Back In Tegus!

Oh, where to start... My world has changed since last Sunday and I don't know where to begin. At the moment, we are in our apartment in Tegucigalpa. We are all bathed and clean, well fed and comfortable. L is asleep for sure, D is on his way to sweet slumber in their cozy bed. It's raining crazy outside and the lightening and thunder are putting on a beautiful show. Our clothes from our week long road trip are being fluffed and dried. I even got to use the last of my SumBody salt scrub in my shower tonight... I feel pampered.

We left Tegucigalpa last Sunday, our ultimate destination being Roatan. We had quite a few miles to cover, so we figured we would spend the night in La Ceiba and then catch the ferry on Monday morning. The kid's first look at the Caribbean was in a beach town called Tela. Once we saw the ocean, we got off the highway the first chance we got and headed straight for the beach. We parked and sat at a dirty bar on the beach. E and I ordered a Salva Vida and the kids began digging in the sand immediately. Almost as quickly as they began the Big Dig, we were approached by people selling coconut bread and offering to braid L's hair. We escaped that town with one sack of bread and one braid in L's hair (one, because the first one's always free).

We made our way to La Ceiba, the town that is known for it's laid back vibe and party atmosphere. We got a decent room at Olas del Mar for 600 Lempira, about $30 (2 double beds, a great balcony where the beach was a stones throw away, and a private bathroom and shower -hot water not included). The next morning, we were off to the dock to board the ferry for the 90 minute ride to West End, Roatan.

We were picked up at Coxen Hole by a man from our hotel and we were taken to a picture-perfect beach town with one dead-end, sandy road leading into it. Our hotel was nearly at the end and our room was literally on the water. We met up with 4 other teachers from our school who had been to this hotel before. We spent our days swimming in the waters right outside our hotel room. We played Blink, Connect 4 and read our books to our hearts delight. We drank way to many pina coladas from the shack on the water, but she got to know us and when we ordered, she would say "Para llevar?"

E went on some scuba expeditions and had a blast. He was quickly reminded how much he loves to dive and was plotting and scheming to get back to Roatan as soon as possible. We got a mask for L and a mask and snorkel for D and they took to it easily. We went to West Bay one morning for more swimming/snorkeling and L got her whole head braided, Bo Derek style. She can totally pull off the look.

Now to the part of this story where my sleep was disturbed and my mind was heavy. In order to get to Roatan, we had to drive through more than half of Honduras. The country side was beautiful and I was in awe by the mountains, valleys, rivers, ocean, and flowers. But also my heart was made heavy by the countless people who were living along the main highways in ramshackle houses, without doors, windows, or floors. My mind is spinning with the memory of the faces of people living an extremely hard life. I saw more people riding their bikes and walking along the highway than I have ever seen in the states. And they were not NOT using their cars because it was bike to work day. They were carrying long sticks for firewood on their backs, 5 gallon jugs of drinking water on their bikes. You wouldn't believe the dangerous roads that they were walking on.  And kids were walking along these roads too, by themselves or teetering along the side of the road on a bike that was way too big for their own good. Kids were selling coconuts, pineapples, bags of water, you name it. Kids who probably should be in school, but are selling this stuff along the roadside because they have to help their families buy food. I knew Honduras had this kind of poverty, but it's another thing to come face to face it while we are on our road trip up to a beautiful island that a majority of Hondurans will NEVER see in person. It reminded me how fortunate that we are, and how hard it must be for so many people in this country to survive. I'm still reeling a bit from the experience, hence my appreciation for all of the things I enjoyed when I got home (reference paragraph 1 of this blog entry).

There is so much more I could write about that we experienced on our trip; crazy Honduran driving, Lago de Yajoa, the hundreds of horses I saw tied up on the roadside throughout the major highways, Pulhapanzak Falls, the thousands of lychee nuts, watching Honduras lose to Mexico in a bar in the West End. But those will have to be for another day.