Well! The last 9 days have been fun filled and packed with daughter/father time (for the most part). It started with an early morning pick-up at the Guatemala city airport after an overnight flight for my dad (and few hours of sleep for me). We spent our first day in a daze mainly, but talking and catching up. Our second day in Antigua, we went on a Pacaya Volcano tour, which is an active volcano near Antigua. Last year there was a large lava flow (6 ft wide) and now, while not so impresive, is still active with a bit of flowing lava. The tour was a bit of a trip really. The walk up wasn´t too bad, until we got to the hardened lava field that we walked over, and whose heat increased the higher up we went, trying to get as close to the flowing lava of course. One girl in our group actually melted the bottoms of her tennis shoes. It was a pretty intense experience, so hot and really quite dangerous, but definitely an experience worth having. We spent the rest of the day resting/sight seeing in Antigua and the next morning found us up early (yet again) looking for a cup of coffee for dad on the deserted streets of Antigua before starting our long travel day to Finca Tatin, our home for the next 4 days.
Needless to say, it was one long day, nearly 12 hours later, 2 buses, 1 taxi, two boats and minutes of wait time in between, we found ourselves at Finca Tatin just in time for dinner. Finca Tatin is located along the Rio Dulce River, closer to Livingston/the coast rather than Rio Dulce, but is in the middle of the jungle on the river. The heat and humidity were a bit of a shock, especially for dad, who granted was still just trying to get adjusted to being in Guatemala, much less the tropical smothering climate! Our time and Finca Tatin was divided between card games, backgammon, jungle walks, a kayak trip to a nearby reserve, swimming, reading, and a trip to a nearby Mayan village where we had lunch in the house of a local family.
From Finca Tatin, we took a boat to Rio Dulce and a bus from there to a place called Finca Paraiso that was listed in the guidebook as this spot with a natural hotspring waterfall cascading into the cold river where you can swim, hang out and...even stay the night! There was indeed this incredible natural phenomenon of hotspring mixed with stream water, but we didn´t get there until later in the day. When we got of the bus, there was just this old, dilapidated sign that said Finca Paraiso, bungalows-restaurante in one direction and Aguas termales in the other direction. Being weighed down with our backpacks and wanting to first unload our stuff before a relaxing afternoon by the water, we started walking the direction of the bungalow/restaurant sign. I was sure we were in the completely wrong place. We were walking by fields and peoples houses, with the lake still looking a ways a way...plus, the guidebook mentioned nothing about the place being over a mile of the main road! We persevered though and eventually ended up at the hotel, although we quickly learned that if we wanted to enjoy the cascadas and hot springs, we needed to walk all the way back from where we came! We did do this though, after checking into a room and taking a quick swim to "cool" off (the water was so warm). Our night at this finca was worth it though, although we ended up walking a lot more than we planned to! Twice with our backpacks on...
The last adventure of the last week or so was Tikal, up in Northern Guatemala. We traveled up on Monday, opting to stay in the park at one of the slightly more expensive hotels (rather than busing from Flores as many do). It was very worthwhile to do. We entered the park both in the evening on Monday and then also on Tuesday. The ruins were so different from Copan-mainly, they were simple huge. Plus, the whole place is in the jungle so you are walking under all this jungle canopy and then come out to a clearing with all these large ruins of an ancient civilization. Not something you get to experience every day. The one downside was that our tour guide was a little lazy/not good and our tour was very short and not as thourough as we´d like, oh well. that is life.
So, now I am in Flores, frantically trying to get myself ready (aka this blog, buy a new toothbrush, get dad to the airport...) for the next leg of the trip. Dad is flying this afternoon from Flores to Guatemala City where he will stay with the same lady who I stayed with when arriving in the country, and she will see him off tomorrow at the airport in Guatemala. What a whirlwind! This afternoon I´m setting off for Belize with a traveling friend, Robbert (who we actually ran into at finca tatin, although I met him in Semuc Champey) where we will make our way accross the country up to Cay Caulker to go on a 3 day sailing/snorkeling trip starting the 3rd of July. What fun!
