reflections on the trip, part 1: my health, or "how I became a god"

well, i'm home. for more than a week now.

time for my much anticipated series of posts reflecting on the trip.

part 1: health

observations:

this trip made me remarkably healthy. i lost 20 pounds and 4 years (in appearance, based upon surveys of strangers). i have NEVER been this skinny. i am also at peak tan. though this has nothing to do with health, it makes me LOOK healthy.

this was not my experience in asia. sure, i generally got healthier traveling in asia, but not outlandishly so.

why?

1) food is boring in all central american countries, and even sort of expensive in some of them. thus i ate simply for sustenance. this is in sharp contrast to asia, where delicious, dirt cheap, super-carby food is part of the attraction.
2) tons of exercise. climbing volcanoes, caving, swimming, simply wandering around cities, always being ready to fight bandits, etc. similar to asia, yet asia somehow inspired slightly more laziness in me than did central americ. i think it's because i would tend to "settle down" for days at a time in asia, whereas few places in central america inspired long, lazy visits. (why this was the case is for a later post in the reflections series.)

but it's not only that. i was amazingly energetic during the trip. 8 hour hiking odysseys left me neither tired nor sore. the 20 somethings could not keep up. really. it actually began to concern me. for a while i thought i was dying.

you see, i have this theory, based upon observations of now dead pets and grandparents, that one's death is preceded by an unexplainable burst of energy and generally good feelings. so for a few weeks, i suspected my heart might explode at any moment. amazingly, it did not.

this was not a permanent phenomenon. now that i am back home, i do very little, yet i desire regular naps.

it is sad that i will be doughy and pasty white again very soon.

other stats:

illnesses on the road:

- one 36 hour rather nasty food borne illness, complete with fever, treated with cipro
- one cold at the beginning of the trip

very mild. i've had much worse health problems in asia, where bizarre, often scary illnesses appear out of nowhere, and food borne illness is rampant. central america beats asia hands down, health-wise.

injuries & nuisances:

- thumb smashed swimming in a fast flowing river (still acts up)
- battered and bruised falling though a sidewalk and landing in a sewer 12 feet below (elbow still acts up)
- bug bites: numerous: sand flies (remarkably painful and debilitating), bed bugs, and the unidentifiable. mosquitoes weren't bad at all though, generally, though i did slather on a lot of deet, as there are very few mosquito nets in hotel rooms.
- rashes/fungi: i had a few of various types, some completely new to me. they were generally disgusting and heat/sweat related. i have discovered that there is a downside to polyester pants, beyond the obvious fashion one.
- hangovers: yes, socializing on the road inevitably involves considerable drinking. this was better in central america. asian beer is filled with chemical preservatives. and i once even found a rusty bottle cap at the bottom of my bottle in thailand. central american beer is boring but tastes "clean". nicaraguan rum is magnificent, and other countries local stuff wasn't too bad either. asian booze on the other hand is pure head splitting poison.

fun with the kuna

i´m back from 3 days in the san blas islands.

the islands (in seemingly endless supply) are owned by the kuna. they dress funny and speak their own language (though they generally know spanish too). it is almost a separate country from panama, sort of like american indian nations, only they seem to have even more autonomy. being self sufficient and not subject to most panamanian law, they don´t give a rats ass about anyone. this can be very frustrating when you actually want a kuna to do something for you, or to honor a commitment he has already made.

the kuna do like extracting money from tourists, so they keep letting us in. i paid 6 dollars to enter their territory, yet one week ago the price was $2. an unannounced 300% increase, and no one knows why.

each island seems to be owned by a family. you sort of have to arrange with the family to stay there, and once there you are at their mercy, because they control whether you get to leave, and provide all meals. accomodation is in simple bamboo huts without electricity and all meals are included, assuming the kuna have gathered enough food that day. there is no running water. you might find some "fresh" water to pour over yourself, but it is best just to be content with being salty. the toilet consists of a hole at the end of a rickety pier on the other side of the island. not a place to try to reach at night.

every evening the island women get into a huge battle, yelling at and over each other for up to 2 hours nonstop. the men quietly go about their business, seemingly unconcerned.

having said all of that, the san blas islands are the closest i think i have come to that stereotypical postcard tropical paradise that tourists continually chase. and i don´t say that because of the cocaine that the kuna (legally, i think) provide to tourists courtesy of their columbian neighbors. i didn´t even try it. really.