Playas Del Coco

Ugh, JUST as I was publishing my update the power went out and destroyed everything I had written, so I'll make this one a little quicker! Christmas in Coco was grand. We substituted a turkey dinner with some chicken/stuffing rolls and subsequently created the best dinner any of us have had since we left home 3 months ago. I was not a fan of lubing up with sun screen on Christmas day...just something unnatural about it, and have vowed to spend next year's holiday season in a more inhospitable climate. One of our original goals of our Costa Rican tour was to take advantage of the country's extensive eco-tourism industry, but have since resigned to lounging around the pool and reading! Our plans of scaling volcanoes and swinging through jungle canopies have been squashed one by one as the almighty dollar has pushed these activities out of reach. Luckily no one really minds lying around all day or visiting the odd beach, so we've declared the trip a smashing success. Dev, Ryan and I finally got off our butts and headed out to the Catalina Islands to do 3 dives. Each dive had its highlights but the white-tipped reef shark and his spotted eagle ray friends stole the show. While puttering around out there I spotted a a whale sending up his watery greeting card, and although we could hear them all chatting underwater, these elusive giants stayed while out of sight when we were actually diving. Somehow Dev managed to see a whale shark on one of his certification dives and has since become a minor celebrity in the Coco diving community. Tonight Dani and I are heading out for my first steak dinner since leaving home courtesy of my Mom, while Devon and Michelle take this opportunity to devour some sea food. Tomorrow should be quite interesting, seeing as the four of us (Mike, Jason, Ryan and myself) have dedicated the day to our local frenchman Frank, and more specifically his speedos. Starting in the morning we'll each don our pairs of stretchy underpants (gifts from Mike....who seemed unusually excited to do this activity) and strut around the pool in celebration of the New Year, France and tan lines. By nightfall the party should be pretty good in town and we'll mosey on over to see what trouble we can stir up there. Usually by about 10pm the strip is shoulder tight with people and I can't imagine new year's eve being an exception! The two main bars have an ongoing battle between their stereo systems, with the only losers being the poor people who live behind them. Following that, on New Year's day is when Dev, Dani and Michelle depart and begin to make their way back home. It's been awesome having them here and they really helped make the first christmas on the road bearable. Ok, time to get back to the pool, Happy New Year!

Pictures! Wanted to put more...but this connection isnt too great and I have dev's camera (with subsequently larger pictures!). Not to worry Committee Members, numerous bragging shots will be posted in due time. One there is a classic Blanchet photo op that for some strange reason we take each year! It also introduces the new, thinner and streamlined version of Jason...we call him 'James'.

Stockings were hung by the palm tree with care...

Somehow, even though I'm half way around the world, the craziness of the holiday season still manages to track me down, hence the lack of blog updates! So...starting from Granada. I took a moonlight ferry trip to Ometepe (the giant island in Lake Nicaragua), stayed there for two days, then it was off to Playa Del Coco! Although it took me a cargo ship, followed by a taxi, followed by a bus, then a hike, then a bus, then another bus and finally a free ride in a station wagon, I did make it to El Coco in one day. The Nicaraguan/Costa Rican border is pretty hectic, lots of lines, lots of police, lots of Nicaraguans trying to travel to their wealthy neighbour. Once in El Coco, I grabbed (a rather expensive!) place to stay for the night and wait out everyone's arrival. Given that I only had a couple dollars left for 3 meals, I was reduced to making processed cheese quesadillas, cooked over a coffee pot hot plate, but it mattered not, moral was high for the coming reunion! Dev, Dani and Michelle pulled into town around mid afternoon and from there we basically spent the rest of the day remembering who we were. Dev finished off his Advanced Open Water diving certification, which basically meant that Michelle, Danielle and I spent the days lazying around the pool. It took a while, but I think I've finally taught them how to truly relax. Devon and I did a night dive, for his certification. Saw loads of puffer fish, which were a big deal in Honduras, but now they cover the ocean floor like ants. Periodically one would bump into one of us and explode, then would slowly drift away, completely out of control. We've visited two different beaches so far (aside from the actual town's beach). Both had slightly nicer sand, but I think we're still in search of that perfect tropical beach...it always seems just out of reach (I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had actually found the perfect tropical beach several times on the trip already...). Costa Rica itself is a huge change from Nicaragua. It's evident as soon as you cross the border how much more money they have. All of a sudden houses have yards, garbage doesn't occupy half the street and backhoes have replaced dozens of pickaxe wielding labourers when doing roadwork.