P.S. due to internet snaffoos-way to common down here-it is now Thursday and I'm in Belize. I haven't yet heard if dad got home yet, but I hope so...
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Quetzales and Semuc Champey
So, after leaving Robin at the airport, I began a marathon bus day, spending nearly 11 1/2 straight hours on a bus ( or 6 to be more exact) with hardly time for a bathroom break, finally arriving back in Guatemala at a little hostel called Los Ranchitos up in the mountains in central Guatemala near a national park. The draw of this little stop is that it is one of the only places in the country were it is possible to see a real live Quetzal (national bird, endangered species...). they come to feed in the ttrees around the hostel in the mornings and evenings. I stayed two nights here which was perfect. there were not many other people and I spent most of my time by myself, but it was just what I needed. Saw a few Quetzales, recharged my batteries, read my book, took a little walk through the cloud forest surrounding the hotel and then took off for Lanquin/Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey (A mayan name that means "where the river runs under the earth") is this natural wonder where a 300m limestone bridge (more or less) was formed over hundreds of years, where the river runs underneath the bridge while on top, there are all these natural limestone pools filled with rain water from the mountains. They are blue and green (depending on the time of year) due to the minerals in the water. One of my days was spent on an all day tour here, which was incredible, the tour also included this excursion into one of the many cave system that are found in this area. We were swimming with candles in the dark back into this cave, climbing ladders...it was pretty neat, although quite cold after awhile. The place I stayed at was called El Retiro lodge and is located in the closest little village to Semuc Champey, called Lanquin, and it was pretty much like a backpackers resort. It is located along the river (which we rented intertubes one day and floated down), all the beds are in these bungalow, straw houses with hammocks outfront, and everything (including the food at the reastaurant etc) was just put "on your tab." It was a really great place to relax for a few days and I spent my time with this group of 7 british folk traveling together and another single traveler from Holland, we had a lot of fun. (I taught them my new card game, they were hooked.) One of the nights it was the birthday of one of the girls of the large group, leading to a "fancy dress" party, meaning crazy dress up...who knew the crazy things other backpackers carry around with them...In addition to the day tour at Semuc Champey, I also went to the Lanquin caves, another large cave system that goes on forever. The caves themselves were cool, but only so impressive, what was incredible was sitting at the entrance of the cave at sunset when all the bats began to fly out for the evening. There were millions of them, just swishing by. In the dark you couldn't see them, but when you take a picture, you see bats all around you. Pretty crazy.
From here, I headed back to Antigua on Thursday, spending another long day on the bus, but arriving in Antigua early enough to still get a dorm bed in the hostel I wanted to. Since then, I've been getting things in order for my dad's visit (he's coming on Monday, yay!!!), doing laundry, spending money, and just taking it easy. I was hoping to get to see some of "los chicos de Guate" that always ate lunch and dinner at Lili's house, but they're men and Guatemalans and so far I have not been able to get a hold of them on the phone. Who knows, the weekend is not over yet.
Today I changed my return plane ticket to a week later than planned, I know, a week hardly seems like much, but it's just going to make all the difference! After I leave my dad, I'm hoping over to Belize for some general traveling, but mainly this 2 night 3 day sailing snorkeling trip that is supposed to be incredible (and am hopefully going to run into the solo holland traveler from Semuc Champey there again) and then will make my way back to Utila to do my open water dive and hopefully a few fun dives, leaving myself just enough time to get back to Guate and then home! Crazy that it seems so close now, the return, although I know there are many more adventures waiting for me before that comes!!
From here, I headed back to Antigua on Thursday, spending another long day on the bus, but arriving in Antigua early enough to still get a dorm bed in the hostel I wanted to. Since then, I've been getting things in order for my dad's visit (he's coming on Monday, yay!!!), doing laundry, spending money, and just taking it easy. I was hoping to get to see some of "los chicos de Guate" that always ate lunch and dinner at Lili's house, but they're men and Guatemalans and so far I have not been able to get a hold of them on the phone. Who knows, the weekend is not over yet.
