Hola from Mexico!!

This morning I woke up bright and early, waved goodbye to Honduras, and flew to Mexico. Fun fact: it´s amazing how peaceful and relaxing air travel is when you´re used to bus travel. I´m in Mexico City now, where I will be spending 4 days dodging the swine flu, having a mini-Appian reunion and attending a wedding (congrats in advance, Rogelio and Raquel)! I´ll then be traveling around Mexico for a week afterwards with Iana (friend/coworker) before flying to Guatemala, the final country in my trip. Cant believe the end is in sight!

I´ve only been here 6 hours and have already seen a lot of the city. Raquel´s sister Elisa was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and play tour guide (Thanks again!!). After an incredible lunch we wandered around the museum of anthropology, where we saw exhibits on a ton of the different cultures present in Mexico. Pretty incredible. I look forward to exploring more, and checking out some ruins!

I think the next few days will be pretty busy, so don´t get alarmed if I don´t do much (or any) blog posting - I´ll just save up all the posts for later when I have more time. Now I better go take a nap. Apparently the wedding tomorrow will go until 5 AM, which is when I have been waking up usually, so I better get well rested immediately!

I´ll be exploring here (Teotihuacan) on Saturday!

scuba fun with an underwater camera

Yesterday, I did my first ever scuba fun-dives (All the others had been part of my certification). No event like this should go undocumented, so I rented an underwater camera. It cost $25, so I made sure to get my money's worth, snapping 231 photos!!! Below are my favorites. I know it's a lot more than normal, but there are just so many cool photos, I couldn't cull any further. Enjoy!

oh hi - what's up? (not me!)

yellow coral, blue fish

bubbles!!

swimming along

can you spot the scorpion fish?

entering the tunnel. Scary!

school of fish around the coral

diving is very serious

trumpet fish

scuba group in tight formation

colorful fish

some of my fellow divers

neat coral

giant frickin' barracuda swims by. I swam after it to get a better pic, but then it turned around and swam towards me. I decided I wasn't that interested in a closeup and beat a hasty retreat

a really cool looking fish. Possibly a trunk fish?

time for an intervention?

I think I might have a drinking problem. . .

Adrian's Underwater Adventure

After a one-day delay due to an illness (apparently your scuba gear can handle it if you get sick underwater, but I didn't care to find out), today I had my first unconfined dive. Translation: I got to do a real scuba dive! With actual coral! (rather than diving in 5-10 feet of water with nothing but sea grass and silt).

While I was a bit nervous on the boat, as soon as I got into the water I forgot all of that - it was so amazing to be underwater, swimming past these incredible coral formations 20-30 feet below the surface. This could definitely get addicting. I couldn't believe it when our instructor told us to get out of the water a mere 5 minutes into the dive, but then I realized that 40 min had passed - time flies. The main highlight of the dive (besides the incredible coral formations) was seeing a moray eel swimming around. Very cool. I have two more dives tomorrow, and then I will officially have my Open Water certification! Can't wait for tomorrow so I can get back in the water!

I don't have my hands on an underwater camera yet, but I did get a few pics above water:

loading up the boat

look who's ready to go diving!!

check out my blog!

I know you think this might be an odd request - asking someone to check out my blog, when by definition they have to be viewing my blog to see the entry, but bear with me. I'm not sure how the majority of people check out my blog, but there are several ways where you can see my entries without visiting the actual page (either get them emailed to you, or view them in reader).

Now, why do I want you to go check out my blog? An excellent question. A while back I spruced it up to make it more aesthetically pleasing. I added a photo collage behind the title, and a "vacation at a glance" / "fun facts" section where I have some info about where I currently am, what I'm reading, and other amusing facts, which I am updating regularly. And darnit, it took a decent amount of time to fix everything up (specifically to make the collage) and I'm proud of it, so check it out!

Images from Leon

temporary break from scuba posts to post photos from last week

My last day and a half in Nicaragua was spent in León. While the main attraction for me in León was volcano boarding, I did get a chance to wander León and snap some photos. Below are some of my favorites - enjoy!

one of leon's many colorful churches

lion statue with church in background

crucifix at the front of one of the churches

street tacos! Sooooooo delicious - I loved these little restaurants

kids playing soccer on a local playground, with a cool mural at the background

artsy shot - sodas on the street

breathing underwater

yesterday, after a breakfast of mutant-o-s, I discovered that I could miraculously breathe underwater! Ummm, it also helped that I was wearing scuba gear. As I mentioned in this blog post, yesterday I had my first confined water session (in 4 feet of water). Even though the water was shallow, and the only things we could see were dirt (it was a bit cloudy) and jellyfish, it was still awesome! It's a pretty amazing feeling when you can breathe as normal underwater. We tried several skills exercises, like practicing what to do if you need to breathe from your buddy's air source, how to remove water from your mask, and even simulating what it's like to run out of air (!!!). Good times. This afternoon we'll be doing our second confined water course, this time in water too deep to stand up in. And then tomorrow it's my first free dive! Oh, and bonus - 15 min ago I finished the final written exam, and unless I fail it, that means I'm done with the classroom stuff. Only dives from now on!

artist rendition of me diving tomorrow. Except the artist renditioned me as a girl. Lame.

