WanderingWhy…

Some of you may have read my post on the volcano hike in Ometepe Nicaragua. I had to do a little legwork to organize that hike and met a few guys from the US that were interested in going (a group rate is always cheaper–and more fun).

Rick and Steve were two brothers interested in the hike and were traveling with a close group of friends. Dawn and I spent a few of our nights chatting with the group and really had a great time. Turns out, these guys have been getting together for the last 10 years to do a “Guys trip” each year somewhere in the world. They were all middle age and fit and their tastes edged toward adventure travel: hiking, mountain biking, rafting, kayaking etc… And far away places: Argentina, Chile, Israel, Vietnam, not much was off limits. They loved the outdoors and you could see their friendship ran deep–they were funny, fun-loving and a great group to hang out with. They joked that someone got hurt every year and it was kind of the initiation into the group. The worst injury I remember them telling me about was Steve’s mountain biking accident in New Zealand when he crashed and collapsed a lung–not fun.

There were two men named Rick in the group. “Rick P.” who did the hike with me, and “Rick S.” Rick S. was very interested in our trip. It turns out he had done a year of travel with his wife for their honeymoon many years ago. They traveled the silk road back in the early 70’s through Afghanistan, Iran just months before the Shah was overthrown, India, and Nepal. He said Nepal was one of his favorite countries and still is. That sounded good to us as Nepal is on the list of possibilities.

Rick S. had the travel bug something fierce. If you have serious passion for travel, you will put everything on hold to talk with someone else who feels the same. I don’t know that I said a word to Dawn at dinner the night he was sitting next to her–they really hit it off and chatted the night away. We gave him our website information and he seemed very excited about following along and staying in touch–and we looked forward to hearing from him and possibly getting some travel tips from an older wiser traveler. “What a really great group of guys” I said to Dawn walking back to our room the last night. I was going to miss hanging out with them but look forward to staying in touch.

I logged on this morning to find some terrible news from Rick P. in my mailbox. Here is part of the message:

At 8AM we left for the city of Laceiba with gear to hike, snorkel, and raft. As it was Sunday, no outfitters were open in town so we decided to take a drive into the mountains on the road that follows the Cangrejal river. Along the way we ran into the river headquarters for Jungle Expeditions. My friend Rick was hot on rafting and they could send us out in an hour. We got sized up for helmets, life jackets, and paddles and hit he road to go farther up river to start the half day raft trip. It had rained for 2 weeks straight and the river was pretty swollen and running fast. We did some preliminary instructions with our guide and started our trip. We had not gone 20 yards and our guide missed the first turn sending us down a 10 foot drop into a class 5 hole. We were all thrown from the raft and pulled under in the hole. Rick probably was unconscious when he was released by the hydraulics of the hole. My brother Steve was the only one of us to make it back into the boat. I was pulled about 1 kilometer downstream before I could self arrest and get onto the riverbank. Howard was clinging to a rock about 50 yards downstream from me and was finally pulled onto the riverbank by the only person from the rafting company throwing rescue lines from the side of the river. Rick ended up about 3 kilometers downstream in an eddy pool face down unconscious. By the time they got him out of the water and started CPR it was too late. Time of death was about 2:30 PM Sunday Nov. 11. We got his body out of Honduras and he was buried on Friday Nov.16. He left behind a wife and 2 kids. He was a man who loved to travel and died doing an activity he wanted to do.Remember travel and adventure has its risks. It also has its benefits and I will continue to travel regardless of the risks. Rick was a cautious man, not an overzealous risk taker. I thought you would like to know since he was so interested in your trip and had planned on following your travels online.

It’s so damn sad. I have tears in my eyes just reading that again and writing this now. I hope all those guys continue to travel every year as always. I’m sure their friend would smile at the thought of all his buddies still doing what they all loved together and living life to it’s fullest.

Our hearts go out to all the guys and especially Rick’s family–He was a really nice guy.

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