Today I changed my return plane ticket to a week later than planned, I know, a week hardly seems like much, but it's just going to make all the difference! After I leave my dad, I'm hoping over to Belize for some general traveling, but mainly this 2 night 3 day sailing snorkeling trip that is supposed to be incredible (and am hopefully going to run into the solo holland traveler from Semuc Champey there again) and then will make my way back to Utila to do my open water dive and hopefully a few fun dives, leaving myself just enough time to get back to Guate and then home! Crazy that it seems so close now, the return, although I know there are many more adventures waiting for me before that comes!!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The sister's last fling on Roatan
After our fabulous night swim with the glowing plankton, the afternoon at an internet cafe in La Ceiba and a taxi ride out to the dock, Robin and I found ourselves once again playing cards while waiting for a boat to the bay islands (although this time we found ourselves in the fancy waiting area with AC...). While doing so we met a single girl coming from Utila headed to Roatan for a week long course being trained how to train dolphins--a childhood dream (Zara from Finland). We made immediate friends with her when she mentioned how much she loved to play cards and offered to teach us anew game called Yannif (from Israel) on the boat ride to the island. There was no going back after that...
While waiting to claim our luggage we met two other (rare) backpacker types-two boys from North Carolina-and found that all of us were headed to the same hotel in West End, pretty much the only "budget" place on the island. We ended up arguing/bargaining for an (expensive) taxi ride to West End (two taxis, $10US for each taxi). When we first arrived in West End the driver first took us to a hotel that we didn't ask for (I believe they drivers would have received a commission) and we then spent another few minutes arguing again that we asked to be taken to a different place and that we would not pay them if they did not take us there...ugh. At this point is is almost 7 pm and we finally end up at the right place and choose to share a room with Zara because it was cheaper for us all as the place didn't have dorm rooms. When I went to pay for our share of the room 7 minutes after our arrival, I realized that my coin purse was gone. I quickly caught the taxi driver of the other car that came with our group from the dock (the one I came in had left) and asked if he could phone his co-worker who drove the other taxi because I left my coin purse in the back of the car. The other driver was very unhelpful saying he had no telephone (and what's that at your waist?--"I mean, I don't have his number...") He offered to take me around to look for the car (me paying how much?) and, knowing I only had about 100 or 150 lempira in the purse-maybe 5$-figured I'd swallow the loss. The tragicness is, if I had realized then that my USB port had also been in that wallet rather than 6 days later...that's life I guess. What a mini fiasco, really. Eating dinner that night we were all hit by extreme price shock (things were listed in $US everywhere) but were so hungry we didn't care much (but had Ramon noodles for dinner the next night...). It is a remarkably different experience to arrive somewhere after dark, it leads to a different sort of disorientation and mystery waiting for you in the morning (which is what happened here, because it gets dark at 6:15/6:30 here).
The two islands Roatan and Utila could not have been more different from one another. To start with, the simple size difference between the two makes a difference but the main difference is that Roatan is a fancy resort sort of place. Tourism is huge there, but huge with the higher class luxury resort sort of traveler-not with us backpackers, which is more Utila's style. The beaches however, were far superior to those of Utila. Our first 2 days, we walked about 1 mile along the beach to West Bay(the best beach area on the island) with Nick and Win (the NC boys) and rubbed shoulders with the high rollers for the day, hanging out in the bright blue water, snorkeling, trying no to get sunburned and enjoying our budget lunches of PBJ sandwiches on "economic mold" white bread.
