tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5247744278207219612024-03-13T00:02:56.175+00:00The Honduran Adventuretwright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-18271545472176799722012-09-02T20:14:00.001+01:002012-09-02T20:14:05.504+01:00Coming Home!<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well here I am, sitting at home, my home, my home in Norwich where this whole adventure started. This is where the idea to even attempt a year overseas was born and I have to say what a bloody good decision that was eh? (Well you guys know you have been here with me all the way ... hopefully!)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, coming home was hard, harder than I thought actually. I think the whole hype of coming home and seeing friends and family was clouding my mind a bit. Ally and I were so prepared for coming home, we had printed our eTickets weeks ago, tried packing so we knew how much space we had, left notes and things for the new volunteers that I think we didn’t really sit down and think about what we were leaving behind. All the amazing people we met, out fantastic students, the helpful teachers, our best friends. Over a year you really do form some incredible bonds with people and in that kind of situation where you are so out of your comfort zone you turn to those around you to help you through which makes that bond even stronger, and harder to break. It was all a little bit surreal to be honest, yes we were saying goodbye, yes we were packed but it didn’t feel like we would be leaving everything in Honduras. It felt like we were moving house rather than moving half way round the world, it felt like it was the kind of goodbye you say to people when you leave on holiday, which was a fantastic thing to realise as it meant that I would definitely be coming back to visit one day, which I will! I need to go and see if my kindergarten students still remember Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One of the weirdest feelings about coming home was knowing that my affiliation with Project Trust, the other volunteers in Honduras (The Hondies) and Ally would soon be coming to an end. I would no longer be living with the person who I have spent practically every moment with for a year. I will miss Ally, I will miss all of the Hondies, but Ally was the best partner anyone could have had and I have to thank Project Trust for that. They paired us up perfectly and to this day I have no idea how.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In all seriousness, I have to thank every member of staff at Project Trust for making the year what it was, for first of all selecting me (all those months ago!) and then caring for us and making everything about the whole process run with (relative) ease.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am happy to be home, I love being home in England, and I love seeing my friends and family but I do miss Honduras and I will never, ever forget what this year has entailed.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thank you to everyone who had a part in it!</span></div>
twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-23746998524136670072012-08-07T14:09:00.002+01:002012-08-07T14:09:34.731+01:00Saying goodbye to Marble Hill Farms<br />
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With our flights coming up very fast, pretty much most things we do now will be the last time that we get to do them so today, we had organised to head up to Marble Hill Farms to do a couple of last dives with Jan and Mel and to have some lunch at the restaurant, The Crows Nest. So we headed up to MHF at about 7.45 as Jan had told us to be there at about half 8, after walking half way, it started to rain a little bit but luckily a truck passed by and we managed to hitch it the rest of the way. So once we arrived at the farm we headed down to the dive shop with Jan (Mel was still in bed and was going to join us for the next dive) and headed out to Diamond Rock dive site. This dive was great, having not dove since April, I was really happy to find that it all came ‘swimming’ back to me (see what I did there ... good, wasn’t it!). It was really good, seeing all of the amazing fish and coral structures. Overall we were down for about an hour which was great as both Ally and I came up with 1000 (out of 3000) psi left in our tanks, so that meant that out air intake has gone down a hell of a lot since we started.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After heading back to the dive shop, we met Mel and Dynamite (the dog) and had a cup of coffee and some cookies, while we waited the hour or so before we were allowed to dive once again. We soon got back onto the boat and headed out to Edward’s Place, another great dive site with loads of deep channels and trench’s that you can swim through. Jan and I even managed to spot the tail of a Moray Eel, however that was all that we saw, just the tail, we couldn’t find the head. It was really nice to dive with Jan, Mel and the boat captain Edward as we had never dove with them before, well to be honest it was just nice to dive again, full stop. I really cannot wait until I get the chance to travel again and explore other reefs around the world.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, when we surfaced and headed back to the dive shop once again, Mel said that they had planned to have a BBQ that evening with Edward and she asked if we would like to come back later or just hang around the farm and then have something to eat later. Not one to turn down a free BBQ we both agreed and then headed up to the house to chill out a bit and use the internet for a while and also get the pictures that Jan had taken on the dives. Soon after, still wanting to eat at the crows nest, Ally and I headed up the hill and had a gorgeous pulled pork pizza and a few beers, which was a lovely last meal to have at the restaurant that we had been to so many times before.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For the rest of the day we just chilled out for a while and then we headed to Oak Ridge to go and get some supplies for the BBQ later this evening, such as some veggies, some cake mix and some rum.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After Oak Ridge, we got back and we all got to work on preparing different things, Jan started preparing the lion fish parcels, Mel worked on the Chocolate cake and baked potatoes, Ally was on shrimp duty and I was making the rum bananas to go with the cake for dessert. It was just so easy to chill out with them and talk and chat and find out about their past, how they met whilst traveling in Thailand, and their lives back home. By the time we were ready to go home we were all stuffed to the brim with amazing food and drink and it by now 9 or 10 at night. Both Ally and I were really surprised that over 12 hours had passed with Mel and Jan and it was just so easy, so nice to chill out with e.t.c. It was really sad when Jan dropped us off at our house and we had to say our goodbyes to the farm and everyone there. It has been an amazing time this year and I will really treasure all of the moments that I have stored up in that box of mine. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, I may get round to doing another blog but probably wont post this until I am back in the Uk as I only have about 10 days left now!!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till Next Time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-80201491873567260852012-06-30T20:38:00.003+01:002012-06-30T20:38:19.330+01:00I met the love of my life ... Gracie!!<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till Next Time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-58127015927862621942012-06-30T20:26:00.001+01:002012-06-30T20:26:14.731+01:00I'm All By Myself!!<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, I am sure you don’t want to hear about my boring week, or actually do you?? No really?? you sure? okay ...</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till Next Time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-27650903862123104392012-06-13T14:49:00.004+01:002012-06-13T14:49:40.787+01:00My Birfday!<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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! </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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 ‘trés 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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till Next Time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-85890446136988117922012-06-13T14:49:00.002+01:002012-06-13T14:49:10.803+01:00A Carnival, A theft, and a tattoo!<br />
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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.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-18341936611999967472012-05-19T20:12:00.001+01:002012-05-19T20:12:17.253+01:00Mother's Day<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Honduras, among other such celebration days as ‘Day of the Teachers’, and ‘Day of the Tree’ of course there is also Mother’s Day, and for some strange reason, out here it is celebrated in May, on the 2nd sunday in May to be exact. So the time came at school where preparations for a big celebration where under way. Ally and I woke up one morning, on the friday before Mother’s Sunday and went downstairs to see if we could help set up any decorations or things in order get the stage ready for later in day. We spent a good part of the day cutting out flowers and blowing up red and white baloons to hang from the stage and by the time 3 o’clock came around, everything was ready. Mothers of the pupils in school started to arrive and soon enough the celebrations began. Each class had elected a ‘Mother of our Class’ and had presented a hamper to each of them, including things like flour, beans, juice and other such food stuffs that would be useful to them, as well as this, each class had prepared a little presentation of some kind. Some had prepared songs, other plays and we had also got asked to prepare a poem or something in english, which our students would then read out in front of the school. Both Ally and I had prepared a poem and both of us had volunteers to go up and read it, however, being school children the volunteers that I had from my 8th grade class decided that they didn’t want to do it in the end, and so I was left looking like a wally as I had nothing else prepared, not to matter though as some of the teachers were quite pleased as the ceremony had gone on for quite a while already. Ally had also prepared a lovely poem that his 6th Grade students were going to read out. However, like I said, the program was quite packed, and one of the teachers didn’t want to put Ally’s poem in, which of course annoyed him a little and so he rounded up the help of the 6th Grade teacher, Profa Adelia and together they had words and got the poem squeezed into the ceremony. Overall it was a great day and very colourful and was made even better by the fact that when the celebrations for the mothers had finished, the teachers had a meeting of their own, for which Profa Salma had prepared some chop-suey and garlic bread, which was delicious, especially when followed by a great piece of ‘tres leches’ cake, a really nice gooey cake flavoured with condensed milk, very sweet, but OMG so good!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Also in aid of Mother’s Day, me and Ally decided to give our Honduran Mother a present and card to say thank you for everything that she had done for us in the past 9/10 months. So we bought Mary Lou a nice clock (as we noticed she didn’t have one in her house that was working) and a nice card from the supermarket. There was also a great big party on the beach (much like what happened for fathers day) where we chilled out for a bit before being hit by a wave of tiredness and a sudden great desire to get to bed ... party rockers we are (n’t)!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">till next time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">HAPPY MOTHERS DAY EVERYONE!! xxx ... (well the mother’s who are reading this ...)</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-16832935031095856642012-05-19T20:11:00.001+01:002012-05-19T20:11:52.187+01:00The Hondies come to Roatan (sadly not all of them though!)<br />
