Going, Going, Gone!

So I'm writing from the first decent computer I've been at in almost 3 months. Man, it's nice to be at my sister's house!

Let's catch up on my last few weeks in Latin America.

I left for San Juan del Sur and spent about a week getting punished by the waves at Playa Maderas by day and partying at Matilda's Hostel by night. Here's a shot of the view from my dorm around 6pm every evening. Man, I wish I'd been able to get that horizon straight and do this shot some justice. 

Matilda's was great, SJDS was great, and aside from puncturing my foot on very pointy rocks on the walk from Matilda's to the actual surfable beach-- I passed all 4 or so days there in absolute serenity.

Before I continue, I should mention that I had some pilferage in my money belt after my time in the BioReserve in Esteli, and followed up by canceling my credit cards. That was almost 3 weeks ago, and I have yet to get one fully functional card. After 5 different phone calls to different Washington Mutual agents, followed by a myriad of e-mails with lord knows how many MORE WaMu (or, rather, Chase) agents, I have a debit card without a PIN. No money for me--- and I fly to Egypt on Wednesday. Huzzah for not having a plan!

Anyhow, I took out enough money to survive until I got to DC in cash, then cancelled my cards and continued on to Isla de Ometepe. Here's a view from the Mirador halfway up Volcan Maderas. Pretty amazing, huh? Too bad it rained the whole way up and the whole way down this 3 hour hike. Was pretty slippery, and not good for the poor Israeli guy with only one functional foot... but definitely worth it for this view.

Spent a few more days in Ometepe partying, relaxing, and catching up on my reading in a hammock until about a day before I flew. I had intended on leaving earlier, but my whole backpack got stolen! The crazy thing is that it happened on a really rainy night from my dorm room in the middle of the jungle. Who would go through all that trouble for some dirty mismatched clothes and a beat up pair of retainers? I mean, really. The pain in the ass it caused for me is at least 20x greater than the value of anything they could have actually gotten out of the bag.

Anyway, I had something of an emotional breakdown that night, and spent the rest of my time on the Isla boozing like crazy. The last day there, I went down to Ojo de Agua with a couple of 

cool kids from my hostel. The day was pretty much perfect. Forget the bag, forget that it was raining the whole way there, forget that Chico was VERY much drunk and we had to keep convincing him to let Ines drive.... floating on my back in the water and watching the rain drop from the sky was one of the most surreal things I've done on this trip so far. Also, taking pictures with Nemo's underwater camera was sweet. Here's a shot from that day. It didn't come out as symmetrical as I would have liked... but still pretty cool.

I thought I might post a photo of me at the airport here. Here I am with all my luggage. You can see all of it in the photo. Btw- passing through customs with a grocery bag containing only one change of clothes, a flashlight and two cans of bug spray will gain you nothing but questions. First time I have ever been pulled into the "little room." Now I know what it's like to be of Middle Eastern descent.

Overall, Central America was great. Had oodles of fun and met lots of cool peeps. I would have liked to have less robbery involved though. Being robbed less would have been great.

So, as things stand now... I'm currently without luggage or money... and I'll be on my way to Cairo in less than 5 days. I'm just as clueless as everyone else as to how I'm going to survive for the next year and some without either of these two things. I'll keep you all updated as I arrive at solutions.