The best beer in Central America comes from Nicaragua and it's called Victoria. It's a full-bodied brew with a very refreshing aftertaste. Costa Rica has a couple of decent choices in Pilsen and Imperial. These three golden thirst quenchers rank at least as high as any of the mass-produced beers of Canada. In Guatemala things change for the worse. The beer of choice there is called Gallo or "Rooster" in English. It could be likened to an American beer, watery and shy on zip. When you travel to Honduras, abstinence is your best bet. The Hondurans brew the horrid Salva Vida. I think that loosely translates to "Applause of Life". A more appropriate name would be Petroleo y Vinagre - oil and vinegar...motor oil and vinegar.

Marc, a French Canadian from Sherbrooke owns the place we're staying at on Hermosa Beach in Costa Rica . He's very much an environmentalist who works tirelessly to protect the natural habitat of Hermosa. Marc's place is kind of like a mini jungle. There's a three-foot iguana with a white head that shows up every afternoon for fruit. In the backyard, howler monkeys swing by at their pleasure. Just off the balcony there's a hornets nest that Marc seems particularly proud of. Underneath the roof overhang, just around the corner from our balcony bedroom there's a family of bats. Marc has two big black dogs, probably just to keep these other creatures in check. Each morning with a dog on his left and a dog on his right they swim into the Pacific, towards the horizon. When you see them from a distance they look like a three-headed monster. This morning I went for a lengthy swim myself. I heard and felt a disconcerting splash behind me. I turned and this big bloody black dog was staring me right in the face. He scared the be-jeebers out of me.

And yesterday while scuba diving I reported seeing a 10-foot white tip shark. The Divemaster said it was four foot, maybe five foot, tops. Everything looks bigger underwater. Sometimes on the shore too.