Sharks Can Be Part of Happy Endings, Too - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 11-12, 2016

Roatan must know we're leaving tomorrow, because it was a grey morning of mourning. We had just the morning dives to look forward to anyway, because after a week of diving, staying above water for 24 hours before a flight is recommended. (There's nitrogen that builds up while diving that gets released slowly while at 1 atmosphere of pressure.)

It was another wreck dive this morning. After this trip, I have a whole new take on weeks. I didn't get to do one in the Outer Banks this summer because a hurricane was rolling through and kicking up too many waves and too much sediment to see, so my only experience was a negative one with a ton of lionfish in Thailand. Here, though, the wreck of the morning was the Aguila. Not quite as long as the Odyssey at only maybe 150 feet, but had some swim-thrus and a giant mast at the bow that was a good forty feet tall. 

We'll see how all the photos of Alisa and I playing on the bow turn out. Again, that "defying gravity" thing is pretty addictive. 

On the way back up, Hector disappeared into a dark tunnel. He had told us there was a swim-thru, so I waited to see if it was a one-way deal and he'd come back out (in other words, that it wasn't the swim-thru but just him looking for sharks) or if he'd stay gone. 

I'm hesitant about overhead environments, as any diver should be, but the thrill of it is also tempting, so I told myself that I wouldn't follow if I didn't see light at the end of the tunnel. I got to the bend, about ten feet in, and, when I dropped to the bottom, I could see the next chamber another ten feet ahead that Hector was in. So I followed. 

It was a tight squeeze (just a little tap on my tank as I went through a little too high) to the next chamber, which, while well-lit, didn't have enough of an opening to get out vertically. So it was on to chamber number three, and then a completely vertical exit back onto the reef, with Alisa waiting with the camera. Practicing buoyancy while under a bit of pressure (and with less room for error) is now a fun challenge. Back before I had 50 hours of diving, it was an awful challenge. Shocking what practice does. 

We were back at the dock in no time, and, because we left extra early to make sure we were the only group on the wreck, we had plenty of time to kill before the second dive started. It was a time of camaraderie - at this point, we'd had six days together to chat during our surface intervals and as we were setting up our gear. Now, the week was coming to an end with many of us taking our final dive before those 24 hours before a flight. 

The board said it was "dive master's choice", and Hector chose "Lighthouse Reef." No lighthouse anymore, but a large, wide top of a wall where the ten of us could spread out. I told Hector as we got to the dive site that the only things left on my list were sea horses and sharks. Given that seahorses hadn't been seen around Roatan in the last few months, my hope was riding on a sleeping nurse shark. 

We pretty much saw one of all the identifiable things I've been listing all week: a porcupinefish, a sea turtle, a trunkfish, a green moray, a tiny brown spotted moray, anemones. I specifically pealed off from the group (with Alisa being a good buddy and keeping an eye on both me and the giant trunkfish that everyone else was following) to continue watching a sea turtle as it coasted along, chiseling off bits of coral to chomp on, then rising up to get another breath of air. 

I wasn't so far from the group, though, that I missed Hector banging on his tank. He was positioned over a sandy crevice, not more than two feet wide, with coral and rocks mostly blocking it. I approached, waiting for him to hopefully give the underwater signal for what he was seeing. 

And there it was - his right hand coming up above his head, making a fin. It was a nurse shark! The little sleeping thing was maybe three feet long, with just a fin and a snout and a tail barely sticking out. We all got our turn to peer under the rocks for a better look at its face, and my final tick checked the box for marine life!

I was running oddly lower on air than normal, but with is hanging out in sight of the boat with less than twenty feet of water, I felt comfortable going down to 600psi as Alisa and I extended the dive to just over an hour. Bryan and Holly were hanging out down there with us, and his sharp eyes spotted a scorpionfish hidden in plain sight just before we ascended. 

The scuba sign for ascend is a thumbs up. It's meaning above the surface echoes how I felt about my diving week coming to an end. All good. Even if it might take a few days for my right ear to defunk and unclog itself. 

Lunch was a veggie pizza, which I over-indulged in (with help from the two pina coladas). I paid for it with some rolling nausea - a good reason to lay down and chill for the next few hours (after checking out the gift shop and getting a personal ride back to the cabana island).

Alisa headed off to her massage at five, after I'd finally finished the book I'd been toying with all week, nearly caught up with blogposts, caught up with correspondence, and swung in the hammock as an afternoon rainstorm rolled through. 

Dinner was a bit anti-climactic, but we had arranged for a taxi to take up into West End - it was our final night, so I wanted to live it up and see what Roatan was like off the resort. We had a few different drinks at a few different places (one overlooking the bay, one on the bay, and then some dancing at the bar next to it). The street was kinda cordoned off from vehicle traffic, which was good since the sidewalks didn't reliably continue along the main road. 

After getting a few dance requests that I rebuffed, when a guy at the bar started passionately waving at us, I pretty much ignored it. When he followed us out of the bar, I attempted to slow down a bit to force him to pass. Instead, he came up next to us and re-introduced himself as our driver back to the resort. Whoops! We were ready to head back half an hour before we were expecting, so it turned out fine that he was "following" us. 

I fell asleep quickly, and woke up to drops of rain on the palm leaves outside my window. One thought was to snorkel in the morning; the comfy mattresses and late night meant that that didn't happen. No final lobster, angelfish, urchins, or anemones. Instead, a double rainbow across the ocean, and a reconfiguration of clothes in suitcases. 

We ate a big breakfast, checked out at the front desk with all our expenses, and chatted and waited for our bus to come. The fifteen passengers all chatted together, then we spilled out at the small airport. Two and a half hours early. 

