Last few days in Honduras!

7/17
The taxi was a half hour early, so we left the hotel a little after 8, and took a lot less time to get there than the driver had allowed, so we were at the airport by 8:30 for our 11:45 flight. It was a long day of waiting for flights, and a couple of long flights – we got home a few minutes after 11pm our time (so midnight in Honduras).

7/16
In the morning I spent some time packing and went for a walk around Porvenir. It was so sad – I ran into several people that all asked when I was leaving, and it was terrible to have to tell them that I was leaving in only a few hours! I was really happy that I got to see Estefani and Daniela since I hadn’t seen them as much lately – they yelled hi, and when I turned to walk over to where they were playing in a tree, Estefani started running towards me with her arms wide open ready for a hug. I got a big hug from the girls as well as a few little boys who I didn’t know – so sweet. I told them that since I hadn’t seen them, I left some photos for them with Laura, so to ask her for them. I also saw Marcos from the adult class and talked with him for a while – I will definitely miss everyone in the adult class as well as the kiddos!
The taxi came to get us at 1 and took us to the Mirna station in Ceiba, where we took a bus to San Pedro Sula. From there, we took a taxi to the hotel, which was pretty nice! We got dinner at Larson’s, the restaurant at the hotel.

7/15
In the morning, we met up with Danny and got breakfast at a place near the parque central and then took a taxi to San Juan, a garífuna village near Tela. The beach there is so beautiful! You can definitely tell it’s by a smaller town and not a city – it’s so clean and quiet! We swam for a while, walked around the beach, found an orange and swam/played catch with the orange in the water, and then Danny went and cut down a fresh coconut for each of us. We swam some more and then had lunch (I had fish soup – very good, but I barely made a dent in it, there was so much), and swam some more – and played more catch with the orange and a coconut that we found.
We took a taxi back to Tela in the afternoon, and from there caught a bus back to Ceiba. The bus dropped us off on the main road to Ceiba, where you turn to go to Porvenir, so we had a nice long walk back to Porvenir.
We had dinner at Mario’s with a bunch of other volunteers and then went back to VH1 to hang out.

7/14
We took the bus to Ceiba in the morning, got baleadas at the terminal, and from there, took a bus to Rancho San Luis, which has a bunch of animals from all over Honduras. Danny said that the couple that owns it had taken in a lot of animals from people that couldn’t take care of them, but since they have so many, it costs a lot to feed them all…so a group of ecotourism students suggested that they open it up to tourists and charge an entrance fee to pay for the animals’ food. We saw lots of different types of birds, white tailed deer (the national mammal of Honduras), a mountain cat, mountain pigs, horses, crocodiles, various odd little animals, and the three types of monkey that are found in Honduras – spider, howler, and white-faced. The howler monkey and white-faced monkeys were funny cause they kept trying to grab stuff that got close to their cages, and the male white-faced one looked quite angry when he couldn’t pull our things through the wires of the enclosure!
From the ranch, we took a bus to Tela. After getting our hotel, we went to the beach to get a beer and then a bit later Mom, Derek, and I went for a walk around Tela and then had dinner at a restaurant on the beach – good food!

7/13
In the morning, we went to Funez to get muffins for breakfast and then to class…and when we got there, there were lots of balloons and the boards said ‘Welcome Back, Stephanie,’ and ‘Bienvenida Estephanye’ (Laura said they tried to combine my name in English and Spanish and that’s what they came up with), which was a big surprise! The kids had all made cards for me, which were so sweet – most of them were things like, I hope you’re having a good trip, I love you, I hope you don’t forget me, etc – as if I could forget them!! Eddie said it was the kids’ idea to do something, and that he had to talk Juan down to 7:30 setup from 6am…but that he and Vilma showed up at Eddie’s house at 7am this morning after our meeting/my crying yesterday. We hung out with the kids for a while, they made some balloon animals/shapes, did a puzzle, and then we took them out to the campo to play and got them a ‘fresco’ (pop) as a treat. I also gave each student several photos of themselves and the group – Mom brought prints of ones that I’d taken and wanted to give to the kids – they loved it! Before we left, I left a Frisbee with the class and gave everyone a couple of toothbrushes to take home, and then Mom, Derek, and I walked Sahory, Juan, and Vilma home. On the way, I dropped off toys for Fabiana, Sahory, Juan, and Vilma, as we didn’t have enough of each thing to divide them evenly between all the students, and those were the four kids that showed up nearly every day.
We went to Mario’s for lunch and then met up with Danny at 1 to go canoeing around Porvenir and see the oldest cemetery in Honduras. We canoed out to the beach to meet the guy with the horses but he ended up not having anyone to help him bring them out, so we canoed back and walked over to the guy’s house, and Mom, Derek, and I went horseback riding on the beach. We went both directions from the beach house, which was nice, as I’d never really been past Mario’s on the right side.
We went to the first half hour of the adult class, which they spent practicing talking about their families. Mom was really impressed by how eager and enthusiastic the students were.
That night we got dinner with Eddie and Amy at Joaquin’s, which was a lot of fun.

