 3, 2011
We have been learning to scuba dive for the past 4 days! We signed up to do out Open Water Scuba Diver course through the Utila Dive Centre. There was a bunch of class time and skills tests, 2 confined dives and 4 open water dives off the boat. Utila is supposed to be the cheapest place in the world to learn how to dive. Everyone who is here is here to dive and if not its to stay on some of the private islands they have here. $100 a night and you can stay on your own island in a cabana. We just finished the course today. Chad is hooked and now wants to do his advanced course. I was unfortunate enough to be cursed with narrow ear tubes and have some crazy pain when resurfacing. I have to go really really slow when coming up but even then it still hurts like hell. Everyone else had more trouble equalizing going down, that part was good for me. Once I'm down there and past a certain depth, like 8 or 10 meters its great and and I love feeling weightless!! The fish are so cool when you actually get to stop and look at them and hang out on the bottom with them for a while. Our first dive was at a place called Little Bight and the corral was colourful and the fish plentiful. We went to 12 meters. The second dive was at a place called Black Corral Wall and that's what it was...a corral wall that we dove beside. We went to 16 meters there. Today we dove at Ted's Point and Moon Hole. They were both beautiful. The surface was a little rougher so got a few mouthfull's of seawater. Finished off all the skills and did some backflips and handstands on the bottom to celebrate our newfound scuba certification! Our instructor was so patient and helpful. The divemasters were cool too but our school is a teaching facility and so we each had a divemaster following us around trying to help us get our buoyency right and help us to equalize and go up. After a while I was getting a little sick of them grabbing me by the tank and putting me where they wanted me and pressing my buttons and all those frickin hand signals were nuts! We have two fun dives booked for tomorrow and I'm looking forward to them but my ears are not. I tried so hard to go as slow as absolutely possible when coming up but my ears still had a "squeeze" and i couldn't even function for about a minute because it hurt so bad and I couldn't hear. So ya no advanced diving for me I guess, which really sucks because every other part of diving is so awesome. I think I inherited my mom's ears...she has issues even driving to the mountains.
Other than diving Utila is a pretty nice little town. The food here is great. We go to RJ's BBQ every mon, wed and fri for grilled fish! Tonight we are going to the Driftwood Restaurant with our instructors to celebrate our PADI certs. There was a beach BBQ pig roast on the second night we were here and we went to have a plate. When we got there the sand flies ate us alive and there was no pig roasting...it apparently was cooked earlier and was in cardboard boxes. The dude dished us up with his bare hands pulling out the pig portions from the nasty greasy box. It was pretty frickin gross and I had an instant stomach ache. We gave the rest to the dogs and high taled it back to RJ's for some good food. Our friend from the sailing trip, Mike from England, was especially covered in sand fly bites. He is also doing the dive course with us aswell as a girl from Ohio named Jackie. We've been pretty hard on the budget these past few days....after diving beer and good food are always in order. No cooking for us yet. We are in dorms however. Chad and I try to make our room look as unwelcoming as possible in order to keep out intruders! Each dorm only sleeps four but its nice for us to have the room to ourselves. This french girl with an English accent stayed for two nights. Chad and I had took both the bottom bunks and we clearly had our stuff on our beds. She went over to my bed and put her stuff on it and proceeded to pull out a loaf of white bimbo (that's a brand name here) bread and mow down a few slices. I politely told her that my stuff and my sheets were on that bed and she said "oh that's ok". So I politely asked her "soo...um...which bed do you want?" she said "this one if you don't mind" i said "well I did sleep there last night and that is all of my stuff and my sheets so ya i guess you can i just need to move all of my stuff." she said "yes, thankyou". So she effectively and politely stole my bed....bugger.
March 4, 2011
We are now officially certified open water divers....not sure if I ever want to dive again but at least I can say that I can if I want to! My ears are not feeling any better. We have two fun dives to do today at 1 but I really don't know if I can do it. Last night to celebrate we went out to the Driftwood restaurant and I had a porkchop the size of my head! Chad an entire half of chicken. Not sure what we plan on doing for the rest of our time on Utila. Chad was thinking of doing the advanced course and did some shopping around at schools last night. He still doesn't know. After the Driftwood we went to the Tranquila Bar. We met two girls from Edmonton there. They both work on Whyte Ave. One at Filthy McNasty's and the other at Black Dog. Small world. They both bartend during the summers and roll in the dough and take the winter and travel. Last year Thailand, this year Central America. Meeting so many Canadians on this trip. People have been raving about Costa Rica like crazy so I 'm getting excited to head there soon.
