Myke Hawke is amazing. This man is the embodiment of the old adage, "never quit." His Special Forces training, medic background and most importantly his ability to instill that kind of motivation in others gave me the confidence to move mountains.

I can now build fires, make shelter and feed myself in the wild, but I also learned that I have been piling up some pretty extensive expertise on my own. Like feeding myself on limpets thanks to my Molokai bothers taking the time to school me on how to find and harvest them.

I now know I can only go 48 hours without breaking down and puddle-ing up into my 21st Century spoiled little kid mode. Here's a behind the scenes glimpse: the show ends with breakfast on the last morning and the idea was that I survived 48 hours, and am being rewarded with "breakfast in bed" courtesy of a lady chef who Hawke knows. Superb chilequiles by the way ... but I digress. So about 6 hours before that, in the earliest blackest hours of the morning, one of my producers sneaks into my camp and hands me 3 mini-Hershey bars, the Halloween kind. I was thrilled. I had been living on sweat, rotten weeds, sea critters and all while wearing one change of clothes. I ate them greedily and went back to bed. Now that was not technically cheating since I had gone 2 "days" without a nosh. But the next morning Hawke chewed my butt like a stripped down private in boot camp! He came into camp and tossed my gear while I was sleeping and found the teensiest little piece of wrapper ... BUSTED!

Anyway, on to Bizarre World ... and to all the fans out there, thanks for all you do ... and remember: if it looks good, eat it!

* You want more Bizarre? Watch Andrew Zimmern explore exciting, new places, people, cultures and food on "Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World," starting Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 10 E/P.

Best Food Eaten on the Go: African slaves first brought the method of deep frying food to the island of Puerto Rico, and it remains a huge part of the Puerto Rican cuisine. Today deep fried food is commonly sold by the side of the road, at the beach, and in little kiosks. In fact, most meals on the island begin with a hot fried appetizer. I drove all around the island with my pal Shorty, especially along Puerto Rico's northern coast to sample some of the food that can be found when you are on the go. Our last stop was in Pinones where dozens of battered shacks line the road and serve up deep fried delights that have been cooked in giant kettles on wood stoves. We saw and ate a lot of treats, including:

- Bacalaito - salt cod fritter
- Octopus cone - paper cone containing fresh octopus salad
- Mofongo - mashed fried green plantains (African)
- Pionono - sweet plantain stuffed with seasoned ground beef (deep fried)
- Mavi - a drink made from the Columbrina tree and sugar
- Alcapurria - fried tube shaped snack made of a mixture of plantains, yautia, and stuffed with meat
- Pasteles - a tamale-like loaf made with plantain and root vegetable paste, stuffed and wrapped in banana leaves
- Tostones - twice fried smashed plantains
- Chicharron -fried pig skin

But the highlights of the day came in the tiny town of Arecibo where we went to sample a traditional fish native to the area called Ceti. No bigger than an inch, the Ceti fish is transparent in color and only fished at night when the moon is waning. The mashed root vegetable tamales the ceti were cooked in were insanely good, and lucky for us we got there early. After stuffing ourselves silly we stopped in the town of Lares, the home of an ice cream Parlor with more than a thousand flavors, including some designed only for the more adventurous palate. Don't skip it on your next visit.

- Garlic ice cream
- Rice and Beans with Chicken ice cream
- Avocado ice cream
- Corn ice cream
- Sesame Seed ice cream

Best Restaurant: Restaurant owner, author and rock solid awesome dude, Chef Wilo Benet, is known for raising the bar on modern culinary trends in Puerto Rican cooking. His flagship restaurant Pikayo has won more culinary awards than any other in Puerto Rico, thanks to the emphasis of traditional Spanish, African, and Taino elements used in his unique recipes. Chef Wilo uses indigenous ingredients and traditions to keep the true flavor of authentic Puerto Rican cuisine alive, while giving it a modern twist. I cooked with Wilo at Pikayo in San Juan, where the team cooked up some of Wilo's specialties using all local ingredients. Alcapurrias, Jueyes and a killer pig foot stew were some of the highlights. Later, Wilo took me out to the yacht of a friend for a get together on the water. It's the best place to see the sunset over Old San Juan. But don't go to San Juan without booking a meal or two at Pikayo, it's the best.