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During the last week of april Ally and I were sitting at home minding our own business when all of a sudden we received a text from one of the Volunteers in Tela called Sarah saying the following ‘Omg so excited to come and see you guys, you better be ready to come to west end this weekend!’</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Umm ... WHAT?? Apparently they had told us they both the Tela Girls, and 3 other (Kate, Ruby and Annie) where all coming to Roatan to celebrate Sarah’s birthday on the 29th, but somehow Ally and I had forgotten or just not been told in the first place. So we therefore quickly made some plans to head down the island to meet the girls in a few days time. Well we made plans for them to come up to Punta Gorda first, because they all wanted to see our project as we had seen all of their projects (bar Kate and Ruby’s in Santa Barbara) so when they arrived on the saturday they managed to catch a bus up to Punta Gorda and we spent a few hours walking around, showing them our house, our school and other such places like our local watering hole, Flamingoes, where we all had a bit of lunch before catching another bus all the way back down the island to Coxen Hole where we needed to change busses and we also wanted to do a bit of shopping. When we finally reached West End (arms full of bags of snacks and booze) we walked along the road and decided to see if we could get a cabin for all of us to share. So I saw a sign for Georphie’s Cabins and decided to go and have a look with Cat. Luckily the mother was sick that night so we got served by her daughter who let 7 people use a cabin that was meant for only 4 (we heard the next morning that her mother was not best pleased, but she decided to let it fly ... everyone is so nice over here) so we dumped out bags and got dressed and headed out for something to eat at Splash Inn restaurant where we indulged in some lovely Pizza’s and even managed to get Sarah a bit of cake to celebrate. After dinner and ‘lining our stomachs’ as some of you would say, we headed back to the cabin to play a few rounds of Cat’s amazing drinking game called ‘Circle of Death’ (bit of an odd name) which envolves you taking a card and every card has it’s own special meaning (for example, any number 4 means everyone has to touch the floor (Four = Floor ... duh!) and the last one to do so has to take a drink an so on and so forth). This game can get very fun with cards like chin master and question master and we were all soon pretty slozzled. Soon after that we headed out to Nova bar for a bit of a boogie and to pass the midnight mark (as Sarah’s birthday was actually on the Sunday) so we celebrated the early hours of the Sarah’s Bday in style, getting on down to some Honduran beats and then going for a late night swim in the sea ... I really have no idea how I remember all of this ... well actually I don’t cos that is where my memory fails me, but I think we went back to the cabin to chill out for a while as all of the bars were closing up.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next day was spent recovering on the gorgeous beach and just chilling around with each other really. Sadly Ally and I had to head back to PG because we had classes in the morning on Monday so we stayed with the girls until about 3 ish before we hopped on a bus back to the quiet old town of PG, however not before we discovered a great little bakery in West End that sells some great, and very cheap bagels. Will defo be going there again if we ever head to West End another time. Every time the Hondies get together, even if it is just a few of them, it is always such a laugh and we have so much fun. Having such a close bond by all coming away together definitely forms some true friendships and I really cannot wait until we all have some Hondie Reunions back in England/scotland in the years to come.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P.s Sorry I have been a bit bad in keeping up with these ... will try harder.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P.P.s I know I have said the before but this time I really mean it ... I do!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-77839390852566747162012-04-21T18:55:00.002+01:002012-04-21T18:55:14.904+01:00El Doce de Abril.<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The 12th of April, out here is a very important date for all Garifunas because it marks the anniversary of the date that the Garifunas first arrived in Honduras and this year was their 215th anniversary. This day calls for a parade through the village and a great big festival and party all day long until the very early hours of the morning! It is even more special for the people of Punta Gorda because it was here where they first arrived. Punta Gorda was the first place that the Garifunas saw of honduras.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So Ally and I got up fairly early and headed down to see what was happening in the village already. We had heard that the parade was starting at 8, so that meant in Honduras it was going to start at 9.30 ish. However being british we still turned up at 8. There were still a load of people about, people from all over the island and many schools from other towns had come to learn about the Garifuna (or Garinagu in their native language) people. Of course all of our students were also there for the day so we sat and talked to them for a while and then we suddenly heard the beat of drums coming from afar and we raced to go and see what was happening with the parade so that we could go and get some good pictures of this annual event. The rest of the day transpired with us just enjoying the festivities, sampling some of the many different types of gorgeous food which had been prepared by some local women in the village, which varied from fried chicken, plantain chips or ‘<i>tajadas’</i>, ‘<i>pastelitos’ </i>and even some lovely ‘<i>tapado’</i> which is basically a coconut based stew loaded with plantains, onion, garlic and in this particular case, fish. All of the village had come out to celebrate today so we met up with some of our friends, like Yandra (who had come back from the mainland for the celebration) Ziggy, Dioxy, Audrey, Nora and Michael. Prof Lee also turned up and had brought with him a huge volleyball net and a bag of balls so Ally went to go and help set up a little tournament for the kids to get involved in, whilst I watched the procession of ‘Little Miss Garifuna 2012’ with Yandra in which many of the girls involved had to partake in a dance competition. One of the crowd favourites was a girl who probably was no older than 5-ish, who had been taught to dance at a very young age and who was working her stuff doing a very ‘hip popping’ version of the Punta dance, was very good indeed.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Halfway through the day, our dive instructors Pol and Ingrid showed up to see what was going on and we all went out for a beer at a local restaurant so that we could have a bit of a catch up and also say a goodbye as they were moving on to another country in about 4 days so the likelihood would be that we would not see them again. So after saying farewell to Pol and Ingrid we all headed to church for their special service that they had planned for today, with plenty of music and dancing and shouting praise. Sadly Ally was feeling a little under the weather and so went outside to go and get a drink and this in when all hell broke loose ....</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I lost him ...</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I know what your thinking, lost?? but Tom you never lose anything ... how could you lose a person? ... I know, I know. Well to be honest it was both of our faults as we both went looking for each other but in completely different directions and both kept on moving when we should have been staying in one place. I went back to the house thinking that Ally had maybe gone back there for a nap as he was feeling unwell, but I had given my key to Ally earlier that day so that he could go and get some swimming shorts so I couldn’t get into the house and so I soon headed back down to the beach (after sitting in the hammock for a while thinking that he would return) to enjoy the rest of the party. So I sat on the beach and watched the concert for a little while and listened to the great music whilst pondering what to do and where to go and look for Ally. Thinking that some time had passed and that Ally must have thought to go back home, I went to go and check again but sadly no, still no Ally. We had been looking for each other for a good 2 hours by now and I was absolutely dumbfounded that we hadn’t crossed paths in this tiny village in that time. So I was walking back down the road, down by Mary Lou’s house and lo and behold there was Ally at the local ‘<i>pulperia’</i> (like a little hole in the wall shop type thing) buying some Hair dye with one of his students because Derrian wanted to paint his hair black so that he would look more like a local!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, we then went to go and chill on the beach a little more before heading to Mary Lou’s for dinner, which was lovely as always, and then I headed home, as Ally went to Derrian’s house to go and get his hair dyed, and sat down to watch Toy Story 3, nursing my sun burn from a whole day standing in the sun ... my poor little nose. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Overall it was a fantastic day, even though it was very long and very draining, but it was amazing to see the whole village come together for something so important for them. It was so good to be a part of something which has been happening for 214 years!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hope you enjoyed this post, sorry I have been a bit slack lately, I do promise to try and keep up!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-19716678577943942842012-04-21T18:54:00.000+01:002012-04-21T18:54:03.193+01:00Oh that's a nice breeze ...<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So there I was waiting in the airport on Roatan, standing right next to the arrivals door, legs jittering, not being able to stand still, finished coffee cup on the table behind me when out walks Megan. We lock eyes, her bags drop to the floor as she runs into my waiting arms. Whilst hugging my sister who I haven’t seen for 9 months, over her shoulder I see my parents walk through the door, hear my mums gasp as she sees her son for the first time in nearly a year and see her eyes glisten over with a beautiful mixture happiness and tears, just like mine are doing as I see both my mum and my dad hustle towards me to greet me and me greet them.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That moment when I saw my family for the first time on Roatan was so special and I knew that it would signify an absolutely great week ahead as both Ally and I spent the easter week with them in their villa that they had rented for the week as they came to see where I had been living for a week. This week was absolutely amazing, it was also really weird just to spend some quality time with the family again, calling out ‘Mum ... Dad?’ in a house and hearing them reply was one of the oddest experiences of the week. It was really great to show them the island where I had been living and I even managed to bring them up to Punta Gorda for a day and show them the school, our house, and our village. I think I can say that they enjoyed it as well, and loved to actually see the house rather than just pictures and stories of it so that they could really get a feel for how small it is. Although we did come up to Punta Gorda a couple of times (once to show them the village, and once when they dropped me off due to me having to work the next morning!) we spend most of our time in West End, the really touristy section of the island in a really lovely villa which was so much fun for Ally and I, because we were able to live in luxury for a week or so, drinking, chilling by the pool or on the beach, nibbling and eating a lot of great food in some of the fantastic restaurants in west end. Of course whilst in West End we went over to West Bay a few times and showed them the nicest, most pristine beach on the island, with some of the best snorkeling I have ever seen, for example, literally about 30 metres out from the beach me and Ally saw a pretty size-able sting ray ... on one of the most populated beaches ever! </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The first trip we took to West Bay however, the weather wasn’t perfect, it was quite windy so the waves had picked up a little so there were kayaks out to stop people swimming too far out, however, Mum and Dad managed to get a little bit of snorkeling in and this pretty much convinced them to go and try a Discover Scuba Diving Course, which they decided to do the next day at a great dive shop called West End Divers, where all of the staff were really friendly and really helpful. The Discover Scuba Diving Course is basically the first of five chapters of the Open Water PADI Course and is just a starter course where the students get to do a few vital skills and then later go out for a full complete dive, which is where Ally and I joined Mum and Dad, after having breakfast with Megs (becasue she didn’t want to do the Scuba Course) as we had never dived in West End before. We went to a site called Turtle Crossing which is a place where you are guaranteed to see some turtles .... not one bloody turtle at TURTLE Crossing, although I wasn’t too disappointed as it was also a beautiful dive and I was so proud to see Mum and Dad diving along side of me. As well as that dive Ally and I joined them on one more the next day at a dive site called Seaquest where we did see a turtle, a really big hawksbill which was just so beautiful to see in the wild, even though it did have two bloody great remoras sucking on its shell. It was honestly one of the greatest moments in my life (so far!) and was made even better by the fact that I was diving with my parents and showing them this amazing activity!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So the rest of the week was spent just chilling out really, at either west end, the pool or west bay. We even spent a few evening at the beginning of the week with Eleanor’s family, her parents, Alastair and Leslie, and one of her younger brother Innes. They were all so lovely and I was so pleased to meet them and again show all of them, including Eleanor the island where we had been living for 9 months and it was also great to be able to show our project to the first hondie to visit. Sadly we were too busy to take Cat and Sarah (who arrived on the wednesday) up to Punta Gorda as we only had a limited time with my family. We had such a good time with everyone and I really cant thank them enough for making that week what it was. It was absolutely magical to see my family and be able to speak and laugh an joke with Mum, Dad and Megs. However it was also really sad as I knew that as much as they wanted to come, Josh (my brother) and his girlfriend Chloe (practically a sister) they couldn’t, so my love goes out to them and I hope that they have a great time in Barcelona, not quite a caribbean island but hey ....</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To Mum and Dad especially, thank you ever so much for making that holiday of yours possible and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to show you the life I have been living for nigh on 9 months now! I really hope you enjoyed it (even though you were stuck in the Roatan Airport for about 2 days, and so missed out on your trip to New York) and again it was great to see you and cannot wait to see you again at Heathrow Airport in august, which is now only about 3 months away! :O</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gtD0ni13AzlZ_h3NhNL_JFUFefdllc_cZp7lv7yUQLCq6VccNNgfeua6BEne3U-309ukdrXEhY5jrQoNHkpziCCYpH_QQFNlWPbF6MLxnAeNNdlo6e_hM6jA_2EyDJfQ3eVhM-i3lA/s1600/IMG_3838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gtD0ni13AzlZ_h3NhNL_JFUFefdllc_cZp7lv7yUQLCq6VccNNgfeua6BEne3U-309ukdrXEhY5jrQoNHkpziCCYpH_QQFNlWPbF6MLxnAeNNdlo6e_hM6jA_2EyDJfQ3eVhM-i3lA/s320/IMG_3838.