It was coming up to the end of May and Ally had planned to head to the thriving city of La Ceiba to experience the colourful Carnival that was planned to take place. I sadly didn’t have the money to afford the ferry across (which is actually quite expensive) and so speaking about it one evening, Ally said that he would buy me a ticket for my birthday so that I would be able to go to this annual great big carnival.
So over the next week I got really excited as we planned that we would head to La Ceiba on the friday morning and then get back on Sunday evening in time to celebrate my 19th birthday on the monday. So after an early rise on Friday morning and a fairly calm ferry ride we arrived in Ceiba and headed to our hostel called Banana Republic (where we have stayed previously, a really nice comfortable hostel in a really good central location, just one block away from the main Carnival Street).
So after settling in, Ally and I headed out to get some much needed coffee and also get some supplies at the local supermarket. That day was spent just chilling around really (well I say chilling around, we were both quite excited to be in a city and even indulged ourselves with a Burger King :D ... OH YEAH!!) as the Carnival didn’t actually start until the next day and Sarah (one of the other Hondies who lives in the nearby Tela) had to work on the saturday morning so wouldn’t arrive until later. So Ally and I just pottered around looking at all of the different places that the carnival would take place e.t.c until we the sun set and we began chatting to some people who were staying at our hostel, 2 american guys and 3 Suisse people (1 gal and 2 guys), who were heading out for something to drink and a little party. This was like a pre-carnival party nearer to all of the clubs and night life zone. This night was so interesting and hilarious, just seeing loads of stages put up everywhere and people singing and dancing in the streets. I remember one moment when we passed a particular lively stage and I had been walking and chatting with the girl from Switzerland (Nevin) and all of a sudden she grabbed my hand and we started to boogey on down to the salso beats in the middle of the street. Soon enough many of the Hondurans (who are always a little bit shy about dancing in public) formed a circle and soon we were putting on a little show with all of the other guys we had met that night.
The night followed like that, sampling some Honduran street food and getting our groove on e.t.c and soon we decided to head back as me and Ally had been up since about 4.40 in order to catch the ferry. The next day, well I say day, I mean morning as the parade didn’t actually start until about 3 or 4ish, we set out and just decided to go for a wonder, pop into a few shops and see what was happening e.t.c, anyway, we were on our way back and we walked past this clothes shop which looked quite funky and then we actually looked at the name of it and it was called ‘Urban Clothing and Tattoo’ ... tattoo ... ?!?!?!?! ... I pretty much just looked at Ally and said the words “Should I?” to which he quite rightly gave a very good response of “I am not making this decision for you.”
Let me explain, I have wanted a tattoo for ages now, even from since before my flight out to Honduras, I dunno just always wanted one really and from about february out here I have had one designed which was just a basic meaningful message in a nice font, I could remember the message but couldn’t remember the name of the font, and didn’t have access to it as I left my laptop back in Punta Gorda which had the design of the tattoo on it. So after debating it for a while, we headed back to the hostel to see if I could find the font online and re-create my design so I could take it to the shop and ask the man a mountain load of questions! Luckily I did find it and soon enough Ally and I were back outside the front of the tattoo shop debating whether I should go in and mark my skin for life, well literally about 30 minutes later I was out of the shop with a few words scrawled onto my side. I was pretty scared if I have to admit but it really did only feel like a very hot, deep, scratch. Much less painful than what I thought it would be, but then I really don’t know if that is because it was on quite a fleshy part or not, who knows? ... well maybe tattoo artists know ... hmm.
Anyway, moving on, soon enough Sarah showed up (with her friend Genesis (pronounced with an H) from Tela) and we took no time in heading back out onto the main street as some of the action was starting to get going, loads of horses and cars pulled past, and loads of great big busses throwing different things down to the waiting crowd. We were just watching the different things go by, enjoying the colourful costumes and the happy vibe about the place when all of a sudden this one bus in-front of us was throwing down some bead necklaces and I was standing there with both hands in my pockets (knowing that these kind of environments are pick-pocket heaven) when I got jostled quite strongly, meaning I had to use my hand to balance myself, so that came out of my pocket for literally about 3 seconds while I got my feet in place and then when I had put it back into my pocket to my horror my wallet had been stolen, which contained the equivalent of about £20 in it, my provisional drivers license and the key to out locker back at the hostel. Luckily I had taken my bank card out of my wallet and left it back at the hostel so you can imagine how glad I was that that wasn’t nicked, but any way, that put a real downer on my mood and I was from then on really over cautious about everyone and soon decided to head back to see if everything was still where it was in the hostel (my cautious mind working over time thinking that this was some kind of planned robbery and the thief had been watching me all day, saw me take out some money and knew that the locker key was in my wallet, had followed me all over La Ceiba and was now planning to head to the hostel and steal everything in that locker!)
Soon enough the others made their way back, with Ally raving about how he had been given some free frozen chicken off one of the busses that had passed by in the parade. To be fair we were all raving about it as it meant some free dinner, so we left Ally (already pretty drunk by now, I mean we were all tipsy, but he was something else, it was know about 6 ish in the afternoon, his first beer was at 10.30 ... AM!) upstairs to see if he could work his magic and get this chicken cooked for us before we headed out and enjoyed the rest of the night. Anyway, after eating the chicken we all decided to wait a little while as no-one else was going out just yet and soon enough after drinking lots Genesis sadly threw up as she was not used to the sheer volumes of alcohol that us brits consume!
So you can imagine the rest, after her long recovery we all went out for a bit of a dance on the street and even managed to drunkenly buy La Ceiba Carnival T-Shirts each, among other bits and pieces! The night was great and I really can’t remember much else as it was (now) quite a while ago and I was pretty drunk as you can imagine! So I shall end it there this time (sorry that it has been quite a long one) and next time you get to hear all about my amazing 19th birthday.
Till next time,
Ciao!
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