Back On the Well Beaten Path

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Here i am, made it to utila. It's a really cool little island with lots of tourists, parties, and diving. When I got here, I came with a few people I met on the boat, and we all went to this dive shop. The guy was cool, and he told us about what he offerred. We all signed up with him. It was the biggest class he'd ever had, with 19! We spent late nights studying diving, long times under the water, but now I'm a certified open water diver! I can scuba dive--self-contained underwater breathing device is what it stands for. My first night here, this guy Bruce told us to come up to his bar, the Jade Sea Horse. He said it was like a fairy tale, and it was, it was truly amazing. It was like a Gaudy park but even more intense. We walked around there, enchanted with everything. I saw him the next day, and he asked me if I wanted to play there that night. I already had a gig! I said, well sure. So I went up there and rocked the bar--it's up in the trees, it's kind of like a boat up there. It was fun playing for everyone. They were a pretty good audience, but they were also having a lot of fun talking and drinking, so it was hard for me to be loud enough. There were some 50 people there. I played a lot of my brothers songs, some originals, and some of my favorites by others. Also did some raps. But I really like just freestyling, making something up spur of the moment, that works the best, and sometimes they are the best songs.

For a few days I was just walking around the island with my guitar playing for people on the street. Then the diving got pretty intense. Now, I've been a good 55 feet under the water! We did a few dives and looked around at all the fish and life down there, and it's just amazing! It's a different world under there. The first time I went under, we were doing exercises about 10 feet deep. I looked around, breathing under water. Everyone looks a lot bigger, and the sound is so loud. I was worried about my ears, but what you have to do is equalize them all the time. Take a deep breath, then pinch your nose shut and blow against it lightly. Because as you go down, the pressure of air at 10 meters is half what it is at the top--so if you have a glass, and bring it down 10 meters underwater, upside down so it holds the air, there will only be half left. Now there is also air in your inner ear, and you equalize so that air doesn't get squeezed. And I made it down to 55 feet! Man it's crazy down there!

Today I'm starting the advanced course--we will be going down to 35 meters, well over 100 feet! We will also do a night dive, a wreck dive, and a lot of other cool ones. After that, I may do a rescue course as well, because I've heard it's the best one. So for tomorrow, x mas eve, I'm going to do some great dives. The colors down there! It's hard to belive, and I don't know why it is so colorful. All the xmas colors are there for sure. Also, I'm suppossed to play again at the Jade Sea Horse, the fairy tale place, for xmas eve. There are a lot of great people here, and it's nice to spend the holidays somewhere I've been for a while. Feels like home! Except it's really warm. Today I was swimming in the ocean, laying out in the sun, and I got a little burned. Just a little. Tomorrow I will be diving deep below the surface. It's wild the things down there.

A few days ago I played for about half the people at the dive shop. It was night and we were chillin out in hammocks and chairs, relaxing. I played a few songs for them, and they were the best audience. They really listened to what I was saying, and everyone was just quiet, so I didn't have to try to be loud. It's nice to play for a group like that, as oppossed to the other bar, where there is a lot of talking. There were just about ten of us, all relaxing...it was a lot like another concert I played on Lago Atitlan. I love having an audience like that. I felt really comfortable playing for them, so I played a few songs I hadn't played in a while. They were really open. I played for them my rap, 17 year old girls, and man, they loved that one! A lot of people were cracking up, it's a pretty funny song. They requested it again, because a few people came who missed it. Then the next day they were all singing it and making references to it. By the end of the day everyone who hadn't heard it had heard about it and wanted to hear it. That song is too funny, everyone seems to agree on it, all over the world. ha hah ha.


Last night we had a big barbeque at our place. First we took a booze cruise, we went out on the boat for sunset, cruising up and down the strip of shore. The canadian guys were doing endless beer bongs. When we got back I went up on top of the dock to watch the moon set. I looked down below, and there was a guy standing completely naked with just a giant sombrero on. Some people didn't seem happy about this, and they talked to him and he walked around the rest of the night with tighty wighties. It was pretty hilarious. A few of the other canadian guys here traded their car for a couple of donkeys that they brought over to the island. One of them died. The other one they brought to the party, and somebody smacked that ass, it jumped, not too happy about it. I watched the moon, which was just a sliver, fade away over the ocean, and went down to join the madness.