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fridge where we stayed in West End ... filled with goodies from england!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eleanor and her brother Innes.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3bGOAAVFcBICnIKvqOE4uGWfdJXFOCy5hl0Cd-Rhozchn24YUF_qz2c9uExGlu9jbvpIl1-GxI1b2DjKuGTgYs9u4yNuV58K7aX5sn5uEmxBzLKUfudB8xx8zI2SuPQFLXnkCfvmzGw/s1600/IMG_3848.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3bGOAAVFcBICnIKvqOE4uGWfdJXFOCy5hl0Cd-Rhozchn24YUF_qz2c9uExGlu9jbvpIl1-GxI1b2DjKuGTgYs9u4yNuV58K7aX5sn5uEmxBzLKUfudB8xx8zI2SuPQFLXnkCfvmzGw/s320/IMG_3848.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my lovely sister Megan.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ally and Megan in the sea at West end, was a very nice and calm day .... as you can see!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Vj-YQvu5JB7qi9Z2COKarsBzk2VYqn0DXnzqUNgVHUnNG3v2irZqfvYL1AXVNRgxWHRODcwEdJu3xM2iVDPUk5JEJ4dtZUxjQYnWDPC1K69WWZqfWoITlEKIwPHzJiq-5J47PkOnVg/s1600/IMG_3955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Vj-YQvu5JB7qi9Z2COKarsBzk2VYqn0DXnzqUNgVHUnNG3v2irZqfvYL1AXVNRgxWHRODcwEdJu3xM2iVDPUk5JEJ4dtZUxjQYnWDPC1K69WWZqfWoITlEKIwPHzJiq-5J47PkOnVg/s320/IMG_3955.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Family at our school!</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-41868766386401260322012-04-05T00:43:00.001+01:002012-04-05T00:43:28.654+01:00Hondies Spring Round-up<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Last week Jen arrived in Honduras and started her tour around all of the different projects with Vegas. They had also contacted us a few weeks ago to see if we were game to meet up at Lago de Yajoa for a bit of a get together, which of course we were.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On the friday morning we got up pretty early and caught the various ferries and buses all the way to Tela, to go and meet Sarah and the recently returned Cat. It was great to see them as always and as we got there at about midday, we even had the opportunity to go and watch them teach for a little while. We saw Cat teach a social studies class to her 8th grade, which involved talking about the Czars and emperors of russia throughout time e.t.c ... all in english btw! We couldn’t believe it, most of our kids can barely even say russia, let alone talk about it. We then saw Sarah teach a 3rd grade class about object and subject pronouns which was very impressive. After that Cat was then free for the afternoon but sadly Sarah still had to teach a little, so Ally, Cat and I headed to the beach and to explore Tela a little bit as we had to go and buy our bus tickets for the next day. The beach in Tela is really great, it is so long, gorgeous sand and waves!! We don’t get waves here in Roatan as it is mostly bays and the coral reef stops them from ever reaching the shore anyway, so it was so much fun playing around in the waves, doing a bit of body surfing racing and other such wave related activities! That night there was also a charity Fashion Show being put on at one of the girls favourite watering holes so we decided to head to that and see what all the fuss was about, turned out to be a very good night and the fashion show was pretty good, even including some of the students from the girls’ school covered in gold paint and wearing only boxers and angel wings ... :S</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anywho, the next morning we awoke at about 7 ish to catch a bus at 8 to take us to San Pedro Sula so we could then catch one all the way to the Lake. The journey was relatively simple and easy going and we arrived at D&D Hostel at about midday where we were greeted by everyone else, including Jen and Vegas and all of the other Hondies. It was so great to see everyone else once again and it was even our first time meeting the two new hondies called Kate and Ruby who live and work in Santa Barbara, who are both really lovely and sem to be settling in to Honduran Life with ease, much like everyone else! Later that afternoon we all decided to go up to the canal and rent out some oars so we could paddle to the lake. Myself and some others pretty much jumped in right away and were going to swim along but it was quite a long way to the lake so Cat and I found a log on the side and just played around that before going back to the lodge to see if I would be able to skype the family as it was my dad’s birthday on the sunday so felt I needed to contact them, and I also hadn’t spoken to them for about 6 weeks! Throughout the rest of the day we just chilled around, played cards, used the internet while we had the chance, and just caught up with each other, and soon enough dinner time came around and we all ordered some lovely food and Vegas and Jen even bought a round of margaritas for everyone which was lovely, and of course with drinks, come drinking games. Cat introduced us to this great one called ‘Circle of Death’ which involves people taking a card and each card having a side effect like snake eyes or question master e.t.c. After this Vegas brought out a great big cake that he had bought for everyone and revealed that it was his birthday that day as well, a fact which none of us knew, not even Jen! So we were all a bit surprised and incredibly happy that we were there to share it with him.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next morning, we all awoke and decided to meet for breakfast at 9ish before Eleanor and Anna had to go off to Tegucicalpa for a school trip, so that morning we were all just chilling again while Jen gave some of her ‘interviews’ to different members of the group. Me and Ally took this opportunity to hit up youtube for some much needed music (I think we were downloading music for over an hour) and also get to know Kate and Ruby a little more.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At around 12.30 ish, we all piled into Vegas’ van as we headed to this restaurant he loves to go and meet Annie and her parents as she couldn’t make it to the Lake, and also have a bit of lunch before a few of the Hondies said goodbye to Jen for the last time before debriefing back in Scotland. This restaurant was incredible, most people had to go up to the freezer in the kitchen where they had to choose their fish and also choose how they wanted it cooked. For a few others, (me included) as we weren’t in the mood for fish opted for a beef option which was lovely and the portions of everyone’s dish were massive! </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">From here Ally, Sarah, Cat and I caught a bus to La Barca, where we were lucky enough to catch a hitch all the way to El Progreso, passing this broken bridge, which Jen had told us collapsed a few years ago, and the police didn’t mark it off or anything, so late one night a bus was driving, believed the bridge was there and drove straight into the river where everyone on the bus sadly died. Anyway, from El Progreso we caught a bus to Tela and had a very chilled out afternoon playing in the sea, and then a nice night watching ‘La Columbiana’ (an absolutely amazing film) while Cat also died my hair a nice dark mahogany colour (I love it!). Ally and I were gutted that we couldn’t spend more time with the Hondies before heading back to Roatan, but luckily for us we will get to see quite a few of them in a couple of days as they (and also my family =D ) come to roatan for Semana Santa! Cannot wait to see everyone and also show them our project and where we live!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-27320706551285841982012-04-05T00:42:00.002+01:002012-04-05T00:42:49.678+01:00When the Community thought I needed dance moves ... please ....<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">This saturday (17th of March) turned out to be a great day. We had been invited to Prof Lee’s house for lunch and to go and watch a few basketball games that he was refereeing. We have recently become really good friends with Lee, the P.E teacher. He speaks fluent english and is just such a nice guy and his food is to die for!</div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He had previously cooked this typical beef stew for us a couple of weeks ago which was amazing, packed full of flavour, spice and vegetables, however today he was cooking his ‘famous’ chicken tacos for us. So we got up early and headed down to Coxen hole to use some free wi-fi for an hour or so before we headed to his house a few hundred minutes away. Using the internet is always fun as you get to catch up with all your bessies and family .... when they are online ... c’mon guys it was prime time! It was 4 on a saturday afternoon (your time) and yet none of you were online?? Double ewe tea eff! (hehe) anyway, I still managed to had a brain wave and hit up some websites to download some new music as we have been listening to the same songs for like 7 months now ... needed some new toonz! (Downloaded a few Nicki Minaj ones ... HELLO!!).</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, after that we headed to Lee’s house and had a fantastic lunch and then played with his son Tommy for a while before watching a film for a while. We then headed out down the road to go and watch the basketball, however the team from Santa Elena (another island off the end of Roatan) were running late so we had to wait for a little while, which wasn’t so bad as we could watch the Oak Ridge Earthquakes practice for a while/do a bit of oggling! ;)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The game was really great and we were pleased to see the Earthquakes win as they were clearly the better team (not just because they were on time), we had to leave early though, so we couldn’t watch the second game like planned (however Lee told us on Monday that is was boring), due to it being Mary Lou’s birthday that day, she had asked us to go and pick up a pizza for her to bring to share with some people later that night. We got back to Punta Gorda at 6 ish, dropped the pizza off and then headed out to this church service that we had been told about which was being held by the school’s equivalent of the PTA for Dia de Los Padres, for some reason fathers day is a lot earlier out here. After the service Mary Lou told us to come back to her house for some food with a few of her relatives and friends. She served up some gorgeous chop suey and pizza, along with some soda. A little bit of an odd mix but it seemed to work.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After we had finished eating some of Mary Lou’s friends were asking us if we were going to ‘Shake our bodies’ at the beach party which was being held for the same reason as the church service, of course we went along aiming to show the community out stuff ... however ... it evolved that they in fact wanted to show us their stuff. After being dragged onto the dance .... sand? floor? area? ... by some of our students we soon got the hang of it and enjoyed the evening thoroughly. Even after a few beers, Mary Lou admitted that she didn’t want to dance before, but now after drinking a few, she felt ready to party, good ol’ Mary Lou!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We headed back to bed a little while later as we were both absolutely shattered and went to lunch the next morning to find both Rolando and Kiomy fast asleep after dancing most of the night away, obviously both had a lot of fun. We also got a few compliments on our dancing from some of our students on the monday when we returned to work.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All in all a great day and it was so great to see everyone enjoying them selves and even Mary Lou said it was one of her best birthday’s.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till Next Time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao! xx</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-59348548761661878962012-03-08T17:11:00.004+00:002012-03-08T17:11:59.709+00:00Coming Home!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well here we are, finally come to the last blog about travels. It was definitely sad coming home after such an amazing 6 weeks, but we were both ready to come home I think. The last week of our travels had been a lot ‘so where do you wanna go next?’, ‘What would you like to do today?’ e.t.c It had got a little bit tiring, especially since we knew we were coming home soon, and that we were soon going to run out of money.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Apart from that though, our holiday traveling around Guatemala and Honduras was absolutely fantastic. If anyone ever has to opportunity to travel just a little bit, honestly please do. You get to meet so many people, see so many things that you wouldn’t normally find on a normal holiday. Yes there is a lot of time spent on busses, but those in themselves are great as you wind through the countryside, you get to see all of those fascinating little villages full of the local people, going about their daily business, like bringing the wood down from the mountain upon their heads, or making thousands of tortillas to sell to the rest of the village later in the day.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I loved Guatemala, really loved it. If I can, I do plan on going back for a few days, but it is just such an amazing country, it has some incredible natural volcanoes, rivers and lakes. It has the really high touristy locations, but it also has the local communities dotted around the place. Sadly we didn’t get to explore the whole of Guatemala, such as up in the north (Flores, Tikal and Livingston), due to our time limit, but we have heard amazing things from our friends who went their on their holiday.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One thing about traveling which I found popped up quite often was that you meet people who have had bad experiences, and this is all they really focus on when they talk about one place, so quite often they were putting people off that place. When traveling you do have to be aware, very aware, of the people around you (I caught Ally putting his hand in my pocket a few times .... well .... ummm .....not really!). You do have to look after your belongings and honestly you will be fine, Ally and I didn’t have any problems at all, the only thing we lost was when Ally left a book at one of the lodges we stayed in. We were just sensible about knowing where each other was, knowing where out luggage was on busses and locking things up when we had the chance. It definitely does help that we could both speak spanish, as we were able to barter down prices of rooms and bus journeys, ask for directions and and ask about safety and things. But we met a lot of people who couldn’t speak any spanish and were doing just fine without it, it is inevitable that you will pick up a few phrases even in just a few short weeks that will help you out.