I finished an entire book at Roatan Airport and on the three hour flight to Miami. Started the next one in midair and spent the layover eating a long dinner and finishing this blog!

So, as the flight boards back to DC, and I've changed into my pants and (Star Wars) sweatshirt (to match Alisa's equally nerdy Gryffindor sweatshirt), I've kept my sandals on. They are the last vestiges of the last seven days of balmy weather and beaches. 

Well, except for the tons of pictures to sort through, the emails to write to our new connections, and the final driving leg for Alisa. 

But, to Honduras, adios! And gracias!

Dolphins! But the Wild Kind This Time! - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 10, 2016

A hearty breakfast of oatmeal, and we were headed out for our deep dive at the typical 8:30am. 

We were happily thwarted when a pod of at least twelve spinner dolphins were spotted off the port side bow! I was up on the upper deck with Elwis and Hector, and they suggested we jump in with them!

Elwis circled the boat a few times until we got a bit ahead of them, then I had my snorkel, fins, and wetsuit ready to jump in. I paused slightly after everyone else got in to see where they were headed and swam to cut them off. 

I got within twenty feet of them surfacing, with a little one as well! They dove down, and we could hear them squeaking away. It was so exciting. 

Since I was the only one that got close enough on the first pass, it was time for take two - we re-boarded, got passed them again, then hopped in. Now that time being later than everyone else meant that I missed them, but the rest of the group got to see them going deep. 

Everyone was super happy to have that stop before our first dive. It was the same morning as the shark dive (which was extra money that I didn't want to spend), so we got a different large marine species to play with. 

The dive itself was a deep wall, but pretty craggy and pinnacled. Some of the pretty players showed up to "Wrasse Hole": black and white boxfish, a drumfish, two sea turtles with what looked like remora chilling on their shells, and a hidden toadfish. 

Given it was another sunny day, I hung out on the upper deck during our surface interval. We were off again a little late, since we waited for a trip of people from the shark dive to jump aboard. 

"Fish Den" was ok with the nine or so divers we had since it evened out to a "meadow" at the end where we could spread out and (mostly) avoid being on top of each other. 

We came up for air, food, and a mini-nap (those hammocks on our deck are getting some use!) before heading back out to a site that used to be called "Spooky Place" before some guy named Warren got his name tacked on. (Did you know if you donate enough to the Roatan Marine Preserve, they'll name a site for you? Thanks, Warren.)

The site was a rocky channel that led down to about 60ft, at which point you could look up and see the edges coming together thirty feet up - just a gap of six feet or so, and just magical. So of course I swam upside down for a bit to take it in. When you can rule out the rules of gravity (or at least greatly decrease them), why not? The awareness of 3D space is so new and so fun. 

What I've been calling "camouflaged toadfish" are actually scorpionfish, so we saw one of those on this dive. A midnight parrotfish, which are a couple feet long, was at the entrance to a swim-thru that took us up to on top of the wall. It was a supremely awesome dive - both great "architecture" and marine life!

We had a bit to wait before the night dive, so just ran back and forth to the lockers where our gear was stored (like, twenty feet from the boat) to grab our dive lights and heckle Hector, who "got" to be our guide for the evening because the majority of us going where on his boat during the day. 

It was a fairly large crew - us, two couples we dove with every day, then four guys from another boat. Despite that, we managed a pretty good dive. I mean, of the three octopods I saw, I found one of them, so I'm pretty proud of that. The one I found wasn't very shy either - just let us take some pictures and changed color for us. 

There were actual toadfish (if I now know what a toadfish is) along the rocky walls of a small cavern, along with lobster, more teeny shrimp, crabs, startled-looking porcupinefish, a drumfish, and some fern-looking things. They were basket starfish, only coming out at night because they curl up at the light. It's like someone attached a bunch of delicate fronds together and animated it slightly. 

We avoided the jellyfish, though something got Alisa right along her bathing suit bottom during the day, and it was still kinda tender and stinging. Between the bruise from her slip on the boat on Sunday (which now looks like the continent of Africa on her outside left thigh) to some knee bruises from banging on the ladder to just a few of the general bug bites, Alisa is looking pretty beat up for being on vacation. All I got is that my ears are plugged up. Guess that means that I don't have to listen to her complain! (She doesn't complain... but I wouldn't know since I can't hear.)

It was kinda like Italian night, so we got a yellow rice version of risotto. It was really a tough decision, though, because the food said red wine but the temperature said white. We compromised with deciding to drink more tomorrow and did neither. The passionfruit cheesecake was a good enough rendition for me to partake, then it was a few hours of relaxing before lights out. 

Bend and Sway - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 9, 2016

Alisa woke up at 3:30am this morning and checked the news (and then had a hard time falling asleep again). I woke up at 6:30 and did the same thing. Our president has been decided! And we can start thinking about that more when we get back to America. 

We got our breakfast of French Toast, then hopped aboard the Isantamaa for our first dive of the day. I love diving both because of the sea life but also because of the variety of shapes of the ocean floor. Some dive sites are just meadows of coral, which some have very distinct ridges, or a bunch of pinnacles, or a mix of all of them. This morning's dive had swim-thrus ("tubes" that could fit a diver), as well as coral pinnacles with sandy bottoms in between. The sandy bottom was really far down during our ascent, but we could still make out the outline of a stingray. 

We had half an hour, so I relaxed in the sun on the deck. Because, tada!, today was the first truly sunny day! All day, no rain, and a balmy 90. What a way to spend a Wednesday. 

"Dive Master's Choice" was the site for the 10:30am dive, and it was a wall teeming with life. Hiding under a sponge was a brown spotted moray, with some memorable fish (drum, trumpet, tarpin, remora) and the endearing sea turtles. We were shallow enough to see some sea urchins and anemones as well. 

