i'm sorry, my friends. i have been seriously slacking in the blog department. for some reason i've been a bit distracted .....
since rio dulce i have been in honduras and arrived in nicaragua yesterday. we ended up taking a bus to la ceiba, honduras, and a ferry over to the island of utila. hello tropical paradise. 5 days of my open water class turned into ten days of diving, relaxing, and making some wonderful new friends.
Diving: Holy cow ... where has this been all my life? Breathing underwater!! I am hooked .. thank god underwaterland is limited in michigan (trust me, i will be exploring those wrecks) or else i'd be in for a whole new load of adventure expenses. the carribean is so blue, and their are so many amazing animals under there. we saw cowfish, trunkfish, green and spotted moray eels, spotlight parrotfish, a shortnose batfish (look this one up, sooo weird), squirrelfish, lionfish (invasive in the carribean and totally gorgeous), crazy corals and anenomes, a stargazer, angelfish, and more more more. At this one sight called Diamond Caye we swam with these three gray angelfish the size of big dinner plates that always come when divers do. they eat the life that is stirred up from the bottom and floats around you .. so they swim through your legs and around your body and it feels like you are playing in a pile of puppies. my favorite part of diving is swimming along a coral wall where it is endless deep blue on one side, the sea floor is so far below, and the other side is a wall of color and life .... and i soar, with my arms extended, suspended in great blue space. wow.
Relaxing: there wasnt much of a beach, but we discovered a place called the driftwood cafe, run by some fabulous expats from texas, with a great dock over two meters of water to swim in (where i saw a huge spotted eagle ray), good food and very cold beer. also, monkey balls (a homemade coffee liqueur shot that will change anyone's life). we logged quite a few hours in this location.
New FRIENDS!!: up until the last week i have been travelling with laura and jaylene, but they left the island 4 days before me, and now i'm with new wonderful people. i met abbie in my openwater course, and she just happens to be from door county, wisconsin, so naturally we midwesterners just clicked. this girl is a joy, a ray of sunshine that makes travelling even better. throughout my ten day stay in utila i met so many wonderful people (in addition to the expats at driftwood: bruce, barbara, jungle jim, danny). dan, yael, andrew, thing one and two from california, almog, sarah, lydia, mario ... i feel so blesssed to have these folks and others in my life, if only for a short time. if any of y'all read this: thank you.
so, all good things must come to an end, and after ten days abbie and i finally managed to peel ourselves off the island (we tried to leave three times and somehow ended up still being there by lunch time). we took the ferry over to la ceiba and jumped on a shuttle to the jungle lodge and went rafting! how in the world did i miss out on this amazingness the whole time i was in north carolina? ted, we are playing on your boat when i get back. our river guides were awesome ... we hiked, swam, jumped off of large boulders, checked out a weird spider, and watched the guides jump off of even bigger boulders. and then we arrived at our boats and blasted down the river. waaaaaaaaahhhhh .. ! i love when you have so much fun you cant help but laugh outloud.
at the jungle lodge we disovered isabelle, a girl from sweden who stayed there and worked for a week and a half. she happened to be heading to the same place as us, so now we have a new travel partner. two days ago we took a bus from la ceiba to the capital of honduras, tegucigalpa. while for most travellers this is a city to get in and out of as quickly as possible, we got picked up at the bus station by local friends of a friend and were convinced to stay a day to check things out. these guys, raul and malcom (with the help of a few others) spoiled us rotten. stayed at a home with real beds and a hot shower, breakfast, then explored the university! i love universities. these two guys are biology students and showed the world of reptiles, butterfly, and honduran natural history. raul works at a reptile rescue place with so many cool snakes, turtles, crocodiles, and iguanas (raul actually works everywhere that there's a need ... he will save the world someday). after a day of exploring the city (lunch in los dolores, downtown, a maze of comedores that hadn't seen a gringo in there maybe ever) and university we did a salsa lesson with raul. haha, not my forte.
yesterday morning we jumped on a bus the took the long way to managua, nicaragua, then a cab ride to granada, and now here we are. i think we'll head to the artisan market in masaya today, to la laguna de apoyo tomorrow, and ometepe the next day (or something like that ... it's likely the plans will change, they always do).
safe and sound in nicaragau...... missed you all for thanksgiving (although i dont know if i've ever felt more thankful on that holiday). cant wait to see you at christmas. only 4 weeks to go ....