March 5, 2011
3 fun dives down with no ear squeeze!! I decided I wasn't going to skip my fun dives just because of a little ear pain. The pain always went away so whatever. I'm so glad that I didn't skip them because my ears were great and I saw so much cool stuff. Our first two dives yesterday we did in the afternoon. I really like one called Labarynth. It was like a maze through the corral. It was like swimming through canyons of corral. Saw some lobsters and all sorts of fish. Went out with the boat afterwards to try to find some whale sharks but they have been eluding us so far. You have to look for a big flock of birds dive bombing the surface to find them. The birds are eating all the plankton and shrimps that get sent to the surface when the sharks are eating. We saw some pictures that one of the divemasters took and they look enormous! Hopefully we will be able to see one. The dives we did today were pretty cool too. We went out with the morning boats in hopes that we could do the dives and then look for some whale sharks again but no such luck. We did see a pod of spinner dolphins and a sea turtle though! We found a lionfish too. There were a couple of people on the boat who were hunting them. They are actually foriegn to the carribean and are becoming a big problem so people are going out and spearing them and leaving the dead fish around to teach the other fish to start eating them. Becuase they are foreign there have no natural predators so they are multiplying like crazy. 60,000 eggs in one week per female. They are super poisonous too. They are normally found in Thailand and other asian countries but they have a couple of theories about how they came to the carribean. The first is that an aquarium in Florida was damaged in a hurricaine and the all the fish got swept out to sea and the lionfish just flourished. The other theory is that they came from the ballasts of tanker ships from asia when they pump them out in harbours. Underwater they look black and white and have fins sticking out in every direction and like to hover under rocks. Chad did the second dive today and I snorkeled. He saw a huge fish that no one really knew the name of so they decided to call it the bigfatfish. The snorkeling was crazy and I got to see quite a bit. I took some pics and video of them diving below me. As they were coming back to the boat the pod of dolphins decided to show and up and swim past us. Spinner dolphins are smaller than bottlenose ones and are generally not to curious about divers and tend to swim away. Bottlenose on the other hand will come up to divers and look and them and see what the heck they are and why do they look so funny. I think I am going to be a mermaid when I grow up.
Said goodbye to Mike from England today. He is heading south like we should be but just the effort of packing my bag right now is beyond my capabilities. We are so tired and hot and just wanting to chill for a few more days and let our ears drain! I would like to have dry hair for maybe longer than a couple of hours. Our hotel here is frickin awesome and I am not looking forward to having to leave. They kicked out an American couple because they were not taking the dive course anymore, so hopefully we don't get the boot! I think I know the reason now why people here tend to never leave...its too much of a pain in the ass to get anywhere and the mainland is ugly and busy and poluted.
Creature tally in room: 1 very large spider, 1 very cute lizard, 10,000 mosquitos.
We have been learning to scuba dive for the past 4 days! We signed up to do out Open Water Scuba Diver course through the Utila Dive Centre. There was a bunch of class time and skills tests, 2 confined dives and 4 open water dives off the boat. Utila is supposed to be the cheapest place in the world to learn how to dive. Everyone who is here is here to dive and if not its to stay on some of the private islands they have here. $100 a night and you can stay on your own island in a cabana. We just finished the course today. Chad is hooked and now wants to do his advanced course. I was unfortunate enough to be cursed with narrow ear tubes and have some crazy pain when resurfacing. I have to go really really slow when coming up but even then it still hurts like hell. Everyone else had more trouble equalizing going down, that part was good for me. Once I'm down there and past a certain depth, like 8 or 10 meters its great and and I love feeling weightless!! The fish are so cool when you actually get to stop and look at them and hang out on the bottom with them for a while. Our first dive was at a place called Little Bight and the corral was colourful and the fish plentiful. We went to 12 meters. The second dive was at a place called Black Corral Wall and that's what it was...a corral wall that we dove beside. We went to 16 meters there. Today we dove at Ted's Point and Moon Hole. They were both beautiful. The surface was a little rougher so got a few mouthfull's of seawater. Finished off all the skills and did some backflips and handstands on the bottom to celebrate our newfound scuba certification! Our instructor was so patient and helpful. The divemasters were cool too but our school is a teaching facility and so we each had a divemaster following us around trying to help us get our buoyency right and help us to equalize and go up. After a while I was getting a little sick of them grabbing me by the tank and putting me where they wanted me and pressing my buttons and all those frickin hand signals were nuts! We have two fun dives booked for tomorrow and I'm looking forward to them but my ears are not. I tried so hard to go as slow as absolutely possible when coming up but my ears still had a "squeeze" and i couldn't even function for about a minute because it hurt so bad and I couldn't hear. So ya no advanced diving for me I guess, which really sucks because every other part of diving is so awesome. I think I inherited my mom's ears...she has issues even driving to the mountains.