Lunch was difficult. Not only was there an extremely delicious-sounding vegetarian entree (stuffed portabellos) written on the menu whiteboard, but there looked to be an easily modified quesadilla that we could make into our starter instead of split pea soup. Alisa, of course, made me ask for our custom order. What a friend I am to do it for her. Just minutes later we heard the table next to us get told that they were out of quesadillas, so we happily snacked on that. To top it off? A super moist and dense brownie. 

The afternoon dive was to Bear's Den - there is a cave that they don't guide divers into anymore, but there's a super long swim-thru. Hector said it was 40ft long, and it got pretty dim in the middle of it. I've been really proud of my buoyancy (except for a little slip up this morning where I dropped a little more than I intended, and right on fire coral that stung me too), and these swim-thrus have been proving it. 

Hector found some sea worms (nudibranch) to play with at the beginning and end of the dive. There were quite a few divers for this trip, so Alisa and I tried to find our depth on the wall that would keep us out of the fins of the other divers. She would say we weren't totally successful, but sometimes, you just gotta turn the other cheek when you get kicked in the face. 

With the wonderful sun, we played with the paddle boards. (I felt like I was on a log roll, dancing to stay up; better than not getting up at all, right, Alisa? Though perhaps she was smart to avoid the two or three belly flops.) We switched to kayaks to go over to the dolphin island again and snorkel until sunset.

A kitty greeted us on the island, and got a few ear scratches in return. 

Right as we were getting cold and planning on getting out so we could catch the sunset, Alisa went out far enough to essentially a coral reef. Most of the area for snorkeling that we had covered was swathes of sea grass with individual coral heads ("bommies") poking up in the sand after a while. It was diving in miniature, with all the fishes and nooks to find fun things, like sea stars and urchins. 

The sunset was yet again into clouds, not the ocean. We paddled our way back to the cabana island, which was where tonight's fiesta was being held. For the moment, all that meant was that we could pick up our first pair of pina coladas while still dripping from snorkeling. 

We drank those while changing and shower, then came back to the picnic shelter when we were done with them. As dusk grew to dark, we chatted with a couple from Missouri about dive trips, airplane etiquette, the other divers on our boat, and the Caribbean duo that was playing pop favorites with an island twist (Ed Sheeran, anyone?)

There was a drawing to win a massage, a crab race, some local dancers and drummers, and a limbo contest that we left during. It was a nice shake-up from the "routine" of the dining room terrace overlooking the islands, sea, and possible passing cruise ships. 

After being up early (and after a final "Monkey La La" adult beverage), Alisa and I went to sleep pretty quickly with the room gently rocking (from the boat, I'm sure, and not the rum).

Alisa Catches Some Rays - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 8, 2016

Super Tuesday - 

Our morning dive was a wreck dive. Alisa and I have done one other wreck dive, while we were in a harbor in Thailand, and it was silty and green and was crawling with other divers and lionfish. Not a great experience, so I was tentative about this dive. 

What is incredible about the Odyssey, the purposeful wreck we visited, is it adds a massive human scale to the unfathomable oceanic scale. The freighter was being rebuilt in the early 2000s when a fire stopped its refurbishment. The owners were connected with the owners of Anthony's Key Resort, who asked for it to be sunk and got the approval required. It was stripped of whatever could be dangerous to divers - electrical wire, insulation, pretty much anything that wasn't the walls - as well as having hatches sealed so the current wouldn't drop them on anyone's head. 

The ship was 300 feet long, sunk in 110 feet of water, and the highest parts are at about 40 feet - the bow and stern. The midsection is laying on the sea floor, a little shell compared to the rooms and passages on either end. 

The sea life was pretty tiny still - a dozen years isn't a lot for the ocean, but we had lots of fun playing with the ship as a prop to our photos. The clarity of the water wasn't quite enough to see end to end, which only meant that it was a shadow in the distance - so wonderfully long. 

I had realized I had a deadline for some APT Charities work, so I went back to the cabin between dives to sort that out. It's a shame I couldn't spend more time in the sun - fifteen minutes on the upper deck of our boat the other day has given me a faint wetsuit tan line on my legs. 

Our second dive was to "Barry's reef." Hector pointed out a moray on top of the wall, which started at about 60 feet. It was a boat full of divers, so I bumped into another woman twice; diving you have 3D space you need to be aware of yet limited senses (a mask that constrains peripheral vision, no sound) to do it in. It was easy enough to drop under her, but hard to let someone below you know that they are coming up under you. 

My ears, per usual, have been stuffy and slow to equalize. I put in some vinegar drops to help them dry out, but it only added to the aching. I decided to wait until after lunch to see if they'd clear up. 

Lunch was super yummy tacos. Post-lunch, even after a bit of relaxing, I wasn't feeling the afternoon dive. Alisa headed out around 2:20, and I feel asleep until she got back around 3:50. Alisa saw a string ray on that one, which I have yet to see around here, but I appreciated my quiet afternoon. 

Tuesday - a night dive day! We got on the boat at 5:20 (after I left my key back in the room, so it was a bit tight), motored two minutes to "Mandy's eel garden", and got our briefing by Alson. They had consolidated boats because there were only seven of us interested, so we tried out the Alexandria for the evening. 

We stayed on top of the wall, so not more than thirty feet of water, though the jellyfish apparently cluster at the top and are attracted to light. I dropped enough to get underneath them (at least, had no effects from them) then equalized and started searching. 

It was a few seconds into the dive when a spiny pufferfish was pointed out and just minutes into the dive when Alson pointed out a small octopus, darting under the rocks between the coral hills. There were more starfish and urchins at this site than others, but I think that's a factor of it being shallow rather than it being at night. The squirrelfish were out, with their big eyes, and some teeny shrimp had their own sets of glowing red dots. 

