Surfing

Hung around in the luxurios hostel Oasis in granada for a couple of days now, just reading, enjoying the hamocks and the pool, talking with people. Yesterday we tried surfing with Bugies in a nearby beach - and it was much more fun than I remembered. The waves here are quite powerful, which makes the experience quite more enjoyable than in the meditaranian.

Webshots really got to a point where they have everything :) http://www.webshots.com/search?new=1&source=homesearch&query=oasis+granada+nicaragua

Oh, and also found this surfing related site, which is quite funny - I sure have registered this: http://www.couchsurfing.com

Adios,
Eitan.

The wave

Yesterday I went to a BBQ on the beach near Leòn. You see, when you start your travel in Central America, you begin with a decission of which camp you will belong to. The people that travel in your direction are called 'The Wave'. In my case, I belong to the wave of the rainy season of 2005, going from north to south. There are also two other groups of travelers you'll come across when you travel, these are the contra wave and the stuck people. The contra wave is obviously doing the same trip just the other way round. The stuck people, are those that decided to stay in a small region for a long time - volunteering, working, doing their divemaster or just found a hostel where they can do drugs for cheap, sometimes for a VERY long periods of time. My wave is the one going by The Book (Lonely Planet), reading it from the start in Mexico to the end in Panama - cover to cover. Our contra wave thought it would be cool to rebel and start with reading the end of The Book first. Weird people. You can see that you become very Megubash with the wave, obviously, coz you all share the same attractions, the same hostels, the same hikes, the same experiences together. Generally, I guess that 95% of the people have about 80% the trip more or less the same. Both of the waves will eventually meet the guy in Lanquin that can speak hebrew. "Ani lo mipo ani, ani me beer sheva".
So, back to the BBQ, on events like this, in order to maximize the information flow and the fun from the conversation, you want to get a good mix of people around your table. The stuck people are very helpful, giving you tips about the best laundry, the best restaurants, the best attractions in town and other crucial travle information. They are the key for not getting to the next town, meeting other travelers, and thinking 'Shayse, how did I miss that???'. With people from your wave, you can share experiences, exchange pictures and emails, build relashionships and plan the rest of your trip. And of course, the contra wave, they influence your future. From them you get the most up to date dos and don't about your next region, you hear about the popular not-in-The-Book hostels, and get to generally know what the rest of your trip will look like. With them, the art is building the best relationship in a short period of time because you'll probably never meet these people again. Of course, you hold the future of their trip too, so everybody wins from this and enjoy these short relationships.
We had a good mix yesterday: A couple of kiwis (new zealanders), auzis (australian) and dutch from the different groups. A deck of cards, a couple of beers and good music. Just the perfect setting for a wonderful evening. This is how the economy of travel works. These are the evenings that determine where most of the money of the involved people will flow. Economics rock! :)

Tomorrow I'll probably be in the not-in-The-Book hostel in Grenada called 'the bearded monkey', (guess how I know about it),
Adios for now,
Eitan, from the wave of 2005 ;)

Mazal Tov!

Just opened the mail to see I'm an uncle to 2 new twins!(!!!)
Mazal Tov SIMO??, Mazal Tov all of us :)

Waiting to see you all soon,
Eitan, León (Nicaragua).

Nicaragua

Just entered Nicaragua. Of course, thanks to my bad planning, I didn't notice today is a comemoration of the 1979 revolution. Which means - no chicken buses. Also no banks (but this is not that a problem). Fortunately, thanks to this I found someone to hitchhike with (Joe), and I just had the most amazing ride I had in this trip. Terrific views sitting in the argaz of a Magnum, with vanila smells coming out from the cabina (he's got my favorite perfuming tree). Amazing views (did I say that already) - all around us just small lakes, bushes, grass, cows eating the grass, beware of crashing an Iguana signs, nice wind cooling us, clouds giving us a show on the sky playing with the rays from the sun, and surprisingly a really good road. We had this for about 2 hours. Just a beer was missing. And the music the driver put in the end was funny when he whistled with it, but I forgive him. The movies will be coming soon to the cinema with you.
I really need a motorcycle license.
Finished for today in a small town with a nice hostel, waiting for tomorrow's bus to Leon. We'll try the local bar later on.



Hasta luego,
Eitan.

2nd class

Took a bus today from Copan (Almost westest part of Honduras), trying to get to Nicaragua (on the east). Only got to Tegucigalpa (7 hours), but what a bus... It started with the price of 21$. These are the prices of flights here. Anyway, it was quite funny that paying for the bus I had to show my passport. Whatever. When I gave the guy my mochila, he put on it a tag with my name and phone number. Just before getting on the bus they checked again my passport and bus ticket. Passed me through a metal detector (they must have forgotten the X rays just this time). Counted that everybody was in, and began the trip. The short video asked us to put on our seatbelts while sitted, our captain greeted us, and a guy with a tie started passing between the chairs giving blankets to whoever wanted. The movie started and we all went to sleep. When I woke up, I noticed this bus has also a first class part with wider chairs (only 3 instead of 4 in a row), and that the cabin of the driver is separated with a door from the rest of us. The dayal started to pass again giving us snacks and a drinks, and we arrived to San Pedro Sula (half way) just on the minute. Changed flights (busses) had to go through immigrations again, of course (I mean, security checks... right), and got on another bus, just the same. Another movie (The same as I saw on my flight actually, the lost treasure or something with Nicolas Cage. This time I understood it through reading the spanish subtitles) and we landed in Tegucigalpa again just in time. A Taxi driver took me straight to Nan Kin Hotel (great chinese food!), and I managed to get Denzel Washington in the 19:00 show on the cinema near by. Enternaining movie. Certainly not of his best ones...

