Tuesday evening I receive an e-mail from Bob Izdepski: "want to go along on next weeks' trip to the Moskito Coast?" What? Is he serious? I'm supposed to jump up from what I'm doing and head off to Central America with barely a week's notice?

Then again, I'm out of work and the local employment situation is looking worse every time I open the newspaper. What's keeping me from going other than the cash? Maybe, if I can get by cheaply enough, this makes sense. I'd definitely be pissed with myself if, five years from now, I don't find myself in the poorhouse while I'm look back on having skipped this trip because of some misplaced concerns about the short term financial situation. What the heck, I'll talk to Deb about it... she'll want more details (so do I) so I'll query Bob and stall.

"So, honey, Bob Izdepski (you remember him from that Sub Ocean Safety stuff I did a few years ago) contacted me about a trip to Central America. I'm thinking maybe I should go if I can get air fare cheaply enough. What do you think? ..."

Later that day, I get ahold of Bob by telephone. He's got some "good" information for me:

• Meet him at the Best Western across the street from the Managua airport after he arrives on Tuesday. He'll hang around poolside until 9PM .
• If we miss each other on Tuesday, I'm to catch up with him at Big Corn Island or Little Corn Island; exactly when and how isn't really crystal but I can always leave a message the El Paraiso on Big Corn and/or Hotel Iguana on Little Corn.
• If we miss on the Corn Islands, I'm to catch up with them in Puerto Cabezas.
• After asking "How's your Spanish?" (not great), Bob leaves me with the names and local telephone numbers of some strangers.

I spend some time pouring over maps of Central America in the hopes of finding out where these places might be.

It's Friday morning, Deb and I have talked about this crazy idea and she's heard from a friend that the county has a Traveler's Vaccination clinic. I call the county health center and find out they have clinic on Wednesday and Friday mornings; they have only two appointments left. Did I want one?

Thinking hard now, I'm figuring that a round of shots sounds like an unpleasant but wise thing to take care of on the off chance I end up going through with this thing. I'm still not committed but I'm solidly not saying no.

After the shots, I'm heading home when I decide to call my doctor's office to see if I can pickup a couple of prescriptions to take along (antibiotics and some serious gastrointestinal medications). Sure, they're open and can fit me in in an hour. Okay so, again, doors are staying open for this trip.

I'll swing by the house and, if I can still get reasonable air fares, I'll do this thing. Bingo: $300 roundtrip from Miami to Managua/Roatan to Miami. I have frequent flyer miles that'll get me to Miami. The flights are booked; I'm committed.

Now I need to take care of some special shopping items. There are a number of essentials but, from past experience, the craziest thing I'm buying is a brand new pair of hiking boots (my old ones are heavy, leather mountain climbing boots not well suited to jungle stomping). There aren't many stupider things than new boots and looming long walks. For a list of the other things I took along, checkout the Travel page.