We ate two nights in a row at this wonderful place on the water called The Lighthouse with Zara, Win, and Nick, playing cards every evening with one or all 3 of them. Our 3rd morning Nick, Win, Robin and I took a morning bus to a botanical garden 15 minutes from West End (Zara being at Dolphin training every day) where we walked up to a view point and enjoyed the garden/jungle. After that Robin and I headed to Coxen Hole (the main/largest town on the island and where the cruise ships dock) to go to the bank and change a traveler's check. It wasn't as run down of a town as we were expecting (I mean, with a name like Coxen Hole...) and rather enjoyed our little walk through town. Plus, we ate probably one of the best mango ever after the bank. The rest of our time included some more swimming, a beautiful sunset, more card games...what a rough life. We left Thursday on the afternoon ferry for La Ceiba and caught the last bus back to San Pedro Sula at 5, arriving there at 8:15, eating dinner at the same place we have every other time we've stayed with Luis at Los Molinos, hardly slept that night, got up at 4:15 to take Robin to the airport and say goodbye to my wonderful travel companion of the last 2 weeks...and here begins my next adventure to be given in my next entry.
While waiting to claim our luggage we met two other (rare) backpacker types-two boys from North Carolina-and found that all of us were headed to the same hotel in West End, pretty much the only "budget" place on the island. We ended up arguing/bargaining for an (expensive) taxi ride to West End (two taxis, $10US for each taxi). When we first arrived in West End the driver first took us to a hotel that we didn't ask for (I believe they drivers would have received a commission) and we then spent another few minutes arguing again that we asked to be taken to a different place and that we would not pay them if they did not take us there...ugh. At this point is is almost 7 pm and we finally end up at the right place and choose to share a room with Zara because it was cheaper for us all as the place didn't have dorm rooms. When I went to pay for our share of the room 7 minutes after our arrival, I realized that my coin purse was gone. I quickly caught the taxi driver of the other car that came with our group from the dock (the one I came in had left) and asked if he could phone his co-worker who drove the other taxi because I left my coin purse in the back of the car. The other driver was very unhelpful saying he had no telephone (and what's that at your waist?--"I mean, I don't have his number...") He offered to take me around to look for the car (me paying how much?) and, knowing I only had about 100 or 150 lempira in the purse-maybe 5$-figured I'd swallow the loss. The tragicness is, if I had realized then that my USB port had also been in that wallet rather than 6 days later...that's life I guess. What a mini fiasco, really. Eating dinner that night we were all hit by extreme price shock (things were listed in $US everywhere) but were so hungry we didn't care much (but had Ramon noodles for dinner the next night...). It is a remarkably different experience to arrive somewhere after dark, it leads to a different sort of disorientation and mystery waiting for you in the morning (which is what happened here, because it gets dark at 6:15/6:30 here).
The two islands Roatan and Utila could not have been more different from one another. To start with, the simple size difference between the two makes a difference but the main difference is that Roatan is a fancy resort sort of place. Tourism is huge there, but huge with the higher class luxury resort sort of traveler-not with us backpackers, which is more Utila's style. The beaches however, were far superior to those of Utila. Our first 2 days, we walked about 1 mile along the beach to West Bay(the best beach area on the island) with Nick and Win (the NC boys) and rubbed shoulders with the high rollers for the day, hanging out in the bright blue water, snorkeling, trying no to get sunburned and enjoying our budget lunches of PBJ sandwiches on "economic mold" white bread.
We ate two nights in a row at this wonderful place on the water called The Lighthouse with Zara, Win, and Nick, playing cards every evening with one or all 3 of them. Our 3rd morning Nick, Win, Robin and I took a morning bus to a botanical garden 15 minutes from West End (Zara being at Dolphin training every day) where we walked up to a view point and enjoyed the garden/jungle. After that Robin and I headed to Coxen Hole (the main/largest town on the island and where the cruise ships dock) to go to the bank and change a traveler's check. It wasn't as run down of a town as we were expecting (I mean, with a name like Coxen Hole...) and rather enjoyed our little walk through town. Plus, we ate probably one of the best mango ever after the bank. The rest of our time included some more swimming, a beautiful sunset, more card games...what a rough life. We left Thursday on the afternoon ferry for La Ceiba and caught the last bus back to San Pedro Sula at 5, arriving there at 8:15, eating dinner at the same place we have every other time we've stayed with Luis at Los Molinos, hardly slept that night, got up at 4:15 to take Robin to the airport and say goodbye to my wonderful travel companion of the last 2 weeks...and here begins my next adventure to be given in my next entry.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
More to come, I promise!
