Saturday 30 June 2012

I met the love of my life ... Gracie!!


As it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, my parents had sent over some money so that I could do something special to celebrate it. I had previously seen a sign at this resort called Anthony’s Key, which advertised 3 different types of interactions with their own trained pod of dolphins!!!  So it panned out that Ally and I both really wanted to swim with dolphins and so we booked in to do their Dolphin Snorkel which included a half hour interaction session where you had an instructor introduce you to the dolphin, our’s was called Gracie, who was a 22 year old mother and she was massive! The cutest thing I have ever seen ... ever!! Anyway, this session included the trainer getting her to do a few tricks for us and then having her come up to us so we could touch and pet her. OMG!! This was like a dream come true!! I could not believe that I was actually doing this. It was just so amazing, seeing the dolphins enjoying playing with us as much as we were enjoying her company. They feel pretty much exactly as you would imagine them to, really dense, smooth and kind of warm-ish. So our instructor was telling us all about the dolphins and and we were learning loads about them and about all of the other dolphins they have here and the resort, all the while he was leading Gracie up and down the line of people in our group, whilst everyone was stroking and petting her, living their life’s dream. Omg I would actually kill someone (well maybe not, but you get my drift) for their job. To spend all day everyday with a pod of 40 or more dolphins would be amazing, and maybe even possible! Our instructor did a degree in business, then tried this job on a whim and the owners let him stay on because he got on well with the dolphins! Umm ... screw Magazine publishine, Hello Dolphin Training!!
Moving on, in total there was about 30 people doing the interaction session, and we were all divided up into groups of 6 or 8 and had our own instructor, however most of those people left after the initial interaction session as that is all that they had paid for. That left about 8 of us to do the next section which was a free snorkel in the dolphin’s pen, all the while being surrounded by a pod of about 20 dolphins. To begin with we were just swimming around and couldn’t see many as the water was quite murky and we were told that the dolphins were their but that they were judging us first. So I was swimming around for a while and then decided to go over and join Ally in one of the corners, as soon as I got there we saw about 3 dolphins come out of the gloom towards us and they just played around with us, swimming next to us and bumping into our hands as we held them out to play with them. At one point about 7 dolphins were just swimming around Ally and I, it was scary at times, but also an absolute adrenaline rush. At one point, this mother and calf came swimming up to us and slowed down around us, if I thought Gracie was cute, my word the baby one was so much cuter! We had been warned that the dolphins are very perceptive, so that if they see you flinch when they come at you, they will keep doing it as it makes them ‘laugh’, so it was quite hard not to flinch as they open their mouths to try and bite you playfully (like a puppy does) but it was reassuring to find out that their teeth didn’t hurt at all, as Ally tells me. Anyway, that half hour of snorkeling with the dolphins was one of the greatest half hours of my life (I know I haven’t lived my whole life yet, but I am pretty certain it will remain near the top, if not at the top!) If anyone, ever gets the chance to swim with these majestic creatures, please do! You will love it, even if you are not a swimmer! You will have such a great time, that I can guarantee.
Well, now you know how much I loved it, and that I had probably the best birthday present I have ever been given (Thanks Mum and Dad!). We also got some pictures taken by the on-site professional photographer (she takes pics of everyone) and I will include these below, hope you enjoy them! The one of us two and Gracie is now my background on my laptop and I smile every time I see it, no jokes!
Till Next Time,


Ciao!

I'm All By Myself!!


