Two Beers and a Pretzel

5:00 AM - Get to Nashville airport.  Find out they won’t book me thru to Honduras because I don’t have a return ticket.  Change checked luggage to just go to Miami.

6:15 AM - Flight to Miami.

9:45 CST - Arrive at Miami.  Walk 1/2 a mile to the other end of the terminal carrying 70# of crap.  Book an onward refundable flight on TECA from Honduras to Costa Rica on Nov 24th.

1:45 CST - Flight to San Pedro

3:00 PM EST - Arrive in the original Banana Republic at San Pedro with a 30 minute layover and a massive immigration line.

3:25 PM - Still in line.  Find out my flight was cancelled due to weather.

3:40 PM - Get shuffled onto a bus to La Cieba with 25 other people and a Chiuaua.  Pass banana plantions and bridge construction project with armed guards.

6:45 PM - Arrive a La Cieba airport.  Meet 3 other Americans and split a cab to the Grand Paris Hotel.

8 PM - Meet friends for dinner - everyplace is closed…

9 PM - …except the hotel restraunt.  Order the “Typical Plate” of fried plantains, cheese, fried eggs, beans, rice, and something akin to meat.  Food was pretty good.  I’m guessing it was a bit more authentic than the Pizza Hut next ddor or Duncan Donuts down the street.  The local beer “South Beach” is like a sweeter version of Corona.

11:30 - Finishing this e-mail and going to bed.  Need to catch the ferry to Roatan tomorrow at 9:30 AM.

I’ll get some pics tomorrow

At my going away happy hour I talked with a guy from work who has had many past lives. Big 5 accounting consultant, SCUBA instructor in the Caribbean for a year on a live-aboard, and finally, managing the help desk for the GAP. We were talking about SCUBA, and I got a ton of advice from him….

Apparently I want to go to Honduras because you can just walk off the beach to do your certification dive, as it gets deep quick, and there are patch reefs everywhere.

Upon doing a little research, I found a guy on Roatan who built his own DSV submarine (totally unlicensed and uninspected) that he uses to take tourists down to 2000 ft deep!!! Holy Cow… I wouldn’t build my own car - much less something that could instantly crush me to death if anything goes wrong.

So I’ve decided… I don’t want to ride in it that deep, but I absolutely have to talk to this guy…


From his recent website update, he’s in a skirmish with the local Mayor, and I guess he’s being physically blocked from taking the sub out to sea. That removes temptation!!

So it’s a week in Honduras (starting Nov 17th) to get my Scuba certification and see a few Mayan Pyramids. Then a bus thru Nicaragua spend 2 weeks in Costa Rica.

Well, I’m composing my official goodbye e-mail for Gap Inc Direct.

I’ve been working at their main distribution center in Groveport, Ohio for a little over 5 years now working on enhancements to their Warehouse Management System to increase productivity and allow them to ship an astounding number of orders out to customers. Direct to consumer retail fulfillment has been interesting, to say the least. It’s definitely been a great experience working for the largest online clothing retailer in the World (Note: Zara apparently took the title in August, but that was mostly related to currency rates - I assume with the USD going back up, GAP is back to #1).

If you get a chance, buy something at GAP.com, Old Navy.com, BananaRepublic.com, PiperLime.com, or Athleta.com so my former co-workers get big, fat bonuses and can afford to swing by and meet me somewhere on my trip!

Being an amateur photography buff, a lot of my co-workers and friends end up asking me questions about camera gear. I bought a Canon 20D back in 2005… not because I’m opposed to the Canon Digital Rebel, Nikon or any other brand, but simply because I liked the way the 20D felt and really liked the user controls, and wanted 8 megapixels.

I started with the 18-55mm kit lens (3x zoom) and quickly upgraded to the 17-85mm (5x) image stabilization lens, added the 100mm macro, 50mm, 10-22mm superwide, and 70-300mm tele-zoom with image stabilization. Of all the lenses, I think the 17-85 is the only one I currently want to upgrade, but for an around the world trip, I’ll stick with it.

I thought about upgrading the camera for this trip to either the 10 megapixel Canon 40D, or the new 15 megapixel Canon 50D. I decided against both. I don’t like the button layout of the 40D, but the anti-dust features would be nice. The 50D… well, I shoot RAW whenever possible, and I’d eat up a lot of memory on those large images. Considering the max full frame equivalent focal length of my rig is 480mm (300×1.6) I really don’t need the ability to crop.

My photography related goal for this trip is to get better at framing a shot through the viewfinder. A new camera is always fun, but I’d rather improve my technique and take better pictures than rely on the newest technology.

With that in mind, I did splurge a little bit and bought a used Canon 10D (6 MP) and sent it to LifePixel.com to have it converted to Infra-red. It’ll be specifically for landscapes, but I’ll try some artsy shots, and some astrophotography. I can’t wait to get this thing back in a week!!

The one thing I’ll be leaving behind will be my 15″ MacBook Pro. I really like the Aperture 2.0 application for categorizing and editing photos. Nothing against Adobe Lightroom, but I just preferred the layout of Aperture. Either way, I won’t have it with me on my trip, so I’ll rely on a cheapo Ultra Mobile PC loaded with PhotoShop Elements and some portable USB hard drives. I think I’ll miss the multitouch trackpad the most.

Oh yeah… to keep it all safe, I got the LowePro Flipside 400 AW (all weather). It has a very comfortable waist belt and waterproof cover. You spin the pack around your waist to your chest, then it lays like a table attached to your belly. You open up the side that was formerly against your back, so it’s very secure (at least from pickpockets). it also looks more like a backpack or large daypack than a camera back, so you hopefully don’t look like a typical tourist carrying expensive camera gear.

I just ordered the “Free Pack” deal from Telestial.

It’s a Motorolla v600i with their “Passport Plus SIM card”, and includes about 300 minutes of airtime.

When I get the number, anyone will be able to send me a free text message, and I get in-country call rates pretty close to a local SIM card. The best part is that I have one consistent phone number for people in the states to get ahold of me when necessary. And, it’s a log cheaper than my $50/month + $2/minute from AT&T. It’s a pay-as-you-go global phone.

I looked into Iridium Satellite phones, but $1,000 for the phone + $35/month + $1.50/minute seemed a little steep.

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I also ordered a “Find Me SPOT” from my REI Store link for $149.00.

This should be pretty cool, as it will GEO-Tag my travels and automatically update a Google Map that I’ll put on my website. It also has some decent emergency response functionality of I get into trouble. Not quite as foolproof as a real emergency beacon, but a decent backup plan for casual travel.