swallowflight

spent most of the past week in trujillo…. which i consider a gift from my dad. a couple of years ago, he got his hands on a book of o. henry´s short stories. on a couple of successive trips home, he would find a minute to pull me aside, flip through the pages to his most recent favorite and push the book toward me with a delighted grin. the stories are set in the west, the big city, and central america… connecting to lots of things for me, for obvious reasons.

this will link you to a story from the NY times archives of 1916 (!) if you are interested in more on o. henry´s life and times:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B00E6DB143BE633A25757C2A9669D946796D6CF

when i discovered that the writer had spent some time in trujillo, i knew i had to go there. i found a sleepy little coastal town nestled up into a mountainside along a wide sandy bay. still feels like a long way away from anywhere — perfect if you are on the lam. or on vacation. deserted last week, in the ebb tide of tourism after holy week. i stayed at a hostel a bit outside of town, where i spent a couple of days waiting for bad weather to pass and a couple more in perfect sun-and-sand relaxation. definitely worth it.

now back in la ceiba, getting ready to close the chapter on the trip. am beginning to feel the metropolitan forward motion of coming back to me a little at a time. doing my best to welcome it. there is always a small part of me that wants a return from a trip to bring some momentous change, even though i’ve long since learned that it usually doesn’t work that way. the alchemy of travel is a more subtle thing. and return has its own magic, an easy pleasure in familiarity and home.

i think i may be ready for that.

i have found myself sort of unable to get a post going the last few days, had thought about writing all the details of holy week in copan ruinas, a little mountain town where i have spent the last week. somehow it didn´t come together…. and photo uploading is a little slow. it´s hard to keep up with a real travelogue of all the interesting sights and happenings of the road. but at the same time, i´d like to be able to strike some kind of balance between reporting and no reflecting. still working on that…..

so thought i´d just share a couple of amusing moments – the first, an excerpt of an email from my mom:

“I told Grandpa about your scuba diving course, and he had unfortunately just heard of a lady passenger in a boat off the Florida coast who was killed by a 75-lb. sting ray when it jumped out of the water, flew through the air and hit her in the face. I agreed with him that watching it all on TV is safer, but assured him that you were careful.”

fortunately, the only ray i saw was swimming away rather furiously along the ocean floor. i am not sure what my take-home message is from that one. don´t ride on boats? or don´t ride on boats off the florida coast? maybe if i am not a lady it will be ok. or if it is not a yacht. my question is, does anyone really think the ray did it on purpose? it must have been just as surprised as said lady. plus, it didn´t survive. i think the chances of it being an underwater suicide bomber are even smaller than the chances of accidental collision.

visited a butterfly garden this morning… a rather peaceful and relaxing stop in the day. found one of my favorite incomprehensible translations ever in the informational material posted below a collection of longwing species (21 species, incidentally, whose larvae feed on passionfruit vines):

“Many roost gregariously for as of yet unknown reasons.”

??

so i´ll leave you to ponder that.

happy easter, everyone.

actually, i should say that the dorm has been fun and mostly congenial after travelling mostly alone, it is actually nice on some level to come home to people. the dorm is weirdly intimate and institutional at the same time. each person has a space – a bunk and a locker – which is clearly defined and by and large respected by the others. but – we all know who comes home at what time during the night. we know who turns on the shower in order to mask the sounds of using the toilet in the morning, and every time the bunkmate below me rolls over during the night, i feel it. we know who gets hot in the middle of the night, and know that everyone else is freezing when the AC is on….

i am now officially a certified diver – and went for my first “fun dive” yesterday. i have to say i am still working out the kinks, trying to integrate all those skills of breathing, buoyancy, and navigating underwater. the reef is so beautiful, though, and in the moments that i somehow manage to have everything all together, i am amazed at what i see – so many colorful fish, mostly small ones, but sometimes a turtle or a ray, or an urchin with impossibly long spines hiding out in a crack or crevice of the reef.