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, this entry was just a few thoughts about traveling and coming home, which was very weird as we were driven through our village, seeing all of the changes that had been made, even then going around and saying hello to everyone was a little strange after such a long time, but we soon fell into a great routine once more, going to Mary Lou’s for lunch and dinner, going to the beach, learning about the ridiculous school hour times! (Literally, we didn’t teach since mid november, and didn’t start until 6th february, but now we don’t really get any more time off until we fly home).</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, hope you liked this entry, and if anyone reading this ever gets the chance to travel ... DO IT!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-39573352979537147552012-03-08T17:11:00.002+00:002012-03-08T17:11:28.685+00:00Getting kicked out of a country, and exploring the capital!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I know it has been like a seriously long time since coming home, and I am only now getting round to writing the penultimate one, but it does get hard, and I am sure you know that I am not much of a big writer so .... here we go ...</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our next stop after La Union was going to be El Salvador for a couple of days, but unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us past the border, even though we had all the right stamps and everything, for some reason, they would only let us pass if we payed $114 for 4 days worth of El Salvadorian goodness ... ummmm .... HELL TO THE NO!! So we got our stuff back off of the bus and headed back into Honduras, however, this time of day it was already quite late and Ally and I had done a lot of travelling already so we decided to stay in the very quiet and dirty town of Nuevo Ocatepeque, pretty much just a local stop off for the border. This town didn’t have much to it so we spent most of the afternoon in out hotel room watching MTV and laughing at the stupid programmes. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next morning we got on the bus at about 4 in the morning, and got prepared for the 10 hour journey to Tegucicalpa, the capital city of Honduras. When we arrived, we did a little bit of exploring but took it quite easy for that afternoon. The next few days we spent walking around ‘Teguc’, seeing the sights and even visiting a local national park, which was very nice, having a great stroll through some gorgeous landscapes. In Teguc we also found this amazing licuado shop, basically any compination of fruit you can think of, blended up with milk or water and put in a bag for about a pound! Bargain in my eyes, we also got to see some really amazing churches and other such buildings, including the biggest Mall I have ever seen, and the most glamourous, the cleanest e.t.c ... here we even managed to watch the new Sherlock Holmes film, and grab some fast food (Subway and Burger King, which we had both been craving!) Tegucicalpa was very nice, but like any other big city, parts are dirty and you really have to watch yourself as it can be dangerous, especially for ‘Gringos’.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So after a few days spent in the capital, we caught a bus back to the familiar La Ceiba where we were planning on staying at a great river lodge and doing some rafting e.t.c, however we did have to spend a night in La Ceiba first, so we just went out for a nice meal at ‘La Super Baleada’ this place that serves Baleadas bigger than me ... if I were about the size of a very large plate, which I am not so .... I ... Errr .....</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, the next morning we headed of to Jungle River Lodge and got there quite early so we organised to rafting right away and were greeted by a very friendly guide who got us our equipment and away we were, heading further up river where we were going to do some river scrambling and jumping (including one where we had to have a running start, but as I was shuffling along to launch point on my bum, I slipped and nearly dragged the guide and myself down into danger region, luckily I managed to stop, but then had to get over my fear of running down a very slippery slope in slippery shoes, before pushing off into unknown depths below ... I did it ... eventually ... after a couple of hours .... I joke (a little bit!).</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next part of the trip was floating down all of the rapids we had climbed over and getting the raft so we could go over some class 3 and 4 rapids. This was fantastic, Ally, he guide and I working as a team and going over some truly fun rapids while the guide shouted directions to us, like ‘faster, faster’, ‘Turn, turn’ or even ‘Shit, not that way, quickly paddle!!’ :O Anyway, as we were coming up to the end, he says ‘did you wanna tip the boat?’ so we agreed ... after some persuasion on Ally’s part and we headed to the more dangerous part of the rapids, which I thought were like Class 3. We went over this one bump and boat just flicked and the others managed to stay in whilst I went flying and landed in the rapids, so I was whisked along trying to grap on but couldn’t manage to get a hold on any of the rocks, so I started to panic as I was hurtling towards this monster of a rock, just managing to get my legs up in time before I was crushed, and then only just rescued by my crew as Ally was too preoccupied to save my life. Luckily I managed to back in the boat, but by this time we had drifted a little past the banking point, so we had to find a new one and walk a little back to the car that was taking us back!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next day, we soon headed back to the centre of La Ceiba before we caught the ferry and headed back to Roatan, finally after 6 long, but amazing weeks ...</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till Next Time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-40445640337463817932012-02-25T20:09:00.004+00:002012-02-25T20:09:57.349+00:00Sigua', Gracias, and La Union<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When we arrived in Siguatepeque, we headed to Amy and Anna R’s flat and were greeted by a very homely looking flat covered in decorations and other such things (you could tell Amy had released her creative flare!). That night Eleanor, Anna D, Anna R and I headed out to explore Sigua (as we call it) and we managed to find a cinema showing the new Breaking Dawn film, so we all bought our tickets (for the equivalent of 70p) and all claimed to enjoy the incredibly cheesy film before we headed to the pizza place to order a family size. Whilst waiting for the pizza me and Eleanor made a gorgeous salad and garlic bread and that night we just chilled watching some hilariously crap tv on MTV. The next morning, when Ally arrived (after staying one more night at D&D to go on this bird tour that he wanted to do) we headed out to town to do some more exploring and coffee, before we headed to Amy and Anna’s school to see where they worked, this was great as we got to see how different all of our lives are, and how different all of our jobs are! It really felt like they had settled in well at their school and I have to say I am quite jealous! We also found (not at the school, but in town) a great little pet shop where we proceeded to buy a fish for Anna R as it was her bday coming up soon and Amy was going home, so we thought we would kill too birds with one stone and get her a present and a new room mate in one! After revealing the great present we headed out to a chinese restaurant where we all had a gigantic portion once again before basically crawling back to their flat to crash for the night!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next day Amy and Anna R had to go to school to do some work so Eleanor, Anna D, Ally and I decided that we would go to the nearby town of Comayagua, a beautiful little colonial town with a gorgeous central square and surrounding streets. This day was spent in glorious sunshine as we walked around town sampling many different Coffee Granitas and buying a few little bits and pieces, before heading back to Siguatepeque for our last night with Amy and Anna R. That night we went to a great little local joint for dinner which was packed with Hondurans buying various different dishes, ranging from Baleadas, Tacos, or Carne Asada!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Next stop was another beautiful town of Gracias with Eleanor and Anna Diamond. Here we spent the night at a recommended hostel/hotel (was quite posh, and we realised more expensive than Eleanor had once thought!) due to Eleanor and Anna having stayed there before! The time in Gracias was much the same, doing lots of exploring and drinking coffee, whilst having the occasional Baleada (god I missed those whilst in Guatemala). In Gracias, we also witnessed an actual Wizards Duel as we were walking down the streets we saw two boys holding bin lids and ‘Roman Candle’ fireworks (these fireworks you hold in your hand as they shoot out little balls of light and sparks!). Much of the next few days was spent (mainly by me) hunting these roman candles down so that we could re-enact this wizards duel and generally make my life!! However, twas not to be as we were told that everywhere had stopped selling them due to New Years having just passed, maybe next time then! :( However, we also did visit this great castle/fort which had a lovely view of Gracias down in the valley! Was a really pretty place visited with some really great people! I also managed to have a really long skype chat with one of my best friends, Georgina Cook (:D) which was lovely as everytime we had tried to skype before the signal had been crap, anywho, was great to hear about her goings on.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We also bumped into some other volunteers that live and work with Eleanor and Anna Diamond in La Union, who were heading back that same day as we were, so we agreed to meet the next morning and sort out what was happening with bus timetables e.t.c before we headed down into La Union along a very long and bumpy road, classic of Honduras!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In La Union, we managed to see all that La Union had to offer, including some great baleadas, a wonderful school and even a Wi-Fi Tree!! These few couple of days were great as we got to visit another project and see what their life is like! Their house was great, like a proper house, really comfortable (well as comfortable as no-sofas-and-only-hammocks could be, but their school was also amazing, we even managed to sit in on a few classes and watch the very strict Miss Gibson go to work. Was amazing seeing a Bi-Lingual School in action, seriously the level of english in the 3rd grade is better than that of our ninth grade! It really does make a difference out here! No jokes, Eleanor (Miss Gibson) was teaching a 5th Grade Spelling Class and she had to teach words like Physician, Appendicitis, Tonsillitis, and Physiotherapist! BLOODY HELL!! Really ... our kids wouldn’t even know what an appendix is! Was really amazing seeing some of these kids listen and understand a whole class spoken in English! </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I really have to thank all the other Hondies who showed us around their cities and let us crash in their houses, and I hope my food was good enough to pay my way (I made a thing of cooking dinner in whosever house it was that I was crashing in). It really was great seeing the way you all live and work and I cannot wait until you all get yo’ asses out to the main tourist attraction in Honduras ... our home!! (the main tourist attraction in Honduras isn’t our house ... TRUST me ... but the island in general!) So yeah ... hurry up!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time, </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao! x</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-53276907192581715692012-02-25T20:09:00.001+00:002012-02-25T20:09:13.383+00:00Hondie New Years!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We were now on our way back into Honduras, which was in fact a very long journey! We boarded the shuttle at like 4 in the morning, and it was a very packed shuttle! Luckily Ally got a seat, and well so did I, but due to me being sat next to a very large women (who was lovely) I had to spend the whole nigh on 7 hour journey with one cheek on the seat, and the other off! Was very uncomfortable to say the least! However, we soon reached Copan, and rushed around to find somewhere to withdraw some money and also to find a bus to San Pedro Sula. However, the only bus we could find was one bound for Tela (another 2 hours past San Pedro, and so they told us that we would then have to get a bus back into San Pedro to then go on to the lake! We were so not ready to do this that we then grabbed a tuc-tuc down to the Hedman Alas bus terminal (the most expensive bus company in Honduras ... seriously ... more expensive than MegaBus in Britain!) But luckily there was a bus leaving at 2 that day, so we payed that little bit extra and had a couple of hours to kill before our lovely air conditioned bus ride to San Pedro.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When we arrived, we realised that there had been a few delays along the way so we had in fact missed all of the busses to Lago do Yajoa that day, so we had no option but to find a very cheap hotel and stay the night in a very dirty and smelly city! So out came the guide book once more and we found a very cheap hotel room, where we stayed the night, and pretty much didn’t even leave the room for fear of getting mugged, so for dinner we pretty much ran across the road to a chinese opposite where we got served a MOUNTAIN of food, which said it was only for 2 people, could feed 5, not even joking!