Another octopus was found - this one on a ridge and turning from red to blue and back so effortlessly, I was convinced it hadn't the first few times. As we were examining a isopod - a foot long "rolly polly" shaped underwater bug - Alson pointed his light up at an eagle ray swimming toward the group! I was below Alisa, so I rotate to see it head straight toward her light and pass a few feet from her face!

At :39 into the dive, just as Alson said we would (despite plenty of air and not being too chilly), we headed toward the boat. To continue avoiding the jellyfish, we were to turn off our lights, purge our extra octo into the water above us so the extra bubbles would sweep away the jellies, and get to the ladder by moonlight.

I was much warmer than I expected - the dive was a current dive, so a bit more swimming than normal, plus the air temperature didn't drop like I expected. It was still nice to get back to a shower and dry clothes, but it was much better than I was expecting. 

Dinner started a bit later than other nights for us, but there was a delicious curried cauliflower soup to start us off with. We didn't take a table overlooking the palm trees and the ocean past our island full of cabanas this night though; we sat overlooking the tv at the bar to watch election results roll in. 

At about 9:30, mosquitoes were starting to get me, so we moved into the room. We were up until nearly midnight watching the results, as odds turned against Hillary Clinton, but decided that sleep was the only thing we could do to prepare for tomorrow. 

Mini Island-hopping - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 7, 2016

With the dives yesterday (not the weight-check one, but the other two), I've logged fifty dives since I started getting my certification in late 2014. It's addictive, it takes you to gorgeous places, it gives you a chance to meet other adventurous people, and it is a very personal journey every time. 

Yesterday wasn't the greatest, so we were ready to get back on the horse and really see what Roatan had to offer. We had set up all our equipment on the boat before we headed upstairs to the open-air dining room in the canopies where we take all our meals. We had a slightly bigger breakfast (try to fend off the hunger from yesterday) and took a banana and some cereal just in case. 

Our first dive site was the "four sponges" - the original sponges got washed away in Hurricane Mitch, but there are plenty more. This site was mentioned as a place to see nurse sharks, but we didn't see any this time. Instead, we were met by sea turtles, a little boxfish, and an early greeting by a big grouper that wanted to get up close and personal. I saw a big barracuda in the deep blue, while Alisa saw a smaller one along the wall. 

It was a drift dive, so one-way - the boat would meet us at the end. The current was light, but that might have been because we were swimming with it, not against it. 

It was relaxing and beautiful - just how diving should be! We didn't have time to change (and with the sun shining, we didn't need to) before it was back on the boat for a dive on the way to Maya's Key. 

"Herbie's Fantasy" was another easy dive (when you have half a tank left after an hour of seeing great stuff, you know you were relaxed). Anemones, sea turtles, and a spiny pufferfish were the highlights. 

Today - Monday - was picnic day, so instead of eating back at the resort, we motored twenty more minutes around to the south side of Roatan, where Anthony's Key Resort owns an island with a pool, a museum with replica Mayan structures, and a mini zoo. 

We took a tour from Saul (pronounced with two syllables around here), which started with a green parrot who chittered at us, rushed through the museum, then got to the rehabilitated animals. 

Alisa and I have been critical of the animals at the resort. There's the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences at the resort, which keeps a pod of dolphins and hosts snorkels with them. We've both seen articles about how "riding" dolphins' pectoral fins is bad for them, and then there's the Baltimore Aquarium that is releasing their dolphins all together. More on the dolphins later, but I know I definitely went into the tour cautious about the animals' care. 

In general, I didn't see anything much different about their care than at the Smithsonian Zoo. The cages were a little smaller, perhaps, but the trio of crocs had a whole lagoon (which didn't stop one from opening its mouth at Alisa and her violet dress). We saw an ocelot and a margay, two different smaller jungle cats. A large aviary had macaws, some turkey-like bird, and green parrot, while the toucan was in a cage by its - he'd actually killed the other birds he'd been attempted to be paired with. 

The tour ended with a jaguar - biggest cat in Honduras - and a cougar. The former came up for a scratch when our tour guide went close. The latter had been a pet for a drug dealer before the malnourished kitten had been given to the rehabilitation clinic, and prowled around for a minute as we walked by. 

The tour ended and we had five minutes to get back to the boat to do our final dive of the day. "Butcher's bank" had a sandy start, but no rays that we saw. It angled down into a sloping wall with a bunch of crevices. Alisa found a black and white drumfish, and Hector pointed out a starfish, but mostly it was coral city - angelfish of three varieties, two cowfish, and little fishes everywhere. 

Back at the resort, there's a shore dive on our little island with the cabanas. With a little bit of sun, I asked if Alisa wanted to go try it out. We opted instead for the snorkeling on the other side of the dolphin island. 

Well, we rinsed and put away all our equipment, but kept our masks, snorkels, and fins out for our adventure. The water taxi shuttled us to the other island, and we were on shore to watch the last ten minutes of the dolphin training session. 

At least eight trainers were working with at least that many dolphins, at different stations around the fenced in lagoon. Dolphins were swimming out and back, circling, waving their flippers, and then a big finish with some jumping in tandem. It was lightly sprinkling, so there was a stunning rainbow over the resort behind us, competing for our attention. It was crazy how much paradise was shoved into those few minutes. 

We continued along the pier to shore and to the stairs for snorkeling. There were a couple buildings - bathroom, changing room, and a covered porch where four gorgeous cats (the house kind, not the wild kind) were getting a meal. We had half an hour or so until sunset, so we got into the two-foot water and set off to find some little stuff.

