Goodbye Honduras

I had some time before we had to leave to catch my flight, so Regina, Tony, and I went on a walk to see if we could find any interesting birds. I might have mentioned this before, but the place we stayed Paradise something (close to D&D Brewery) is beautiful. It is a big coffee plantation, with banana trees, and a river running through it. It was such a relaxing way to end my stay. Usually it is just a frantic early morning cab ride to the airport. Saying goodbye to Regina was really hard. It has been so great spending time with her. I'm glad I have such a great friend (and someone I can live vicariously through).

Ode to a camera

Well, it happened. I finally finished off my Nikon S3. It was such a great camera. It accompanied me all through South America, Bali, Hong Kong, China, Honduras, and everywhere in between. I loved the pictures it took, and the fact that it fit into even my smallest purse. I'll be the first to admit that I abused the camera. It was always in my camelback during mountain biking and in my front pocket skiing. I rarely ever missed a photo opportunity, and knew just what buttons to push to get exactly the shot I wanted. What finally killed it? Moisture. No, I didn't drop it in a puddle. I just took a picture (or four) while I was standing under a water fall. They weren't even great pictures because there was so much moisture on the lens. Now, if I had been camara savvy, I would have stopped taking pictures, gone home, taken out the batteries, and let the camera dry for a couple of days. I didn't, and I fried my camera. :( So, I apologize, that my last Honduras post, will not be accompanied by any pictures.

A Great Last Day

After all the crazy trips to the airport, it was nice to spend the day just hanging out. After changing rooms from D&D to our private cabin at Paradise, we headed to Santa Barbara National Park for a short hike. The ferns there were mammoth, larger than many of the trees back home. The plants were really exotic too. I expected a dinosaur to walk around the corner any minute. The hike took longer than we anticipated, and we were famished when we finished.





It took every ounce of self control to skip the buffet offered at the base of hike and head to Agua Azul Restarante. It was worth the wait. The food was fantastic (I got more seafood soup), and the view was incredible. It is located right on the shores of Yojoa Lake, Honduras's largest lake. After enjoying the view and doing some bird watching we headed to the Pulhapanzak Waterfall.




I'm a waterbaby and could spend all day swimming in and around water features. This waterfall was not exactly the kind you want to swim under, but they did offer a hike under the falls. I thought it would be an easy, established trail with a walkway and a handrail. It wasn't. We had to swim in places, clutch to the sides of rocks in others. The water was coming down hard on top of us, reminding us that just one false step could be disastrous. At one point my legs were shaking so hard I asked Regina, "Did we really pay money to do this?" I tried to pictures in the caves behind the waterfall, but there was so much moisture, I mostly just got blurry spots. The experience was beyond frightening, but I had an adrenaline rush for the rest of the night, which we spent eating anafre (Honduran nachos) and drinking at the D&D Brewery before heading back to our cabin.

Still good Friday

After enjoying all the traditional ceremonies (and food), we headed back to San Pedro Sula to pick up more friends at the airport. We stopped at the scenic Lago Yojoa for some fish for lunch. It was super fresh! We actually got to pick our fish and there were little kids selling fresh cheese.

We checked into our cabin at the D&D Brewery. I was SO excited for dark beer. As much as I've grown to love the Imperial, it just is not a porter or stout. Again, we learned to never trust someone who tells you, you have a reservation. It took us awhile (and a beautiful walk to Paradise) before we were situated. Then it was back to the airport. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but driving here is ridiculous. Every road is a three-lane road, even around blind corners and there is no such thing as a no passing zone.

Happy Good Friday

It was amazing to see how the lines of tapes we saw the night before turned into the total masterpieces we woke up with. The alfombras covered street after street. People plan out their offering with such precision and care. I still cannot believe that these intricate designs are made of sawdust! After spending the whole night creating these alfombras (and for some of the more intricate ones, the minute they are complete,) a procession walks over the image, destroying it. The procession begins with a series of young boys and young men carrying crosses, followed by a short sermon by a priest, and, finally, a group of men wearing hoods eerily similar to the KKK boost a platform with Christ carrying the cross on their shoulders. Although I do not understand the symbolish completely, it was an absolutely beautiful to see people spend so much time and effort to make such a meaningful offering, all to have it destroyed beneath Christ's feet.