Best Place to Get Lost: Puerto Ricans have a strong sense of family, and big mealtime gatherings are an important part of the culture. Cooking together is an essential bonding activity, and a wide variety of traditional dishes are always served. I went off the beaten path to get a glimpse into the part of Puerto Rico that many tourists never see. Dinner with a family high up in the Toro Negro National Forest. I took an amazing adventure through the jungle-like vegetation, dove into a hole in the rocks under a waterfall (on air) and we almost died in a rainstorm when our van got swept off the road and we had to bail out of the car and push it back on the mountain top switchback before the car slid away down the peak. So when I tell you I was really grateful for the family meal that day, I wasn't kidding. I also got to eat some great little treats, all fresher than fresh.

- Gandinga - a stew of pig liver, kidneys and heart
- Morcilla - sausage made with blood and rice and the popular culantro herb, similar to cilantro
- Sancocho soup - stew made with pork, pumpkin, plantain, etc
- Guinea Fowl stew

In Managua, the Laguna Tiscapa canopy tour sends you rocketing over the crater on three cable-connected platforms (tel. 505/888-2566, 9-5:30 Tues.-Sun., $15 for foreigners, $10 for Nicas). The broad panoramas are some of the best in the capital. On the northeast side of Laguna Tiscapa is the site of the old U.S. Embassy, leveled during the earthquake that wiped out Managua 3 decades ago.

Head out to Masaya (about a 30-minute drive from Managua) and check out the Tiangue, a unique food collective outside the ancient Cathedral in the center of the town. About 3 dozen stands line the square, there's live music and the food offerings are all prepared by Nica grandmas who are happy to let you taste their fare which ranges from Mocilla to grilled fish, from roasted chicken to roasted iguana.

Get up and have a quick start in the Mayoreo Market (which is about ten minutes from the airport) where there are idling buses that sell popular street foods in greasy plastic baggies. Grab a bus north on the Pan-American Highway, rising with the landscape and get a local bus, preferably one that goes to Matagalpa. At every stop on the 3 hour trip vendors swarm the bus vending common foods with uncommon twists, like cabbage salad with fried pork skin, chilies and lime. Stop at Don Juan Papaya's for soup or Antojitos, a roadside café that serves grilled chicken, pork, armadillo, beef and boa constrictor.

While in the highlands of Matagalpa, tour Selva Negra coffee plantation and have dinner in the ancient dining room. The homemade German sausages and cheeses are top notch. I stayed in the rooms there as well, and it's beautiful. All the rooms are small stone and wood cabins with fireplaces. In the morning I toured Sol Café where the cupping lab is located to see firsthand the buyers and tasters in action. The cupping is often described as a type of wine-tasting experience.

In Granada, you can head to the Gran Francia Arcangel, a colonial boutique hotel, where its restoration is a metaphor for Nicaraguan reinvention as a whole. This is Nicaragua's most storied hotel and one of the oldest European buildings in the Americas. Sit on the veranda and watch the action go down each night in the town square. Granada is a perfectly preserved colonial Spanish city and one of the most beautiful towns in the Americas. You can also visit Casa San Francisco which has a killer bar and restaurant, right out of a movie set. Los Chocoyos and Café Lucas are pretty cool as well. I ate a nice meal at Casa San Francisco that included:

- Mixed local fruits: nispero, pera de agua, green mango, icacos and star fruit from Masaya.

- Chontales cheese ... aged and soft, but the twist is it is served in the Caribbean style, where they allow the cheese to age in the heat for long enough to produce large juicy cheese worms, which are eaten as a delicacy.

- sapote fruit milkshake

- Roasted wild Iguana, marinated in sour orange, cumin, achiote and other local flavors, and then eaten served whole, surrounded with locally grown vegetables in season. The crispy skin on the outside like a duck a lórange.

In Granada I also think you should check out Volcan Mombacho Cutirre Farm (coffee and canopy tour; best views, hardest to get to). Book through Mombotours in Granada (Calle Atravesada, next to BDF, tel. 505/552-4548, www.mombotours.com). The 15-kilometer ride to the Cutirre Farm takes longer than you'd expect (up to 90 minutes each way). The canopy tour, suspended from 14 of the giant shade trees on the coffee farm, is a professional, safe system of 17 platforms, a hanging bridge, and 13 horizontal zip lines, ending with a 23-meter rappel from a massive ceiba tree.