Between meadows of sea grass were little coral head in some sand. They were home to urchins, long-armed starfish, tiny versions of many of the fishes we saw on the reef, and corals and anemones. A little Atlantic lobster had found itself a hole, while a foot-long sea slug was much bigger than its miniature environment. We saw a pair of "caterpillars", some fringed sea worm we don't know the name of, that were surprisingly fast-moving. 

It was just about sunset as we emerged, but a large row of clouds along the horizon made it pretty but not able to be captured in photos. We hailed the water taxi was some whacks to the diving bell gong, and were entertained when it took ten minutes by the dolphins racing around their enclosure - a pair with a baby between! - and one chewing on the pier's post. 

Typical evening of shower, dinner (a super yummy and vegetarian enchilada with some pretty cool new vegetable in it - white, fibrous, but soft to cut), and home. I attempted to blog, but fell asleep at 8 instead. Happy vacation! 

Sliding Our Way Through the Oasis - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 6, 2016

I woke up quite a few times last night, though at 6 decided that I'd had plenty of sleep. It was our first day of diving, and there was so much to do!

First was breakfast. It was raining on and off yesterday, so I finally acquiesced and wore my flip-flips that I haven't broken in yet, but that have a good deal of traction so Alisa wouldn't be worried about me slipping on the wooden stairs or dock. 

Let's just say that by the end of today, we knew which of us should be worried about slipping - because on the stairs up to breakfast, Alisa missed the last one (getting her toe caught on the lip) and landed on her right knee. She realized it was bleeding a bit during our oatmeal and pancakes, but shook it off. 

We had gotten our BCDs and regulators yesterday, along with fins and a shortie wetsuit for me (sorry that 84 degrees gets a little chilly after an hour). We got assigned a boat during the orientation, then set up our gear on one of the tanks to prep for the buoyancy and mask check. 

Our boat is called the Isantamaa - her name is apparently the first initial of all the boats that came before her. The first dive my new watch recorded was just a jump off her stern into the green, low visibility water of the harbor. Hector wanted to check our weights and that we could clear a flooded mask. Since I regularly flood mine when I breath through my nose, it was a cinch. The claustrophobic water did remind me of the quarry back home, except fifteen degrees warmer and the sun was shining (during those ten minutes at least).

We set sail for our first coral dive of the trip - an arduous four-minute ride to "Over Heat." We dropped down beside a wall of coral and started pointing out critters. An eagle ray was spotted in the deep blue beside us, and the wall was filled with morays, lobsters (the Atlantic kind with no claws), sea turtles, as well as the parrotfish, angelfish, hamlets, groupers, tangs, and so many more. I found the first of many of my squirrelfish - a personal favorite for their giant eyes and reddish spiny body. Nothing else looks quite like them, so I'll nail it every time. 

The memorable pair from that dive was a crab hanging out with a "spotted" (I feel like striped is the better name) drumfish - a gorgeous tail and extra ribbon from its dorsal. 

Alisa and I ascended, and I was halfway up the ladder behind her when I heard metal on metal and her on the deck of the boat. Elwis, our boat captain, was right there to pull off her BCD (with weights and a tank, not easy to get off if it's ended up on top of you) and get her on the bench. 

Yup, again it was her and not me that slipped. Maybe I should've echoed all of those caring "watch out"s and "hold the railing"s, but I definitely wasn't going to say anyway when she was looking a bit dazed with a scratch right across her cheek. 

The tumble was told and retold as the rest of the boat re-boarded. It was when we got back to the dock, though, that we decided to skip the 10:30 dive and come back after lunch. 

There's a clinic on site (and hyperbaric chambers, a good-to-have with all the divers), so the captain and guide recommended a check-in. Ibuprofen and ice - a pretty easy care regime when your patient is a pharmacist who carries it with her. 

We headed back across the channel to our room and chilled (and got hungry) for the hour before lunch started. Rice and beans, then a little bit more time before our final dive of the day.

It was another wall dive, called "Green out house wall" (there used to be run-off from a greenhouse on shore). We'd be going against the current, then returning with the current to the boat. 

Good news: the reef was buzzing, and even the sand nearby held a flounder on its side, both of its eyes face up. Bad news: a strong current meant we had to fight to get up-current, had to fight to stay near enough to the wall, had to fight to stay off the wall, and we each were facing some difficulties - Alisa had a pressure squeeze in her head and I had a regulator that was giving me half-salt-water when I was looking down (which, when you're swimming hard, is the most effective way to swim).

Once we got Hector's attention, he pointed us to the boat, and we ended diving for the day. Between a bruising first dive and an exhausting second dive, we were ready for a shower and dinner.

Pete, one of the scuba instructors, had a fish identification presentation happening at 6pm (right after happy hour, though adding alcohol to our already accident-prone day was playing with fire, so we skipped the drinking.) It was an hour of him passionately talking about the reef inhabitants that the dive master isn't going to point out: the French angelfish that pair for life, or the spotlight parrotfish, with the male visiting all the female in his harem until he dies and one of the females converts to a male and takes his place. He ended with an impassioned speech for protecting the reef around Roatan with a donation to the Roatan Marine Park, which encompasses all of our dive sites. It sustains the permanent mooring (so no anchors needed which wreck the reef) as well as conducts lionfish rodeos to keep the population under control.

After the presentation, I asked about a "blue lightning" fish I'd been seeing, and he pointed me to the indigo hamlet. During one of our dives in Belize, we had searched for all kinds of hamlets - this was one of them!

We are dinner with the light rain falling around us and an early night. When it gets dark at 5:30, every night is an early night!

Napping Our Way to Paradise - Roatan, Honduras, Nov. 5, 2016

It's apparently been over six months since I've been out of the country. (Unless you count all those countries at Epcot last week.) Time to dust off the passport, because Alisa and I are headed to Roatan! This island off Honduras (but part of Honduras - check another one off the list) has diving and is just two short flights from DC.