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
hangin in a dirty port town ...
man, the longer i'm here the harder it gets to stay updated on this blog. here goes ...
we (laura, jaylene, and i) spent the last week, after lanquin, on a 1 kilometer diameter island called flores, on lago petèn itza, attached to the mainland by a small landbridge. the lake is about the size of lake leelanau in the middle of a jungle. total island feel, everything is slow paced and you see the same people over and over again (not difficult considering it takes 20 minutes to walk the entire perimeter). we were in flores to see tikal, the most famous mayan ruins in guatemala, but had to stay a few extra days because jaylene had a skype interview with some people waaaaaaay up in the north of canada and needed to be sure she had a solid internet connection. so we spent a lot of time at the same restaurant because it had cheap food and suuuper cheap beer (3 brahva extras for 15Q, or about $1.75). we brought that place a lot of business (really the food had nothing to do with it, although the burritos were quite satisfying). on the second day we took a lancha (small public boat) 15 minutes across the lake to a zoo, and saw crocodiles, a macaw, tucans, an ocelot, some other wild spotted cat, and some odd rodent like mammals. they also had some bitchin waterslides through the jungle, which were not turned on, which was devastating for a one sarah regina wright.
halfway through the week we headed to tikal, waking up at 3:45 am in hopes of entering the park before sunrise to hear the birds and howler monkeys awakening. unfortunately, the shuttles were operating on guatemalan time as usual, and we arrived at the ruins well after sunrise. the park was quite amazing ... huge temples and ancient structures sprinkled throughout true jungles. we saw some bizarre animals, including one like a giant hamster with hooves like a goat. we also saw squirrel monkeys and heard howler monkeys screaming (growling? roaring?) in the distance. a truly remarkable sound. we were able to climb many of the temples, and from temple IV, where we made delicious veggie sammiches, could see the entirety of tikal.
the day after jaylene's interview we jumped on a bus and took off for rio dulce. this place is incredible; i feel more at home here than any other place in guatemala. it reminds me a loooot of the florida keys. the streets are alive with market activity and the bustle of a busy guatemalan town, and the shores of the river are lined with weathered sailboats and fishing rigs. neil, you would looooove this place. i wish you were here to see it. the people are a mix of guatemalans and wrinkled, weather beaten north americans straight off the water. today laura and i took a shuttle to the cascadas of finca el paraìso. the BEST day. a hot, hot water sulfurous river poors 20 feet over rock into a clear blue pool of cold water, perfect for swimming and relaxing for hours. as laura said, it was our first truly hot shower in guatemala. i think this is the most wonderful place i have experienced in this country so far. we swam for hours, then headed back to town, hungry and perfectly satisfied.
we are staying at a rickety hostel literally on the water (one of the dorms is a dock) called hotel backpackers. the proceeds from the hotel go to the home for abandoned children that is connected to the hostel, and many of the former residents are employees here. dinner was incredible, on the dock with lake/river wind threatening to blow away the toppings from our pizzas. i kind of want to stay here forever.
right now we are the look out for someone sailing/boating to utila, honduras, from here sometime in the next few days. laura and i are getting on the marine radio to make the announcement at 7:30 am tomorrow, when there is something of a forum for local boaters. if we arent able to hitch a ride, we'll pay a lancha to take us up to livingston, a carribean garìfuna town at the mouth of the rio dulce, take a ferry from livingston to puerto barrios, jump on a bus from their to la ceiba honduras, and take a ferry to the island of utila for a week of diving on carribean reefs. yea!
over and out, mis amigos ..
we (laura, jaylene, and i) spent the last week, after lanquin, on a 1 kilometer diameter island called flores, on lago petèn itza, attached to the mainland by a small landbridge. the lake is about the size of lake leelanau in the middle of a jungle. total island feel, everything is slow paced and you see the same people over and over again (not difficult considering it takes 20 minutes to walk the entire perimeter). we were in flores to see tikal, the most famous mayan ruins in guatemala, but had to stay a few extra days because jaylene had a skype interview with some people waaaaaaay up in the north of canada and needed to be sure she had a solid internet connection. so we spent a lot of time at the same restaurant because it had cheap food and suuuper cheap beer (3 brahva extras for 15Q, or about $1.75). we brought that place a lot of business (really the food had nothing to do with it, although the burritos were quite satisfying). on the second day we took a lancha (small public boat) 15 minutes across the lake to a zoo, and saw crocodiles, a macaw, tucans, an ocelot, some other wild spotted cat, and some odd rodent like mammals. they also had some bitchin waterslides through the jungle, which were not turned on, which was devastating for a one sarah regina wright.
