"Downhill" Mountaing Biking in El Salvador

After a long, supposedly relaxing week in Honduras, we headed back to El Salvador. We had a very quick flight from San Salvador to Roatan (just over an hour by plane). However, to get back to San Salvador on a week day (Friday) we had to take three flights and spend most of the day in airports. Our first flight was a little bit scary. We thought that planes were supposed to be aerodynamic. Does this square plane look aerodynamic to you? It also did not have any air conditioning or ventilation. AT reminded me that it’s “always an adventure” with me. :-)

I had such a great time in El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity, I wanted to take AT there so that he could see the country as well. We spent two nights in San Salvador, experiencing the city life, and one all-day adventure in the mountains with my favorite touring company, Akwaterra. Julio, the owner, picked us up in the morning from our swanky hotel (we thought we would splurge and stay in the 5-star, $99/night hotel). He drove us up to his wife’s family’s coffee plantation high in the mountains. During the 2+ hour drive, he was an inexhaustible source of information about El Salvador. (AT came prepared to fill the time with lots of questions about the economy, the people, the government, and the culture.) We got to Akwaterra’s “home base” and adjusted our mountain bikes for the ride ahead. Even though I had booked us for a relaxing “downhill mountain bike ride” that ANYONE, regardless of their physical condition, could do, Julio asked us if we cared to do an intermediate ride. AT said yes, because we “could use a good workout”. Now, I had experienced the pleasure of an “easy hike” just a week prior.. the one where we had to have a car come and pick some of our team up because the hike was so treacherous! But I went along with it because AT really wanted the intermediate ride.

Let’s just say that there are no photos about this adventure because it didn’t go very well. The downhill parts were scary because the “roads” were narrow, uneven, and covered with dirt as fine as sand. It was hard to stop or slow down without fishtailing or skidding. My hands were sore from clenching the brakes to avoid plunging down the mountain to my death. The uphill parts were very taxing, as we were at a high altitude, and in the very hot sun. (at least, that’s the excuse we agreed upon). But seriously, we are two people who are used to regular cardiovascular activity, and this ride kicked our butts! We were too proud to turn around before the halfway point. However, after growling at Julio for trying to kill us (and for telling us that a group of 60-year-old French women had no problem conquering this very trail a few weeks prior), we gratefully took the ride in the truck that was waiting for us before the last big hill. Later, we would look back on this moment and remember it fondly. At the time, not so happy.

Back at the (literal) ranch, they cooked us the best darn BLT I ever had in my entire life. Seriously. It was THAT good. Then we headed over to Apaneca to fly through the air on the new Zip Line (canopy). It was my first time and AT’s second time undertaking such an adventure. At first I was nervous, as the platforms are high and very small. But after my first line, all fear was gone. It was SO MUCH FUN! Now THIS is my kind of adventure.

After the zip line, we went to gastronomical festival at Juayua. It was close to closing time, so we didn’t get to sample too many exotic foods, but we did find a few tasty treats and a nice cold beer. We hung out there for a while, joined by Julio’s wife Gabi, their daughter and their two very big dogs, then headed back to San Salvador. Eliel, one of Julio's tour guides that I had met the weekend before, drove us back to the city, and we practiced our Spanish the whole way home.

Overall, a very fun weekend in El Salvador!

Swimming with the Fishes: Roatan, Honduras

It all started several years ago, when AT & I took an exciting vacation to a beautiful Caribbean island that looks a lot like Cuba (but, of course, it couldn’t have actually BEEN Cuba because citizens of the USA are not allowed to go there, and we are law abiding citizens). ;-) On the way to this island, we had a stopover in Cancun, Mexico. We had a little free time, so we went to the beach. AT love love loves jumping waves in the ocean. Loves it. In the past, he had convinced me to go running like a complete fool into 61-degree water in both Massachusetts and California , just to jump some waves. (no wetsuits, of course). In Mexico, the water was much warmer, but the waves were intense. I had recently learned to swim, so I was cautious. The waves were coming one right after another, and much faster than I could handle. So I high-tailed it out of the ocean, opting for the safety of the sandy beach. AT followed me out of the water, because it’s just not as fun frolicking in the water alone. I insisted that it was unsafe, AT insisted that it was FUN. (we later realized that those big red flags by the beach meant that the beach was closed because of the danger). So AT didn’t get his day in the waves.