This friday Ally’s Mum, Debbie, decided to pop over for a visit. She had planned to stay until the monday after next, so she had two full weekends and a whole week. Ally had spoken to Prof Lee and had organised a great fishing trip for the saturday in West End. We arrived in the early morning, and set of soon after, however, due to it not being like 5 in the morning, we were a tad late to catch anything of decent size, but we did manage to catch a tuna, which we then used as live bait so that the bigger fish could get something. We were going up and down for a while and all of a sudden felt a big jolt on the rod and then nothing. We soon realised that a great big Wahoo had come and nabbed out tuna and got away with it! So we were now left with nothing and decided to head back to land when we heard a splash to our left and Aquaman was swimming along side of us ... no I joke, it wasn’t Aquaman but it was a live turtle. Absolutely amazing to see another one, and even greater for debbie as she hadn’t seen one yet! The rest of the day was spent chilling on West Bay before we headed back up to Marble Hill Farms for a great dinner and some sleep.
The next day (sunday if anyone is counting) Profa Ligia (the new Headmistress, Profa Elena had left about 1 month ago and Ligia has been working here ever since) had organised a special island tour type thing with us and her husband. First stop we went to the poshest resort on the island, Parrot Tree Plantation. Honestly, it was so plush, we saw they had a special offer on at the moment, $250 for 3 nights!! I KNOW!! A special offer?? that is still pretty expensive!! haha Anyway, this place is amazing, there is this great man-made style beach pool thing, basically this beach goes in a great big circle and then there is the sea in the middle which comes in through a little river that goes under a bridge. Profa Ligia then treated us to some lunch and showed us around the resort’s pool, where they had these amazing sun lounger style things which were like little huts with mattresses on them and curtains so you could block out the sun if you wanted! AMAZING! After Parrot Tree we then headed further into French Harbour and visited the Iguana Farm where there are hundreds of Iguana’s just lying around all over the place. They are so used to human interaction by now that they don’t really move for you, you have to dodge them, or go up to them and stroke if you really want, to be honest I was a little scared as I had heard that their bite is like 250 pounds of pressure ... I’ll pass thanks! We then headed to the mall for some coffee from Expresso Americano, which Debbie actually paid for as she wanted to treat Ligia and her husband as they had done so much for us that day. It was such a nice day and we really can’t thank Ligia enough.
That night I stayed in our house and Ally and his mom headed back up to Marble Hill Farms as they were heading to the mainland in the morning. Ally wanted to show his mum all the great sights such as Copan and Lago de Yajoa and since she had the time, she was well up for it as well. I decided to stay behind on the island as I still really needed to test some of my classes and also thought it would be nice for Ally and his mum to have some time together.
So that week was spent by myself, but I have to say it was one of the weirdest weeks ever! After living with Ally for about 10 months, to suddenly not be without him, well in fact, not living with anyone was really quite strange. I may sound really soppy here but honestly, it was the weirdest thing. I would go and sit and eat at Mary Lou’s and not have anyone to talk to, as usually, Mary Lou goes and sits outside. That week was pretty normal really, just chilled at home, went and taught some classes and managed to give my classes some tests and even gave some of Ally’s classes a test as he asked me to. This was really nice as I got to teach my 8th grade classes that I had last year (which Ally now has as they moved up into 9th grade)
Anyway, I am sure you don’t want to hear about my boring week, or actually do you?? No really?? you sure? okay ...
Well I woke up, ate some breakfast, sat down for a while, got up again, went and had a shower, washed my hair, washed my face, went to the loo, got dressed, put my phones in my pocket, took 3 sips of water, breathed ... you get the picture! haha
Anyway, on the Saturday Ally and Debbie returned and we spent the afternoon just chilling around really and then headed up to Marble Hill Farms for some dinner and to stay the night. That night we had some of the best pizza I have ever had! It was amazing!! so tasty and so filling. It was just such a nice evening, hearing all about Ally and Debbie’s travel stories, them listening to my boring week ...  jokes!! No it was a really good night and after dinner we just sat up and played cards for a while before crashing.
The next morning we had asked Mel (one of the new dive instructors) if we could use the kayaks in the morning to go out and explore the bay. Well when we arrived at the dock, we were overjoyed to find out that one of the Kayaks (a two person one) had a glass bottom to it! It was amazing, and slightly off putting as you were gliding along on top of the water on what (when you looked down) seemed to be nothing! Was really cool, but quite odd at the same time!
Due to there being no busses on a sunday we couldn’t really explore more of the island, but we didn’t really feel we had to anyway, as Ally and Debbie had had such a busy week, they kind of wanted just a day to relax and take in a bit of the sun. So we walked to Punta Gorda, had some lunch with Mary Lou and spent the afternoon at Flamingo’s (where Ally and I usually spend every single sunday afternoon!). Again, it was really lovely, and we even managed to get some amazing sweet rolls to take back to Marble Hill Farms for our ‘dinner’ as the restaurant is shut on sundays.
The next morning, we woke early-ish and walked down to bus stop so that Debbie could catch a bus/taxi in order to take her to the Airport so she could get back to britain. Despite her protests that she didn’t want to go home, we did manage to get her a cab so that she could get to her meeting on the wednesday in time!
It was a great couple of days spent with Debbie either side of my week alone and I am glad to hear that she got home okay and hopefully she enjoyed her meeting as much as she enjoyed Roatan!
Till Next Time,
Ciao!