halfway through the week we headed to tikal, waking up at 3:45 am in hopes of entering the park before sunrise to hear the birds and howler monkeys awakening. unfortunately, the shuttles were operating on guatemalan time as usual, and we arrived at the ruins well after sunrise. the park was quite amazing ... huge temples and ancient structures sprinkled throughout true jungles. we saw some bizarre animals, including one like a giant hamster with hooves like a goat. we also saw squirrel monkeys and heard howler monkeys screaming (growling? roaring?) in the distance. a truly remarkable sound. we were able to climb many of the temples, and from temple IV, where we made delicious veggie sammiches, could see the entirety of tikal.
the day after jaylene's interview we jumped on a bus and took off for rio dulce. this place is incredible; i feel more at home here than any other place in guatemala. it reminds me a loooot of the florida keys. the streets are alive with market activity and the bustle of a busy guatemalan town, and the shores of the river are lined with weathered sailboats and fishing rigs. neil, you would looooove this place. i wish you were here to see it. the people are a mix of guatemalans and wrinkled, weather beaten north americans straight off the water. today laura and i took a shuttle to the cascadas of finca el paraìso. the BEST day. a hot, hot water sulfurous river poors 20 feet over rock into a clear blue pool of cold water, perfect for swimming and relaxing for hours. as laura said, it was our first truly hot shower in guatemala. i think this is the most wonderful place i have experienced in this country so far. we swam for hours, then headed back to town, hungry and perfectly satisfied.
we are staying at a rickety hostel literally on the water (one of the dorms is a dock) called hotel backpackers. the proceeds from the hotel go to the home for abandoned children that is connected to the hostel, and many of the former residents are employees here. dinner was incredible, on the dock with lake/river wind threatening to blow away the toppings from our pizzas. i kind of want to stay here forever.
right now we are the look out for someone sailing/boating to utila, honduras, from here sometime in the next few days. laura and i are getting on the marine radio to make the announcement at 7:30 am tomorrow, when there is something of a forum for local boaters. if we arent able to hitch a ride, we'll pay a lancha to take us up to livingston, a carribean garìfuna town at the mouth of the rio dulce, take a ferry from livingston to puerto barrios, jump on a bus from their to la ceiba honduras, and take a ferry to the island of utila for a week of diving on carribean reefs. yea!
over and out, mis amigos ..
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
jungle paradise
wow, i love guatemala. right now we are in lanquin, near the park semuc champey, below peten, in the central eastern part of the country. i'm currently travelling with two girls from vancouver and three guys from israel, and neil left this morning. so this was my yesterday ... woke up at eight in a hostel on a raging river in a fertile jungle wonderland. ate breakfast near the river, and hopped on a truck with the two girls from vancouver (laura and jaylene, super awesome) and neil, to semuc champey. this park was mindblowing. a river flows all the way through, raging up and down stream from a series of tranquil aquamarine pools. most of the water flows under these pools in a crazy cave, so the water is nearly still above, filled with cylcids and beautiful ancient rock formations. spend a few hours swimming (and with neil this is always the best). after the park we crossed a bridge to the caves. we walked, waded and swam into a cave for over an hour by candlelight alone (yeah, we swam deep into a cave holding candles with one hand and keeping afloat with the other). climbed some sketchy ladders, climbed a rope up the rock while being pummeled by a waterfall, and scalled a 2.5 meter boulder and jumped off through a very narrow passage into a dark pool. in a cave!! soooo cool. topped the whole experience off with ten minutes of tubing down the river, then jumping off a 30 foot bridge (our collectivo driver convinced neil and i to do it). last night we had a big family dinner with everyone at the hostel. our israeli friends arrived at 10 and we continued to drink beer while alternating between the sauna, holding onto a rope in the center of the river (so as to not get swept away) and lying out mostly naked under orion and shooting stars. best day. ever.
good stuff, huh? i think we are going to head up to flores and the ruins of tikal on thursday, spend a few days there, then go to the rio dulce and experience more wonders of nature. after that, diving in the bay islands in honduras and then to the coast of nicaragua for some serious surfing. i might try to find a little job down there to stay afloat until i head home in december.
so yeah, little things, big things, all is well. i'm meeting wonderful people and doing/seeing crazy things. pura vida para mi.
love to you from the jungle ..
sarah
good stuff, huh? i think we are going to head up to flores and the ruins of tikal on thursday, spend a few days there, then go to the rio dulce and experience more wonders of nature. after that, diving in the bay islands in honduras and then to the coast of nicaragua for some serious surfing. i might try to find a little job down there to stay afloat until i head home in december.
so yeah, little things, big things, all is well. i'm meeting wonderful people and doing/seeing crazy things. pura vida para mi.
love to you from the jungle ..
sarah
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