i don’t know if this link will work – it’s to a photo on the web, and seems to work if i cut/paste into the browser address window. i have seen 2 of these guys. they are so funny, somehow gracefully in their element, and absolutely  unconcerned by the presence of divers, just taking their time getting wherever they are going…

http://www.aboututila.com/Photos/AdamLaverty/Creature-Turtle-01.JPG

so, i am getting ready to head out to the last (4th) dive for my open water certification. hard to believe… it has only been 3 days!! so far so good…

in the meantime, i have been staying in the diveshop’s dorm… $5 nightly can’t be beat, but i feel like i am in a reality show sometimes! there are 6 of us, 2 girls (thankfully, a female ally) and 4 guys, in 3 bunk beds with one bathroom. needless to say, it can get interesting. apparently the night before i moved in there was an all-out screaming match between two residents. before that was a finnish lady with a chihuahua that she was touring around the world, using it to get free goodies and media appearances (the chihuahua rides in the glass-bottom boat! the chihuahua goes up in a hot-air balloon!). so it sounds like i missed out on the real drama! for now, no dogs, no screaming matches. it’s all pretty sedate… as long as i don’t mind the young firefighter complaining that the aussie diver drank his water (which were in identical gallon jugs and left in no particular location).

the diving world seems to bring together an amazing assortment of folks from all walks of life – former corporate types, college students, thrill seekers, retirees. all the staff have very interesting stories of what brought them here. my instructor started out as a commercial diver, welding and salvaging deep below the surface in all kinds of crazy places. makes the recreational dives we go on seem like child’s play!!

well, i’m off, back to the watery world for a little while….

well, i decided to go for it. and anyway, didn’t have much of a choice. the islands won’t let me go!!

my plan was to head back to ceiba to  meet up with friends last night, then spend a week or so on the mainland. awoke yesterday morning to crashing, sandy waves in what previously had been a calm, undisturbed, crystal-clear bay. everything cold and windy.. huge waves and swells, and yet again, NO BOATS! went to the airport w/ friend visiting from out of town and my spanish teacher for the week. we spent the entire day there, from 8:30 am until 6:30, when we were herded onto a little plane. it was still light enough to continue my reading, so  i got through about three more pages of high fidelity (last time was ten years ago when my PC friends and i passed it around during our summer travels, so somehow apropos). then witnessed the following exchange:

airport employee: did anyone check a bag with a gun?

people on plane: (silence)

employee: there’s a bag with a gun in it. whose is it.

people: (more silence. exhausted, just-want-to-get-off-the-ground silence)

man in front of me: oh, that’s mine.

employee: you have to declare these things, you can’t just put a gun in your bag without declaring it. they’re going to keep it here and you won’t get it until tomorrow.

man: oh, i’m sorry.

GREAT. at least he wasn’t trying to use it.

next thing we know, we are being unloaded because the airport in ceiba had closed for the night. arrrrrgh. 

so, back here for another night, fortunately found a room with no problem, and i thought, why should i try to leave? if the weather wants me here, and the airline wants me here, why fight it?

so i started the scuba classes this morning. boy, it is taking me back to high school physics. buoyancy. pressure. displaced water. volume and density of air. FINALLY. i knew that stuff had to come in handy eventually!!! since the water is so rough, i am doing all classwork (videos, reading & quizzes) today. hopefully will be in the water tomorrow….. if things calm down a bit!!

just wanted to put up a quick post with my new location – now in roatan with friend S who is visiting from up north…. nice to have a friend and we are actually speaking with each other in spanish sometimes. everything else goes on… roatan is a different story – lots of money here, north americans buying retirement villas, resorts etc. everything’s a lot more expensive, but it is nice to have truly hot showers for the time being.

went snorkeling around the corner in west bay this morning. my entree into the underwater world. i have to say i was blown away – the reef is just steps off shore so practically as soon as i put my face in the water i was confronted with a vast variety of corals, plants, fish in every color and design. i got so lost in it all. no words to describe it. just a total other world – backwards, upside down, but with its own logic – like an extra dimension i’ve never entered before. so looking forward to going back…..