We did our last christmas food shopping today and plan to make quite the feast for the 25th. Unable to find the right stuffing ingredients, or gravy, or even a turkey, we've settled on a chicken dinner with instant stuffing, followed by the christmas baking that Mom and Tara sent down, huzzah! Breakfast will be slightly different than our traditional french toast marathon, but we'll make it work with chocolate pancakes. As we returned from shopping we found Jason, Ryan and John (American, met him in Granada and plan to travel to S. America with him) wandering into town! It seems that they're a day early. So once again, we spent the afternoon and evening swapping stories and having a few cocktails. It appears that Mike (English chap...he's been in enough of my stories that you should know him by now!) may be able to squeak into town tomorrow afternoon, in which case there will be 8 of us for christmas! Other than that...not much more to report, just happy to see everyone and glad that we could get some kind of makeshift christmas together...even if it is in 33 degree weather. Feliz Navidad!

Pictures! Top one is to appease the Deslauriers family that her daughter successfully made the trip to Costa Rica!
Next is of our beautiful christmas lamp...err tree. Dani and Michelle fashioned it out of bags, but the real treasure is the popcorn garland made by yours truly.
And lastly a shot of the full moon as seen from the boat to Ometepe!

Last day in Granada

The iPod is back! Not sure how it happened, but when checking out of the hostel today, I did one last ditch 'lost and found' search, and sure enough, there she was. I checked the lost and found the day that it went missing with no luck, so sometime between now and then it was returned. I suspect either the guy found out it had no battery left and couldnt recharge it, was overwhelmed by guilt or this has all been a malaria dream. Regardless, it made me a happy little gaffer. Many thanks to the team back in Vancouver that was preparing to send down a new music player for me, would have been nice to avoid this entire hassle, but alas. I was actually quite excited about getting a new mp3 player, as the battery life of my ipod has been a sore point for me, and I know it's just waiting to completely die out. Enough about that. Tuesday I took a day trip out to the Laguna de Apoyo, which is a crater lake about an hour out of town. Granted, the hour is based on a bus ride, then being able to hitchhike from the main road to the lake. The only people that passed me barely had enough time to laugh at me before speeding past, so it took much longer than an hour to get there. It was well worth it though, and I spent the day floating around the eerily warm lake in an innertube, looking for any kind of motorized craft to tow me, without luck. Yesterday was actually the day I was supposed to leave, but decided instead to do a volcano hike with Ry and 4 other guys. Once again, its supposed to be about a 2 to 3 hour thing, if you get a truck to take you to the top, but the thought of taking a truck to the top kind of defeated the whole purpose of a "hike", so we hoofed it up the mountain. 7km (5km from the main booth) later we had climbed a staggering 1000 metres vertically and I hope to god I never to have repeat the task. The actual volcano was fairly underwhelming. Where I had pictured rivers of lava and acidic ash spewing out of geysers, the reality was a jungle filled hole that hadn't so much as farted in the last 3000 years. We hung our heads in shame and began the walk back, the highlight of the trip being the numerous gigantic, dead snakes we found squished at the bottom of the mountain. Got back to the hostel and subsequently shaved Ry's head (a spur of the moment decision he reached when sweating profusely atop the volcano). Private Lang and I then joined the rest of the gang for dinner and our nightly pool games. Heading to Ometepe in about 3 hours, if you look at a map of Nicaragua, find the island in the middle of the gigantic lake, that's Ometepe. Plan is to stay there for two nights, then head down to playa del coco to meet Dev, Dani and Michelle! Probably won't get another blog update for a while...but I've said that before. Adios!

Pictures! A shot of the laguna. Never actually been in a crater lake before, but as you can see from the picture, the walls of the lake basically just drop straight down....like a...crater...

A snake! The fact that this is the picture I decided to show you from our entire volcano trip, should speak volumes as to the quality of the volcano.