That's it for today,
Tomorrow Nicaragua probably,
Tegucigalpa is OK, better than how I imagined it, although what everybody said,
Adios,
Eitan.

new camera

We went to see this sport event a couple of days ago. Tons of people arrived to this giant stadium, and a lot of noise and yellow shirts surrounded us all. Luckily I brought my camera, and shot some nice pictures. What was strange, was what followed. When I showed my pictures to someone about half an hour after I shot them, I noticed that I have some REALLY good pics in my camera of the same event, taken from locations I wasn't present in. It's like someone stole my camera, took some amazing pictures, and brought it back. And about 3 really good videos appeard in it too. I didn't even turn on the video option the last 3 hours. This was REALLY strange, but the pics and videos were so good, that I was happy I had them.
Then I woke up.
Apparently, my camera used her internal GPS and modem to exchange good pics and videos with other people in the stadium. In these days... Well... Why not... Nice features we'll see in our cameras the next few years. I wonder how they will buzzword this feature. PictureShare Enabled I guess :)

I'm now in a city called Copan Ruinas, near the ruins of copan. The city bases its economy on people visiting the copan ruins, so lots of turists and stuff is going on. All is well, see you all soon (Less than 3 months I'm already back... Wow this was fast)

Adios,
Eitan.

PADI course in Honduras

For those of you who didn't know, my record of holding my breath underwater is for 2 mins and 43 seconds in the Technion pool. (You can try this... It's really, really, really hard). Seemed quite cool at the time, until a diver came to me and told me I was nearly killing myself. Oops. Now I know that I hyperventilated to a point where the need to breath reduces dramatically. In this situation I could loose consciousness without the need to breath, and... hmmm... Well... Good nothing bad happened. Anyway, I thought this skill would help me in someway in my divings, but since I started this course, all I hear all the time is the rule #1 of diving: 'never hold your breath'. Merd.
Anyway, it is lots of fun. Today I start a Nitrox course, which will allow me to stay more time underwater. This is done using air enriched with 30 something percentages of Oxygen instead of the usual 21%. Somehow they have managed to write tons of material about technical stuff in a really interesting way. It seems that the american PADI staff did a better job than most of the computer technical writers I read in the last couple of years. Their learning system which repeats the important stuff 3 times - once reading it, once watching a video, and once with the instructor - really works.



Well, that's it for now...
From the beautiful beaches of Utila,
Adios,
Eitan.

Diving diving diving

The past week has been all about diving. This place, Utila, is all about diving. I have competed 13 dives in the Open Water and Advanced courses, with high pressure from people here to go on and do a Dive Master :)... We'll see about that...
I do enjoy every minute of it, though, so it kinda became an option.
I have lots of new underwater pics to share, I'll try to do that soon... Life here is very simple. 2 pubs, a couple of restaurants, a couple of hotels, people talking about diving every day all day, lots of chics in swimsuits, boats, great weather, tons of mostquitos and other biting stuff (so you must jump to the water... too bad...), and much much fuuuuun. What else can you ask for?



I'll write again in a short while,
take care,
Eitan.

Honduras traveling

Hola todos,
Yesterday turned to be a productive day despite what I thought it would be. Even though Guatemala celebrated an army fiesta, and a banker's firsta (2 days in a row), I managed to change some money - and catch a bus to the Hondurasian border. Each time I told a driver I want to get to Honduras today, I saw him step on the gas (It was a bus and 2 minibuses to get there). The last taxi I took to the border itself reached 140kmph, changed money for me with someone he knew in there (surprisingly for quite a good rate), helped with the immigration paperwork and landed me 8 minutes before the last bus to Honduras' reasonable cities left the station. 2 kids in a taxi cab took me to a cheap hotel in a medium city in Honduras, which turned out to be one where you pay by the hour. But the owner was nice, and I got to brush my spanish for 2 hours before going to sleep.
Today I'll probably get to Utila - the diving island, and I hope to start a diving course Monday. We'll see.
I'll write again about the Xela hikes later...

Bye for now,
Eitan.

On the way to honduras

I'm currently doing my way to Honduras, to start a diving course on Monday. I'll write more after I'm settled down somewhere. (There's a lot to tell from 2 hikes I had the past week). Currently I'm in Guatemala City (also known as Guate), and I hope the today I'll reach the Bay Islands in Honduras, or at least cross the border and settle down in a reasonable city there.
I feel well after a flue and an infection in my stomach (what can you expect from the food here...).

I'll write again soon,
Cheers,
Eitan.