We waved down a bus on the outskirts of Belmopan heading towards St. Herman's Blue Hole National Park.  It stopped.  A skinny man with light, tan skin, and dark, wavy hair pointed to the tight luggage compartments under the bus where we squeezed our bulky packs, stuffing and punching the bottoms to slam the metal doors shut. I walked the aisle looking at a myriad of unfamiliar faces, strangers from different parts of

We woke up early in the morning in Bahia, packed our gear, cleaned, cooked breakfast, and bid farewell to Brindle, Mama, and Shaggy.  They were the stray dogs we had befriended over the past week, who slept on the porch, or under the patio in beds dug out in the sand, or simply in the lawn by the banana trees. With no real plan other than to tramp further south, we set out by foot