For all you avid readers out there, have no worries, a normal, more lengthy entry will be made filling you all in on my last week with Robin (it's actually already written, but the reality of trying to type it in where I am now where the internet keeps going in and out is not appealing). I will do so when I arrive back in Antigua later this week. I did say goodbye to her a few days ago and am now back in Guatemala exploring the Coban/Semuc Champey (central Guate) on my own but will be heading back to Antigua Wednesday or Thursday to do my laundry, update e-mails, go to the bank and prepare for my father's arrival on the 18th. How lucky am I that I'm getting to share part of this wonderful experience with every member of my family?! But I am still alive and well!!
A Time of Mourning
I regret to inform you that last week saw the disappearance (and almost certain death) of my USB port that contained all my photos from the last 4 months. It was last seen in the back of a taxi on Roatan Island in Honduras...
I believe I'm still partly in shock and denile of this reality (although coming to terms with it a little more every day). The true irony is that I recently decided I should back the USB port up on disks but kept putting it off...really, quite a bummer. I mean, if someone was to mug/rob me, but first give me the option of keeping one item, I think I would have chosen that cable!! However, what is done is done and I will recover from the shock. It is a minor consolation that I do have a few photos already online plus am realizing that there is a good possibility I can get photos of places from friends I've traveled with. However, I still feel that observing the normal lenght of mourning time is allowed, although, due to my minimal wardrobe considerations, will not require myself to wear black for the whole period.
I believe I'm still partly in shock and denile of this reality (although coming to terms with it a little more every day). The true irony is that I recently decided I should back the USB port up on disks but kept putting it off...really, quite a bummer. I mean, if someone was to mug/rob me, but first give me the option of keeping one item, I think I would have chosen that cable!! However, what is done is done and I will recover from the shock. It is a minor consolation that I do have a few photos already online plus am realizing that there is a good possibility I can get photos of places from friends I've traveled with. However, I still feel that observing the normal lenght of mourning time is allowed, although, due to my minimal wardrobe considerations, will not require myself to wear black for the whole period.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Glowing Plankton
As an absolutely incredible side note the entry I wrote yesterday below, we went swimming last night at the Casa Kiwi only to discover the water full of these tiny little plankton that glowed/sparkled when we moved. They apparently can live in only warm water and really specific conditions and it was incredible. I think I know what it feels like now to be in a fairy tale, it was like we were creating glitter underwater, a moonlight glow coming just from the tiny little microscopic bugs around us! Also, I think I mentioned it below, but we continue to be very (directionally) disorientated here in Trujillo, I mean, the sun is setting in the west, but over the ocean...our instinct tells us the ocean is to the east...the fact is Honduras is actually more parallel to the equator than we were imagining (rather than perpendicular) and then Trujillo is on this little bay/peninsula area that is facing even a slightly different direction, leading to our confusion. It didn´t help last night that the full moon we´ve been seeing for the last week was no where to be seen in the clear, starry sky. I mean, how can the moon just disappear?
Island life
Ahh, another week gone by in vacation land…since that is where I think I am. Really, just week after week of vacation time (especially no longer being in Xela, or taking Spanish classes or anything like that…). It has (or actually, at the time of writing this) been tough to find a computer/internet situation that was acceptable for spending more than the obligatory 12 minutes to check e-mail, look one quick thing up, then log off due to issues of time, money and energy (for dealing with computer stuff), that’s life down here I guess. This entry is actually being written on a computer at the hostel we are at now just outside of Trujillo that is supposed to have internet service but doesn’t and the owners are away right now and the caretaker seems a bit clueless…hopefully I’ll be able to upload this entry to the internet tomorrow in La Ceiba before we head to Roatan, but I’m getting ahead of myself, last week first.