Other than diving Utila is a pretty nice little town. The food here is great. We go to RJ's BBQ every mon, wed and fri for grilled fish! Tonight we are going to the Driftwood Restaurant with our instructors to celebrate our PADI certs. There was a beach BBQ pig roast on the second night we were here and we went to have a plate. When we got there the sand flies ate us alive and there was no pig roasting...it apparently was cooked earlier and was in cardboard boxes. The dude dished us up with his bare hands pulling out the pig portions from the nasty greasy box. It was pretty frickin gross and I had an instant stomach ache. We gave the rest to the dogs and high taled it back to RJ's for some good food. Our friend from the sailing trip, Mike from England, was especially covered in sand fly bites. He is also doing the dive course with us aswell as a girl from Ohio named Jackie. We've been pretty hard on the budget these past few days....after diving beer and good food are always in order. No cooking for us yet. We are in dorms however. Chad and I try to make our room look as unwelcoming as possible in order to keep out intruders! Each dorm only sleeps four but its nice for us to have the room to ourselves. This french girl with an English accent stayed for two nights. Chad and I had took both the bottom bunks and we clearly had our stuff on our beds. She went over to my bed and put her stuff on it and proceeded to pull out a loaf of white bimbo (that's a brand name here) bread and mow down a few slices. I politely told her that my stuff and my sheets were on that bed and she said "oh that's ok". So I politely asked her "soo...um...which bed do you want?" she said "this one if you don't mind" i said "well I did sleep there last night and that is all of my stuff and my sheets so ya i guess you can i just need to move all of my stuff." she said "yes, thankyou". So she effectively and politely stole my bed....bugger.
March 4, 2011
We are now officially certified open water divers....not sure if I ever want to dive again but at least I can say that I can if I want to! My ears are not feeling any better. We have two fun dives to do today at 1 but I really don't know if I can do it. Last night to celebrate we went out to the Driftwood restaurant and I had a porkchop the size of my head! Chad an entire half of chicken. Not sure what we plan on doing for the rest of our time on Utila. Chad was thinking of doing the advanced course and did some shopping around at schools last night. He still doesn't know. After the Driftwood we went to the Tranquila Bar. We met two girls from Edmonton there. They both work on Whyte Ave. One at Filthy McNasty's and the other at Black Dog. Small world. They both bartend during the summers and roll in the dough and take the winter and travel. Last year Thailand, this year Central America. Meeting so many Canadians on this trip. People have been raving about Costa Rica like crazy so I 'm getting excited to head there soon.
March 5, 2011
3 fun dives down with no ear squeeze!! I decided I wasn't going to skip my fun dives just because of a little ear pain. The pain always went away so whatever. I'm so glad that I didn't skip them because my ears were great and I saw so much cool stuff. Our first two dives yesterday we did in the afternoon. I really like one called Labarynth. It was like a maze through the corral. It was like swimming through canyons of corral. Saw some lobsters and all sorts of fish. Went out with the boat afterwards to try to find some whale sharks but they have been eluding us so far. You have to look for a big flock of birds dive bombing the surface to find them. The birds are eating all the plankton and shrimps that get sent to the surface when the sharks are eating. We saw some pictures that one of the divemasters took and they look enormous! Hopefully we will be able to see one. The dives we did today were pretty cool too. We went out with the morning boats in hopes that we could do the dives and then look for some whale sharks again but no such luck. We did see a pod of spinner dolphins and a sea turtle though! We found a lionfish too. There were a couple of people on the boat who were hunting them. They are actually foriegn to the carribean and are becoming a big problem so people are going out and spearing them and leaving the dead fish around to teach the other fish to start eating them. Becuase they are foreign there have no natural predators so they are multiplying like crazy. 60,000 eggs in one week per female. They are super poisonous too. They are normally found in Thailand and other asian countries but they have a couple of theories about how they came to the carribean. The first is that an aquarium in Florida was damaged in a hurricaine and the all the fish got swept out to sea and the lionfish just flourished. The other theory is that they came from the ballasts of tanker ships from asia when they pump them out in harbours. Underwater they look black and white and have fins sticking out in every direction and like to hover under rocks. Chad did the second dive today and I snorkeled. He saw a huge fish that no one really knew the name of so they decided to call it the bigfatfish. The snorkeling was crazy and I got to see quite a bit. I took some pics and video of them diving below me. As they were coming back to the boat the pod of dolphins decided to show and up and swim past us. Spinner dolphins are smaller than bottlenose ones and are generally not to curious about divers and tend to swim away. Bottlenose on the other hand will come up to divers and look and them and see what the heck they are and why do they look so funny. I think I am going to be a mermaid when I grow up.
Said goodbye to Mike from England today. He is heading south like we should be but just the effort of packing my bag right now is beyond my capabilities. We are so tired and hot and just wanting to chill for a few more days and let our ears drain! I would like to have dry hair for maybe longer than a couple of hours. Our hotel here is frickin awesome and I am not looking forward to having to leave. They kicked out an American couple because they were not taking the dive course anymore, so hopefully we don't get the boot! I think I know the reason now why people here tend to never leave...its too much of a pain in the ass to get anywhere and the mainland is ugly and busy and poluted.
Creature tally in room: 1 very large spider, 1 very cute lizard, 10,000 mosquitos.
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