A wave or shift in the boat came from out of nowhere and threw me off my feet. My left shoulder came up hard under Captain Pete's jaw. He went reeling backwards grabbing for rope or rail. As he tumbled towards the edge of the boat he was able to grasp onto a mast cable. Had the Captain fallen overboard I think he would have been gone for good. Everyone else on the boat had even less sailing experience than I did. We would have wound up in China or somewhere -...

Guatemala - another peculiarity: This time about the visiting Gringo. A lot of Gringo's come to Guatemala and use the colonial town of Antigua as a home base to do their travels. Armed robbery of buses is a very real thing in Guatemala. A trip, let´s say from Antigua on a shuttle bus to Rio Dulce costs $37.00 US. Many people prefer to do this for safety reasons. They feel that if you pay the extra money you will be rewarded with an additional measur...

  Contrary to popular belief, the Garden of Eden isn't located between the Tigris and Euphrates. It's down in good old Guatemala.And it goes by the name Semuc Champey. This Garden of Eden is a series of terracedwaterfalls that travel a mile or so down the Cahabon River. At the base of each cascade there are these wonderful swimming holes, each with varying size and depth. At one point our guide Pedro tied a rope to a rock and we shinnied down a bleeding...

With two days of Spanish school remaining, I´m capable of conversing at a very basic level. The person I speak with however, must use very short words, in very short sentences. He or/she must also be prepared from time to time for a response that is unrelated to the actual topic of conversation. I´ve entered a learning curve with far too many twists and turns. It´s been fun, but the hair that I haven´t pulled out of my head has turned completely gray. This p...