The day the music died

Well I went to go recharge my iPod this evening only to discover it stolen! Instantly my lovely hostel transformed from its former paradise to a bastion of thieves and highwaymen. Luckily the bandit had the courtesy of stealing it a week before Dev and the gang head down here, so with a little help from Gav, hopefully he can bring a new mp3 player down with him. Normally I wouldn't go out and buy a new one, given that the equivalent is worth a week of living down here, but the thought of all those 10 hour chicken bus rides with nothing but the generic salsa music pumping through the bus speakers has haunted me for the last few hours until I made up my mind. I know what many of you are thinking, why would you leave your valuables out in the open like that, but alas, I did not! Being one of my most prized items, it was safely stowed in my locker, right next to my bunk. The locker doors have these different, beautiful shapes carved throughout them, most all the way through which create perfect little holes. After noticing it gone, looking everywhere for an hour (even though I knew exactly where it had been), swearing at the world for another couple hours, then briefly looking for someone else's to steal (kidding!....kind of...), I borrowed someone else's and discovered that its actually quite easy to reach in with pretty much anything (I used scissors) and slowly maneuver it out of the locker. It didn't take long to realize that the only reason it was gone was because of these carvings, which would not have existed in a crappier hostel, the irony was not lost on me. Im convinced that the slimy little Israeli guy that slept below me was the one who snagged it, and this after I lent my shampoo to him to wash his greasy hair, at least I got that back...and although he thought it was Pert Plus, it was actually low grade shampoo that I had refilled the bottle with in Honduras, sucker! Aside from this excitement, not much else has taken place worth noting. Yesterday I took a little day trip to Masaya, which boasts one of the top craft marketplaces in Central America, and polished off my christmas shopping (actually started AND polished it off). None of the stuff down here has any sort of use, and since I'm really quite bad at picking out decorative items, for those that are getting gifts from me...don't expect much! On the way to and from the market I listened to The Doors on my lovely ipod....*sniff* *sniff*...poor ipod...I better log outta here before I breakdown. Adios!

Nicaragua

After a harrowing journey through Honduras, Ryan and I made it just shy of the Nicaraguan border on Tuesday night. We stayed in a town who's name I can't remember, in a hotel named 'Hotel'. The guy who ran the place seemed so startled that there were actually customers that wanted to stay in his run down shack that he took us to his finest dwellings! What can I say about that room that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan..., definitely in the running for 'worst place we've stayed' award, and that says a lot. Anyhow, up at 5ish the next morning (mainly because it's hard to sleep with ants crawling on you) and shot across the border and right through to Leon by about noon. So far the locals (nicas) seem much friendlier than the Hondurans and although it's one of the poorest countries in the world, many actually seem to take pride in keeping their property tidy, the same can't exactly be said for most of the other parts we've been to. As luck would have it, we arrived in Leon on the eve of their biggest holiday, so there was a ton of activity and revelry. Firecrackers started at 6pm and went until 6am. Once in a while they would throw in the old air raid sirens that they still have from the war (although I dont know how much of a factor air superiority was for the contras, so maybe they were just warning sirens...). With those going off and a never ending barrage of massive explosions pounding through the city, it was easy to slip into malaria induced dreams of being stuck in the London Blitz. At one point the explosions were so loud and frequent, and the air raid siren so commanding, that I actually DID believe that maybe the city was under attack...some kind of Tet Offensive rip-off where Honduras decided to take advantage of their neighbour's festivities and seize some territory...but once again, much of this was heavily influenced by the malaria medication. This morning we headed out fairly early again, grabbed a colectivo to Managua then another for Grenada. Quite enjoyed the 3 hour trip through lots of cattle ranches. Arrived in Grenada at about 1:30 and grabbed a spot at the Oasis hostel. With the exception of our Sayulita stay, this is definitely the nicest place we've been. It's incredible, free internet, free movies, huge garden thing with hammocks, incredibly clean and a swimming pool (albeit a small one, but still). Ryan and I have agreed this will probably be the spot we hunker down and wait for Mr. Lush to find us. That's all for now!

