Archive for May, 2004

Altagracia, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua, 2004-05-06

I got a bug bite on my arm. And then it went funny. The local doctor said it could be a bacterial infection from the instect’s urine. So gross. Lee, the Forest Service wild forest fire firefighter told me he once had a friend who got a spider bite that gave her something like gangrene and they had to cut a piece of her leg out. And then I started thinking about that part at the end of Requiem for a Dream… thanks, Lee.

Even from the top of Volcán Madera, yesterday, Lago de Nicaragua looked like the ocean, and not at all like a lake. Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t see it from the top. All I saw at the top of the volcano was the inside of the cloud that seems to be a permanent resident no matter what the weather everywhere else may be. Maybe that’s why they called it a cloud forest up there, because that’s where clouds grow! Wet, muddy, slippery, pretty green clouds with lots of crazy bugs, birds, and monkeys. There’s a lake in the crater too, and that was cool, but in the literal sense so was the air, which made it not so much for a swim in the non-literal sense as it would have been had it been, well, otherwise.

I’ve been having to think about school these past few days and it’s a terribly frightful thing. There sure is something to be said about getting a head start on school now that I know where I’m going (UCLA), but it’s really tough to beat the ‘I’m already here and there’s so many places to keep going to and see’ argument.



Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 2004-05-01

The capital of Honduras has many American fastfood chains, lots of street crime, and a very silly name. Once again, you never know what to expect when they tell you it’s a taco.

On the ferry from Utila every gringo with bare ankles had the raw pox of a week of sandflies, mosquitoes, coral, and god knows what else itchgivers. I am not alone!

Also on the ferry were two very familiar blue t-shirts with VOLUNTEER in white across the back and a little hand thingee. When confronted they appeared to contain two british guys, accompanied by a third without the tell-tale shirt. They were in Honduras doing conservation projects through i-to-i, the same organization I worked in India with. On Utila they fed iguanas. I never got to do that. Street children are almost like iguanas I guess. These guys were going back to Tegulcigalpa and were already familiar with it, so I decided to tag along with them. I met their coordinator, who knows my coordinator. That only makes sense, but is still WEIRD so weird to meet someone who knows someone I know in India in Honduras. See, even the sentence about it is weird.

Last night I was looking at their South America guidebook (they’re flying off to Quito, I think). Right after I got my camera stolen I was starting to think that going home relatively early wasn’t such a bad idea. Now I want another year to travel. Too much to see! Well, I’m obviously a terrible judge of what I want. Gotta see what reality ends up saying about it all.

They not only grow good coffee here, but they seem to know how to make it. I’m a happy little man.