We took off at 6am, which meant being up at 4am to leave. That's 2am, Roatan time. (They are in Central Time but don't have daylight savings, so we'll be gaining back the hour sometime in our week here.) Two hours to Miami (slept through most of that), two hours on the ground (ate), two more hours to Coxen Hole, the international airport on the island. It was similar to Kilimanjaro - you get off on the tarmac and go through immigration and customs in the small building. 

Roatan is quick the destination for Americans. This is probably our most cliche trip (except for our cruise to the Bahamas) - we're staying at Anthony's Key Resort, which has all our diving and meals along with our room on stilts overlooking the sea.

Weather this week might be a bit wetter than ideal, but rain doesn't matter as much when you're underwater. 

We got picked up from the airport, then got our orientation (as well as our second lunch) and took the boat they call the "water taxi" over to the island with our room on it. 

It was definitely time for another nap, since the schedule for the day was nothing until the 2-for-1 drinks at the pool at 5pm, and it had started to drip. Not sunbathing weather, yet. 

With the sun setting right about five, it felt really late and dark as we left some fellow divers by the pool and headed to dinner at six.

Alisa and I are eating vegetarian this week, which, while they are accommodating, is going to be on us to watch and make sure we get enough filling meals and not just bread and butter. 

So, we were tucked in and reading by 8, and the lights were off before 10. Maybe getting up at 6:30 every day isn't going to be as much of a challenge as I thought. 

Coworker Meetups - March 30 and 31, 2016

I ate more. But Wednesday and Thursday were also spent chatting with coworkers, usually while eating. 

On Wednesday lunch I tagged along with Bianca and Harrison to Din Tai Fung - a soup dumpling chain all across Asia (with a branch in Seattle!), but, reputably, the Taiwanese versions are the best. 

Nana had mentioned hanging out with me that night, and she suggested the Danshui Old street.

She had a later call, so I spent an hour around the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. I was perhaps more dazzled by the opera and performance halls that flanked it - their traditional red architecture and massive size. 

Surrounding the massive buildings and in the broad stone square below were dance groups. Dozens and dozens of school children dancing hip hop, line dances, and clapping combinations of the two. Apparently the area around the buildings is a great public place to practice. Instead of going inside the performance hall, you could just wander around outside it instead!

The memorial hall was in honor of the first president; the changing of the guard is a tourist attraction during the day, but sitting and watching the world on one of the 89 steps is a great date location. No date meant I was instead back on the metro headed to Tamsui. 

Nana and I found each other, then proceeded to eat our way through yet another area of Taipei. Fried mushrooms, fried squid balls, and a final sit down meal at to get 'ah gei' (阿给), tofu skin with glass noodles. 

We wandered a bit farther along the water, wandering into the final open shop and munching on our pineapple rolls. They reminded me of melon pan, the most amazing food on earth, but we a slight hint of fruit. 

My final day in the Taipei office ended with a happy hour at a Japanese bistro - French wine and Japanese food go surprisingly well together! Rare steak, crab soup, and fried oysters while we regaled the new hire with APT lore; he did a good job of keeping us entertained with his own stories from school in the Middle East. 

Tintin was insistent that I try some mango ice, so we stopped by Ice Monster. Who was out of mango. We tried strawberry and bubble tea instead - for future notice, fruit is definitely the way to go. 

A "hop" to San Francisco and then a jump to DC, and I'm going to have the longest April Fool's Day, with no opportunities for jokes! But, it's just a goodbye for now - with the diving and the mountains and the food, I'll be back, Taiwan!

Night Markets - March 28 and 29, 2016

My first day of work in Taipei didn't go great in terms of productivity, but I really enjoyed meeting my coworkers. Lunch was late, with the four of us that weren't part of a client team out for noodles and a mix of other little dishes, including slightly spicy sautéed tofu.

I polled my coworkers for ideas for the evening, and we came up with the Raohe Street Market. A twenty minutes metro ride, and a line for peppered pork buns about the same length. 

Have I mentioned how much I love Taiwan? I showed up for the first week of beautiful weather that they've had this month. The view from the office includes the surrounding mountains. And then, there's the food. 

So, the pork bun was just a start. The amount of food was so overwhelming, I decided that the only things I would try were things that had lines. 

And apparently, bun-shaped things. After the pork bun was a fried mochi ball. 

Then were these mochi balls with crushed peanuts. Those were the best.

 

Well, but then I had to try the stinky tofu. It was fried, but the air around the stall was a bit pungent. A bubble tea (though don't ever get one with red bean bubbles - original tapioca pearls are way better) was the final selection for the evening. 

Don't worry, I did slightly more than just go to another night market on Tuesday. I climbed up Elephant Mountain!

The view over Taipei, specifically of Taipei 101, was definitely worth the twenty minutes of stairs. 

I'm still not positive if I got to the lookout that I was supposed to get to (another case of following ambiguous "go left at the split" when there were a couple different forks in the road), but I got some pretty nice pictures, so I was happy. 

And hungry - more night markets! I walked from the Xinyi Anhe station down through the Tonghua Street night market, that merged pretty seamlessly into the Linjiang Street market. 

Ready for the foods of Linjiang? First, these amazing sweet potato balls with seaweed sprinkled on them. Well, I guess first was actually this Chinese sandwich that I got with peanut sauce, but it was kinda dry, so we'll skip that one. 

We had had a long discussion at lunch (a great office meal with everything from roast chicken to cabbage to tofu to baked fish) about fruits in Taiwan, which really just resulted in me wanting to try all of them, especially "star fruit."

Well, I didn't actually have that, but I had custard fruit, which was amazing.