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, the next day we arrived at Lago do Yajoa and found our way to D&D Brewery, a very nice place which serves great flavoured beer and is run by some very friendly staff! The next few days (including new years eve and day) was great fun, the day after we arrived the rest of the Hondies arrived and we all ha a great time catching up on each others travel stories and goings on in Honduras! We also managed to walk down to the canal and do some rowing (which me and Ally tried the first day we got there ... was quite hard, but we managed to get quite far!). New Year’s Eve was spent clambering up rocks behind waterfalls, running away from an owed pizza bill and making our way through the best part of 3 bottles of rum and many many tequila shots!! Was one of the best new years ever and had so much fun! The next day, for some silly reason we decided to go rowing in our very much still inebriated state, but we also did some swimming and jumping e.t.c and just generally enjoying everyone’s company! At the end of our stay at D&D we all had to pay our very high tabs, and Eleanor, Anna Diamond, Anna Ritchie and I headed to meet Amy (who headed back a couple of days before to say good bye to her boyfriend Shaun as he flew home!) in Siguatepeque .... (more to come later!)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">D&D was amazing and will definitely be remembered for a long time, only draw back was that it was quite expensive for what you got e.t.c but then after a month of trying to scrounge of everyone, was nice to have some relative luxury, and we were also the only young ones there over New Years, which was a little disappointing, but we all still had a great time and I must say a big thank you to Sarah for my secret Santa present, some great bracelets and lovely bag! Thanks fellow English Vol!! :D</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time, </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(P.s Sorry this was quite short, but trying to get all of the blogs done, so don’t expect too much detail, still have a few more to write!)</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-56308221730481339352012-02-25T20:08:00.003+00:002012-02-25T20:08:18.735+00:00A christmas abroad!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Next stop, Anitigua, we had to endure around about a 5 hour journey to Antigua, sat on a bus packed with other Guatemalans can get a bit tedious after a while, so we were glad to get off. We soon headed to Calvin’s house with himself and LIndsey, to dump our bags and have a shower e.t.c. His house was great, somehow it felt really homely and was so nice a decorated by his flatmate Alyson (from the states, a very funny a bubbly 30 year old women). Ally and I soon headed out to see Antigua during the day, and so headed in the direction of the Central Square and wandered around for a while, getting something to eat and checking out yet more markets. We also went to this really cool church near to Calvin’s House, which had these really nice gardens next to it, where you could spend the day for a little charge. The church was massive and the Gardens were really pretty with all of their ruined walls from extension plans gone wrong, .... I joke, I joke .... they are from bits of the church that have fallen down in the past, y’know ruins! You have all been there, done that, got the rock!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, later that afternoon we headed back to the house, and talked about what to do for dinner. Alyson said that she was more than happy to cook, and sent Lindsey, Calvin and Ally to the supermarket to buy supplies. She also phoned her brother (who also lives in Guatemala) to see if he wanted to come over for dinner, and had also invited this man whom she met earlier in the day, who had unfortunately been mugged the night before just outside his hostel, so Alyson felt sorry for him and invited him to the self-named ‘Dinner for Strays’.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What followed was one of the most hilarious nights I have ever had, so much fun drinking Ice Tea and Vodka, homemade enchiladas and apple crumble style dessert! Alyson and Calvin are just a comedy duo, and throw in Lindsey as well makes it so my sides were burning for about 70% of the evening. One very hilarious anecdote was when LIndsey was telling us about when she goes to the gym back home in the states, an indian women gives her a ‘foreigners nod’. She gets this nod because she is latin american and she said people often think she is foreign, but she was raised in the states. She went on about this nod for ages and had everyone in stitches as she explained what she thought was the reasoning behind this ‘You know/foreigners Nod’.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Moving on, this night was fantastic and will stick in my memory for ever, but sadly we had a reservation with earth lodge to spend christmas and had already payed the deposit, as much as we wanted to spend christmas with ‘The Strays’, we were soon on the back of a pick up truck headed up the mountain to spend 3 nights in this gorgeous eco-lodge looking over Antigua. This place was amazing, so chilled out, so pretty and met some really cool people. There was a great little sauna, and even a massive collection of DVD’s to watch whilst sitting in front of a fire! We arrived on Christmas Eve, which is the big day in Central America, so that night we had a great meal and quite a few drinks before we stayed up until midnight to watch this huge firework show in the valley below us, tell you one thing ... was very weird looking down on fireworks, really strange for some reason. Anyway, christmas day was great, Me and Ally woke up and both headed up to the communal area. We exchanged gifts, I got this great Guatemalan Cook Book (which I am still translating from spanish!) which has some really great recipes in it, can’t wait to get to uni and show off my skill at making ‘Chile Rellenos’. The rest of the day was spent just chilling around, using the sauna, watching a few DVD’s eating, drinking and marveling at the view! It was a really nice day and I even got to skype my family for a very little while, but yeah was nice, but no-where near as good as a christmas spent at home. I missed my family a great deal and wished I could be with them, but was such a day to remember for those reasons. The next day, boxing day, we headed down into Antigua for the day to spend some more time with Calvin and Lindsey, just chilling around, buying coffee, going back to chill at the really nice park/gardens and just having fun really! That night we headed back up to Earth Lodge to spend our last night in the amazing Lodge and to have some of their amazing food! Literally, this place has its own cook book because its food is complimented so much!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, the next morning, after we checked out, we jumped back in the pick up truck and headed down into Antigua once more t see if we could get out of the country and back into Honduras to go and meet the rest of the Hondies at Lago de Yajoa for New Years eve. However, when we got down into Antigua, we were just a little too late to get seats on the shuttle bus, so they told us that we had to wait until the 5am shuttle the next morning, so there we were at ‘Café Y tu Piña Tambien’ (meaning Café And your Pineapple too) asking calvin if we could crash at his place once more, to which of course he said yes, because, after all we are such lovely people to be around ... no?? ... oh rude!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That night was a very chilled one, watching movies and me cooking dinner and just generally laughing a lot once more!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All in all, I had an absolutely FANTASTIC time in Guatemala and really want to go back once more before I leave! I think I really fell in love a little bit! That country has so much culture, so much fun, and so many different places you have to go and visit! I really would recommend it to anyone, such a great place!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So till next time ...</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao (guatemala)!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-66781953783577169472012-02-04T18:03:00.000+00:002012-02-04T18:03:19.389+00:00Xela who?<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After arriving at the bus station in Quetzaltenango (a.k.a Xela ... shorter, straight to the point ... I like it!), we quickly caught a taxi and told him to take us to the black cat hostel which we had heard so much about, and read about in the Lonely Planet book. Off we went and we soon arrived at this very run down looking shop with black cat written on it. The driver assured us that this was the place (even though we had our doubts) so we went in and did some ‘talky talky’ with the women sitting inside. This in fact, turned out to be a different place, where they teach people how to weave and also offer accommodation for their students, however, in true bossy guatemalan mother style, one of the women told her son to take us to the place we wanted to go to. After a 3 minute walk we arrived in this gorgeous hostel and checked in to our dorm room (practically a private room as we were the only ones in there) and went for a wash, and were overjoyed to find very powerful and hot showers for our use! (The little things in life eh?) We soon headed out to explore and spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the main square and finding various coffee shops. We also went to the office of Quetzaltrekkers, an organisation which does various hikes and expeditions to the surrounding volcanoes and mountains. Ally therefore signed up straight away and booked to go to Tahamulco the day after next. We soon headed out for something to eat and found a great (and very busy) bar which did some of the best burgers in the world ... good find!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next day we went to Las Fuentes Georginas, these hot pools about 45 minutes away from Xela. These hot pools were amazing, we arrived quite early so for a while we were the only ones there. Originally the coolest one was pretty hot in itself, and we were reluctant to try the hotter ones. However after a while dipping our toes in and running away screaming we braved it and went into the medium level heat one, which was too much after a while, and by this point, some more people had begun to turn up and crowd our relaxing break in the pools. The biggest pool, the one we had not managed to get into was insanely hot, I am pretty sure you would be able to boil an egg in that bad boy! LIterally after not even a second dipped in the bool, my foot came out glowing with heat (and slightly burned skin!) This whole place was so relaxing and amazing, we both wished we didn’t have to go (they say traveling can be hard work ... I don’t really know what they are talking about ...), but sadly there were now quite a few people there and it began to feel really over crowded.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On returning to Xela city centre, Ally and I split up as we both needed to do a bit of Christmas Shopping and of course didn’t want to let the other person see what we had bought. So after a couple of hours shopping we headed back to the Black cat, Ally then had to set off as he had a meeting about his hike tomorrow so I settled down and watched a little bit of a film before he returned and we both heading out for a curry and an early night as he had to be up at 5 ish in the morning.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next few days were a little odd on my part as it was weird just being by myself for a couple of days. I had planned to go to all of these museums and Art Galleries (what Xela is known for) which I was really excited for, however when I turned up, all of the museums where shut due to it being near christmas, so I was quite disappointed, but did still have a good time exploring other parts of the city, getting a massage, visiting a lot of cool coffee shops and even indulging in a McDonalds (sorry ...). The second day (wednesday) I needed to go and find out how we were going to get back to Antigua and so was just looking at a map when Calvin and Lindsey walked in, guy and girl who were actually in San Pedro La Laguna watching Pulp fiction in Buddha Bar (see previous blog ... which you should have done already!), after chatting to them for a while, Calvin said he lived in Antigua and they were both headed back tomorrow as well and were about to go and buy some tickets from a bus company up the road, so I asked if I could tag along and they said yeah! So what ensued was a hilarious afternoon, getting to know Calvin and Lindsey (who are both from America, Calvin lives in Guatemala and Lindsey worked in Xela in the past and was coming back to visit and see Calvin, her BFF). These two are (still) great friends and I feel so lucky to have met them, Calvin even offered to let us crash at his place in Antigua for the night which of course I eagerly accepted and thanked him greatly for! SO we eventually bought our bus tickets and agreed to meet up the next morning.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When Ally finally returned from his hike, I had organised a little early birthday dinner (well booked a table) at this AMAZING tapas restaurant, literally the best food I have ever eaten ... ever!! (sorry mum!) So we sat at the table indulging in far too much food while we told each other about our days apart. Ally had a great time on his hike and is very glad he did it, even though did run into a little bit of trouble of the way back as they had to help pull a truck out of a ditch on the side of the road! Of course he was now very tired and so we headed back to the hostel to crash before heading to the bus stop the next morning to greet Calvin and Lindsey and head to Antigua, the ancient city of Guatemala.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time ...</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-35678993877940088192012-02-04T18:02:00.001+00:002012-02-04T18:02:09.638+00:00Lago de frickin' beautiful!