Getting to Guate (aka Guatemala City!)

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!

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 ‘calle y avenida’ 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 Zona Viva, 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.

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!

The next day we organised to go on the ‘Peligroso Tour’, 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 ‘Chile Rellenos’ (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!

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 ‘Guate’  (aka) is very dangerous and don’t even bother taking out anything expensive!

Getting Started and Copan Ruinás!

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!!

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!

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!!

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 ‘tipico’ or ‘asada’ (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!

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’. 

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!

100 days!

Hey guys, just thought I would write a post explaining what happened on our 100th day in Paradise ... I mean Punta Gorda.

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.

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. 

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

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!) 

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!) 

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!

Till next time,

Ciao! 

The Many sides to teaching!

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.

So here goes ...

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!).

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! 

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!

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!)

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

Till next time,

Ciao!

P.s - one thing that does scare me is angry parents! Especially when one of them is the deputy head!

Meet with friends, break the law and have a few drinks to celebrate!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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. 

Turns out the government over here is pretty underhand!!

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!

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!)

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!)

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! 

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.

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??

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!

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.

So, till next time,

Ciao!

A slice of Home!

Well, well, well, the rainy season has truly begun! My word, when they say it rains, it bloody rains here! haha

To be honest Ally and I had been a little bit disappointed with a so called rainy season here, after we had enjoyed some of the hottest days yet, and even managed to top up our tan (not that we needed it, just that y’know when it starts to get cold, tanning potential takes a serious hit, we need all that we can get before that happens, so that we don’t turn back into ‘white tourists’ (or gringo’s as they are known here)), so come one wednesday morning, we wake up to find the school playground flooded and the roads turned into pretty much a river, we were satisfied with the ‘rainy season’ at last. It was mental how much rain there was, it went on for hours without even a hint of it stopping, we couldn’t even walk down the steps into school with out getting soaked. The playground was just a sea of brown, muddy water (think of the chocolate river from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, and no ... I did not take a sip and get sucked up the giant big tube, my name is not Augustus Gloop!). I had to resort to teaching in my crocs (which I inherited from the previous volunteer, and boy are they a life saver) which wasn’t actually all that weird, because everyone wears them out here (Megs!!) so I don’t look that weird, and it was super comfy, but because of the rain, only about half the class was here so I just played a few games and found out that Honduran kids are rather good at cheating, and that english volunteer teachers are rather bad at stopping it!

Any-who, Ally and I thought this was it for the rain for a couple of weeks, but our hopes were dashed when we say Jami and Ed (two canadians who live in the next village over, and who help the school so much) said that another tropical storm was on its way and would hit on the weekend, great!!

Anyway, to combat the rainy days, we had bought one of those cake mixes that you just add water and eggs to to and bake for the perfect ‘America’s favourite recipe’ cake! So we popped over to see Karen (who had arrived back about a week ago) to see if we could use  her oven (as we seem to lack one) and do some baking (for ourselves this time, each cake we have baked previously, we have given away, we kind of want to try one! haha, gotta love a bit’o cake!). She agreed and let us wreak havoc on her kitchen! When we returned home, the jumble sale at the school (which we had helped organise the day before, pricing up items and things) had got underway, so we decided to take a look, and we managed to get a 1000 piece puzzle to complete for about a pound. This was such a good buy as it brought back many memories of my mum getting so into a puzzle at home that she would sometimes forget to cook for us or even run us to school (this was a joke, but she used to get really into them, well we all did really, never knew why, we aren’t even the brightest of families!) and I could just see myself working on this puzzle night in, night out, and forgetting to get up and go teach! haha

All of these things, the rain, the cake, the puzzle brought back some good memories of home, ones that I will cherish, but what brought back the biggest memory of them all was that, for the first time I have been out here, the temperature dropped below 25 degrees and I had to wear a jumper. It was cold!!!! 

And on that bombshell ...

Till next time,

Ciao! 

Marley and Me

This has been one of the BEST days of my life ... so far! Today, Ally and I started our Open Water PADI diving course, now to anyone who hasn’t been certified, do it! It is incredible, one of the best things I have ever done, and I can never see myself getting bored with it! 