 

And these cross between an apple and a pepper called wax apples. It actually mirrors both those fruits pretty closely - crispy but a mild, just barely sweet flavor. 

Bianca and Vida had been encouraging me to try a foot massage, so after my walk up a mountain, I figured they deserved it. 

My feet got a nice hot soak to start with. Then, the massage was really tickle-y for about two minutes before she started kneading my sole, then calves. The pants I was wearing were too tight to roll up, so I had this ridiculous pair of floral pajama shorts. 

I bought a cheesecake to eat at home, but the final stall as I was leaving had a line for dumplings. Well, if there was a line, then I had to get in it! She wouldn't sell me just one, so five started on the trip home with me. Only one was left when I made it back to the hotel. 

Pingxi, Taiwan - March 27, 2016

As I was snuggled down in my giant bed in my giant room over looking Taipei and the mountains beyond, I decided I probably shouldn't just stay there all day. So, I escaped to the mountains. 

Which is pretty easy in Taiwan. It's like a big mountain sticking out of the ocean. 

So, I've revealed before that I have a weakness for stairs - confronted with the option to climb and see the world from above, I do. Now, I have another weakness. 

Waterfalls. Man, water spraying off a cliff, diving into a pool, and then bouncing along a stream - bliss. And when I found a trail in a province that I could get to via an old coal train, with not one, not two, but three waterfalls on it (and a fourth on the train line for good measure), I was in. 

The forecast was mediocre, but it was warm. So I packed up my backpack, and I took an Uber into the mountains. I know, I know, I'll take the train later. The 40 minute Uber was just $20! 

After the non-English-speaking driver and I passed a few buildings, and some crossing guards, after just highway, I figured I was roughly in the right place. And I was right!

Jingtong had the train museum (I just took pictures of the figures in the picture window), various booths and stalls, and my first view of a lantern flight. Pingxi is the only place in Taiwan that allows these four-foot paper lanterns to be lit and float away. (Which kinda makes sense - they eventually come back down and generate some sad, wet clumps of paper.) But, writing the blessings and wishes then sending them off into the sky is a beautiful sentiment, so I helped a family take pictures of their hopes and dream rise up and get carried away in the light breeze. 

Of course, this happens on the train tracks, between the roughly hourly departures. 

I had bought tickets (potentially three of them, because he said a number that I thought was thirty, so I held up three fingers, and ended up paying 60NT ($2), but getting three pieces of paper.

 

I had just enough time to walk down to the "lover's bridge" to see the mass of bamboo tubes that had more prayers and wishes on them. There is a lot of hope to express around here. 

I got on the train with a few people, but not the masses I would encounter later. I decided to sit in the front car with the conductor so I could see our journey. 

I was soon joined my a man with a Lions hat and his partner. There were some clear signs, in Chinese and English, above the conductor's door that said to not speak to him or disturb him. Those were dutifully ignored. So you won't be able to see the picture I took of him, since he asked (with my new Lions friend translating) for me not to post it. 

What I am going to show is this great "key" that they use to signify who has the right of way on a strength of these one-lane tracks. There are a few stations where two trains can pass, but between them, it's bad news bears if they came across each other. So each stretch of track has a big metal loop with a symbol on it that represents the stretch. When two trains met at a station in the middle, they traded keys so they could be assured no other trains were on the track. 

A pretty cool system.

It was also nice making friends with the conductor because he would point out all the waterfalls along the tracks and slow down for me. I think he was supposed to blow the whistle in the tunnels, but we can pretend he did that for me too. Before I got off, we traded pictures - I took one of him, and he took one (or two or three...) of me! Besties!

So, my plans were working fine. After getting off the train, I was operating under the assumption that the written directions I had downloaded from a pair of blogs would get me to these waterfalls, then take a not-quite-sanctioned shortcut to get to back to the train tracks and Shifen Waterfall. 

The part where I followed the documented trail was amazing! (Uh, oh, foreshadowing -guess you'll have to keep reading to find out what happens along the UNdocumented trail.) First, there was a short walk back along the train tracks, passing a stand selling pretty fancy sounding coffee but looking like a lemonade stand that kids would put up. 

Then, there were the ten stories of stairs. I was expecting that - both the blogs had warned me - so I took my time and read about two different kinds of ferns that they had posted signs about along the trail. Prehistoric plants are pretty cool. 

The first of the handful of people I met on the trail was an old man carrying a giant bundle of bamboo down the mountain. I had read somewhere that this was a path for transportation as well - impressive to say the least. 

It leveled off quickly; essentially, once I reach the right altitude, the stairs just stopped and it was a bit of rolling trail. The most difficult part was dancing around the puddles; other hikers had laid down bamboo over some, which was a balancing act, or steps of stones. I did one slide down a bank while trying to weasel along it to avoid a puddle, but came out mostly clean. Along that stretch at least. 

I had hopped over quite a few puddles when I started to hear the rush of water. And, turning a corner, I could begin to see the first, Hegu Waterfall, from afar. There was a viewing platform, and the trio of hikers I had passed caught up to me while I was catching that one.

Next up, there were two awesome pedestrian rope suspension bridges that had a fun swing to them. A babbling brook that I walked along side. Birds flitting between the trees and boulders. Idyllic. 

It was the second waterfall that I was excited for, since I had heard you could climb up into a cave behind it. Some steps carved into stone led up a little further into the woods (or is it jungle?) and, instead of the distant view of the previous Hegu, this Motain Waterfall started immediately spraying me in the face.

I encountered another couple at the base, setting up a camera on a timer to take a picture. I motioned that I could take it for them; I'm not positive if it got lost in translation, or if they actually wanted a picture with all three of us - but that's what they got! I did eventually take pictures of the two of them, and they returned the favor. 

