Mar 2007

Hello fans,

So, as the name implies, we went volcano boarding today. What is volcano boarding? You may ask. Basically, you climb up this rocky black volcano (live, active volcano, incase you were wondering (it was smoking)). Then, once at the top, we hiked around to the sandy side, got a brief explaination of how to do it, then plunged down the side on this piece of plywood with a rope, and metal on the bottom. It was great, but I can still taste the dirt. Lemme go into more detail.

We had a 45 minute drive out to the base of the volcano. Ryan and two others got to ride in the cab, but me, leigh, and the rest were all in the back of a pickup truck. It was nice though, there were seats, and it had a nice breeze, since we were moving so fast. We quickly had the volcano in sight, it was a dark, sinister looking thing. After paying the entrance fee we started the rocky hike up the back side of the volcano. The walk was not straight up the side of the volcano, thankfully, instead, it was across it to where the bottom of the top ridge is, then followed the ridge to the top. This is where the heat drops right off, because the cool breeze from the Atlantic (as the guide explained) picked up here. After that, we followed the top of the ridge around to the main volcano crater. He )the guide) gave us three options: 1. stay at the top, and just look
2. go about 20 metres in, to get a closer look, or 3. go down the full 120 metres into it. Of course, you can guess what we did, started the long decent to the bottom of the crater. The guide gave us one rule, and it was ¨when I say run, you gotta run¨. So, we quickly understood why.. the ground was hot, and once you got going.. the rock was all loose.. you couldn´t stop. So there I was flying down this loose rock in the volcano crater, and leigh was behind me, and I heard him bearing in on me.. very quick. And, just from the sound of his big stomping feet coming towards me, I knew he wasn´t in control. Then I heard a scraping noise, which was him slipping on the rock.. then lots of cheering from the people at the bottom. He slipped.. hardcore.. then he bled. He´s gonna have some nice battle scars. The bottom of the crater was prety cool.. then we started the climb up the side of the crater, to the top ridge again. Ugh, that was hell, it was all loose, and really far up. Once back at the top, we headed to the front slope, its the nice sandy slope (the one that is relatively safe to board down). It was there that we got the volcano boarding lesson. We were told, basically (in a few more words than this) that the safest way to control the board, was to relax, and not try to control the board at all. So, after our lesson on not doing anything, was a practice run to learn to brake. Then, after everyone got to try braking, we put on our overalls, our huge safety goggles, and our singular glove. The guide and two others went first, and of course, I was one of the other 2, cause I was excited to throw myself down a mountain. So, down I went, but unfortunately the guide flew way past me, cause I was imbalanced on the board, so I didn´t move as fast. At my max speed (it was shaking a bit) I wiped out.. BLACK SAND EVERYWHERE. I´m still getting it out of my ears, eyes, and hair. I finished my run, and grabbed the camera, to take pictures. After we all got down, we hiked back to the truck, and headed back to town (in the moonlight by this point).

All in all, lots of fun.

Peace everyone,

Craig

we left for utila early in the morning and we took buses for many hours. there was much rushing and being shoved on to buses. we finally made it to la ceiba and we were quickly rushed onto a taxi. it had to rush like mad to try and get the ferry to Utila island. we made it to the ferry by the skin of our noses, it was actually in the midst of leaving. i wasnt feeling well before i went on the boat and the ferry didnt make it any better, after an hour we finally made it to our destination, none to soon i was a bit sea sick. i was also sick in another way, i will spare you the details but it wasnt pretty.