7/12
I had a bit of a bululo in the morning before realizing that some rodent had chewed into the bag during the night and helped itself to some of the bread..
One of the guys from Natural View drove us to La Unión where we got some bread and juice for breakfast and caught the 7am ‘trencito’ (little train) to Cuero y Salado. After paying our entrance and guide fee, we took a 2-hour tour in a lancha (small boat) around with a guide. We saw a few howler monkeys, lots of bats, lots of gorgeous birds, and a crocodile. While we waited for the 11am trencito back to La Unión, we went to the beach and then got a small watermelon to share.
When we got back to El Pino and got our stuff, we walked out to the main road and took a bus to La Posta and then a taxi to El Porvenir from there (since the bus to Porvenir had passed right before we got off the first bus).
Mom, Derek, and I went to Mario’s for lunch and it started raining while we were there, but didn’t rain too hard for too long, and then we walked out to the high school so they could see the important places in Porvenir. When we were walking back, I saw Juan, which was a surprise since I rarely see him or Vilma later in the days as they live kind of far from the center of Porvenir, and as soon as I saw him, I just started crying – I’m going to miss the kids a ton, but especially he and Vilma as I’ve gotten really close with them since they come over so early for class and usually after class as well! He gave me a big hug and said, tomorrow, right?!
We went to Joaquin’s for dinner but only Derek got food since we were still so full from lunch at Mario’s!

7/11
In the morning, we had baleadas for breakfast and then Danny’s cousin came to drive us to Pico Bonito. Natural View is only a few minutes from the entrance to Pico Bonito, so it was really quick to get there. We hiked up to the waterfall that we went to a few weeks ago, and Derek was the only one brave enough to get in the water, as it wasn’t very warm out and the water is really cold. We did get to see a snake (tamagas verde), some frogs, and lizards. On our way back down, it started raining quite a bit, but we decided to walk back to Natural View since it wasn’t too far away. When we got back, we ordered lunch, went to change, and then ate. Around 4, we went to Ceiba – Danny to school, and we went to the mall to get some cash out, food for dinner, licuados, and walk around. When we went back, we had bululos (baguette), mangoes, and casabe for dinner.

7/10
In the morning, we got breakfast in West End and then took a water taxi to West Bay to go snorkeling again. A little after 11, we headed back to West End to get ready to go and the taxi picked us up at 12:30 or so. We took the ferry back to Ceiba, and it took a long time since one of the motors was out. Danny met us at the ferry terminal and we took a taxi to the cabins in El Pino. Something was wrong with the taxi (the shocks or suspension or something), so when it turned to the left, it made a horrible sound, so we ended up sitting at first with me on Derek’s lap in the front seat, and Mom and Danny in the back, sitting to the right side, and then ended up getting out and having Danny move to the front so Derek and I could sit in the back so I was a little less squished sitting on Derek’s lap. When we got to Natural View, we walked around for a bit and then played Frisbee before having dinner at the restaurant there.

7/9
In the morning, we took a taxi to the ferry terminal and took the ferry over to Roatán. From the terminal on Roatán, we took a taxi to the hotel, but the map I had was wrong, and the phone number I had for the hotel was disconnected, so after quite a while I had the taxi driver drop us off at an internet café so I could check my email for info from the lady we booked with. When I gave her a call, she sent a guy over to walk us over to the cabin, but when we got there, there was only one bed for the three of us, so we waited for a while for them to bring another in and then went to West End (we stayed just a few minutes walking from the main road in West End) for lunch. After lunch, we took a water taxi over to West Bay to go snorkeling. The snorkeling was absolutely amazing!! There were so many fish so close to the shore! There was a big group that hung out really close to the shore, and I think unfortunately, they are used to people feeding them, since as soon as you walk in, they swim right over to you. We got to use Mom’s underwater camera, so got some good photos! A little before 5, we headed back to West End and I tried to go to an ATM to get out more money since we were down to only L7(!)…but one of them wasn’t working, and one was one that doesn’t work with my card. I started to get worried that we weren’t going to have money for dinner or a taxi back to the boat tomorrow, but when I stopped a taxi to ask about where another ATM was, he said he’d take me to Coxen Hole for L35 each way and that he was certain I could get out money there since there are several ATMs. We picked up a couple people on the way, so I got to see a bit of Coxen Hole, which is less touristy and reminded me more of the mainland. I ended up being able to get money out, and when we went back, Mom and Derek had started walking in the direction we had gone since I had been gone for so long and they’d started wondering if something had gone wrong or I hadn’t been able to get money out and the taxi driver just left me there or something. We walked over to get a smoothie and then went back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to Tong’s, a Thai place that had been recommended to me by some of the other volunteers that came to Roatán last weekend, but they said they wouldn’t have a table for us til 9 (it was 7:30), so we walked around a bit more and hung out on one of the docks til a little after 8, and then went back to check and they already had a table available. We got cashew chicken, phad thai, and panang curry to share between the three of us, and it was very good.

