Well this is pretty crazy… The thought floats to the surface of my consciousness as my bubbles cascade against the gnarled ceiling just inches above my head, slipping through invisible porous slivers in the ironshore and cascading through a impossibly interwoven stream of eons-old coral fossils to escape, unnoticed, on the surface twenty feet above my head. Twenty vertical feet, I remind myself. I am wedged forty feet inside a tiny fissure in the fore reef at Hole in the Wall dive site near West End, Roatan, Honduras. An ominous hallway of unexplored darkness looms before me, beckoning me to shed my dive light deeper into the cave. The last inklings of Caribbean sunlight illuminate my hands as I loop » read more «

The sweat runs down my brow in small torrents, cascading over my recently-shaved head and obscuring my vision with the tingle of salt that no rapid eye-blinking can remedy. I am poised: arms flexed, balance sturdy, legs braced, steady breathing. My opponent, despite being both fourteen inches and years my inferior, is equally prepared. The bell rings. My arms pump in rapid yet rhythmic alternation, delivering haymakers and uppercuts to the facial region of my foe. He ducks, weaves, and wallops a low kidney-shot to my torso, simultaneously crumbling my defenses and body with a single emphatic blow. I twitch on the ground in agony. Despite the fervent shaking of my arms, I remain unconscious on the floor. The time » read more «

Living in paradise ain’t easy. My feet have big, deep, and possibly infected cuts from walking barefoot several miles a day. The antibiotics do their best, but the constant tearing of the scabs from scuba diving coupled with the far-from-sterile humid environment of West End makes recovery a month-long process. I would be wearing shoes if I could find a single sandel in size 13 in Central America. My Chacos— supposedly indestructible—fell apart after nine months. (Not bad, actually: the average lifespan of my sandels down here is three months). So while I wait for the next RAS shipment to arrive, I am officially shoeless. Shoes wouldn’t be such a problem if my scooter worked. Things come in threes, I » read more «

Evelyn, a professional Madonna impersonator, gives the performance of a lifetime on the Coconut Tree Divers deck. Amazingly, the voice really is her singing “Like a Prayer,” and she didn’t know that her prop would be a three-foot-long sparkling schlong until seconds prior to performance. Watch all the way to the end— it will blow you away. Note to self: Install web cam on Coconut Tree Divers deck.