that long lonesome road

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Well, lately I have been getting quite off the beaten path. After spending three weeks in belize I finally made it to Honduras. My final adventures in Belize: I went to another caye, san pedro, which I didn´t like much at all. It was way too touristy. Plus a little more dear than my budget was liking! So I got out of there quick, and went to dangriga. I had to walk through the ghettoes of belize city--it´s mostly pretty ghetto, at least what I saw, sorry to say...anyway, dangriga was more relaxed. But not many tourists there at all. I had a good lonely time and then ate a whole coconut in the night. My stomach was a little queesy, because I had been eating some crazy street food. In belize city I got some to go, and there is nowhere to eat it, and so I ate it in the park with some pretty dodgy people. But I like doing that sometimes, makes you feel kinda humble. So, that whole coconut, that was too much!

There were a few nice people at the hostel from tenessee, but I was well off the backpackers trail. I rented a bike and biked out of town, for there was forest right near there. It was cool going down these muddy country roads on my cruiser. It was raining a lot those days, which was a bummer and kept spoiling my plans in a big way. But I just rested up, because they say fatigue makes cowards of us all, and I find this true. It´s funny how usually when you get lonely in travels, you meet someone right then. Not always! I had a nice solitary road to follow!

From dangriga, I went down to Sitee river, which is this cool river surrounded by jungle. No one else was staying in the hostel I was in. But they included kayaks with the stay, so I went on a long river ride. THere are crocks and manatees, and of course I was looking for both. The river went throught some great terrain, jungle on both sides...I saw some cool birds, and giant orange iguanas up in the trees. They were huge! I got wet just from paddling., then it started raining, but that didn´t really matter, since i was already wet.

Lots and lots of rain! I kept wanting to go to the jaguar reserve, also called cockscomb basin. It´s a nice big park of jungle, and I love jungle! But with the rain, I kept hesitating and delaying, because I knew you had to walk in 6 miles! Finally I went for it...decided, if it rains, OK, that´s why there´s rainforest there that´s what it does. I started walking in. The first mile was clear, and for that I was thankful. Then the rain came. I kept walknig, determined, and it was pretty wet. I thought it would take forever, but knew I could do it and finally I was there. There was a bunkhouse and I went in. I wrote this poem about it I´d like to share:

While I write by this flickering light
I have complete solitude in the rainforest tonight
It´s something so holy, I hear insects and frogs
rain falling on the forest--natural songs
out there in the jungle there are jaguars, pumas
all the wildest lushest floras and faunas
I´m so blessed that I can be here
with eyes to see and ears to hear
I came to the bunkhouse, no one there
Walked thru the rain 6 miles, no one cared
I did it just by saying I ain´t scared
and encouraging myself. I came prepared
with some ramen noodles, pasta, tomato sauce.,
corn flakes outmeal, peanuts to top
some mac and cheese and a few grapefruits
not much else, but who knows what awaits you?
For there on the table was a can of beans
and half a bag of rice--you know what that means?
someone left me a meal, a feast at that
so I can live it up with the wild cats!
I´m writing this rap so I can relive the moment
It{s so nice, wish I could own it
but I gotta let it go just capture beauty with words
that´s all we can do, it´s the way of the world.

I hung my clothes up to dry
cooked some ramen noodles for lunch--my oh my
then I put on my shoes and went for a hike
stopped raining for a minute, looked like
I went and saw an old plane crash in the jungle
made me feel kinda humble...
I started down a trail into the forest
and it began raining with a lust
I told myself it just needs to get it out of it´s system
but belize has lots of rain, get my gist mon?
and it just keeps going don´t know when it´ll stop
like I say this lantern here is all I got
to pass away the night with, lonesome
yet finding peace with myself, so it´s wholesome
I was so excited to make it to the rainforest
3 days of delays, I told myself I must
and right away I learned all about it
first there´s rain, then forest, that´s about it
but it holds many secrets that rustle in the bush
and if you can spot them before they go woosh
then you´re lucky cause they leave real quick
or else you can´t see them cause the brush is so thick
I wanna see a real live jaguar but
don´t want him to try to eat me up
cause if he does, that´s the end for me
and I dno´t feel like I´m quite ready
Also there´s boa constrictors that can eat you
and venemous snakes with a sweet tooth
so many ways to go when in the jungle
more to watch out for than just trips and stumbles

chorus:
hope I survive and the rain goes away
all i ask for is a nice sunny day
been gray and dreary for way too long
time for this weather to move along


So it´s kinda a playful, silly fun song.
Now that I think about it, it could´ve been tess who left that rice and beans! That would be too funny.