we were swamped by people with flyers and such want us to go to their dive schools, parties and other scuba diving things. we were hoping to go snorkling. we met this fella who directed us to a place that would give us cheaper accomidations if we got our scuba certification there. we still didnt expect to learn how to scuba dive. we checked the school out and while we were there we met a girl from austrailia named Lisa and she was also trying to find a place to stay, and learn advanced scuba diving. most of the rooms that we have seen had four beds, so we asked if she wanted to bunk with us to save some money. she wanted to check out one other place on the island other than the one that we were at. so we left our bags at the dive school and left to find the other place. eventually we found a place called Cross Creek dive centre. It looked really promising so we looked into it further. they had everything we wanted cheap scuba school rates a kitchen cheap accomidations and two free fun dives. one of the people who worked there offered us free accomidations while we are taking the course, that just sealed the deal. so we went back across town to get our stuff. when the 4 of us got back we were met by gore (our dive instructor) who offered us a better room because there were 4 of us and we chose them over the other people. The room that they spoke of was amazing, it had a private bathroom, hot and cold running water, a fridge and the best part.....A/C. We were all really excited about this room usually it cost 18USD a night but we got it for free. the lessons were among the cheapest in the world in Utila but it still set us back 240USD each Ryan used his spare $2000 that he has stashed away in his other account to pay for all of us. we started doing class a bit later then we were supposed to, and we had to rush to get it all done i ate my pancake that i had made in the class while we watched the videos. there first day was a bit boring, wet suits are surprisingly comfortable. i took to scuba diving really well. it was a really amazing experience to be able to breathe underwater. Diving is one of the greatest and most amazing things ive ever done. every day i did diving i liked it more and more. its like being weightless, and being a giant floating jungle world. i would recommend it to everyone, i think its one of those things you have to experience before you die. getting to know the equipment was surprisingly easy as well. we have a total of 6 dives under our belt now as well as our international dive certificate. we left on monday and set off for nicaragua, we took about 7 hours of buses to get to Tegas, Honduras and we stayed there overnight in a pretty clean place, most of the hotels have tvs in every room, we´ve watched more tv in honduras then we have the whole trip.
while we were in utila we had been living on just two meal days because our dives always started at 12 and didnt end till 4 so we never really ate luch, as well as for our two travel days to get to nicaragua. when we got to the boarder it was crazy, there were people hanging on the ladders on the microbus with their heads in the windows trying to get something, whether it was if we wanted a ride to the boarder, to get our money exchanged or just plain asking for money, i was afraid they were going to take our bags. we eventually got our passport stamped and got across the board, we think we got screwed a bit on the money exchange, but what can you do? after another two buses and a total of 7 and a half hours on buses we made it to Leon, we had quite a walk and it was getting close to dark, we met a fella named dave who went with us to try and find the hostel called via via. he had a compass so that helped a lot to try in orient ourselves, after a lot of walking through town we made it to via via, but we found out there was another hostel right across the road we we were told it was better by the people who were staying via via, so we stayed at the bigfoot insted, it was a really cool place. it was a dorm style hostel, it had a kitchen, clean sheets, a pool table, a bar, and tv, it was pretty swanky. the next day we went to the museum of mythology and torture...i know it sounds like a weird combination, as well as that, we visited central americas largest cathedral it was pretty amazing. later on that night we went to the bar and got to see some live music, they played one english song, "one"-U2. the whole hostel went to see her, there were a good 25 people staying at the hostel, when we got there the power was out so we had to wait a bit before we got to hear anything. the rest of the night was a blur but it was definately a good night. today we are going to climb a volcano and slide down it on a piece of plywood, it going to be really cool, i cant wait.

this blog was written over several days sporatically so if its a bit hard to understand bear with me.

missin home,

leigh.

Ok, so.... there was a slight change in plans for our time here on the Bay Islands. Long story short, we are now PADI Open Water SCUBA Divers. Yeah, just slightly different. We have now done six dives, two in shallow water, and four open water dives, two of which were fun dives and just consisted of swimming with the fishies in the ocean! Our time underwater was absolutely amazing, mom, I can see why whenever you talk about Diving, your eyes light up.. the experence is absolutely incredible. For those of you landlubbers who han't tried it, the best I can do is say that its like almost nothing you've ever experienced. BUT, the sensation of neutral bouyancy is much like flying... but add into that the fact that you are breathing with millions of litres of water around you, and 18 metres (60 ft) below the surface... the experience tingles every sense.. and stimulates every part of your body. You are acutely aware of your life, you pay attention to every breath you take, first because you have this mouth piece (Regulator Second Stage) jamed between all your teeth and whenever you inhale, you here the valve open to let air into your lungs, and because every exhale, bubbles surround your head. The life around you is absolutely buzzing with vibrant colours, excitement, and a wild aspect you don't get to see in any zoo or aquarium. It is your personal aquarium, the only limit is the amount of air you take down with you.. and your stamina. I'm sure that the parents will recieve our certfication cards before we will, since they are sent to your home address. On behalf of all of us, we give you permission to use them as brag tags... lol. We are feeling great, having an absolutely mind blowing time and cooking for ourselves to save money, on account of spending extra money on the Dive Course.

I have recently been looking at the Semi-Formal pictures, everyone looks in great spirits, and boy I must say... the bunch of you clean up well!

Missing you all,

Happy trails,

Ryan

P.S.: The reason I called everyone hosers was because the only way we can tell who is reading the blog is if you leave us comments! Plus, I get updates from Jessie, Mom and Ciara... but the rest I don't hear from as much! I miss you guys, write and huge one.. write it like its an e-mail.. put memories in it.. tell me whats going on.. ANYTHING!

Peace.

Today we visited the Copan Mayan Ruins. it was really cool, you got to see some of the original colours, colours like red, green, and pink. It was really amazing to see the artwork and sculptures preserved so well. it was different then Tikal in the way that it showed more of the culture then just the grandeurness of the Temples in pyramids. The same goes for Lamanai in Belize, you the towers werent as impressive as either of the other two places but the boat ride through the jungles was amazing in itself, to see all the wildlife and people on the river was worth the money alone, even if we didnt see the ruins.

The rest of the day was spent mostly on shopping for souvenirs. In the first big place we went to i asked the guy if there was a smaller version of the chess set that he sold. The shop keeper said that there isnt a smaller version of that because it was hand carved. i was a bit dissipointed but we continued on to a larger market like place that sold other souvenirs but to my surprise they sold much of the exact same stuff that he had and they had many of the exact chess set that the other guy sold. what a coincidence that all of the other people have the same chess set and they were all hand carved, they must have good quality control, lol. we didnt end up buying anything in the end. we desided that we had too far to go, and we would have to carry everything we buy for the rest of the trip; which was not only a big burden to carry by itselft, but we run the risk of breaking while we are in the other 6 countries. in short: good ruins, good food, lots of catching up for blogs and family members.