It's scuba time!

So, yesterday I had my first scuba class, but all we did was classroom stuff - watch a bunch of orientation / safety videos. This morning will be more of the same, but this afternoon I'll get into the water for the first time. I've heard that taking your first breath underwater can be a lifechanging experience - we'll see if the same goes for me. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted!

Interesting things on my run this morning

Ok, so, normally when I go on my morning runs, I don't expect to see much. In fact, that's part of the appeal. Just me and the road - not a lot of sun, and especially not a lot of cars / golf carts / mopeds etc to dodge. However, Utila Island (Honduras) seems to be an exception to this rule. Thankfully there weren't a lot of people, but I saw a bunch of interesting things (good thing too because I lost my ipod headphones, so I needed the entertainment):

• a big hawk about 20 feet from me


• some sort of hermit crab grand council - there were about a dozen normal ones surrounding one giant hermit crab. They had not chosen the location of their council very wisely though - it was in the middle of the road. Hopefully the meeting adjourned before traffic picked up


• a hummingbird - one of the few I've seen when not at a hummingbird feeder


• an old Honduran woman wearing a "Hooters" t-shirt. Classy. (Still not quite as good as when I was in Granada and spotted a man wearing a "Warning: educated black woman" t-shirt)


• two Macaws sitting on a branch, happily squawking away


• a snake curled up in the road - this had me kind of worried until I got closer and saw that it was actually a rope


• some sweaty guy collapsing into the pool, exhausted after his run. Oh wait, that was me!

Adrian vs the Volcano III - this time with sleds!

Everyone probably knows that "what goes up must come down". However, there's a little-known corrolary to this rule - "what goes up sometimes comes down really really fast! This was definitely the case for me when I hiked up volcán cerro negro (in León, Nicaragua) in an hour, then sledded down in about 90 seconds!

After a sweaty climb to the top (apparently central america is a pretty hot place - who knew that being closer to the equator translated to warmer temperatures), we donned all our safety gear, and listened to the final sled instructions, where we were informed that most people didn't fall (he specifically dodged my question about what percent fall), and then we were off!

Nobody was volunteering to go first, so being impatient / foolhardy / dumb, I volunteered. We actually went two at a time so it was a race, but within 2 seconds of starting, my competitor had already wiped out. (that did not help my confidence as far as avoiding a crash, but I ended up making it all the way down without incident). I was definitely thankful for the protective jumpsuit and especially the goggles - I was kicking up a huge amount of dust and pebbles which were completely pelting me. After finishing I brushed out a bunch of pebbles from my hair, and even found a large deposit of volcanic sand inside my ears and even in my belly button!

Volcano sledding was definitely awesome - next time maybe I'll try it on a snowboard!

Pics below:

me ready to tackle the mountain. Looking forward to the sledding, but first I'll have to climb it!

at Cerro Negro's crater

a 100% staged photo of me "surfing" the mountain - you sat on the sleds for the actual run.

volcano boarders streaking down the mountain

one of the cars heading towards the mountain got stuck in the sand so we had to tow it out!

Honduras or Bust!!

As I write this, my time in Nicaragua is coming to an end. In about 20 minutes I'm going to catch a bus out of Nicaragua, and begin my day-long trek across Honduras to the Bay Islands. Once there, I will be taking a week-long course to get my PADI open water SCUBA certification. Or, to put it more simply, I'm going to learn to scuba dive!! I loved Nicaragua, but am really psyched to learn to scuba dive. It'll also be nice to be in the same place for a week, rather than bouncing from hostel to hostel. I've still got at least one more entry about Nicaragua, from when I went sledding down a volcano - keep checking the blog for updates!!

Laguna de Apoyo - Paradise Found

On Wednesday I spent the day at the most amazing and relaxing place ever. I stayed at a resort-like hostel Hospedadje Crater's Edge on this goergeous crater lake called the Laguna de Apoyo.

The hostel has an amazing view of the crater lake, and they also have a floating dock, inner tubes, kayaks, hammocks and more. For $8 I got a 30 minute massage from someone who lost his sight at age 15 and then learned massage to support himself (damn good, too!). The following morning I woke up early to watch the sun rise over the crater, then went kayaking, and followed it up with a huge breakfast, and another swim. Simply fantastic - too bad I've got to keep moving.

For any of you out there who are looking for vacation ideas, I think Nicaragua is a great choice. You could spend several days in Granada, and then the rest out here. And it's really easy on the wallet, too. You can get a private room for two for $22 - $27! Ask me for more details if you're interested.

As always, mere words do not do this justice - pics below:

view from the crater's edge bar/hangout area

relaxing on the floating dock. It's a rough life . . .