After dropping off my mother at the airport Sunday morning, Robin and I headed to the bus station for a 3 hour bus ride to the town of La Ceiba where all boats to the bay island leave from. The plan was to spend an hour or two in La Ceiba tracking down information about trips to La Moskitia because all the tour companies that organize trips have their offices there and we felt talking to a real person is what needed to happen. However, it being Sunday all said offices were closed…plus, it was the morning after the last night of the week long "carnival" that La Ceiba is famous for, meaning the town was in bit of ramshackle shape having just come up for the first breath of air after a week of revelry. So, after being in town for maybe 15 minutes, we caught a cab out to the boat dock to await the boat to Utila. We arrived at about 11 in the morning to this dock maybe 2 miles out of town that looked completely empty…turns out there are two boats that travel to Utila each day, the first leaves at 10 or 10:30 am, the second at 4 pm…so, we spent the next five hours at the dock playing cards (gin rummy best out of 23 anyone?) and waiting. We felt really lucky that there was at least one little convenience store at the ticket office of the (fancy-shmanzy) boat to Roatan so that we at least had a little food to snack on (doritos and an ice cream bar, not the healthiest lunch, but hey, it’s calories!). We actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit and it was fun to watch the day go on as the dock went from this deserted covered porch to a happening place full of people and taxis as the time for boat launch/arrival neared.
Utila is an island off the coast of Honduras that has a reputation for the best (and cheapest) place for one to get their scuba-diving certification, meaning it is packed with foreigners (young backpackers mostly) crazy about diving, or if not crazy about, there to learn how to do it. Neither Robin nor I had any great desire to dive because, as Robin said, "just because it’s the cheapest place still doesn’t mean it is free…" we still had a great time there though. The island is something like 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide or something and the bulk of the population all lives in Utila town along the western coast. There are private houses spread out on either side of the town, but mainly 80% of the island is "uninhabitated." All the bay island are English speaking and the local residents are mainly descendents of populations brought over from Africa years ago, it was different to be in a place for the week where English was the main language, although the island English spoken between locals is more like pigeon English and near impossible to understand (when overheard, normal English is used on the tourists). Spanish is also spoken, since it is the national language of the country, but there also seemed to be an island form of Spanish and sometimes it was confusing trying to know what language was needed!
Without diving, we still managed to fill up our time first in trying not to melt because it was incredibly hot (and we were staying in a dorm room on the second floor of a building with western facing windows that even when the air-conditioner (on illegally) and the two fans were on all day, the room still clocked in at 81 degrees…). One day we took a bike ride out towards the highest point on the island called pumpkin hill, riding our bikes down the "runway" of the airport on the island. We visited the Iguana station where we learned that there is an iguana native only to Utila which is on the endangered species list (and one of the main purposes of this place is protecting that population). We walked up to the second highest point on the island (a water tower on top of a small hill) to get an amazing view of the backside of the island and to watch the sunset on my birthday. (Yes, I’m 23 now, when did that happen?!) Another day we took a day trip out to a little uninhabited island called Water Cay with two girls from our hostel where we snorkelled and swam and enjoyed the expanse of ocean around us. There was also this incredible restaurant/bar called the Jade Seahorse/Treetantic Bar that was built around this amazing "garden" of sculptures and decorations created with everything from marbles to glass bottles to sea shells. It was absolutely incredible and, as I’m finding while trying to write this, quite difficult to accurately describe with written words…
After 4 days of relaxing, sun, sweltering heat and fun times Robin and I decided to leave the island on Friday and head up to Trujillo (the old capital of Honduras years and years ago). We almost missed the 6:20 am ferry off the island, which cracked both of us up quite a bit (we didn’t hear the alarm), but made it still. Our experience of Trujillo has been, to say the least, odd—beginning with getting off at the bus station on Friday. We arrived about 1 hour earlier than we were planning on, wandered around town (had a really hard time orientating ourselves, the ocean seemed on the wrong side of us, the map seemed backwards…) but found a nice little hotel near the center of town to stay. The guide book gives the impression that this place is sort of the up and coming tourist spot (written 4 years ago of course) and gives the impression that while definitely a slow moving, sleepy town, there are other travellers around and things to do. We’ve decided that maybe the author misinterpreted this growth and that actually, Trujillo was hot in the 80s and has gone downhill since. There seem to be no other tourists and everything is empty.