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After the 9 hour shuttle bus from Lanquin to Antigua, Ally and I had to go and find a hotel to stay in for the night, we stumbled across this place which also had adverts for shuttles to Lago de Atitlan, where we wanted to be the next morning!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We booked in and recieved our key and soon headed for a nice relaxing meal out and to explore a little of Antigua. We headed out at about 7 ish, after our hotel room key broke and wasn’t working in the lock to our room. I had a major panic attack about wanting our stuff back and asking Ally to break down the doors, however, he being his usual calm self said it might be better to speak to the receptionist and see what he could do. Of course, it was the same incompetent receptionist who we spoke to earlier who actually gave us the key in the first place. So after a little bit of ‘talky talky’ he soon headed out back to go and get one of his mates who promptly came and helped him find the right key to our room and giving me sweet satisfaction of getting my bags back :D Anywho ... Ally and I had both been craving an indian for the past couple of weeks so we headed to a recommended restaurant from the Lonely Planet guide and enjoyed a very nice meal before heading out to the central square for dessert.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We woke the next morning at about 5am to board the bus to Lago de Atitlan, which took all of about 2.5 - 3 hours, so we arrived at the lake soon after sunrise and managed to see some amazing views just on the way down the mountain into our first stop on the lake, the town of Panajachel. We soon found a hostel and managed to bargain the price down before we headed down to the dock to see if we could grab a ‘tipico’ for breakfast. We were amazed by the view in front of us as we were sitting eating our refired beans, eggs, avocado, plantains and tortillas. Just looking out over this gorgeous lake with 3 volcanoes in the distance, however the view was slightly ruined by quite a large number of children coming up to us and thrusting purses and bracelets into our faces and asking us for a ridiculous amount of money for what we were actually buying, however after some fierce bartering and quite a long time, we did purchase some very nice bracelets as we had planned to get one bracelet for every location that we visited. Pretty much every morning was spent like this and throughout the days we did a variety of different things, like visiting a wildlife reserve near to the town, doing lots of market shopping and buying some of the best things I have ever seen, getting an AMAZING massage (was much needed, don’t blame me!), going to one of the biggest friday markets in my life (really a market for locals where they come and buy all of their fruit, veg and meat for the week at discount prices, some really amazing stuff, I even saw tripe and brains on one stall) and we even managed to fit in a wonderful boat tour of the lake, where we basically approached one guy on the dock and said can we do the boat tour, and he took us round the lake and let us spend about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours at a few different towns on the Lake, including San Marcos La Laguna, San Juan La Laguna (where I managed to make a mortal enemy in the form of an elderly woman who refused to give me the price I wanted for some bags until I pretty much begged her ... She gave me the biggest evils I have ever seen as I was walking out of the shop), San Pedro La Laguna (more about here to come later ...) and finally Santiago de Atitlan, where we stumbled onto the dock to be greeted with the biggest gathering of people I have ever seen in my life, literally it took me and Ally about 20 minutes to walk 100m. Apparently there was a huge church service/festival where thousands of people gather at this town on the lake (even people from as far out as El Salvador come to visit), therefore Ally and I didn’t get to do much apart from find somewhere to have some lunch and a little bit more shopping near the quieter end of the dock. This tour was fantastic as I believed we had just the right amount of time in each little town before either one of us got insanely bored and wanted to go back, plus it was great to see the Lake in so many different ways as we winged it around the outside of the lake.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">During out stay in Pana, Ally and I tried some truly amazing food, ranging from traditional Guatemalan cuisine to this amazing vietnamese restaurant, where we both sat cross legged on this raised stage like thing covered in cushions and blankets and the odd table where we managed to share a gorgeous curry and soup, was truly ‘out-of-this-world’ good. I have to say, now looking back on my time spent traveling, I do believe that Panajachel was one of my absolute favourite places and could have spent a lot longer there, just enjoying the lake, the atmosphere and the market stalls (seriously, Ally had to drag me away more than once, I mean physically drag me away ...)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After Panajachel, Ally and I headed across the lake to San Pedro, ‘<i>Gringo’</i> capitol of Guatemala, seriously this place is run by Americans and Canadians, pretty much every bar or restaurant is run by one of them. Ally and I only planned on spending just the one night here as we wanted to do this hike up a local mountain called Indians Nose (a mountain shaped like a well ... Indians Nose ... pretty self explanatory really). So when we arrived at San Pedro we checked into this hostel called Yo Mama’s (yeah ... really!) and headed out to book this hike for 3am the next morning. Therefore, we had the rest of the day to kill, so we headed to this bar called ‘El Barrio’ and took advantage of their ‘Saturday All-you-can-eat Brunch’ for only 40 Quetzals (about £3.30), I think me and Ally spent about 1.5 hours there, maybe even 2 hours, as we had course after break after course after cup of coffee after course of fruit after cup of tea, enjoying a very relaxing setting and good company. Here we also learnt about this place called Los Thermales, this family jun joint where they offer natural hot tubs within view of the lake for a very cheap flat rate, and you can use them for as long as you want, so we booked in to use these pools later in the day close to sunset and went off to find our next stop of the day. Ally went ahead to this place called La Piscina (a bar located right next to a pool) whilst I rooted out the best and cheapest massages around (of which there were many). After a very relaxing hour and a half I joined Ally at La Piscina and we chilled out there for a while, sitting in the sun with a ‘<i>cuba libre’ </i>in hand. The time soon passed by and our appointment with a hot tub was fast approaching, so we headed back to Yo Mama’s to get changed and headed out for one of the most relaxing experiences I have ever had. These really hot natural pools, right next to the lake, watching the sun set and just being in pure bliss (after nearly 5 months of cold showers, you can imagine how nice it was to finally find some hot water to bathe in!) After we managed to literally drag ourselves out of the pools, we headed to Café La Puerta for something to eat and finally got back to bed to enjoy a nights sleep before heading out on our hike the next morning!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When we awoke at half two, we headed to the agreed meeting place where we were expecting our guide to turn up at three so we settled in and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... and waited until finally at 4 AM (!!), an hour later than agreed, someone turned up, asking whether we had booked a tour, of course we said yes and he showed us the ticket he had, sadly it wasn’t us he was looking for, and soon the guy and gal he was waiting for turned up, so we asked if we could tag along with them as we really wanted to go and see the view from the mountain top. However, this guide said that we had to pay him as well, as he worked for a different company so would not get any of the money we had originally payed. Stupidly we said the actual amount that we did pay, rather than saying a cheaper number so we had to couch up again. However we were soon on a bus up to near the top of the mountain in time for sunrise above the lake. This was amazing, watching the sun poke out from between two of the three volcanoes and bathing the lake in its light was just priceless and one of the views I will never forget. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Soon after walking back to the whole way to the village we where staying in, we headed to ‘Big Foot’ the agency we had organized to do the trip with to see if we could get out money back, however to our horror it was closed and we wanted to be on our way to Xela today. So we hunted around for another travel company to see if they had the number of anyone who worked at Big Foot to see if they could come and meet us. Sadly they called and called but no-one ever turned up and they also said that as it was sunday, no busses would be traveling anyway, so it looked like me and Ally were here for one more night! The rest of the day was spent chilling out, walking round town, going to La Piscina once more to go to their famous sunday BBQ for lunch (and in fact dinner as the portions where so huge we both couldn’t eat it all and asked to take it with us (which everyone does)) and when night came around, we went to a place called Buddha Bar to chill out watching one of their free films, tonight Pulp Fiction (YES!!) Such a great film and was made even better watching it in such a great location.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next morning we headed to Big Foot once more and they were so sorry that we had been messed about so much that they were more than happy to give us our money back and couldn’t apologize enough, they said that the reason our guide didn’t turn up was that he had probably been drinking the night before and couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed, and that now he will probably be fired for his stupidity!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Soon after we each had our money back in our hand we headed to the bus stop to catch the 11am bus to Quetzaltenango, just to finish I will say that this was one of the most horrible bus rides I had ever been on, I cannot tell you how many times I flew off my seat as we went over a particularly big bump on the very bumpy road! </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time ...</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-31442483352539219452012-02-04T18:00:00.001+00:002012-02-04T18:00:55.665+00:00Semuc Champey! Go there ...<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After Guatemala City, Me and Ally joined Cindy and her two friends, Gela and Maria, on their way up to a town called Lanquín where the beautiful national park of Semuc Champey resides just about 10 km away. With the recommendations from Manuel (see previous blog post) we had luckily booked into a place called Zephyr Lodge, this beautiful lodge, where apparently they had bought a hill and placed cabins on the top of it, so it literally does have a 360 degree view of its surroundings. The ride up to Lanquín was long and tiresome and had quite a few changes along the way, however, we soon arrived at about 5 ish and checked in, luckily we had Manuel call this place up for us yesterday and make us a reservation, as we got the last two beds available, which were two mattresses up in the attic above the staff room and the restaurant. Anyway, our first impressions of this place where amazing, literally beautiful, surrounded by luscious forest and run by some of the nicest people we had ever met. The night we got there, they informed us that there was to be a trivia night, so Ally and I eagerly signed up, along with the other 3 girls and later that night, after a beautiful dinner and quite a few drinks during their happy hour, we were divided up into teams along with everyone else there that night and enjoyed a great evening of drinking and getting to know everyone through some healthy competition. Eventually, it came down to a tie break between two teams, of course one of which was mine, and the winners were decided by who could chug down a beer the fastest, and one of the members in my team eagerly stepped up and managed to drink his beer quicker than the other guy ... YEAH!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, waking up the next morning, Ally and I signed up to take part in the tour to the national park Semuc Champey and explore their famous pools and caves. After about a 45 minute journey along a very bumpy road, standing up in the back of a truck, we arrived at the park and parked up in front of this great view of a river with a path on the right. We were told to walk down the path and drop our stuff off at the office and walk down a little bit further until we reached a giant rope swing over the river. Our guide told us that we should all try it, but obviously we didn’t have to, however after standing on the edge for a few minutes and watching a few other swing before me, I managed to push myself off of the edge and swing out over the river and luckily let go in time to fall into the deepest part of the river ... few .... safe!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Shortly after the rope swing, we walked up a flight of stairs to this cave system where we were handed a candle and then our guide came around a lit them all, and told us to get into the cave system. He led us through this amazing cave system where stalactites and stalagmites where everywhere and bats were flying over our heads ( ... :O ... ), we had to clamber over different rock formations, climb up rock faces with water pounding down on our head, and even swim through deep ‘lagoon’ type pools all the while trying to keep our candle alight so that we can see. This experience was amazing, trying to clamber through this maze of rock, and all the while marveling at these amazing formations as well as having fun trying to keep the candle above the water so that we could see where we are going!