Ok, so the first one that comes to mind is the amount of Marijuana in Belize... where it is supposed to be illegal, but I honeslty thought the guide book must have been wrong or out of date because of it's prevalence. Once, while walking back to our guesthouse, we were offered an entire handful.. no joke people.. an entire handful of weed...! Every coner you are asked if you wanted some.. or any locals you talk to in Belize. Another eye opener for us was when we were walking back to our guesthouse in Belize City from the bus station along with two other travellers, one from New Zealand, the other from Croatia, and we all saw an ice cream parlor. After a long hot day of seeing ruins and on a small river boat, we all thought it best that we treat our selves with a bowl of ice cream. We approached the ice cream parlor with thoughts of suger, but to one side stood a guard with a shotgun leveled at our chests... hmmm, now one mught think this is a tad overkill... and to anyone who agrees with this estimation I wholeheartedly agree! This is place where children come to have a cold treat in the sometimes unbearable and opressive heat. The children hear must be some kind of super crook, because otherwise I can't possibly fathom why a shotgun toteing guard would be posted at a freaking ICE CREAM PARLOR! I covered the most interesting part of our journey from Santa Elena to Guatemala City in my reflections entry, but in San Pedro there were some more subtle memeories that surely were missing from any blogs. The best story comes from a Hippy by the name of John, who I don't think ever stopped smoking up. There were times whe I would wake up to the smell of Marijuana...and we had to be up, eating and ready to go to spanish lessons for 9:00, which meant all this was happening around 7:30 - 8:00. One night while we were cleaning up after ourselves, John came back to the Hippy compound most certainly with a deap down case of the munchies. He had a large can of refried bean paste... and that was it. Who would have know that so much enjoyment could have percipitated form one can of beans. He was eating the beans right out of the can with a spoon and he said to us, "Looks like cat food...(takes a spoonfull and sniffs)... smells like cat food... (eats the spoonful)... tastes like cat food. But its BEANS!" Ever since we have been quoting him and have a good laugh over his antics. On one of the buses to the El Salvadorian I (and I want no one to think that I'm vain, I'm only telling this story because I found it to be quite rediculous) was..shall we say flirted with. The bus was absolutely jamed full of people.. easitly three and sometimes four to a single school buss seat. (You thought your 45 minute bus ride with maybe two to a seat was busy, try all seats with at least three, some with four and the entire isle full of peopel standing.) As we boarded the bus we were all ready to stand and give the available seats to the old ladies and kids, because we are all upstanding gentlemen. I was looking at the people around me and my eyes fell upon a girl that was about our age, who then proceeded to wink at me with a rather large grin on her face.. and patted the small space she had made for me to sit. (I say small because her mother was a rather large lady, and with two other people it made for very tight spaces) I sat down with her eyes continuing to watch me and thought, oh good.. I can barely say hello, let alone have a conversation. It was very awkward, because I wanted to say hello and talk but I knew if I started saying anything she would talk too fast for me to understand and then I would look really stupid. Not to mention everytime I tried to look out the window she thought I was looking it at her and smiled. I'm sure she thought I was a mute until she asked where we were going... whcih I understood! Horay for spanish lessons. I looked up the word for hot, because it was rediculous in the bus with well over 80 people on it an the temperature outside climbing to well over 30, and used the wrong one, because they have so many different words for hot in spanish and we got laughed at. As the bus ride continued it because less and less ful and I was able to escape the continuous gaze and find my own seat. We got our first real experience being a minority after we attempted to cross the Guatemalan-Slavadorian boarder, where we had been told there would be a ATM, but there wasn't. We had to turn back and head for the nearest town with an ATM. We only had enough money because I still randomly had 2 USD left over from Belize. I switched over the cash into Quetzales, and paid for our bus ride to the closest town, with 5 Quetzales to spare. Just to give you some sense of that 7-8 is one USD. It was a little close for comfort, but we made it to this crazy town called Chiquimulilla. (Yeah go ahead.. try saying that!) We were tired from a long day of travel, hungry, and all around in less than perfect moods sinc we were stuck in this very crappy town, in a scary hotel. Walking through the streets of the town we were stared at as if we were aliens, silence flowed in our wake, as people turned their undivided attention to our presence. Then some rowdy teenagers threw (I'm only making assumptions here, since my spanish is terrible) some insults at us from their car, which I'm sure would have been hurtful and demeaning if I knew what they were saying. The next morning was very busy around the banks (don't ask me why) and we had to walk through the crowd of people, who parted for us as if we were the Royal Family. You gain an appriciation for how minorities back home must feel, although I like to think that Canadians are a little more tactful. And with that I'll end the first of the Memories Blogs, there are more on the way for sure.

Enjoy and laugh as we have,

Happy trails,

Ryan.

Miss you all.