We had a walk up to Marble Hill Farms, only about 40 minutes, in the morning after I had a (very) small class of 4 students, who decided to take up the opportunity to come to the saturday class, anyway, when we arrived, we were greeted by 3 pretty big dogs, all barking at us as we came up to road ... oh shit!! They were quite scary, until I remembered that I have dogs, and (hopefully) know how to behave around them, calm and collected .... well this sort of worked, we managed to arrive at the dive centre with only about 4 fingers missing off each hand ...... ok only one finger .... ok none, the dogs were really friendly and happy (brought back so many memories of my dogs, Dino and Olli) but I thought I would try and impress you peeps with a fight section in my soon to be novel (now just this silly old blog, to be honest I doubt anyone actually reads, so I think I am just talking to my computer screen!) Anyway, we were met at the door by a spanish man called, Pol, (I know weird name, does he like taking part in polls or what?) who had long sun bleached hair and a big moustache and beard, and about 32 years old. We said we were teachers in Punta Gorda and that we were looking to start our PADI course, we had emailed him before, so he knew what we were on about e.t.c. So we were only expecting to sign up today and do a little bit of theory, and paper work and start up a schedule that we could work to on when we could come back and dive and all the other cool stuff, so after we went into his office, he turned to us and said ‘So do you guys want to dive today?’ ... Urrr ... YEAH! Me and Ally just looked at each other with the best excited expression anyone could muster in the world, (we think we will partake in the Olympics with our faces) so he got out the PADI dive packs, which have the manuals and other bits of paperwork that we needed to fill out so that he could register us online.

So before actually diving, we had to watch a video which explained our first confined dive and the equipment that we would use, obviously with our heads being full of excitement, none of this went in, but we walked down to the dock and checked out all of the other equipment for real and got ‘suited up’ as he explained the exercises we would be doing and the skills me needed to master before going on any further, these included clearing your mask of water whilst underwater, taking out your regulator (breathing mouthpiece thingy) and then putting it back in underwater, sharing someone’s secondary regulator incase you run out of air and all of the various signals that go with these activities. This in itself was insane, and mind blowingly cool, so we were literally vibrating with excitement ....  urrr .... or was it the coldness of underwater ... I dunno. Pol (and his girlfriend, Ingrid, who had come diving with us) then told us that we would go and explore the bay a bit underwater, we were already darting off before he finished his sentence! This next 35 minutes of getting used to the equipment and seeing wild Lion Fish, Arrow Crabs, Jellyfish, Huge Starfish and countless other species of underwater life was the best thing I and Ally have done to date, and knowing that there are even better places to go and dive just off our shores made our eagerness just grow and grow. We then got out of the water after completing our first confined dive (which they do in the bay and not a pool as it is near enough exactly the same conditions and so much more fun) and went back inside to talk about the rest of the course and have some lunch that they had cooked (Ceviche of lion fish, which is basically when it is cut up very thinly and cooked in lemon juice, then added to peppers, onions, garlic and tomato and a whole host of other spices, then served on toast. This was also great, and tasted phenomenal!) and also organise when we would next be back. Pol, then gave us the DVD that we had to watch so we could do it at home and hopefully get completed much quicker, we said our goodbyes and headed back up the road. 

At the top of the road, there was a restaurant, which was closed when we arrived, but now open and glowing in the sunshine at the top of a great big hill, with the best view ever, and the dogs (one of which was called Marley) were happily playing here with the people that run it, so we decided to get a drink and a plate of Nachos to share and sit here enjoying the sun, breeze and view after one of the greatest days ever, accompanied by the very playful dogs, which we were stroking and playing with as (well I certainly) missed our own pets and wanted some of that canine company. 

This day was just perfect and ever since we have just been thinking about doing our ‘homework’ and finishing/diving as much as we can so we can explore so much more of the island. I really do urge anyone to get there certification, even if it just on holiday, you have so much fun and only a little bit of theory is required (normally the whole course lasts about 3 - 4 days, depending on how quickly you work) and you have the best time, plus the PADI certificate is recognized all over the world.

I hope you enjoy the pictures below and till next time,

Flowers surrounding Marble Hill Farms

Ally and the hounds

Marley!!

The Mother of Marley!

The amazing view from the restaurant.

Truly relaxed!

Ciao!

A Familiar Face

This week, we had a visit from our lovely Desk Officer, Jen. This was so nice to see someone from Project Trust and also (as she was visiting our project last) to hear about how all of the others were getting on, which we have been reassured are all doing great and loving their year as much as we are.

This visit, was also a chance to air any problems we had with out project/each other/ or just in general, not that there were any, but nice to have the chance. Anyway, it was Jen’s birthday the thursday that she was here, and so as a surprise, Ally and I had baked a cake to take to Mary Lou’s (for it was her husband Rolando’s birthday the monday before) to have a bit of a celebration and to welcome her to Punta Gorda.

