Monday, April 11, 2011

The Early Hours

It all began on Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. It was well into post-retirement life, just before I became Chief Entertainment Officer of O2PE. Since 2007, I had been developer, actor, painter, writer, professor, and computer gum-shoe. I needed to be something. The plan for this trip: Be a self-improver, enhance my Spanish skills.

Passing through Roatan, on the way to school, floating through day after beautiful day in paradise, time passed. Diving certification complete, it was time to pay the piper. Time to begin my journey through the valley of the subjunctive. Cognitive dissonance. Reality was not cooperating. I was more interested in enjoying (diving) than improving (studying Spanish).

Fearing two weeks without wind or waves, I asked Gay, the dueña of dive operations, what she would do with a weekend (i.e. the time between two weeks of Spanish classes) in La Ceiba. Her response was instantaneous: get out of town. After a moment's reflection, it came to her: visit Omega Lodge. This initiated a brief but heated discussion between la dueña and Tim, a present but not-so-local diving instructor. (Tim, who summers as a white water instructor in Colorado, had been involved with a competing `adventure´ purveyor; to wit, he had invested a number of white water rafts which, unfortunately, were destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.) Tim and Gay agreed to disagree with regard to some details, but were able to come to agreement that Omega Lodge was the best place to `chill out for the weekend´.

Upon searching the Omega Lodge website I found what I wanted: to hike and camp above the el bejuco waterfall.  Now the goal was clear: since the hike required at
least two people and this geezer was alone, collect a group of people who wanted to experience the glory of Honduras' Pico Bonito national park. "No problem," thought I; my fellow students would surely jump at such an exciting opportunity.

The next step was simple: approach all the students, tell each one about the trip, and find out who was interested. In no time I'd have the 4 or 6 people with whom I would share the experience. I was saddened by the thought of turning away late-comers.

Things seemed to be going along quite well. Lot's of students were 90% sure that they wanted to go. I anticipated a group of 6, the maximum permitted. What I didn't yet understand was that 90% sure meant not interested. The first day, Patrizio (age 50+) said yes, everyone else was 90% sure they wanted to go. The second day the maybes stood pat. The third day still no movement. I began to wonder whether the younger generation (for the maybes were all 25 or under) needed a review of probabilities. I was beginning to get nervous when salvation arrived in the form of Berta (60+) who I hadn't met, but who came in wanting to find companions for hiking over the weekend.
She had been thinking more of a day hike than of sleeping above the waterfall, but since she, like the rest of us, had no idea what the hike involved, she was happy to join our group. That made 3 yes-es and 11 90%ers. Average age of yes-es: 59 2/3. Average age of 90%ers: 22 1/2. The next morning, i.e. Friday, my statistics were shot to hell when Alli (age 23) arrived saying she had heard about a hike and was there room. There we were, the gang of 4.

We should have suspected something when they brought out the release forms, but trusting and naive, we signed away and off we went. The hike was hard: we used roots to pull ourselves up the mountain, we slid down on our butts. (This video is not us but shows the sort of hike it was on the way up.) We hiked, swam, slept, ate, drank Tang & Rum (surprisingly good), and survived. We were all smiling (through the foot pain) when it was over. (BTW, Omega Lodge [food good, prices low, adventures unforgettable] is run by transplanted Germans who have built it over the last 19 years. Definitely, worth a journey.)  I didn't have a camera but Ally posted some pictures to Flickr.  Night before, up, down.

The question that interests me is why were the younger students unable to say yes.

  • Did they really not want to? (Youth loves nature.  Hard to imagine.) 
  • Were they put off by `fear of geezers'? (Charming as we are.  Hard to imagine.)
  •  Were they hoping for a better offer? 
My theory is the last alternative. Baba Ram Das said, Be Here, Now.  Youth, which lives in hope of Ms. (or Mr.) Right, has yet to learn. By now, we either know better or don't care.

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