I think I have cracked

Cracked. Like the kind that splinters wood. Breaks concrete slabs. Gives you migraines.

Recap - just got back from a 23-day excursion to Central America. Went to Nicaragua and Costa Rica with my mom and cousin. We started in Managua. It is a dump there, but hot and sticky and exciting with beautiful women and cab driver con artists and little kids begging for "un peso." Life is cheap and valuable at the same time. My kind of place. My mom was worried that the kids at the stop lights were going to steal her bags, so she panicked and closed the window on one of their hands. It was funny and cruel at the same time. Like a bad Coen (Cohen?) brothers movie. We went out and I paid for a mariachi band. They made us deaf and I liked it. My cousin Les doesn't drink. Or didn't drink. Its easy to get someone to start drinking in a tropical area. Coconut and pineapple are so good at mixing with that delicious Flor de Cana rum from Esteli. Delicioso. See the affect that the sweet mariachi music has on my cousin?

We spent a few days hitting the cool spots between Managua and the Costa Rican border. Caught the bus in Granada and headed south. I met some cool people on the bus. A girl from Canada that let me borrow her Lonely Planet book on the CR in exchange for beers when she comes to Seattle, and another Nica gal in her 30's that ended up sharing my Ipod with me and having me translate Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson to her. Talk about making the brain really work. I also contracted some sort of a SARS or monkey pox from the guy hacking in the seat in front of me. Took me out of diving for the entire time I was in CR.

Costa Rica is a cool spot. Its night and day between the two countries. CR is way more developed, has better infrastructure, and their dogs aren't as sad or skinny. We went to San Jose and then headed for the coast. Made it to Jaco for two nights before heading to Quepos. In Jaco, we stayed at a placed called Hotel Kangaroo. It is owned by a french guy named Stefan. We went out and partied with some girls from Washington State and another French guy named Jean Batiste. Not Jean, not JB, but you had to say the whole fucking name or he became indignant

At Quepos I took the cousin and moms on a cable canopy tour. It was cool - having done many more risky activities in my life, I enjoyed the whizzing across the canopy 50 feet above the floor. I wanted to see more animals, but all in all, a fun time.

We also got attacked by a band of white face monkeys in Manuel Antonio National Park. Seriously. It was like that movie where the monkeys go nuts, Outbreak or something. I had to save my mom from a 8 pound primate that didn't like her outfit or her stupid questions she kept asking me. I was cheering for the monkey at first, but then realized that a monkey bite could be bad business, so I stepped in and spanked the monkey.

Get it? Spanked the monkey? Not the jerk of spank, but really spanked the monkey. How often to you get to say that and mean it. "Bad Monkey! Fuck Off! Stop throwing shit at me!" I like monkeys in general. The howler monkeys (monos congos) were crazy. I found a few in the trees on a backroad and had them pissed off at me. They didn't like the Tarzan calls.

Anyway, we rolled back up the cost towards Liberia and the border, hitting Samara for a night and the Tamarindo for two nights. It was fun. Hit lots of beaches and backroads in between. I love the scenery at the beaches in Costa Rica! Whoohoo! It was soooo hot there too. Ouchy hot. European women and hot 20-30s expats that live there year round are soooo hot.

Sunsets in Costa Rica - this was a good one. The kind you can watch all the way down and look for the blue blip... No blue blip, but a good one.

Almost sank the Diahatsu rental SUV in a river crossing like a jackass. Thank the smiling fates for door gaskets that work. The howler monkeys made all of the offroad driving worth it.

So then it was back to Nica Nica. BTW - the Costa Ricans call themselves Ticas. The Nicaraguans call themselves Nicas. I can see the Nicas. Ticas - Stretching it a bit maybe? Nickname jealousy?

At this point, I have to say good bye to mom and cousin and join up with some architect friends from Seattle and their band of merry students. Together we are starting a plan for a community of relocated families that will work a coffee plantation together. I did the water system design for drinking and irrigation water, and the architecture students did the planning for the village layout. It was fun. Very good to live with the people you were trying to help and really see how much a few days of my time could make such a huge impact to so many people.