CaptainOrange

When the girls were quite young, though not so young that they don't still remember, I told them that my big plan was to break the human record for longevity. I thought I should give a progress report... I've got ways to go yet. If I'm even to break the Canadian record, I've got a good 70 billion km to go. Marry Poppins said, "Well begun is half done." I guess I'll have to settle for the imortal words of the late, great, Karen Carpenter... " We've only just begun... " Quester's Voyage -- Anwyn D Those of you who followed my Honduras travels last March will know why it is that you can't see the little quester's mouth in the above photo. Poor guy. I hope he remembers to take his gravol next time :( Thanks to all of my well wishers today (both human and automated). I am indeed having a happy birthday. You may be surprised to discover that I wish to share some photos with you today. As they were leaving for school today, the...

I have been back from Honduras for a month. Enough time that I've come off the high of the trip and been able to do some thinking about what, if anything, I've learned. Beware the Atlanta airport. Perhaps I underestimated it's dangers. Before Brad left for his final flight we went to a restaurant, celebrating our triumphant (i.e. Live) return from the murder capital of the world. I had a bottomless Dr. Pepper and a delicious tasting veggie burger and fries. A couple of hours later, my stomach began to have some serious misgivings. I was sick all the way home and for two days after my return. Sunlight and adventure are an awesome combination. After recovering from suspected food poisoning, I felt like a new man. The cliche makes it hard to understand my meaning. The morose lethargy that I normally struggle with through the beginning of spring was gone. I had energy -- for myself and everyone around me. I was shocked to see others walking around like zombies and complaining...

We are getting an early start at the ruins this morning. First a fantastic breakfast of assorted fruit, scones, waffles, spiced compote, coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice. We are one of the first groups to arrive. There are 5 members for this guided portion. Jim, a retired educator living in Quebec, was with us yesterday. Dave and Nancy join us this morning. Coincidentally, they were just at the Cocoview in Roatan. I recall briefly seeing them, though they dove from a different boat. The ruins of the religious area are unreal. They dwarf the dwellings of the upper caste that we saw yesterday. Again, sensitive areas are roped off, but I am impressed with how much we are able to touch and climb. Midway through our walk, Brad and I even get to scramble down into an empty tomb. View from within a tomb As much as I like to wander, I am struck by how much a good guide adds to the experience. Miguel is well studied in the Mayan culture and his knowledge of their culture and glyphs ...

Last night was our last in Roatan. There was all you can drink rum punch and a fire dancer. I'm not sure those should be mixed, and yet they were. We avoided the rum, but enjoyed the flames. This morning I woke at 4:30am. Does that count as morning? I suppose. Everyone else is still sleeping since they are all taking an international flight at a more reasonable 11am. Brad and I are going to the main-land. Our flight departs at 6:40am and we have a quick boat trip and 20 minutes on the road first. The airport is sluggish, but they still manage to insist on searching Brad's luggage and opening a box he has a highly breakable object stashed within. I think everyone at the airport feels safer now. That's a smaller plane than I am used to. This is going to be... interesting. I know, it's no Twin Otter or anything, but still... the pilot's controls are labeled in Russian. Two planes later we have been picked up by a guide who will escort us during our 3hr drive to t...

The thumbnail down there is the link to the ever-growing album. New ones at the end... Honduras Falling, the dark, getting lost and drowning. What are things that mankind is terrified of? Correct. Bonus points would have been awarded if you had also mentioned that they were things associated with night diving. Tonight we are going for a night dive. Let me tell you, it takes a bit of nerve. I'm glad we have already dived this area during the daylight or I might be totally petrified. It was really fun bombing around The Prince Albert (an intentional ship-"wreck") with a pair of high-powered flashlights. At the same time, I had frequent visions of running into a rogue lion-fish and having to be flown to hospital. We all have our demons. For the record, Brad was responsible for making us late for supper. No, really, it WAS him. Our Dive-master preps us for todays dive There needs to be a buffer between diving and flying. We leave tomorrow morning, so this morning i...

Wednesday, March 2 Here is an instructive map of the immediate Coco View area  from a dive perspective. Sorry about the lack of pictures on this post. Brad has a lot of pictures and video, but, the dive pictures are hard to deal with (too many to sort through on this tiny machine) and I've not been in the water too much to use my camera. I'm a bit gun-shy. I've been violently ill to my stomach two days in a row and I don't want to make it three. That said, I'm not known for knowing when to say when. I'm here to dive, and dive I will. In my favour: new anti-nausea meds on loan from Brad, calm seas, the brashness of (near)youth, the desperation of (near)age, and a very light breakfast (just in case). Betrayal! They are taking our boat on the longest ride of any of the dives I'll do while here--23 minutes. Doesn't sound like much, but the trip that laid me out on 'V-Day' was barely 8. I work hard to distract myself and am rewarded with a even...

I know I said I was going to take the day off. Well... I didn't do any diving. After my morning activities (last post), I played some basket ball... hunted down some hummers went down an awesome 10-run zip line one of the vistas from our zip-line tour and went horseback riding. A relaxing day. This exemplifies how I saw Roatan today The best part of the day was that I started to get a real sense of what Roatan is like. It's easy to get stuck in the resort mentality. Everything is easy and you're the king of the world. They try to provide everything you need. But, it's not a real place. Roatan is earthy. The people swear with equal facility in English and Spanish and they are friendly. Sadly, its a bit forced. There is a real need to be friendly with people who are responsible for virtually your entire economy. I'd rather be visiting as an equal. As it turns out, this entire island is much like I first observed on the ride from the airport to the resort....

Flower for my girls at home :) Mostly going to take the day off from everything: diving, writing, whatever. Log entry for yesterday (day 3) ... Seasick ALL DAY! I went on the boat (with gravol) and lost it. There were 6ft seas, but I didn't see anyone else fighting with breakfast. I felt pretty wretched and slept a lot until evening. I admit to being a bit embarrassed, but everyone has been really great about it. Trying for the mainland ;) Sunrise So today is sun, sun, sun. Maybe I'll take pity on the hummingbirds who are having all their food stolen every night and take a few photos. There was a playful sunrise this morning. I felt great. Went for a short run and played with some shore life. Oh, and I've just been adding to the photo album .

I've got a photo album up . It's big and getting bigger (I've kept it to 70 pics so far). No dive photos, yet. And, they will probably go in a separate album anyway. Set an alarm for 7am. Woke up at 5 to disable a fan that was causing me to be too cold. Yes I'm aware of how ridiculous that sounds what with the temperatures that most of you are dealing with. But, there was air conditioning involved! Does that make it better? Woke at 6. Too light to sleep. After breakfast, I head upstairs to an orientation session. The first 10 minutes are a sales pitch for a company that flies people around the island at low altitude in an open-air plane. It's prohibitively expensive, so I just tune out. The only thing of consequence I learn is that anything we want to buy at the resort goes on a room tab and all the “tipping” happens at the end of your stay in one envelope for the entire staff except for the boat captains and dive master, who are tipped separately. It keeps us fr...