This morning we took a bus to a little hostel/hotel about 3 miles out of town called Casa Kiwi that was reputedly a popular hang out (because, as Robin has also so duly noted her week or two with me, half of travelling is the people you meet—other travellers mainly) upon getting here, we found it also empty, with the exception of a couple late 30-somethings guys who spent 15 minutes telling us how there was nothing to do around this area or Trujillo and that we should head back the other direction along the coast. So, that’s what we’ve decided to do. We were able to have our laundry done here (very much so needed) and think we’ll pack up tomorrow and go back to La Ceiba and head out to Roatan because, while it is near Utila, it sounds like a much different place and well, who can complain about pristine beaches and sun (Roatan is more famous for beaches, Utila for diving…). The joys of travelling I guess! I’m not sure if I came out sounding negative about the decision to come to Trujillo because I hope not, we’ve had a good day or two out here and like the town a lot actually, it just doesn’t strike us as somewhere to spend the next few days…hope we’re right! (oh, in case you didn’t figure out, we bagged the Moskitia trip, we even tried calling the offices from Utila but could never get through or the numbers off of the websites where incorrect…we figured the effort wasn’t worth it.) So, this entry is a bit of a book, but then again, that’s sort of the point! I’m having such a great time with Robin here and am starting to get used to not travelling alone (and learning how being alone or with someone affects the way you travel). I’ll be really sad to see her go and lose her company! How lucky though that she could be here as long as she has been able to…well, I think it is time for me to head outside, I’m dripping with sweat here in the little room without a fan where the computer is and hopefully I’ll be able to upload the entry tomorrow from La Ceiba!
After dropping off my mother at the airport Sunday morning, Robin and I headed to the bus station for a 3 hour bus ride to the town of La Ceiba where all boats to the bay island leave from. The plan was to spend an hour or two in La Ceiba tracking down information about trips to La Moskitia because all the tour companies that organize trips have their offices there and we felt talking to a real person is what needed to happen. However, it being Sunday all said offices were closed…plus, it was the morning after the last night of the week long "carnival" that La Ceiba is famous for, meaning the town was in bit of ramshackle shape having just come up for the first breath of air after a week of revelry. So, after being in town for maybe 15 minutes, we caught a cab out to the boat dock to await the boat to Utila. We arrived at about 11 in the morning to this dock maybe 2 miles out of town that looked completely empty…turns out there are two boats that travel to Utila each day, the first leaves at 10 or 10:30 am, the second at 4 pm…so, we spent the next five hours at the dock playing cards (gin rummy best out of 23 anyone?) and waiting. We felt really lucky that there was at least one little convenience store at the ticket office of the (fancy-shmanzy) boat to Roatan so that we at least had a little food to snack on (doritos and an ice cream bar, not the healthiest lunch, but hey, it’s calories!). We actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit and it was fun to watch the day go on as the dock went from this deserted covered porch to a happening place full of people and taxis as the time for boat launch/arrival neared.
Utila is an island off the coast of Honduras that has a reputation for the best (and cheapest) place for one to get their scuba-diving certification, meaning it is packed with foreigners (young backpackers mostly) crazy about diving, or if not crazy about, there to learn how to do it. Neither Robin nor I had any great desire to dive because, as Robin said, "just because it’s the cheapest place still doesn’t mean it is free…" we still had a great time there though. The island is something like 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide or something and the bulk of the population all lives in Utila town along the western coast. There are private houses spread out on either side of the town, but mainly 80% of the island is "uninhabitated." All the bay island are English speaking and the local residents are mainly descendents of populations brought over from Africa years ago, it was different to be in a place for the week where English was the main language, although the island English spoken between locals is more like pigeon English and near impossible to understand (when overheard, normal English is used on the tourists). Spanish is also spoken, since it is the national language of the country, but there also seemed to be an island form of Spanish and sometimes it was confusing trying to know what language was needed!