The next day, she came and visited our school and watched us teach some lessons (unfortunately, I had to teach my second grade year, which are just terrors, to the point which their actual teachers (after being on the phone in my class for 15 minutes turned to Jen and said they were the worst class in the school ... fantastic!), and we also had to speak to Profa Elena, and sort out some shit that had been going down between her and Mary Lou. This was the day of her birthday, so whenever we introduced her to one of the other teachers at the school, she received great big hugs and kisses, to which she was very grateful! One time, we even received a cup of rice pudding (that wasn’t someone that just doesn’t know the niceties of a greeting, Profa Joyce was working in the kitchen at the time). Anyway, Jen seemed to have a great day and I really hope she did, as she brought us so many nice things, that we just can’t/haven’t got out here, like cookies, croissants, proper orange juice (although to be fair she bought them out here, I guess we just haven’t seen them) and also a couple of bars of Cadbury’s Chocolate, and my faves as well, caramel and milk. SOOO good, can’t thank her enough. She also gave us some of our post that she had picked up for us (I guess she was kind of like a Mrs Claus, coming for a visit for one night and bringing lots of gifts.) of which I received a package from my family containing a couple of packets of Haribo and some games I had requested, however, I was a bit distraught not to get a letter of some kind ... nice to know I am loved! haha

Just kidding, although would be nice to know you cared!  ..... haha

Any who, we later had a long journey to West End once again to go out for dinner with Jen for her birthday, which we both really hoped she enjoyed, as we certainly did, and we would just like to say a big thanks for your visit as it really lifted our spirits, not that they were not high anyway!

So a big thanks and shout out to Jen this week, and well all of the Project Trust staff as we also got our first monthly circular from the office with various bits of news and things on, which we really enjoyed reading! THANKS GUYS!!

Till next time,

Ciao!

A trip to to the West End ... of the island, not to catch a show!

Well this weekend, as me and Ally found out last week that we have no classes on monday, we decided to head to the west end to see if it was all it was cracked up to be, as it has quite the reputation of being a part town, and full off ‘gringos’ or foreigners to the rest of you. Now this prospect was a weird one to Ally and me, because as of late, we have come to staring at any other white people that seem to make their way to Punta Gorda, thinking that we ourselves are Garifuna and blend into the community, when in actual fact, the other foreigners are probably thinking that we are just out to check out the best Garifuna village on the island as well. 

Any way, I will tell you what we actually planned on doing first, when we were in La Ceiba, we had seen an advert for a place called Roatan Backpackers, located in Sandy Bay (about 10 mins from West End) so we were looking to stay there as it sounded great and was quite cheap, so got into a taxi and said Sandy Bay, so off we went, and when we arrived and said drop us off at Roatan Backpackers, the taxi driver just looked utterly confused and said that he had never heard of that place .... Uh Oh!!

We decided to be dropped off at a local resort in Sandy Bay (one that had dolphin shows) and ask around there to see if this place still existed or not, so we headed into the Gift Shop and politely asked the worker if she had any idea of this place we had planned to spend our weekend (in spanish, a’thankyou!, to which she replied, ‘I speak fluent English’, great, so let me just wobble on for 4 minutes embarrassing myself, loving her already!) but sadly this came to no avail and so we were forced to catch another cab down the road to west end and see if we could find a place to stay. We stumbled upon this old looking place called Valeries, which was, I have to say, one of the grimiest places, but very cheap (about £8 a night for the two of us, not bad) so we thought we would brave it and make the most of it. So after we settled in, we headed out for something to drink and to hit the many souvenir shops they had on the street, this is when the heavens then opened and pretty much a monsoon started raining down upon us, this lasted all night and so all through dinner and a (fairly good) night out we were getting very wet every time we had to make a trip to the next bar. But this wasn’t a bad thing as we ended up in one bar and pulled the old ‘we’re volunteer teachers in Punta Gorda’ line, which managed to get us a few free drinks, not complaining about the rain now! Anyway, the rain continued all though the night and was still pouring the next morning, however, we really wanted to head back to Sandy Bay to see if we could catch one of the Dolphin Shows at Anthony’s Key Resort, after another cab ride, we arrived in more rain and were told that the show was cancelled ... CANCELLED .... WHY?? it’s not as if the dolphins are scared of getting wet! They already live in water! Anyway, we carried on our culture tour regardless and went to their museum of the Bay Islands for a dollar, which was interesting, but a very quick visit (true Wright family style!) After this however, the rain somehow got even stronger and refused to budge, so we were stuck in a small diving shop for about half an hour while we gathered up the courage to brave it out in the oncoming flood ...

We walked in the rain for no less than a minute before we were soaked to the skin, however we still had about another 3 minutes before we reached the road, and then who knows how long before we managed to catch a cab back. Luckily though, not long after we arrived on the main road, a passing truck stopped and let us clamber in and said he would give us a lift to west end, still not complaining (laughing mainly, was quite hilarious at the time).

We eventually returned back to Valeries and chilled out there for a couple of hours, before the power went out, meaning no Wi-Fi. Therefore we decided to go out and grab a cup of coffee at this place called Earth Muma’s, whose owner we met the night before, and we were talking to her for a bit and asking about how she came to be on Roatan e.t.c, also eating her AMAZING homemade cookies (first cookie since being here) for quite a while before the power came back on and we decided to check out what else there was to do on a rainy afternoon.