I let them continue on, and I climbed along the trail until there was a branch that headed back in toward the waterfall. I slid down a big boulder without THAT much mud getting on me, but crouching over and walking along the crevice that ran to the waterfall definitely got my backpack a little dirty, and my hands too as I continued to try to keep my sneakers from getting water- (or mud-) logged. 

Eventually, the water was coming down right in front of me. Giant drips were falling off the edge of the cave - I was not close enough to to actually reach out, though. I was happy hunkered back, watching the water cascade down, then continue on to its wherever.

I danced back out among the puddles, and took a less steep route back to the trail. 

The final fall was a stair climb away! They were metal with a railing, so not hard to scale. 

And when I got to Pipadong Waterfall and the erstwhile end of the trail, a crowd of middle schoolers with a few adults were there.

Not sure if it was that I was the only white person I'd encountered that day, or the fact that I was making a bit of a fool of myself trying to climb on some slightly-too-tall rocks in the pool below the waterfall, but I was getting a lot of stares.

One of the men told me that up a trail by the fall was a better viewpoint. He was right; probably didn't need to climb on those rocks. 

He also didn't let me cross the sign to get closer to the fall. Too dangerous. When I asked him how to get to the train, he said go left. 

Before there were any turning options, I followed the path up a few steep hills. A knotted rope helped me up one rock face, and a pair of rope handles let me scramble up another. A nice dose of adventure with my waterfalls!

Well, I guess the next hour was a good bit of adventure. The blogs had mentioned a "roadway" that they "crisscrossed" then a long flight of slippery steps that went down, then going over a red bridge and turning right. 

Well, I was definitely walking along a roadway. Then I went down some very steep stairs - great! On the right track!

Now, there was a bridge, but it was kinda orangish. The fence close to it was red? And that's kinda when the instructions stopped. "The railroad tracks are just a little farther along."

Yeah... Never saw any railroad tracks. I walked along the road to the right for half a mile before asking an old lady for Shifen. She waved me on and held up one finger.

I spent the next ten minutes of walking trying to decipher that finger. One kilometer? One more road? One minute? 

That more rural, unlined road ran into a more populated one. Such a main road, in fact, that there was a bus stop! And on the sign, just two stops away, was the Shifen Falls! 

Perfect. I didn't really look at the bus schedule, figuring I might be able to wave it down if I was between stops. And I didn't want to deal with how to pay for it. So I started walking. Along the highway. 

I felt very odd, with my backpack and camera, not really hiking anymore, and encountering a car once every few minutes. Maybe a quarter mile down the road, I found the next bus stop. 

I would be at the falls in no time if the next stop came up as quick as that one! Sadly, that was not the case. 

After a week and a half of negotiating with my family about where to go and how to get there, it was refreshing to just decide to walk and face the consequences later. I didn't have to justify my decision to anyone, and I could just go. I had no one to blame if my feet got sore, and no one to help if I got lost.

But, probably a mile or two later, I found the entrance to the park with the falls. I had some streaks of crusted mud on my jeans, but I was victorious. 

These falls were definitely the most impressive. A mini Niagara Falls, someone on  the train had called them. Sure enough, a horseshoe had been carved out by the water falling down a hundred feet or two. 

And there were stalls! With food! I had squid balls, bubble milk tea, and some fried tofu while I observed the waterfall and observed the people. If there is reincarnation, and I have to come back as an animal, it would be pretty posh to be a dog in Taipei. I saw lots of random dog head sticking out of purses, as well as some of the fattest chihuahuas I've ever seen. On the other hand, it might be too cushy of a life. 

After my bubble tea and subsequent bathroom visit (there is a lot of liquid in those!), I walked to the viewing platform directly opposite the falls. 

Would it be too intimate to tell you that I got tears in my eyes walking out from the trees into the full view of the falls? Perhaps it was the uncertainty of the previous hour culminating in success. Perhaps it was the fact that it was Easter, and I'd been feeling God's presence. Or perhaps just a strong wind with a bit of dust. 

On my way back to the suspension bridge at the start of the waterfall park, the hourly train came chugging toward us on the rail bridge. Ah well, guess I'll have to burn a lot of time once I get back to the station, I thought. 

Well, I followed the crowds and walked. And walked. And walked. It was two kilometers back to the station! Good thing I didn't think I'd be able to catch a train that was twenty minutes away. 

Finally, the crowd congealed around a few old streets around the train station. Every ten seconds another paper lantern was rising along the tracks. Once again, the amazing food options called to my pretty satiated stomach. I was able to hold off until - how appropriate, eggs!

Well, pancake eggs filled with custard (the better option) and chocolate. But hey, didn't need the Easter bunny - just an old man at a roadside stall. 

And ahead, finally, was the train station. One ticket to the end of the line, where the trains back into Taipei left from. I picked up a few postcards, including one with a MasterCard symbol, and joined the packed crowd on the platform. 

Everyone wedged in for the forty minute ride to the end of the line. I was hoping to see if my conductor friend was the one driving the train, but I was just lucky enough to partially see out the window, much less make my way up to the lead car. 

So I settled in (as much as possible when standing) and watched the green world fade and buildings start cropping up where the trees used to be. A short stop in Ruifang, and it was another standing ride back to Taipei main station. 

I found the machine that sold ride tokens, and bought the metro ride amount to get back to my hotel. I was expecting a paper card like in DC and ended up with a poker chip. 

I watched the entrance to the MRT station for a minute or two, but the lack of any place to insert the token made me ask a very pleasant, English-speaking info desk attendant who told me that I just needed to tap it, then insert it at the final station. Easy peasy.

Dinner was some microwaved dumplings and a yogurt. Don't worry - I have plenty of food pictures for later this week!