Without diving, we still managed to fill up our time first in trying not to melt because it was incredibly hot (and we were staying in a dorm room on the second floor of a building with western facing windows that even when the air-conditioner (on illegally) and the two fans were on all day, the room still clocked in at 81 degrees…). One day we took a bike ride out towards the highest point on the island called pumpkin hill, riding our bikes down the "runway" of the airport on the island. We visited the Iguana station where we learned that there is an iguana native only to Utila which is on the endangered species list (and one of the main purposes of this place is protecting that population). We walked up to the second highest point on the island (a water tower on top of a small hill) to get an amazing view of the backside of the island and to watch the sunset on my birthday. (Yes, I’m 23 now, when did that happen?!) Another day we took a day trip out to a little uninhabited island called Water Cay with two girls from our hostel where we snorkelled and swam and enjoyed the expanse of ocean around us. There was also this incredible restaurant/bar called the Jade Seahorse/Treetantic Bar that was built around this amazing "garden" of sculptures and decorations created with everything from marbles to glass bottles to sea shells. It was absolutely incredible and, as I’m finding while trying to write this, quite difficult to accurately describe with written words…
After 4 days of relaxing, sun, sweltering heat and fun times Robin and I decided to leave the island on Friday and head up to Trujillo (the old capital of Honduras years and years ago). We almost missed the 6:20 am ferry off the island, which cracked both of us up quite a bit (we didn’t hear the alarm), but made it still. Our experience of Trujillo has been, to say the least, odd—beginning with getting off at the bus station on Friday. We arrived about 1 hour earlier than we were planning on, wandered around town (had a really hard time orientating ourselves, the ocean seemed on the wrong side of us, the map seemed backwards…) but found a nice little hotel near the center of town to stay. The guide book gives the impression that this place is sort of the up and coming tourist spot (written 4 years ago of course) and gives the impression that while definitely a slow moving, sleepy town, there are other travellers around and things to do. We’ve decided that maybe the author misinterpreted this growth and that actually, Trujillo was hot in the 80s and has gone downhill since. There seem to be no other tourists and everything is empty.
This morning we took a bus to a little hostel/hotel about 3 miles out of town called Casa Kiwi that was reputedly a popular hang out (because, as Robin has also so duly noted her week or two with me, half of travelling is the people you meet—other travellers mainly) upon getting here, we found it also empty, with the exception of a couple late 30-somethings guys who spent 15 minutes telling us how there was nothing to do around this area or Trujillo and that we should head back the other direction along the coast. So, that’s what we’ve decided to do. We were able to have our laundry done here (very much so needed) and think we’ll pack up tomorrow and go back to La Ceiba and head out to Roatan because, while it is near Utila, it sounds like a much different place and well, who can complain about pristine beaches and sun (Roatan is more famous for beaches, Utila for diving…). The joys of travelling I guess! I’m not sure if I came out sounding negative about the decision to come to Trujillo because I hope not, we’ve had a good day or two out here and like the town a lot actually, it just doesn’t strike us as somewhere to spend the next few days…hope we’re right! (oh, in case you didn’t figure out, we bagged the Moskitia trip, we even tried calling the offices from Utila but could never get through or the numbers off of the websites where incorrect…we figured the effort wasn’t worth it.) So, this entry is a bit of a book, but then again, that’s sort of the point! I’m having such a great time with Robin here and am starting to get used to not travelling alone (and learning how being alone or with someone affects the way you travel). I’ll be really sad to see her go and lose her company! How lucky though that she could be here as long as she has been able to…well, I think it is time for me to head outside, I’m dripping with sweat here in the little room without a fan where the computer is and hopefully I’ll be able to upload the entry tomorrow from La Ceiba!
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