I think I've been travelling too long. Last night i watched the film Nottinghill and from my laughter you would think it the funniest film ever made. Earlier in the day my dive group was circled by more reef sharks of about 3m length than i could count (it turns out one of the girls had a nose bleed). I didn't bat an eyelid, raise a smile or even breathe any heavier - and it wasn't to conserve air. Right now I'm wrapped in a thinking bubble of my life and what to do with it - a heart versus head battle. Sometimes it's hard just to be, and enjoy the moment - have i really got less than 2 months of travelling left, 2 months some people would give their right leg for...
So I'm in little corn island, it's a slice of almost Caribbean heaven (does that taste like rum?) - it has no roads, no cars, no scooters and an intermittent electricity supply. When the lights go out at night, you can see nothing but a million stars. To get to the 'happening' spot on the island you have to walk through the jungle with a torch. You can walk from one end of the island to the other in less than an hour, passing trees of mangos, coconuts, bread fruits and many i forget the names of. The sea is a gorgeous blue, the sand is fine, almost white and the sunsets are spectacular. It's everything i don't need right now, i should be learning Spanish. Island life, bars full of ice-cold beers, nice diving sites and a realisation that there is no should in my life, and that maybe i can't do this many more times, has meant me extending my flights back to Managua twice already. This is one backpacker expensive, yet realistically inexpensive splurge. Who in their right mind gets a $30 room/house just so they can have a movie channel - they don't care about the a/c or the en-suite and especially not the hot shower. It's supposedly hot water because it has an electric cable connected to it, the reality is cold water and a really nasty shock if you accidentally touch the shower. I don't think i am quite in a 'right mind', i tell you I've been travelling too long.
I don't know where my time has really gone - 10 days have sailed by already. i know most days i eat half a fresh pineapple for breakfast (until my teeth start to melt). I know that everyday i eat lunch in my favourite cafe overlooking the sea and that in the evening i watch the sunset, hoping for an elusive green flash. I know supper tends to be warm, freshly baked coconut bread along with a pot noodle - I always wish for multi grain bread, and when did travelling reduce me to eating pot noodles! Even as a malnourished student i didn't touch them. I know most days i go diving...
How could i not write a bit more about my favourite, bankrupting hobby. It's a laid back, uncrowded setting - surrounded by some pristine corals. I've had a close encounter with a giant of a hammerhead and a very, very close encounter with a giant of a Caribbean reef shark. We were in an enclosed cavern at the start of a tunnel/swim through. Our presence startles the 'sleeping' beauty, it wakes up with frantic moves and heads straight towards me. I try to back up, but i have nowhere to go. Neither does the shark it seems - we are blocking the entrance. It's still coming towards me - do i punch or kick it flashes through my mind, but i can't manoeuvre as I'm in such a tight space. Just before (and i mean just before), it reaches me it veers away and finds a hole in the ceiling. Even this wasn't enough to create more than a split second of adrenaline. Later in the dive i spot a spindly little crab with blue claws, i get so excited that i nearly forget about the other divers...i tell you, I'm not normal.
Island life comes as a surprise after my time in central America - life is super chilled. At one point i owed 5 different bills around the island, as they all had no change. Pay me tomorrow they say - at least i think they do. They speak a mix of pigeon English, Creole, Spanish and Miskito - most of the time i have no idea what is being said. I ordered a takeaway pizza the other night (that makes the island sound commercialized, but it's not). 2 hours later, after I've made 3 separate orders (which pizza..then which size...then which thickness) i get told "we an got no bo", which i believe meant that this fine establishment has unfortunately run out of take-away boxes. I get handed an enormous, red hot baking tray with a pizza and then a tea towel on top. It was 2 more days before i could pay for it.
It's definitely time to get back to the reality of rice and beans - arroz and frijoles, frijoles and arroz, with no spam in sight.
Where to next i wonder?