Fast forward a few days to the Cuba-like island. We spend a day at the beach on the south side of the island. The water is pristine and beautiful. AT spots a surf shop on the beach and wants to go for a dive. But alas, I am not certified and he didn’t want to leave me behind. Not only am I not certified, but I am afraid of going under water for periods of time, and I am deathly afraid of all of the creepy crawlies in the ocean (I have vague memories of being at the beach in Ocean City, MD as a child.. being pinched by a crab and having my sister and cousins throw little jellyfish at me.) I felt bad, because he didn’t get his waves or his diving, and all we could do was take a little snorkeling trip. About 15 minutes into the snorkel, I spotted little jellyfish all around me, and I was back on the boat faster than you can say “barracuda”. Needless to say, I felt very bad that I was always the party-poop when it came to frolicking in the water, and I vowed at that moment that I would get Scuba certified so that he could enjoy the water with me by his side (enjoying it too).

Due to scheduling conflicts and cost, I decided to get my certification close to home, in the frigid waters of Monterey, California. To call it torture would be putting it lightly. I had serious issues with the mask-removal task. I kept sucking water into my nose, and forgetting to breathe. I was skittish when I saw a crab, or a flounder (sneaky, camouflaged things!). And that 6.5 mm wetsuit covering me from head to toe was a bit stifling. When I passed the final test, I was elated. AT assured me that swimming in warm water, with beautiful things to see and without a heavy wetsuit would be extremely pleasurable. He also carried my heavy weights and fins up from the beach after each dive, had my tanks refilled, helped me get in and out of my wetsuit, and motivated me to get back in the water after each dive. If he hadn't been there for encouragement, I am 100% certain that I never would have completed my certification. (Thanks, AT!) You can see in the photo below how happy I am.

I planned this year’s Habitat for Humanity trip in El Salvador because 1.) they needed team leaders in that region and 2.) it’s proximity to some of the best diving in the world. AT met up with me at the airport on the last day of my Habitat trip, and we flew to Honduras to break in my new Scuba certification card.

We stayed at an all-inclusive resort on Roatan Island called Anthony’s Key Resort. AKR consists of little private bungalows scattered on the main island and on their own private Key (mini-island). You could travel quickly from the mainland to the bungalows on the Key on a little boat shuttle that ran 24 hours a day. It was a beautiful place, with fantastic customer service. We had some lunch, walked around the resort to get a feel for the place, signed ourselves up for a dive boat, got our equipment, tried to calm my nerves (fear of the unknown), took some naps, and went to bed early in preparation for the big day ahead.

The resort has a resident parrot named Paco. I wanted to pet him, but he kept giving me the stink eye every time I went near him. AT insisted that he was friendly and that I just needed to reach out and pet him. After all, he let AT pet him. In fact, he followed AT around, and sat under his chair until AT gave him some attention. We later learned that Paco is actually a girl, and that Paco loves men and does not like women. Apparently my goal of bonding with the parrot was not going to be realized on that trip. I settled for a quick pet on the head while AT was distracting her. :)

The following morning, I boarded my very first dive boat. Our dive master, Alonso, was quite an entertaining character! He was extremely laid back, friendly, good with beginners, had a contagious smile, and wore button-down dress shirts under his wetsuit. He gave me a quick test under water to test my buoyancy and to make sure I didn’t buy that dive certification card on the black market. I passed. Phew!