Good Friday-Almost

We spend Good Friday Eve in Comayagua, the cultural center for traditional Semana Santa celebrations in Honduras. I cannot believe that this beautiful town does not have a more prominent position in the guide books. The town plaza is absolutely beautiful, with a colonial church looming over it. Even though we stayed out late, it was still full of people. It reminded me so much of the Plaza in Segovia (Spain), where I spent many nights hanging out with my friends in the shadow of the cathedral.

The night before Good Friday the locals reenact Christ carrying the cross and the crown of thorns. The Christ is carried on a large platform by people dressed purple and white shepherd's robes. The Christ platform is preceded by a bad, men carrying chains and rattling them on the ground, and women holding candles in handmade torches. It was eerie.

We partook of the street food and watched the locals put down street tape to mark out there alfombras. The guide book describes them as rugs made out of colored sawdust. I could not actually picture this until I actually saw it for myself. The whole town stays up all night making these unbelievable works of art, all so that it can be destroyed the next morning during the recreation of the procession of Christ.

How Alamo (Almost) Ruined My Vacation

The buses don't run during Semana Santa. The whole country takes a vacation. If we didn't have to meet two groups of people at the airport during the holiday, this would not have been a problem. But, because Regina's friends were arriving on Thursday and Friday, we didn't have much of a choice except to rent a car. SO . . . we reserved a car on the Alamo website. Then we called to confirm our reservation. Things we are all good until we showed up at the airport and the Alamo office was closed (CLOSED!). Frantic, we asked the security guard whether the office was closed for good or if the person was coming back. We thought it was a good sign when he gave us the woman's phone number, but she was the most unhelpful person ever. She said that she had run out of cars, so she went home. Apparently "reservation" in Honduras means, first come first serve. The next 30 minutes or so we went for car company to car company to see if they had any cars. It was semana santa. No one did. There were vans, buses, and SUVs, all of which were 3 to 4 times the cost of the car we reserved (and outside of our budget). We called the 1-800 number and after five people transferred me from one operator to the next, I got hung up on. We must have looked pretty pathetic because another woman, who had apparently "reserved" a car in Honduras before, told us that she had reserved several cars in case there were no cars when she got there. One of the company's had actually "reserved" the car for her, but her family had decided to upgrade to an SUV. She told us if we wanted it, the car was ours. It was a lucky save, but we still ended up paying double the price of the car we had reserved. I will NEVER patronize that company again.

Back to San Pedro Sula

After heading back to the town and grabbing lunch, Regina and I started to head to our hostel to grab our bags and head to the bus station to get a ride back to San Pedro Sula. Before we could make it, we ran into Regina's peace corp friend, Ely, a former attorney from Californian, and his friend Eve, a member of the L.A.P.D. They offered to drive us to San Pedro Sula. We quickly accepted (this would be a huge improvement to the bus) and ran to the hostel to get our stuff. On the way back Ely and Eve's rental car, Regina saw a car that was the same color as theirs. It honked, so she walked over to get in. As soon as she opened the door, she realized it was not Ely and Eve, but instead two very excited Honduran men. I laughed so hard, I nearly peed my pants.

After we found the right car, it was a highly entertaining ride to San Pedro. Eve had great stories about her job, and we all talked about life and choices. It is strange how quickly you can feel comfortable around people when you are travelling. I don't know if it is because you know you don't have a lot of time to waste getting to know each other or if you just don't care what you tell the person because you doubt you will ever see them again.

In SPS, we stayed at Los Molinas. As far as I know, it is not in any guide book, but it should be. The family that runs it is so sweet and friendly. It is only three blocks away from the mall (shopping is really the only thing to do in SPS), and there is cable tv and internet. We asked if we could watch a DVD on their tv and they let us take the DVD player into our room and watch. It was so comfortable. I highly recommend it.