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Soon after exiting the caves and letting our retinas adjust to the normal amount of light, we walked back to the office, picked up our stuff and walked back up to where the jeep dropped us off, turned to the right and walked across this huge bridge where we stopped half way across and our guide told us that we could jump off if we wanted to, this huge 12m drop was just a little too much for the rest of us, however, this one guy, called Matt (from London) managed to jump off and after coming back up, reassured us that it was fun, however we were still all a little bit too scared! Next up we had a 30 minute walk up a massive flight of stairs up to the top of this mountain to a look out point above the amazing Semuc Pools, this wonderful place where a river hit a bed of (i think) limestone and formed these pools, of varying depth, which descend at different levels (kind of like steps) until they reach the river which just appears again at the bottom after it disappeared at the top. The pools were relatively still, so therefore we knew the river didn’t flow over the top so it was even more fascinating to see the river appear again. These pools were just like paradise pools really, a beautiful blue, surrounded by luscious forest and the sun just dappling through the trees. One of the best experiences I have ever had, and utterly relaxing, it was a horror when our guide then said it was time to go home, and we had to board the truck again and prepare for another bumpy journey on our way back to zephyr lodge. That night was just a nice chilled out evening, chatting with Matt and his mate Gregg (both from london) who were flying home in about 4 days and just asking them about their time in central america and where they had travelled previously. We just sat there that night enjoying the view and the sunset as we had to get up relatively early the next morning to be in time for the shuttle bus to Antigua, where we planned an overnight stay before we headed on to our next stop, Lago do Atitlan ...</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-43586037969033517292012-01-20T20:31:00.003+00:002012-01-20T20:31:47.418+00:00Getting to Guate (aka Guatemala City!)<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So after our 3 days in Copan, we booked a place on a small shuttle bus headed for Guatemala City, so we got on board at 6am and tried to enjoy the 5 hour bumpy journey in a minivan. Traveling by bus really doesn’t bother me that much when I think about it, I just can’t stand it when everyone is cramped on into one great big bus, when I have a little bit of space, I am happy, but to be honest, in these minivans the seat are so close together that no one really has space regardless of where they sit!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, when we arrived in Guatemala city we were dropped off at this restaurant called ‘Los Antojitos’ where we ended up having breakfast after calling our hostel and arranging for someone to come and pick us up from ‘Quetzalroo’. So shortly afterwards, our lift arrived and it was packed with other travelers as Quetzalroo hostel had just finished their city tour and were on their way back when they came to pick us up. So we soon arrived at the hostel and were greeted by one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in, run by such a nice family and everyone their knows their stuff about where to go and what to do! We asked Manuel (the man who runs this joint, who also looks like a guatemalan Jack Black) what we should do whilst in the city and he gave us this map and pointed out the locations of a few museums and other such places and even a great restaurant that we should go to. So Ally went ahead to all the museums and I went around to explore and do some shopping as I wasn’t really in a museum-y kind of mood, so we agreed to meet at this restaurant later in the evening for a bite to eat. However, with me not being the greatest man to trust for directions, I soon got lost in amongst their ‘<i>calle y avenida’</i> system, much like New York’s block system, but different due to the fact that not every single avenue or street is signposted, anyway, it transpired that I was actually about half an hour late for when we arranged to meet for dinner. After a very big apology and finding out about each others day we had an early dinner and headed back to the hostel (about an 8 minute walk away), we then decided that we should go out for a drink or something and make the most of Guatemala City’s <i>Zona Viva</i>, however when we were walking down the street, we were very shocked to find out that we couldn’t get a taxi to stop for us, so we were waiting and trying to get one to stop for about 10 - 15 minutes before we went back inside to ask if Manuel could call one for us, however he said that a big group of them were all heading out for something to eat at the restaurant we went to earlier and that we should tag along, which of course we did, and just sat and had a beer or two.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This dinner was great as we got to know everyone staying at the hostel and also got to know some of the staff really well. We met a great australian couple called Mitch and Claire and also an american girl called Cindy. All seem really cool and such great people. One of the best things about traveling is just meeting so many different people and hearing everyone’s different stories, about where they started, where they are going, what was their favourite place e.t.c, and even just bonding over the fact that everyone is doing roughly the same thing as each other. So after dinner we headed out to a bar and had a few beers in a very overly packed bar, where all (i think) 7 of us were squished onto this one table at the very back of the bar, oh well, still very enjoyable ... even more enjoyable when we got up to leave and got a taxi and managed to fit all of us into this one cab which normally held about 4 people, including the driver! Quite a feat I may say!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next day we organised to go on the ‘<i>Peligroso Tour’</i>, Quetzalroo’s city tour, which takes us through the old section of the city, through some central parks and into the best market I have ever been to. This thing was about 2 floors, and about the size of a football pitch! Massive! We even stopped at one of Manuel’s favourite food stalls where he made everyone try traditional Guatemalan cuisine, starting at level 1. Of course Ally and I are not ones to turn down a challenge, so we went all the way up to level 3 (the highest) and during our time we tried fried pigs stomach, liver and ‘<i>Chile Rellenos’</i> (a sort of stuffed pepper like thing, with meat, onion and pepper all chopped up into a ball and put into a batter type thing ... actually now one of my favourite things I ate whilst traveling, these things are all over guatemala!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, we spent the rest of the day just chilling out, watching some much missed TV with the rest of the hostel and even having a roof top party whilst watching some amazing fireworks (for the guatemalan equivalent of KFC’s 50th birthday, this place is called Pollo Campero), and eating some amazing Guatemalan Hot Dogs whilst chilling (and trying to warm up) in my newly purchased PONCHO!! Yeah baby, a proud and happy owner at last! This night was great and I wish I could relive it, hopefully if I get the chance to go back once again. Sadly there isn’t really any pictures of Guatemala City as I really didn’t want to take out my iPhone as we had heard that ‘<i>Guate’</i> (aka) is very dangerous and don’t even bother taking out anything expensive!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-16398758255463519312012-01-20T20:31:00.001+00:002012-01-20T20:31:10.601+00:00Getting Started and Copan Ruinás!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, it was December the 5th and we awoke very early in the morning, very excited so we would be able to reach the ferry port in time for the 7am ferry. Our journey started, having to climb over the school gates with our bags, and being attacked by some dogs on the walk down the road. A bit of a dodgy start, not gonna lie ... but hopefully things could only get better right?? Oh Hells Yeah!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This whole day was spent on busses, waiting for busses and buying coffee to keep us going. After the ferry we had to get a bus to San Pedro Sula (one of many stops here on our travels!) which took about 5 hours, grabbed some lunch before then taking a bus to Copan Ruinás, another 7ish hours due to the very bumby and windy roads through the mountains, which meant, we didn’t really get to Copan until about 7 o’clock at night, where we managed to bargain down the price of a private room as the man had promised us some dorms beds, but all of the dorm rooms were full! Go us, so our first stop of the holiday was spent in relative luxury for a traveller in one of the most gorgeous towns ever!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Copan Ruinás is a very quaint little town, filled with cobbled streets and little cafes surrounding a beautiful central square. The next few days were amazing, spent time visiting Macaw Mountain, a great little bird sanctuary in a coffee plantation, where they had macaws and parrots and all sorts of other birds, some of which you could even hold, which of course we did (Macaws are actually pretty heavy, and when you had three on you at once, with your arms out, can get a bit tiresome ... i’m not weak! ... I promise!). We also of course visited the famous ruins, and had the pleasure of having a great guide who claimed to have discovered half of the ruins himself, and even claimed to have about 5 different degrees in everything ranging from Anthropology to Mayanology (????), anyway, he was very funny and we had a great tour around the site, which was amazing! Everything was spectacular, these structures were huge and just looked like something built out of Alien Vs. Predator ... kind of got a bit scared when I saw the sacrificial room full of slimy eggs ... just kidding!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some of the nights in Copan where definitely enjoyable, always walking around trying to find somewhere to eat for the night, we stumbled across some great places. Places that had back packer specials ($8 for a 3 course dinner), some great ‘<i>tipico’</i> or ‘<i>asada’</i> (traditional or typical food, and grilled meat respectively), but one of the best places we came across (well, Ally came across really) was when we were approached by a local women on the street asking us if we had heard about the german restaurant in town, and saying that she could take us there, However, myself and Mageli (a girl we had met and spent the past couple of days with, and who had become a very good friend) needed to head back to the hotel to drop off some shopping or something, so Ally subtly passed me his remaining money and camera, for fear of being accosted by this women and came back from his venture raving about this place, and saying that it had its own brewery and that the man who ran in, Thomas, was pretty much a mad scientist, inventing all of these different flavoured beers every night to sell to his customers. Anywho, we all agreed to head back there later for a meal and we were lucky to have some great traditional german food and were surrounded by some great company, people from all over the world, there was even a BRIT!! A girl from bristol who I became immediate friends with due to the connection of us being from the same country. The evening continued as we had more and more of this mad scientist’s home brewed beer (not actually that bad!) and eventually we were both quite drunk as we stumbled back into our hotel room and crashed!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Copan was just amazing and I really don’t want to bore you with everything we did, will save that for when I return, but I will just say that one of the weirdest moments was while eating breakfast in their central market, an old local man came and sat next to us and started to talk to us about Sophocles’ philosophies (in spanish I might add), of course, we were both quite startled and didn’t really know how to reply, apart from the classic nod of the head whilst saying ‘Sí, Sí’. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If anyone gets the opportunity to visit this place ... DO!! Some honestly great food, surrounded by fantastic scenery and some very nice shopping to be had, only slight down turn is that there is of course a lot of ‘gringos’ there, due to it being Honduras’ second biggest tourist attraction, which also means it is a little expensive for a travellers budget, but you can really overlook that fact when surrounded by such a beautiful place and such friendly people!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-58613221981767032252011-11-19T19:48:00.002+00:002011-11-19T19:48:37.562+00:00100 days!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hey guys, just thought I would write a post explaining what happened on our 100th day in Paradise ... I mean Punta Gorda.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, it was a Friday, Friday the 18th November and Ally and I decided we would make the walk up to Marble Hill Farms to see if we could go diving and finish our PADI Open Water diver course! We woke early and set off on the half an hour walk to the resort. We headed down to the dock and met our instructor Pol, who took us through what we would be doing that day, last two confined dives and our final open water dive. We did the confined dives first, doing skills such as swimming for 15 metres without a mask on (quite weird, I couldn’t focus on breathing and panicked! woops!) and the hover technique and also removing the scuba unit underwater. Both Ally and I completed these with minimal difficulty and so we got out of the water, had a cup of tea and some cookies while Pol briefed us on the upcoming open water dive.