Despite the rain, the weekend was great. We managed to meet some great people (one guy, whose son lives on the island, after hearing our ‘volunteer teacher’ line once again paid for our food bill and then gave us each 100 dollars to go and have some fun with (which we both decided to put towards our diving fund)), have some great food and generally have fun exploring what the rest of the Island has to offer. It is so weird how one place on a small island can be worlds apart from another on the same island, have to say love them all the more for it though! Ally and I also used it to scope some places for the family, and friends and also other Volunteers on the mainland to come and stay and drink if any do make it out here.

Till next time,

Ciao!

One crazy family ...... even crazier than mine!

I know I haven’t been writing much, but it is hard, because we are doing so many different things, that by the time we get back to the house, I can’t find the time to write. For example, since my last post about Los Cayos Cochinos (see below), we have been to Coxen hole, been and watched a load more marching in Oak Ridge, been to a resort called Fantasy Island for a Teachers Lunch, been baking (YES!! I have even been continuing my baking skills out here, make a vanilla sponge for the head teacher, Profa Elena, as she is leaving and she is an all around top women, she even said that it was delicious! but just between you and me ... and Ally ... and the caretaker who showed us how to use the oven ... it was one of the packet cake mixes as we couldn’t find all the right ingredients I needed), and also been helping out with this project that one of the locals was working on with the previous volunteer, this is where the crazy family comes in!

One evening at Mary Lou’s, her niece, a very nice young women called Yandra came in with her niece (who’s name we didn’t catch) but everyone calls her Boo Boo (an affectionate name for a child) so we did to! Anyway, she came in and explained that she started this project with Charles about A Garifuna History of Punta Gorda, written in 3 languages, english, spanish and garifuna. It entailed many things about traditional garifuna baking (which we have tried and all things are lush, coconut bread, janni cakes and banana fritters, traditional dresses and medicines and even how to build a clay oven (all uni goers listen up! ... haha) anyway, she came to show us what she had and to say that she just needed a little bit more work, so she opened her laptop and as things always go with laptops, she had lost some to most of the work on the project, so she asked if we could help her out, and said that it would so helpful, and fun as well, so we naturally said yes and got to work immediately.

The next night she invited us back to work at her house (about 3 doors down) and also to meet the rest of her family. Well ... my word! The mother, Mary Lou’s sister, is a great women, so smily and funny and always cooking as well, she is also a bit of a mover, (I though I had competition!) whenever we had some (english) music on, we would look over and see her hips bobbing up and down to the rhythm. Yandra herself is so confident, funny and loud. Constantly telling us that we need to learn spanish, so that is all we are allowed to speak and that she needs to learn english, so she speaks english and we reply in spanish, can get very confusing at times, and she is also helping us learn some garifuna, which is cool, but so hard! Little ‘BooBoo’ is crazy, always running around and yelping, climbing on you and as cute as can be, and ever so affectionate to her ‘Tia” or aunty for the non spanish speakers among you. Yandra’s little sister, also called Yandra, but everyone calls her Yandrita meaning ‘little Yandra’ is a student of Ally’s so he knows her a little, and she is so funny. Always smiling and her laugh is hysterical (worse than your’s Gina! :O   Not even joking) and she always takes pictures on Ally’s camera and sings at the top of her voice to the songs blaring out of the computer. So we have been there a couple of times and actually got some work done, but last night we went over and started laughing and joking, then Yandra said that she wanted to do some baking and use up the bananas she had so she told us how to make banana fritters and we watched/helped her make these while also learning how to dance ‘Punta’ at various intervals while Yandrita took pictures and BooBoo got in the way. These fritters are amazing, so good, we had them with hot chocolate and it was the perfect snack, gonna make these a lot in England when I return. Anyway, the whole night me and Ally were just smiling, laughing and playing with BooBoo, learning Punta dancing (and extreme version of the beyonce booty shake) and generally having fun. We really feel that we have made some good friends and Yandra says that she will take us to the west end (not to see a play) but to meet some more of her friends and go and have night out some time ... can’t really say no to that now can we! 

We are both just loving life out here so much, and are so excited for the next couple of weeks, we are planning our big travel over the christmas holidays and have researched some amazing places (in guatemala especially), Jen (our desk officer from PT) is coming out next week for a visit and we are also having a weekend away again (on the island this time) and just the two of us so should be great. So many good things to look forward to.

Just a quick hello to all my friends at Uni at the moment, hope you are all settling in and getting on with your flatmates e.t.c, email me how you are getting on, love to read everyone’s stories, so keep me informed!

Till next time,

Ally and Yandra got attacked by the flour.

My new best friend!

Yandra and Yandrita showing us how to dance punta!

Bit of a poser!

Ciao!