As I mentioned before, the only thing to do in SPS is to shop. After dropping off our stuff, we immediately headed over to the mall and spent the rest of the day shopping. The stores were kind of comical. For example, there would be a store called Rampage (or Guess or Tommy Hilfiger), but none of the clothes sold in the stores were from Rampage (or Guess or Tommy) unless they were really obvious knockoffs. I did manage to find some really cute clothes at the local boutiques, but the prices weren't nearly as good as I would expect for Central America.

Copan

As far as ruins go, the bar has been set pretty high for me. It's hard to top Tikal and Machu Picchu. Copan may not be the biggest or most impressive ruins site that I've seen, but it was one of the most serene. For the first hour, we had the ruins almost entirely to ourselves. We could climb on nearly all of the exposed buildings. It is also much more intricately-detailed than any of the other ruins I have visited. There is one tower where each step is made entirely of heiroglyphics telling the Mayans' history. Almost as impressive as the buildings, were the incredible trees. The trunks were as big as a car and the branches reached over even the highest towers.

In the ball court, shown below, the warriors would play with a ball made entirely of stone, trying to hit stone macaw heads on opposing sides of the court. The "winner" would receive the honor of being sacrificed to the Gods. That sounds like one game I would be happy to lose.

The Cobbled Streets of Copan

This morning we hitched a perfect ride on a truck full of bath towels to Ceiba. Once in Ceiba, we took a very nice air-conditioned bus ride on Hedman Alas, the only bus company in Honduras that hasn't been hijacked/robbed. The bus stopped long enough in San Pedro Sula for us to check out the entertainment (an elderly lady giving Shakira a run for her money in the hip-shaking business) and shopping (strangely all trendy-looking stores selling used clothing from the U.S.) at the bus terminal. Then it was another three hours to Copan Ruinas.


Because the reason most people come to Copan Ruinas is to see the Classic Era mayan ruins of Copan, I expected the city to be a tacky tourist trap. It was actually a charming colonial city with cobblestone streets and a beautiful church and central plaza. There were plenty of tourists, mainly because it was the middle of Semana Santa and Copan Ruinas' fair, but the city has still managed to maintain its authentic feeling. It was the last night of the fair so the whole town was gathered in the Central Plaza to watch the coronation of the new queen. The "fireworks" (more noise than anything) kept us up all night.

La Ceiba to Naranjal

It was a very early morning back to La Ceiba. We tried to sleep on the ferry, but after getting completely soaked by a wave splashing against the sides (we were on the top deck), we were too cold to sleep. Ceiba was a very interesting city. It is big, and the powerlines evidence the fact that it got big too fast and without direction.

Due to a scary allergic reaction to the jellyfish we were stung by yesterday, Regina had to go to the hospital. It was a nice private hospital, patronized mainly by the rich and peace corp workers. It was frustrating at first because rather than let Regina go to the emergency room, which she needed, the peace corp told her to go see a specialist. After spending an hour being shuffled from one line to the next, Regina was informed that the doctor had gone on a lunch break and would be back after 2. At this point, Regina was having trouble breathing. Peace Corp finally relented and told her she could go to the ER. There, the doctor told her that the bumps covering her entire body were bug bites from little bugs, and he started to prescribe an anti-itch cream. Without getting too hysterical, Regina and I explained that it was not bug bites, that I had been stung by the same thing and did not have hives forming all over my body, that bug bites do not generally make a person unable to breath, etc. The doctor changed his diagnosis, and after a quick shot in the ass (Regina's, not mine), we were on our way.

After a couple of quick errands--grocery shopping, checking email, calling home, checking out apartments--we took the chicken bus back to Naranjal. It was a nice chill night. We made brownies for Regina's host mom and sister and hung out with Robyn and Patrick, two other peace corp workers who were passing through.

Another day, another dive

We started our last full day in Utila on a mission to find good snorkeling. We had heard rumors that a ten minute walk past the free beach, was coral snorkeling that rivaled the diving. The rumors were true, and the snorkeling would have been perfect, if it wasn´t for the damned jellyfish. If we stayed n the shallow water, there were plent of fish, but not very good coral, but within minutes of swimming over the most beautiful black coral shelf, Regina and I were both getting stung by nettles. We tried to go back to the shallow water and come out to the deep coral in another location, but same story. It was time to head back. Here is a picture of our beautiful post-snorkeling hair.


