Quite the week…

Thalia and I did a lot this past week.  Because it was Holy Week, the girls had off school which meant that we had off too.  We started the off with going to Guendy Lorena’s house from Friday until Sunday morning.  Monday we left for Belize and returned on Friday.  And then on Saturday we went to El Salvador with the sisters… Like I said, it was a long week.  So, let’s get started!

Guendy Lorena’s House…

Guendy and her adorable little sister

Thalia and I started out our Semana Santa vacation by going to Guendy Lorena’s house.  Guendy has  seven brothers and sisters (she lives with four or five of them) in a three room house in Santa Barbara.  The town that she lives in is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  She has a small creek that goes through her backyard and everything is green and wonderful.  However, you could definitely see the poverty in this town.  That is one of the things that I have been struggling with while I’ve been here… Honduras is supposedly the most violent and poorest country in Central America, and I felt that living in Santa Rosa at the school, I haven’t really been exposed to either (not that I’m complaining about living in a “safe” town!).  It took me a while to really recognize the poverty that is around me as it isn’t really that obvious in the larger towns… but once you move out into the campo regions… it is definitely more evident. 

The kitchen

Guendy’s family has a three room house, which is on the larger side for the people in her town… the house has one kitchen (which I thought was absolutely beautiful), a living room/bedroom which is separated by some hanging sheets, and another bedroom.  The floor is a kind of dirt/cement mixture and I’m pretty sure that the roof would leak if it were to rain.  That being said, Guendy’s family was amazing!  They were always offering us food (her dad makes coffee… now I’m not a coffee drinker – in fact I would probably say that I really don’t like coffee except for the smell – but this was the most delicious coffee I have ever tasted) and including us in everything that they were doing.  There was an insane amount of love in that house, it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to see!  I mean, they have VERY little, and this family completely opened their home to two American strangers. 

Playing in the creek

Life in the campo area is VERY slow.  Thalia and I have been talking about how slow it is in the afternoons at the school… when we were at Guendy’s a majority of our time was spent watching Mexican telenovelas… we watched two entire series over the course of the three days we were at her house.  But it was interesting to see the dynamic of the town when we were watching… a bunch of people from the town would just walk into the living room, find a chair, or stand behind everyone else and watch the telenovela with us… Thalia and I weren’t sure who any of these people were or if they were related to Guendy in any way, but they were all like family.  Kids got passed around and sat on a different person’s lap all the time.  It really was a cool dynamic to witness. 

Additionally, Saturday afternoon, Guendy took us to a swimming area in the creek a ways from her house.  It had a small waterfall and a deep pool area.  A bunch of guys were just hanging out there, goofing around, and swimming.  They would jump/dive off the rocks surrounding the pool (the lifeguard in me was going insane, but it was a ton of fun!)  and of course I jumped off the rocks too!

It was a ton of fun to go to Guendy’s house, and I was insanely grateful that Thalia and I were able to go together.

Placencia, Belize…

After taking a bus from Guendy’s back to the school on Sunday morning (I think we are finally getting a hang of this bus in Honduras thing), we had a day to pack and relax before we headed out to Belize.  The plan for Monday morning was to take a pretty nice bus from Santa Rosa to San Pedro Sula at 5:30 AM which would get us to San Pedro Sula at 8:30, catch a bus from San Pedro Sula to Puerto Cortez which should be about an hour trip, and then take the D Express ferry from Puerto Cortez to Placencia, Belize at 11:00 AM.  We thought we had it figured out, we bought our tickets for the first bus a couple of days early, it was supposed to be a great bus service so we could relax during our first leg of the trip, we had reservations on the ferry, and we figured we had a decent time window to get a bus from San Pedro to Puerto Cortez… we were set!  And then absolutely everything fell apart.  We ended up taking a taxi to the bus station because the sisters didn’t like the idea of us waking in the dark, which was fine, but we got to the bus station only to have a man tell us that the bus company had canceled our trip, without letting us know… the bus wouldn’t leave until 10:30… well that for sure wouldn’t work.  Slight FREAK OUT time!  So, we walked to the other bus station, about a block away… this is the bus area where all of the normal busses go from (the ones that stop every 10 minutes to pick up more people).  A guy working there stopped us, asked where we were going, and said that a bus would be coming through on the other side of the street for San Pedro at 5:30.  He also claimed that it would be a fast bus as it had to pick up workers in San Pedro and bring them back to Santa Rosa to work.  Now, when I say a guy who worked at the bus station, he had a very badly laminated card hanging from his neck that claimed that he worked at the bus station… I didn’t really trust it, but what else were we going to do?  The next bus that we knew would be leaving for San Pedro didn’t leave until 6:00, so we waited on the side of the street for a bus that we weren’t sure would be coming or not.  But the bus did come, and we got on, and we made it to San Pedro around 8:45.  The sisters had said that the bus station in San Pedro was like an airport, which at the time, made me feel good because then we wouldn’t be standing on the side of the street waiting for a bus that we weren’t completely sure would come… however, it really was like an airport with stores and everything.  Thalia and I had to ask a couple of security guards where we could catch a bus to the port.  We did eventually find the bus we needed, and it looked promising, until we asked when it left… we were told it would leave when it was full.  Uh, oh.  But the bus did leave, around 9:15.  We talked to the driver and he said that we should be able make it to the port, but just.  So, we did the usual stop every 10 minutes to pick up more people who just didn’t fit in the little raipdito.  But eventually we did make it – but not quite to the port.  The bus driver dropped us off on the side of the freeway saying that the port was two blocks away and over the bridge… so we started walking – more like running because it was 10:30 and our ferry left at 11:00 and we were advised to get there between 9:30 and 10:00 and the ferry only ran on Monday.  AHHHHHH!  So we walked towards the first bridge we saw… but that was back the exact we had come, and lo and behold, there was a fork in the road with you guessed it, another bridge… so we guessed it was the second bridge and continued on our way.  Needless to say, we walked much more than 2 blocks, and asked probably about 3 different people where we were supposed to go, but we eventually made it, bought our tickets, made it through immigration, and I even had time to go to the bathroom (for which I had to pay 4 limpera.  Yes, I had to pay to go to the bathroom)!  After a very bumpy ferry ride and a long wait for the customs official, we finally made it to Placencia, Belize around 3:00 PM.  But, boy, was the trip worth it!  If you ever get a chance to travel where ever you please, I would seriously recommend Belize!  As soon as we arrived, Thalia and I turned to each other, said “I LOVE it here,” and tried to come up with stories to tell the sisters as to why we would have to stay. 

