The monkey made me do it

Central District to Central America

Day 1: "Fishies! Reefs! Holy crap!"
Day 2: "Colorful fishies! Really big reefs!"
Day 3: "I like the blue ones over there! No wait, that yellow one!"
Day 4: "Eels in the reef! Woo! Shark under the reef! Woo hoo!"
Day 5: "I really am not fond of these grey fishies! But hey, a seahorse!"
Day 6: "Aren't coral reefs usually more colorful in pictures I've seen? Why is this one olive and tan-colored?"
Day 7: "That grey bastard fish just tried to bite me, and that sponge kinda looks like a butt."

Three dives a day for a week kind of messes with you, I've discovered. In addition to making the entire world sway and dip like a boat at sea (caused, coincidentally, by spending 6+ hours a day on a boat at sea), the constant compressing and decompressing of your bodily pieces leaves you feeling a little like a squeezebox that's been played all night long. Still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Roatan is lovely, and the people put up with us remarkably well. By "us" I'm referring to the honkies in general, since Ben and I spent much of our time there apologizing for the other (mostly middle-aged, male, white, testosterone-infused) divers (also more than likely compensating for other inadequacies with their high-tech dive gear and constant bragging) that treated the staff horribly. Either they refused to lift a finger to help, or they over-chummed it up and tried to get the boat captains to race each other into harbor. Boats loaded with tanks of compressed air and tourists that were one wave away from seasickness or falling completely over (onto the tanks of compressed air, of course).

There were a few other women divers, I have to add. A couple of teenagers who were diving with their dad and some older overtanned, fake-boobed women who dove with their husbands and held their hands the entire dive while kicking delicately along. The teenagers rocketed up and down through the water and did their very best to kick everyone in the head. Gotta love em (or point them in the direction where you last saw sharks).

We left Roatan after our week and went to the mainland of the Honduras, set on getting a more accurate view of the local environment. That meant heading straight into the jungle and not stopping until there was no internet, no air conditioning, no cell reception, and no power lines. Luckily there were still flush toilets. I like flush toilets. The Jungle River Lodge was our second gorgeous home away from home, though this one highly encouraged us to sleep with sheets up over our heads despite the heat and DEET covering us 24/7 (HELLO, jungle bugs!). It overhangs the rocky banks of the Rio General and is next door to the Pico Bonito National Park, so of course we worked in some hiking and a nice little zip line excursion into the jungle. "Canopy Tour", they call it. Sounds like something that would include a break for tea and sauntering, yes? Not like something that requires a helmet, two locking carabiners, a pulley wheel that keeps you from falling into oblivion, a thick leather glove as your only brake, and trees so dense that you slap leaves as you fly past the trunks mere inches from your head. Loved it, needless to say. Apparently have no sense of fear (except when it comes to dating).

They lit the entire place up with candles in the evenings, with a path of flickering light from the main dining room/bar (ohhh, Honduran rum! That's a whole 'nother world, out there.) to the rooms. I spent my entire last day out there just sitting, moving from the hammock to the river's edge to the lodge's balcony and back to the hammock. Thinking of life, and stuff. Sometimes I think that the entire reason that I love travel so much is that it immediately gives a sense of perspective and simultaneously makes you appreciate different lifestyles/environments and makes you appreciate your own all the more.

And then we went home and I gave my parents and pups big hugs, and heard all about how Monkey got to ride in a convertible and Rooster took a self-guided tour of the nearby forest. And then I saw my new niece, who is the cutest lil' chubby raisin ever, and now I'm here.

But my brain is still mostly here:

posted by LadyJay @ 12:58 PM