I love this picture, partly 'cause it's hard to figure out what the heck is going on - good times

sunrise over the crater lake

this guy is making his own fishing net by hand. He's been working on it for a week so far, and when he's done it will be 8 feet long. Talk about patience!!!

the crater as viewed from my kayak

Exploring Granada

After my trip to Ometepe, I spent a mere 21 hours in Granada (so many places I want to see in the next 6 weeks - starting to feel rushed!), but managed to fit a lot in.

On the ferry to Ometepe I saw Zach and Carolan, who I'd shared a cab from the Nicaragua border to San Juan del Sur with. Once again we pooled our resources to take a collective cab, saving over an hour - important when you're doing the rush visit! I had a great time chatting with our cab driver in spanish. Either my spanish is getting a lot better, or he was just smiling and nodding a lot to keep me happy. Maybe a little of both.

Once we got to Granada, we checked into the hostel, then wandered the city for a few hours. I had spent several days in Granada with my family back in 2003, and it was cool to see all the places I remembered. After that, I went for a run along lake nicaragua, and then we went out for dinner and drinks on Calle Calzada, a street which is basically a giant happy hour. We wandered from restaurant to restaurant, where we were able to grab a seat at an outdoor table, enjoy a drink, then head on. Most drinks (including the mojito) were $1.25 for 2 - pretty incredible!

The next morning we left at 10 AM for Laguna de Apoyo, a gorgeous crater lake about 30 minutes away. This was probably my favorite place I visited during our vacation in 2003, so I was very excited to be heading back. That defintiely made parting Granada so quickly a bit easier. You'll have to wait another day or two for details about the Laguna de Apoyo, but I do have photos of Granada for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

cool fountain in the town square

this guy came up to me asking for money, and offered to paint me a picture. I wasn't expecting much, but it was surprisingly good.

my artist with the finished piece - this is the first souvenir I've purchased on my trip (I've been good about trying to avoid the extra bulk). Pretty awesome that I was able to get my own piece of art made for me for only $5! We saw the artist later that night, and it looked like he'd spent all the $$$ I gave him on booze. Guess he was going for the whole Hemmingway thing. . .

some horses just chilling on the banks of Lago de Nicaragua

chowing down on some delicious street food in the granada market. As long as I don't get REALLY sick, it was weell worth it. They had some amazingly delicious food for ridiculously cheap - the enchilada I'm eating in the picture was 50 cents, and that was by far the most expensive thing we got.

this was probably the sketchiest thing we ate. It was this amazingly delicious chocolate drink which came out of a bucket! Afterwards I realized that getting this drink was probably not the wisest idea since they almost defintiely used non-purified water for the ice. (Heck, I'm just hoping they washed their hands!) However, it's been a day and a half since I had it and the old digestive system is doing fine - I think I've toughened it up on this trip!

Adventures on Isla Ometpe

As you should already know (if you read my blog regularly), I spent the beginning of this week on Isla de Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lake nicaragua. I already wrote about my adventure climbing the volcano, but I did a lot more than just that.

My first incident happened a mere 10 minutes after I set foot on the isla de Ometepe. Some crazy old man asked me where I was from. When I told him I was from Boston, he accused me of lying - "but you don't have a Boston accent. Care to change your story?" A little while later someone else I was travelling her with said he said she had a nice nose, and when she said thanks, he said "you're welcome" . . . 12 times! Welcome to Ometepe.

Day 1 was spent settling in to Ometepe. I stayed at some crazy organic farm where I slept on a hammock for $2.50. Day 2 was the aforementioned volcano hike. It left from a different farm, anbd as soon as I got there I recognized it - I'd visited it with my family on our vacation to Nicaragua in 2003. I switched to staying there, and was very glad about my decision - the farm was gorgeous, and in the evening everyonee would gather on the porch and chat, drink beers, and play cards. Very chill. Plus, they had internet!

On day 3 I rented a bike and rode all around the island. I biked to a hostel right on the water, went for a swim off the dock, and then kayaked to this island which was aptly named "monkey island" - I didn't go onto the island because apparently the monkeys were aggressive, but enjoyed the view from the safety of my boat. I also biked to this amazing natural swimming pool named Ojo de Agua. To get there I had to bike through a field where three dogs started chasing me! I turned back and yelled "No" really loud, and that seemed to stop them. Good thing, 'cause I wasn't carrying my protective anti-dog stick! After watching the sun set behind one of the two volcanoes, I hurried back to the farm, trying to get back before it was completely dark. I ended up having to walk the last half mile, but that was great, because on the way back I saw hundreds of fireflies putting on their own light show. Not something you normally see in DC!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. I left the following morning for the city of Granada. Luckily, Granada was awesome, but that's a story for another day. (Literally. I'll post that entry tomorrow). Pics below - enjoy!

on the ferry with volcan concepcion in the background

this is definitely not what I expected when I ordered fish soup!

the inhabitants of monkey isle

cool scene of a random house on Ometepe

me with one of the hundreds of petroglyphs on Ometepe (it's famous for this)

sun setting over volcan concepcion

I love this sign - no vendors in the ladies room! (not what they intended to say, but it can definitely be read that way)