My mom and Steffi arrived around 5:30 which was AWESOME!  And we were able to hang out for the next 3.5 days.  On Wednesday, we took a boat tour down the Monkey River where our tour guide was insanely knowledgeable about all of the plants and animals in the area.  We got to see some Howler Monkeys in the trees and even heard a few calling to each other a ways away.  On Thursday, we went snorkeling off of a little island where we saw a TON of beautiful coral, tropical fish, huge turtles, and a ginormous sting ray.  I have to say, that was the highlight of the trip!  However, the part of Placencia that really makes it special is the atmosphere.  It isn’t over run by tourists at all, the “tourists” who were there were people who just really love to travel, but are very respectful of the places they are staying.  Additionally, the locals are AMAZING!  We sat and talked to Edwin, a wood carver for hours as he was carving a gift for Tim.  One of the restaurant owners stopped us as we were walking by and asked if we wanted to try some coconut.  Everyone was chill, all the time.  Like I said, the atmosphere is wonderful! 

Our ferry left on Friday at 9:30 (and yes, we left with it even though we had come up with at least 7 different stories we could tell the sisters as to why we would have to stay longer), and although our trip back was less eventful than our trip there, what would traveling in Honduras (or I guess around Honduras) be without some trouble?  We left Placencia and had to go though immigration in Big Creek, about a 10 minute ride away.  So we pull in, and sit, and sit, and wait… supposedly the customs official usually comes to the boat, but this time she didn’t .  So all of the passengers had to get out and walk about 10 minutes to the customs post.  And we were stopped along the way because we supposedly weren’t supposed to leave.  After going through immigration (with a very unhappy woman) we were all back on the boat by 11:30 and ready to go.  This part of our trip was uneventful, which was good.  We even saw some dolphins swimming alongside the ferry for a while, which was AWESOME!  We made it to Puerto Cortez and through immigration around 1:45.  And Don Christain was there at 2:15 to pick us up… no busses on the way back, which was GREAT!  We got to relax!

El Salvador…

Sor Berta in her tree

So we made it back to Santa Rosa in time to travel with the sisters to El Salvador on Saturday.  We all packed ourselves into a van and drove on over.  The sisters usually can’t all travel together because of the internas, but because they were on vacation, all 7 were able to go.  We stopped at a comedor for real Salvadorian papusas… apparently the ones that the girls make here aren’t the real stuff… They were really good, but a little greasier that I would like.  We then went to a hotel/park where we spent the day relaxing and exploring.  It was a ton of fun to just hang out with all of the sisters and see them have fun.  Sor Berta even climbed two trees!  We then at the hotel restaurant and I had an amazing Chicken Caesar salad with homemade croutons.  I’m not sure if it was that I haven’t had a real salad with dressing since I’ve been here or if it really was that good, but I was in love!  Anyway, El Salvador was awesome and a ton of fun!

Now, all of the internas have returned and we are back to school as usual.  Tomorrow, I will be half way done with my time here, which is absolutely crazy to think about!  Thalia has only three weeks left.  Time has flown by and I’m sure that it will go by even faster during this second half.  And I have to say that my Spanish is definitely better than when I got here!  

Anyways, that’s all for now… sorry for the ridiculously long post, hopefully I didn’t bore you. 

Loves to everyone at home!  I’ll be seeing you soon!