Wednesday 13 June 2012

My Birfday!


Well when we got back from La Ceiba, we finally arrived in Punta Gorda by about half seven and headed over to Mary Lou’s for some dinner. We had a fantastic meal with a few of my favourite things, avocado, beans, fried chicken e.t.c and then once we had finished she asked us if we could wait a little while after dinner as she wanted to do something. So while we were wondering what was going on a few of Mary Lou’s friends had arrived and were just chilling outside.
All of a sudden Mary Lou pulled a cloth off something that was lying on the table and underneath was an almighty cake! She had baked a huge, what tasted like banana and toffee, cake and had organised that a few of her friends should come over and celebrate. So Ally and I went to sit outside whilst Mary Lou dished up the cake (after she insisted that I made the first cut of course) and everyone started singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in spanish and english. After that we headed back home as we were both really tired after a long weekend.
The next morning, we woke up as usual on a monday morning (at 7.15) and got ready to head downstairs to give my sixth grade class. This morning Ally came down with me as the week before I had said to my class that we would play games and have a fun lesson as it is my birthday, and he wanted to come and enjoy the games. Well, when I walked in to the room everyone of my students started singing and cheering and there was a great big message written on the board and then the teacher, Profa Elly, one of my favourite teachers came up to me and told me that they had made a cake, cooked some chop suey and brought in some fizzy drinks to share with everyone as it was my birthday. I was so overwhelmed, it was amazing to know that my class would go to such lengths to do all of this for me. I really felt touched (not like that!! ...) and was so happy just playing loads of games with them and Ally and just having a little party. Anyway, they soon had to go back to lessons and I had to go and give some other classes. The rest of the morning was spent just chilling around the house really, enjoying the happiness of it all, I think I even went to sit in the hammock and actually fell asleep, not meaning to of course, but it is just so god damn comfy! 
So after lunch came afternoon classes. Now on a Monday I have 1st grade at 1.50, 3rd Grade and 2.50 and 8th grade at 4.50. I walked into my 1st grade class and they all started to sing and chant happy birthday which was really amazing, seeing loads of my favourite, cute little first grade students singing to me was really cool, and of course the same thing happened in 3rd grade, and we also played some really cool games and just had fun in general really. And then at break Ally and I were sitting outside and then Profa Doris (one of our really good friends) called us over and took us into the kitchen and I walked in to see all of the teachers gathered around and singing, and then Profa Salma presented me with a ‘trĂ©s leches’ cake which I discovered out here. It is just a really great gooey, sticky, cake which is covered in condensed milk. I was so touched and then Ally leaned over to me and wished me happy birthday, and presented me with a hand made card which had been signed by pretty much everyone in that I knew in the village. It was amazing and I will treasure it for ever.
Later that evening, we headed over to Profa Elena’s house as she wanted to cook us dinner, we had been invited before, but unfortunately we were busy and so couldn’t make it, but this evening we got a lift up to their house with Profa Doris (Profa Elena’s neice, who lives with her) and we sat down to a great big meal, prepared lovingly by Elena. There was so much food, but it was all so good that we didn’t really want to stop, but unfortunately we would have burst if not. After dinner we just relaxed and chatted for a while to Elena and Doris and just had a nice evening. Doris then dropped us back down in Punta Gorda (they live on the very edge of the village) and we walked to Yandra’s house to pick her up and make our way up to Flamingo’s to have a bit of a drink and a dance. That night was hilarious, many drinks, a lot of dancing (some of it dirty honduran dancing) and just generally a lot of laughs with Audrey, Nora and Michael.
All in all it really was a great birthday and I couldn’t of wished for anything different. It was lovely, even if we were pretty much force fed the whole day. I really would like to thank everyone of Punta Gorda for all of their hospitality and kindness to us both over these past 10 and a half months. It has been great and I am dreading the day that I have to pack my bags and leave.
Till Next Time,
Ciao!

A Carnival, A theft, and a tattoo!


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!