Pictures! I put these on there mainly so you could compare our living accomodations. The top picture we have a beautiful shot of our shower in Utila. We were rather saddened by the loss of our friend, the rat, he had been with us since the beginning and not until the last day did he show up dead on the shower floor. So far the only suspect for this cowardly act is the giant spider that lived behind the toilet, perhaps some kind of bloody turf war the two were having finally boiled over? Actually, come to think of it, Mike, you're also a suspect, you hated that rat for some ungodly reason but were usually too scared to do anything yourself....
Second picture is our current hostel! Note the ornate railings and masonry work. Although it's twice as expensive as what we're used to paying (a staggering $6/night!), it's well worth the extra dough!

Diving!

So, the advanced course was much cooler than the original open water course and has managed to further cement my newfound desire to go diving...constantly. The open water course was great because it was all pretty new, but not until my last 7 dives did I get into the exciting stuff. An underwater navigation dive and a deep water dive are necessary for your advanced certification, as well as three electives. For mine, I chose night diving, peak performance buoyancy and underwater photography (mainly because I just wanted some pictures to take back with me) . I also did a shipwreck dive (very cool...went down 30 metres to a sunken cargo ship) and two fun dives, where I puttered around and basically looked at fish. The night diving was a blast, puts a totally new slant on everything that you see in the day time, saw an octopus and lots of sleeping fish, although we weren't supposed to, I would flash my light on them and watch them sluggishly open their eyes and slowly swim away, it was great. Peak performance buoyancy is a dive devoted to maintaining perfect neutral bouyancy, swimming upside down, using your lungs instead of the air from your tank to move vertically in the water etc, lots of good info in that one! The scariest dive I did was actually a fun dive. We went to a place on the far side of the island called Ghost Waters. Off the boat we descended about 14 metres, then swam along a little shelf to the edge of a drop off that plummeted a staggering 2 kilometres straight down to the ocean floor. My dive master then had the insane idea of going OVER the edge, which, being my buddy, I had to obey. So we dropped down and swam over a 2km drop. Periodically I would look down into the blackness of the abyss and see all sorts of hideous monsters watching me, although I think this was more a product of the excess nitrogen build-up in my brain rather than any actual beasts. Although I DID hear the odd groan floating up from the depths. Im still not sure what produced the sounds, but they were very quiet but deep and sounded like the bottom of the ocean was trying to communicate with me. Given my built in fear of deep waters, this was all a very troubling experience, but at the same time the adrenaline rush it gave me was well worth the fear. We finished our diving with a great little jaunt a few kilometres off the coast to a place called Black Hills, where a huge mountain rises up just below the surface of the ocean. As soon as we arrived, massive schools of fish surrounded us and at points were so thick that we could barely see past them. My instructor insisted that they often do this, but Im still convinced they did it especially just for me. So now that both Ryan and I are advanced open water divers, our work here is done and it is time to move on! Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for the coast, then hop on a bus to Tegucigalpa (Im recalling that name from memory so its probably spelled incorrectly). Hopefully we can make it past the Nicaraguan border by tomorrow afternoon and then we're headed for Leon. Bay Islands have been fantastic but it's definitely time for a change in scenery. Probably update again once we're in Grenada! (the city...not the island...although who knows...) Adios!

Pictures! First shot...I meant to take a shot of the water, but this stupid turtle got in the way
Second shot...French angel fish, unfortunately that isnt a great shot of them because at the time there were hundreds more in the school, but I was too zoomed in! Each one of them is about a foot long or so
Third shot...A parrot fish that came by for a visit, we had a wonderful conversation about underwater politics...did I mention the weird things that nitrogen does to you at 100+ feet?
Fourth shot...Not sure what that fish is called...

Pictures!

Jason and I passed our certification with flying colours yesterday, and we have a two day break before hitting the water again to go for our advanced certification, so basically that means two days of lying around, it's rough, but someone has to do it. So, I took this opportunity to properly gloat with the help of some pictures. Top one is our little gang here, backrow (from left): Mike the english guy that I travelled through Belize with, Adam, the yank who's really a Canadian. Front row (from left): Frank, the nuclear physist from France, Jason my ridiculous cousin, Courtney from the distant land of 'Port Coquitlam' and Ry. Next Shot: Coming back from our last dive yesterday...think about what you were doing at 3pm PST yesterday, then picture me being there...ha, suckers. Last Shot: What I'll be doing again in about 17 minutes, have fun at work!