We grabbed lunch at Bundu, then headed off to get ready for our afternoon dive. This one was much more impressive than the previous day. There were still not a ton of fish, but we did see a huge dog fish and the biggest angel fish I´ve ever seen. The coral was also incredible. We swam along the Black Coral Wall, and I couldn´t help but think of Ünder the Sea¨. The coral was just so colorful. We had a little bit of time before our next dive, so we went to check out the beach you had to pay for. It was not that great, but the scarlet macaws we saw along the way made the trip out worth it.

We took a short nap after getting back, then headed out for our night dive.
This was my first night dive, and to be honest, I was a little worried. But I was fine, and it was such a cool experience. It was also my first wreck dive, which was also very cool and eerie at night. Unfortunately, the experience was tainted by a total jerk in our group, James. When we first went down, he didn´t follow us. The divemaster made Regina and me wait at the bottom for about 10 minutes while she went up to help him. He hadn´t put enough wait on his belt. Stupid mistake. I can forgive that. Then midway through the dive, James disappeared. He surfaced without telling anyone. We spent a minute looking for him, then we all had to surface. It was so disappointing to have such a cool experience cut short by an idiot. I would have felt bad for him, if had not been so unapologetic about it.

After a very highly-recommend dinner of barbequed fresh fish at Evelyns, we went to bed early. We had a boat to catch.

Diving

I may be a little jaded from all the big fish I saw in the Galapagos and Colombia, but I was a little disappointed by the diving in Honduras. The reef was absolutely beautiful, but there were almost no fish (big or otherwise). We didn´t see the whale shark, which is supposed to be abundant this time of year. :( We did do a little cave diving, which was a new and scary experience. I´m not generally claustraphobic, but I´m not sure I liked the feeling of being in a place that was not easy to exit with bought air on my back.

After two beautiful, but uneventful dives in the morning, we headed to Cafe Bundu (our new favorite restaurant) for the seafood soup. It came out with a huge lobster tail, and I could not have been happier. After lunch, we decided to be more productive with our day than yesterday, and decided to search for the locals favorite hang out spot, a freshwater cave. It was a long walk, so we thumbed a ride half way. It was a nice break from the sea water, especially since fresh water was running low on the islands and showers have been scarce. After hitching a ride on a four-wheeler back to the center, we went to watch the sunset. Then, we went back Bundu for dinner and live music from Pearl.

Utila: It´s all good

After our late night of rocking out to religious karaoke (and yes, it is as fun as it sounds), Regina and I hopped the first bus to Ceiba. By 12:30, we had managed to procure the last room at the very cool dive shop/hotel Altons, booked our dives, and found a place to get great fresh seafood. The island is crazy busy this week because of Semana Santa. We decided to spend the day relaxing. We started by falling asleep in hammocks at the end of the diving pier. Then we headed to Munchies and its iguana garden to sip banana smoothies. While I studied for my PaDI night diving course and Regina practice her iguana mating dance. We tried, unsuccessfully, to use the internet. Then we watched the sunset off of our pier. After all of this doing nothing, we were really hungry and we followed our nose to the fresh tuna steaks served at a local bar.

The Adventure Begins

Well, I´ve already set a couple of records on this trip. Time to meet travel buddies: immediately. I met Vance on the plane from Atlanta and his friend Madeline flew in 30 minutes later. Time to eat American Food: within 30 minutes of landing, I had a Frosty in my hands. Normally, I try to avoid American food for at least a couple of weeks before giving into the familiar, but it was hot outside and the bus to Tela didn´t leave for 2 hours.

We made it to Tela and found a hotel ($5 a night, but cold water showers only) just in time to watch the sunset. Then we headed to Cruces del Norte, a lovely restaurant on the beach, where I spent $5 to get a heaping bowly of incredibly fresh crab. Mmmmm. And there was, of course, the obligatory serenade.