As I last wrote, I decided to spend casi todo (almost all) of my remaining vacation days on a Central American Adventure… below if you dare to read further, is what went down, swam around, and got cooked up.
-Dominican Republic, 4 PM EST, 27 de Abril. Rachele (fellow Peace Corps volunteer from Kansas) and I start the trip off right, by being bumped up to Business Class, probably due to our classy attire and blonde hair. We take full advantage our first class position, sipping at our complementary alcoholic drinks, and eating our delicious complementary sandwich, later finding out that this was not only to be enjoyed by business class. No matter your class nor if the flight is 45 minutes long, Copa Airlines gives you at least 1 alcoholic drink, coffee, normal beverage, sandwich and or snack on every flight. (We had 3 flights to get to Honduras… FLY COPA!)
After our revelery on our 3 flights, Rachele and I arrive in San Pedro Sula, Honduras weary and happy. We are picked up by our delightful hostal owner, and our instantly slapped in the face by a wet blanket tat 11:30 pm at night as we leave the airport. Well this is to signify that it was almost unimaginably humid and hot in Honduras in the middle of the night, which is something to say for someone who has been living on a Caribbean island for 2 years and thinks 75 F is frigid.
We met up with Rachele’s college friend and husband, Amy and Adam, whom are quite possibly the coolest married couple I have ever met (outside of Samantha and Mark of course… they baby puts them over the edge). Their wedding was themed with Beatles music, and the reception was at a fancy club, where you can also bowl, and their invitation was a fake tattoo you had to wear to enter. But back to Honduras.
The first half of the trip we spent up in the Mountains in small towns call Victoria and Yorito, that were about 5 to 6 hours from the two big cities Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula to visit my friend Janet whom was the Peace Corps volunteer in my site and house before me and extended a year and a half in Honduras with Peace Corps. We also visited Rachele’s other college friend Sarah whom is Janet’s closest volunteer by chance! They lived out in the Sticks, which kind of reminded me of the Wild Wild West. Think: lots of men riding horses with Cowboy hats, and saloon like looking places. I even rode a horse while I was there… although I rode one here last week too. Too top it all off, Sarah told us about a shoot out they had a few months ago where the whole town basically chased and killed a group of bandits that were robbing a general store called a pulperia. As the mayor said later after no one was convicted of the murders “Victoria takes care of its people.” I tell you what; I bet the crime has been down, I would definitely think twice before messing with a bully like Victoria. I would instead choose to pick on a wussy town such as Sally.
Sarah’s soon to be Honduran husband happens to be a chef! This worked out wonderfully, although I felt a little bad that they kept feeding us… but not that bad. He made a wonderful mocacinno cake which was moist, chocolately, and delicious. They also made us a pizza that we brought to Janet’s site for and English game night. I might have been a little competitive with the Hondurans during monopoly. I was negotiating up a storm!
The next day we helped Janet with her English class, and then headed on public transportation (aka old US school buses that have been pimped out with flat screens, and crazy seat covers… if you are lucky) all the way to the North Coast, to Tela. Tela was not much too look at.. kind of crowded and dirty, but we took a short taxi ride to a nearby village called Torneo Bay where a small sub-culture of Honduras the Garifuna, live.
“With their own language, customs, dances, and music the Garifuna have maintained a distinctive lifestyle in the midst of the Honduran north coast society. . . . two completely different cultures, one from Africa and the other from the rainforests of South America, meeting by chance on an island in the middle of the Caribbean. Not only did they get along, but they mixed their blood, their cultures borrowing from each to develop a new language and new customs. . . .Unlike other minority groups in Honduras, they show no signs of losing their culture. The Garifuna have a built-in resilience immediately apparent on the proud, strong faces and direct gazes that greet visitors to any Garifuna community.”
Here there was one of the most beautiful beaches in Honduras! Seemingly endless white sand beaches, with little thatched roof houses and restaurants sparsely tucked away on the edges. We saw an impromptu soccer game by locals and had a delicious fish meal at one of the local family owned establishments. The children were absolutely adorable, flocking to our cameras, pouring over all our photos of our travels and of my work in the DR.
The next day we said our goodbyes to Janet and headed off to the Bay Islands, which boast the third biggest coral reef in the world! There are three main islands: Roatan, Guanaja, and Utila. We chose to go to Utila because it was known as the backpacker’s island and was assumingly the cheapest. These islands represent another sub-culture of Honduras. Most of the inhabitants are of European descent dating back to Pirate times, where they used these islands as their base. I kept referring to the inhabitants as descendants of the pirates, but no to their faces… I didn’t know if they would take this too kindly. Anyhoo, English is the main language spoken on the islands, and Spanish just started being taught there 30 years ago! The island is a backpacker hippie paradise. The island was absolutely beautiful with white white sand, turquoise water, with almost no waves. We went snorkeling around a ship wreck and at another reef spot, and we saw an innumerable amount of brightly colored fish. We even saw an eel, yikes! I started my scuba diving certification in the DR but I hadn’t finished it, so sadly I did not go scuba diving. Rachele plans on moving back to the Bay Islands, so I figure I will just scuba dive when I come back and visit her. Besides the natural beauty, there was a culinary beauty of a huge variety of types of food, which is unimaginable after the monotony of Honduran and Dominican cuisine. I had falafel! The bar scene was also an experience. Many of the bars were located on docks, where you could hang out and drink over the Caribbean Sea. There was one amazing hotel/bar called the Jade Sea Horse, which was owned by an artisan. He created a sort of Alice in Wonderland effect. He has done mosaics over stone walls, tunnels, and overhangs. The buildings are tilted or overlapping each other, completely bewildering your eyes, until you don’t know if you are believing what your are seeing.
We stayed on this magical island for about 3 days, and then headed back to San Pedro Sula to sleep in the airport for our 6:00 flight. We convinced a lovely Dutch youth to share a taxi and stay at the airport with us. The next day we flew with sandwiches and drink in hand to Costa Rica, where we had a 7 hour layover and I was able to visit Hannah at her apartment, swim at the pool, and eat lunch. We also had an adventure in Panama in our overnight layover, but that story will be for another day.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST… I must plug my Artisan Store project for donations. Please, Please, Please visit this link and donate and send it to all your friends! I have raised 100 so far, but I have about $2,400 y pico to go! Thanks you all so much in advance.
Link to Donate:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-380