So, I´ve been writing quite a lot lately, a lot of songs...mostly raps. I really enjoy that. Maybe I´ll write more up here in the future.

I write a lot of my thoughts, do some good thinking. Travelling alone is a really good way to get to know yourself.

Anyway, then next day was perfect. I hiked pretty much every trail in the Jaguar reserve, and probably went 15 or 20 miles. The weather was good, thought there was a little rain--but it started just before I went in for lunch, then broke again. i went and hiked to the falls, clouds looming ominously. As I was almost back, I heard a loud roaring. It was the sound of pouring rain moving over the jungle. I ran down the road to get back to the bunkhouse. I got in just before it dumped!

No one else ever came to the bunkhouse, so I ended up staying free! I had it all to myself. But it got dark around 6 and after that, all I had was a lantern, which didn´t work after a while. So I used a flashlight. But I spent lots of time playing my guitar in the dark, and thinking.

Then I went to placencia, and from there, took the boat to honduras. I met a swedish couple and an italian couple, along with some others on the boat. When we got to honduras, we waited two hours for immigration to come. I walked around making friends with people, practicing my spanish, and then I bought some fishing line and fished. Everyone else seemed to wait impatiently. What do they think this is, vacation? I figured the immigration would be a good indication of the pace of the country, and it sure is. Service can be very slow!

I went with the swedish and italians on the bus to san pedro. We got in at night, and they were all scared, and I was their guide, basically, because my spanish was the best and I´ve been travelling a while and have confidence...so, we get in, and they wanna take a cab. They were scared to stay there, wanted to go to Ceiba, where I am now. We went to the bus station in a cab, but the next bus was tomorrow. Me, I don´t like cabbies...no, I just don´t like taking cabs. but we heard it was dangerous there. So I figured to stay in San Pedro, and they wanted to go to some other town, in the Cab! I was like, good luck to you guys, see you later! I wouldn´t trust a cabbie that much, to have him drive me an hour. I bargained him down for them, and he wanted about 55 bucks. So, off the four of them went. I found a nice dodgy hotel, where I was quite comfortable, so I could soak up the new country.

Then I walked around, took care of a lot of shoppin I needed to do in san pedro (in honduras, a different one). I met some nice people walking around.

So today I am getting CDs burned of my pics, that´s why I´m writing this blog, it´s time for a little business. I am going to Utila today to do my scuba certification. It´s funny how tess has been everywhere before me. Maybe someday I´ll catch up to her...

somewhere a queen is weeping
somewhere a king has no wife
and the wind cries mary.

-jimi

peace!
Colin

oh yeah, I forgot to mention--there aren´t really any tourists in San Pedro, honduras. People will just stare at you. Sure I have colorful clothes and stand out a lot. But people, I think more the girls, just stare you down. It´s quite interesting...

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Photos

From snorkeling Key Caulker
We saw lots of sharks and rays

My dog he other side of the island
When I saw him I knew I better make friends quick--he was big. We walked around, and it was cool to have dog to chill with. We went up to this house, down a little trail. Suddenly there were two dogs barking on the trail--medium sized dogs. My dog just lunged after them and they turned tail. I heard a few yelps of mercy and pain, and started walking away from the trouble. Soon my dog was coming back triumphant. Good dog! I said, patting him.

Watching The plane land
Me n niky were on the landing strip when a few planes took off. We had to run to the side1

A long Kayak adventure on the sitee river
I saw huge orange iguanas in the trees. Looked for crocks and manatees with no luck.

The burners in the Jaguar reserve
I stayed here alone for free two days. No one ever came by. A great jungle trip.

Comments

[chris]

great blog
I was searching for blogs on Colombia, and yours is excellent, i'm now retracing your entire journey! thanks