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We soon headed out on the boat and geared up and back rolled in, I will never get used to that first moment when you hit the water and look down and just see this whole new world beneath you! We started to head down in the water, but as I had had a cold the past few days, and my ears are quite sensitive to pressure anyway, it took me quite a while to reach the bottom, but I did get to have a good look around, seeing massive schools of fish and a couple of big jellyfish floating around. When you make your way down in the water, you have to equalize your ears to the pressure, otherwise they feel like they are going to explode! But because mine have been a bit blocked lately, this a long time, well until they eventually popped quite hard and it hurt a fair amount (however, now a day later and one of them is still a little blocked, going to get some decongestants later today - advice from our instructor!) but anyway, the pain soon disappeared and I got to enjoy the dive, seeing some huge groupers and swimming through a small canyon in the coral (feeling like I was swimming in a cave), as always, diving is just great and it was even better knowing that after this one, we would be able to dive anywhere in the world, without having to do any skills or anything, and just enjoying the swim. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When we surfaced, Pol said those great words ‘Congratulations guys, welcome to PADI’, Ally and I both turned to each other with the biggest smiles we have ever had, after returning to shore, we headed up to the office to sort out some final paper work and get our temporary PADI cards (enabling us to dive anywhere, while our real cards are sent home). After sorting out everything and saying thanks (and getting told that we get two free dives with Marble Hill Farms ... :D ) we headed to get something to eat at the restaurant called ‘The Crows Nest’ where we ate nachos, philly cheese steaks and angus burgers (philly cheese steaks are the best things ever! haha) after this we sat and admired the view before we began the walk home. When we got home we both just crashed as we were so tired (after getting up quite early) and both went for a late ciesta (at about 5 ish) thinking we would wake up before having to go to Mary Lou’s for dinner at 7, however, I was woken with Ally flicking on my light and saying, it is 8:15 .... WHAT!! bloody hell!! haha</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We got dressed and headed down to Mary Lou’s to see if she was still able to give us something to eat ... well we were in luck! haha Apparently, it wasn’t the first time that to volunteers have fallen asleep and missed dinner! haha We enjoyed a nice meal of rice, fried plantains, and sausage before we came back and chilled out with a good film and some music! (obv not at the same time!) </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, we both agreed that this was a great 100th day and both of us cannot believe how quickly these days have gone, 100 already!! :O Almost a third, unbelievable! But they have been the absolute best 100 day of my entire life! Cannot wait for the next 258 days! lol (we are flying back a week before the date we arrived!) </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hope you guys have had just as good a time as I have, well probs not, but anyway, hope you are all good and happy!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao! </span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-55692480195558789932011-11-12T20:20:00.001+00:002011-11-12T20:20:21.286+00:00The Many sides to teaching!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hey again, I know I am becoming a bit lazy with these lately and I do promise to try and blog more often, but the truth of it is, that after a long day, I just want to crash down with a movie, and not have to sit there and write! However, I am going to try really hard from now on.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So here goes ...</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This week is coming up to the end of the 4th Parcial (term) and of course everyone needs to do exams, so I look at my mark sheet for every class that I teach and ... “Shit, I have hardly done any tests!” I say to a calm as ever Ally as he is mulling over his mark sheets. I therefore whack out my teachers planner and plan nearly two weeks worth of lessons to see if I can cram in revision sessions and tests into one week. Turns out I could, but only being seriously cruel to some of my kids, like 2 tests in a week and a homework sheet, haha. Glad I didn’t have me as a teacher! But as ever, the weather decided to put a dampener on things and rained off two days worth of these plans, so I had to scrap the revision session and just pop in during one of their other lessons and tell them there was going to be a test, and have an unscheduled class on one other day (the classes here have like no timetable to them, so we can pretty much turn up when we want and give a class!).</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So here I was planning like mad, and making up so many draft tests in this little note book I found, about 3 different spelling tests and 4 different exams, luckily there were some worksheet books in the house from past volunteers, so some of the work load was lifted a bit for the younger years with the help of ‘Activity Packs for Young Learners - Pupil’s Pack - Delta Publishers’ (cheers guys, I can always rely on you!). Luckily none of my students complained too much, it is just hard to get them all where you want them at one time, there is quite often a couple of students missing, so I then have to schedule a re-sit test for those that missed it during break, but of course, not all of them turn up, so have to do it again until I get far to frustrated and just say no! </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is all great, because I don’t actually have to teach and just walk around the class while they are racking their brains on how to translate and spell the word ‘Baloncesto’ (answer at bottom of page) and look over their shoulder at how they are doing, oh and also laugh to myself at the cunning of some of my students and to what lengths some will go to “hide” the fact that they are cheating, like one guy saying he needs a book to lean on, and me turning round to see that he is in-fact opening this book instead of leaning on it, or another having their english book open inside of their bag on their chair, and the pretend to be tired to lean on their arm and have a cheeky look inside, or as Ally describes one of his kids leaning over and very un-subtly pulling a folded up piece of paper out of his top packet and passing it in-front of his face and very noisily putting it back into his pocket, only to repeat the process for the next question!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But as always, with a mountain of exams, comes a mountain of marking. Me and Ally had to sit there for a good 2 - 3 hours, while we ticked and crossed every single paper we had. The next day, we were accosted by our students asking for their marks and papers back, and whether or not they would have to come back into school on the weekend to do ‘recuperación’ (basically where they sit one other exam and if they pass that, they pass the year, hardly fair I know, but still, these kids do have a few screws loose!)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, I may sound as if am moaning quite a bit, but I do love it all, and it hit me the other day how much of a teacher I have become when I stood at the front of the class and waited there with my arms crossed for silence! haha</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Till next time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P.s - one thing that does scare me is angry parents! Especially when one of them is the deputy head!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-524774427820721961.post-42076761974603558402011-11-12T20:19:00.004+00:002011-11-12T20:19:59.493+00:00Meet with friends, break the law and have a few drinks to celebrate!<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well the first three months have been and gone by, flew by so quickly (cannot believe I am already a quarter of the way through my time here, and only 1 month away from being a 1/3rd of the way through!!), and due to it being 3 months already, this meant our Visa was running out, so we needed to do some traveling to get it renewed so we could live in honduras (legally) for another 3 months.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Previously, we had heard so many different rumours about what we had to do, ranging from you have to travel outside of the ‘Central-4’ (guatemala, el salvador, honduras, nicaragua) for at least 3 nights to you can travel into guatemala for just 2 hours and then head back in. We didn’t really know what to do, so we decided we would prepare for the worst. All we knew about this before heading off, was that we had to at least leave the country, and it was going to cost (previous volunteers have had to spend up to about £200) but it is something we have to do, so we weren’t to worried about that, also we were getting to meet up with one of the other volunteers that we hadn’t seen before, Sarah who lives in a town near to La Ceiba, called Tela.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We got up quite early on the friday morning to catch the ferry, and got on a bus pretty much straight away to meet Sarah in San Pedro Sula, the transport capital of Honduras. We arrived just after 1, after nearly a 4 hour journey looking at all of the mountains passing my window, and also managing to buy a Milkyway Caramel at the stop station (like my 2nd bit of chocolate here, was SO GOOD!!). When we arrived we sat down in the bus station and had a coffee at our favourite place, Espresso Americano (could be better than starbucks ... no I am not joking!) and waited for Sarah to arrive.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When she did, we quickly got on the bus to a town called Puerto Cortes, where we would then change to another bus to a town called Omoa, where we would be spending the night. This journey was great, catching up with each other about how we were all getting on, and how much we are loving life out here!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The night in Omoa was really nice, found a really nice little restaurant which served some great food, even Sarah’s ‘Chicken Fingers’ (only nuggets) were pretty good (or so she says), we then went and sat in one of the many beach bars and had a couple of drinks and chilled out for a while, before a very early start the next morning and lots more travelling!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We caught a very early bus from Omoa to a place called Frontera (the guatemalan border) where we had to walk into the immigration office and explain what we wanted to find out, and explain that we had to get back as quickly as possible as we had exams to do e.t.c, and as being the best spanish speaker among us (well probably not the best, but the most willing to try and make a fool of myself) the task fell to me to interpret what this man was saying. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Turns out the government over here is pretty underhand!!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Only had to pay this man $50 each to be allowed into guatemala and then back out again within an hour .... or so we thought!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We walked over the border line and saw a run down duty free shop (gutted it wasn’t open, was looking forward to a giant toblerone) and hopped on the bus to the guatemalan immigration office. Here we were met by a man who said we also had to pay him 200 quetzals (about $35) to be allowed back into honduras this same day! I even asked whether this was a flat rate which the law dictates we can pay to which he replied ‘No, just me. The law doesn’t know!)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">WHAT .... Yeah, I am now officially an illegal immigrant people! (where is my grande party ... oh wait ... I am supposed to be lying low ... sorry! .. ssh!)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well we all decided to pay it anyway, as we needed to get back and it would have been cheaper than paying for 3 nights stay and food and drink, however, something good did come of this, we were told there is an immigration on our island, so we don’t need to go all of the way to guatemala next time, however there is still a little doubt because surely 10 years of past volunteers would have found this out already! </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we decided to have breakfast in Guatemala and spend the rest of our Quetzals and then head back to Sarah’s town to relax and explore Tela.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Tela was great, but we were all absolutely shattered after such a long day of traveling so much and spending hours on rickety buses crowded with people, however we still managed to find the energy to go out with some of Sarah’s american friends and have a good night of fun in a new city! Living the life of the traveller eh??</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well the next morning, I think we found a new meaning to the word tired and exhausted, especially after we had to cycle into town on 3 old bikes, all with flat tyres and one a lot worse than the others! Anyway, we explored Tela a bit with Sarah and had a look around the Sunday Market (didn’t buy anything, all a tad expensive!) and then Ally and I decided to head back to catch the afternoon ferry back to Roatan, and continue our exams with our students after a nights sleep of 12 hours, however Ally woke up and was very ill so didn’t manage to get much teaching done, so all the other teachers, including me (if I had time during my classes) helped out as much as we could. It also turns out that word spread quickly hear in punta gorda, becuase every single teacher we met was asking how he was and offering us soup or some other kind of medication or health advice, even though we had told just our head teacher!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But, all is well that ends well, Ally is feeling great now, all our exams have been finished and there is only ‘recuperación’ left to do.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, till next time,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ciao!</span></div>twright11http://www.blogger.com/profile/17384553775239169539noreply@blogger.com0