Our first dive was pretty amazing. Armed with my super thin wetsuit to protect the creepy crawlies from touching/stinging me, I jumped into the water. Admittedly, I spent most of this dive adjusting my goggles (probably more of a nervous activity than an actual need), trying to see through the fog in my goggles, and adjusting my buoyancy. I’m pretty much a superstar when it comes to NOT dragging along the bottom of the ocean. That comes naturally to someone who is afraid of touching ocean things. But I didn’t have enough weight on me, so I had a hard time sinking. Despite all of this, I had to admit that AT was right. Diving in warm tropical waters was pretty amazing. The sheer volume of animal and plant life there was astounding. I couldn’t keep track of all of the beautiful things that I saw. I enjoyed the second dive of the day even more, after adjusting my weights and goggles. Even so, I typically swam a few feet above AT, the adventurer, who likes to get up close and personal with the marine life. With the second dive came a bit of confidence that I wasn’t going to be separated from the group and swallowed up by the ocean, I wasn’t going to have my mask kicked off my head, or be bitten by a shark. Nor was I going to be eaten alive by jellyfish, as Alonso assured me that the jellies are not bad on day dives, only during night dives (if you turn on your light, jellies will all come after the light). Did we do a night dive? Uhh.. No. We also didn’t do the shark dive. I’m just not ready.
That night, AKR held a slide show presentation where you could go to learn about the marine life that you could expect to see. I frantically jotted down notes on everything I saw, as I was eager to document of everything I saw in my dive log.

Also on that night was the wedding of Tom and Laurie, a couple that was on our dive boat. Tom went diving with us that day while Laurie prepared for the wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony on the restaurant’s deck, overlooking the ocean at sunset. We helped them celebrate their nuptials before hitting the sack, completely exhausted.

Tom and Laurie from Naperville, IL:

Also on our boat was a lovely German couple who were obviously very experienced divers. Having a small group of people was great. Laurie and I were the only new divers, so we had plenty of space and Alonso could easily keep track of us. Until the day when Sharon and Rick joined the boat. Sharon had a habit of swimming directly over someone and kicking them in the head, as well as dragging along the bottom of the ocean. If we could have voted someone off of the boat, we surely would have done so.

The next several days all blurred together. We got up, ate breakfast, napped, did a dive, napped, ate lunch, napped, did a dive, napped, ate dinner, napped, and went to bed. With the exception of the day that the ocean felt like a washing machine, the diving was fabulous. We did reef dives, wreck dives, drift dives, wall dives, swam through caves. We went over 110 feet deep. We saw: turtles, sea horses, puffer fish, barracudas, blue tangs, yellowtail snappers, fiary basslets, all kinds of parrotfish (stoplight, blue), banded butterflies, black durgons, queen angelfish, tiger groupers, squirrelfish, trunkfish, creole wrasses, yellowtail damselfish, foureye butterflyfish, queen angelfish, spotted trunkfish, shark suckers, French angelfish, many other fish, and yes, JELLYFISH. (and yes, I’m still deathly afraid. Fortunately I saw them on the way to the boat). I was kind of hoping that a shark sucker would attach itself to me and go for a ride, but alas, they all preferred to ride on the groupers and snappers.

One day we did a Dolphin Dive. AKR owns 15 or so dolphins that they keep at the resort. (Don’t worry, they are VERY well taken care of!). We met the dolphins in the enclosure where they live, along the beach. Then we all got on a boat (just the people, mind you) and went out into the ocean, not far off of the coast. We all sunk down to the bottom of the ocean, about 60 feet, on a sand flat. The dolphin handler met us in a small boat, with the dolphins following him. We sat silently on the bottom of the ocean floor, waiting.. waiting.. waiting.. Suddenly we hear a squeal and we get the equivalent of a drive-by from the dolphins. They came back and continued to buzz through our group, stopping periodically to nibble at our arms (that we are holding out to get their attention). It was phenomenal. They are incredibly graceful creatures with personality!

I’m very thankful that I have my first dive trip under my belt. I will no longer be afraid of the ocean. It’s a vast, beautiful, and serene place. I do still harbor a bit of a marine-creepy-crawlie phobia, but I’m willing to face it. I also learned something very important about myself during this trip. I can never, ever book a relaxing vacation by the beach again. While the diving was fantastic, I went a bit stir crazy. Can you say “cabin fever”? With only one restaurant option (two food options every meal), and not much else to do when we are not diving other than reading and napping, I thought I would lose my mind. I’m much more of an active vacationer. I like to decide where to go, what to do, plan things, fit things into a nice neat schedule that ensures variety and discovering something new every day. This vacation had entirely too much down time for this adventurer. Perhaps our next dive trip will be more of a surf & turf adventure where we can dive on some days, and explore the land on other days. Or perhaps one day I will learn to slow down? Not likely!