7/8
Went to Via Via for breakfast, and then Mom and Derek decided that they would prefer to skip the ruins and just do the bird park since we had to catch the bus in the early afternoon and they thought they’d enjoy it more if they didn’t feel rushed (I’ve already been to both, so was up for whatever they preferred). We walked around for a while til the park was nearly open and then took a tuk-tuk to the park. Got to see lots of beautiful birds again, and the same bird that bit a hole in my shirt last time did it again this time!
The bus company told me yesterday that there were buses to San Pedro at 12, 1, and 2 today, but today they said there was only one at 2, so we got lunch at Via Via and walked around trying to find the bus office til I called them again and they said we just needed to pay at the bus (which I had specifically asked about before and was told I had to buy tickets at the office and not wait til we got to the stop or on the bus). We got to the bus at 1 and ended up waiting on the bridge by the soccer field there for an hour til it left at 2. Since the bus didn’t leave til 2 and took a long time, we missed the last bus from San Pedro to Ceiba so had to take a taxi all the way back to Ceiba (very expensive, but less than staying in a decent/not sketchy place in San Pedro and busing back in the morning – plus we had to catch the boat to Roatán in the morning). It ended up taking us a long time to get to Ceiba, too, so we didn’t check in to the hotel til 9:20pm. We went across the street to Mango Tango for dinner – Derek had carnitas, Mom baleadas, and I a fried fish and tajadas.

7/7
I took the 5:15am Hedman bus from Ceiba and got to the airport at 9am. For breakfast, I got a baleada at Super Baleadas (sooo good – beans, cheese, eggs, and avocado on a tortilla that was so fresh I watched the lady make it – so filling and only just over a dollar!) and then a latte at Espresso Americano (I think it definitely says something about the US that the biggest size at Espresso Americano is 12oz and that’s the smallest size at Starbucks unless you specifically request an 8oz), and read for a while. Around 10:40, I went to go sit by the area where people arriving come out, since the flight came in at 11, but with customs/immigration, Mom and Derek didn’t get out til 12:20 or so. While I was waiting, a woman asked me who I was waiting for, and we started chatting, and she ended up giving me her phone number and her sister’s phone number in case I ever want go to visit Morazán, Yoro. When she went to leave, she gave me a hug and kiss goodbye…that is one of the things I love about Honduras – random people will start talking to you, and they are genuinely nice people who are so sweet and treat you like a friend when you’ve just met them.
When Mom and Derek got there, I was SO happy to see them! We went and exchanged some of their money and then took a taxi to the terminal to catch a bus to Copán Ruinas. Since it took them so long to get through customs, we didn’t have time to grab lunch before catching the bus, so good thing I brought some plantain chips and they came with snacks! The bus to Copán took about three and a half hours, so we were really hungry by the time we got there. When we got there, we first went to Super Jugos for pineapple/banana/orange juice licuados, and then walked to our hotel, Casa de Café – the bed and breakfast owned by the same people that own Iguana Azul, the hostel I stayed in last time I came. The view from the hotel was so beautiful, and the room was really nice! We went to Via Via for dinner, and Mom and Derek got the Tipicopaneco, the ‘typical’ dish – rice, beans, tortillas, avocado, chicken, salsa, cheese, and cream – and really liked it. I had the Luna Jaguar, steamed fish in banana leaves, yucca, and salad. It was nice to have a really fresh salad with good tomatoes and cucumber, and the fish was absolutely amazing. We all got limonadas con soda, too – lemonade made with soda and blended with ice and sugar. I saw that Antonio, the chef that was working there as a trial when I came last time, was still there, which I was glad about, since he was super nice and makes amazing food! After dinner, we walked around the town a little before heading back to the hotel.

7/6 cont'd
Spent most of the day packing and then went over to Funez in the late afternoon and hung out there for a while before going back to the house to make dinner before class.
After class, Martyn took a couple photos of me with the students, and then they said they wanted to buy Coke for us to drink together to say thanks. They went and got Coke and Sprite and a packet of 4 oreos for everyone, and we sat and chatted for a little while. I’m going to miss those guys!