Other than that, it's been really busy with the diving, and I've been exhaustes most nights. We had a lot of class. It was suppossed to take an hour, but in honduras time, that's three or four hours! But this advanced course is suppossed to have less class time. I've been here now since saturday maybe...yes that's right. A week! It's been really fast. It's nice to be staying in one place for a while. Also to be learning a new skill, that gives a little structure to my life. My dad was asking what it's like to have no goals or purpose day to day. Man, good luck! You just have to structure your life, basically out of some sort of chaos. But everything seems to fall in place, and then it appears to be destiny. Funny how it works. The random becomes rendevouz. You get to learn things about yourself by being put in many situations, you learn about the world by seeing many perspectives, and I believe, you grow.

In my life I've always been about transformative experiences, be it knowledge or otherwise. When I was younger I spent much time in the world of books, and learned much philosophy and what not. I think I lived a little, but also was in more of a literary world, in many ways. School mostly is that constructed world, a more factual world. Once I graduated college, I was really lucky to get to travel. I thank my parents for that! Going to europe was great, because this way of living, travel, if far more tactile. You touch things, see things with your own eyes. You really experience.

As a kid, I would often have times that would make me feel changed. It would just be a simple thing, and I would feel different, like I was a new man...rather, just like something new had been born in me, usually a new strength or confidence. I suppose things can also be dying within you at times. To me, that is how the universe is--cycles of birth and death, decay and renewal. Thus it is the same with the world, and so on a personal level.

So, as for not having a purpose day to day. You might think you will find a very strong purpose, and know all the better when you get back from your trip what you will do, what you want to do, but in truth, your head and heart will be full, you will have seen and felt so many things, that you may just feel confused. And lost. And nothing turns out to be more different than the world you left behind when you go back to it. This is because you've changed, and our world isn't only the world, but our interactions with it, and being changed, it's hard to live with the old world anymore. So I don't know what I'll do when I get back. I have a lot of ideas but who knows how they will play out? I'm always open to opportunities, surprises, and distractions.

So dad, having no purpose is the greatest and worst thing you can do for yourself. In truth, I have many purposes and goals. Some are overarching, others are simply day to day. Learning spanish is one that I always work at, with some degree of consistency. Then there's music, I'm always studying and practicing that as well. Writing songs, reading rhymes. Meeting people and learning from them. Getting to know the self better, and finding what I want from life. These are perhaps things people take for granted, or known, but often they are not. If you would spend one year thinking about that, it could save you a life time of doing something that maybe isn't your passion. Yet I think I'm very lucky to say this, for I have few constraints...and fewer scruples! ha ha ha!

Just kidding.

But really, it is very fortunate and blessed that I can live my dream for a while, and I surely want to find a way to make that work. But as for what I'll do when I get back, it's pretty hard to think about coming back...it's been four months now, yet I have so much farther I want to go. I promise I'll come back to the states some day for a visit though! I mean some day. Where was I?

Travel is quite something else......at first I thought it would work that I'd travel then know what I wanted to do, and it did, I knew what I wanted to do. But I didn't do it. I got really distracted, and went travelling again. Well, travel just leads to more travel. C'est la vie!

I don't have too much more to say now, and I have to start the advanced course soon. So merry xmas yall!
OR HARRY ZITHMOOSE!

Colin

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Photos

Goin to utila
you feel good leaving the mainland for a tropical island. Maybe we´ll never know why.

The bakery where I stayed
In La Ceiba, I stayed in this place where they made all this bread. You woke up to a nice smell. It was hard to find though, and I got lost at night once, because the main door was closed.

The open water course
The biggest they ever had, it was madness. But we all made it, and had lots of fun!

Comments

[tess]

sounds fun
Hey there man! yes, sounds like good ol Utila... lots of partying and lots of diving! That must be a great place to spend Christmas. I loved going to the treehouse bar as well, it's like a fairytale land... that is great you have gotten some gigs there-- the guys who work the bar are really friendly! Well sounds like things are going well which I'm happy to hear. Happy holidays to you!