On the grid, Off the grid
Hello again,
Far too much to write in far too little of a timeframe, but I´ll do my best to be succinct.
I really wish I would´ve been able to keep up with my earlier pace of blog writing. I certainly haven´t been wanting for stories to share. When John was here I never really had the free time to write, and when I finally did on Ometepe, the price of internet access was 8X what it is elsewhere in the country. Barbaric.
Where I´m staying now there is a very nice cyber right around the corner, with nice new Dell laptops and airconditioning for a super reasonable rate. I find myself spending a lot of time here to get out of the oppressive heat (its the equivalent of August here). But when I was camping up on Playa Maderas there was absolutely no internet access, no TV, no cell phone reception.
That can be quite refreshing for some people, but I actually loathe being without internet. Its one thing to be so far removed, geographically, from loved ones. Its another thing alltogether to not have a voice at all.
Tomorrow morning I head out on a brutal, day long series of dusty roads, bus transfers, taxi rides, big cities, airport terminals, docks, and open ocean—- spanning some 500 miles, give or take a few. I don´t know what to expect in terms of infrastructure on the Islands. I know Big Corn has services, but I won´t be spending much time there. The dive center I´ll be at is on Little Corn. Check it out:
So, as I was saying… I don´t expect to find a cell phone signal there, if I do it´ll be marvelous. I also strongly expect to NOT find internet service for less than a barbaric $5/hour. Hence, I will be once again on the dark side of the moon… it seems it will be atleast a week until I am contactable. I don´t need to be worried about. I´m still the most savvy traveler I´ve met to date, I do well.
One quick note about my phone, I figured out how to use the voicemail application, so you can feel free to leave messages for me. I will get them. Disregard my previous requests to not do so.
The next time you hear from me I should have PADI open water SCUBA certification, and quite possibly advanced open water certification. After that, we´ll see what happens. Although my flight back to the US is scheduled for the 29th of May, I´ve been finding lots of reasons to return earlier than that. As splendid and peacefull as Nicaragua is, it hurts far too often to be so wholly alone here. That, coupled with a strong desire to NOT return penniless might push my return date up two weeks. We´ll see. More to come. I´d be happy to recieve a $1,000 grant to go up to Copan in Honduras and on to Tikal in Guatemala… but I don´t think that´s going to happen. I´d need to hit 4 royal flushes for that. Sheesh.
Take care, best wishes,
Travis
4 years ago