Weekend in Roatan

We took a quick trip to Roatan the other weekend.  We were meeting with a woman from a small, alternative school there about the possibility of working there in a year from now.  Long story short, we decided that we'd pass on the possibility of living on a beautiful tropical island.  We wouldn't be making enough $$$ and the idea of day to day island life (constant bug spray use and island fever) made it seem less appealing.

So for us, Roatan will be a beautiful place to visit that is just a 6+ hour drive and a 90 minute ferry away!

We stayed at a different hotel this time - Land's End.  It is literally at the western most point of the island, just outside of the town West End.  There is not a beach here, per se.  It is volcanic rock... not the white sand beach you might imagine  There was a salt water pool instead and the kids loved it.  Add a full size kayak to the pool and the kids went crazy!

Kayaking in the pool

"Slamwich" has become the new favorite card game.

We still play Uno, too.

There were even a family of 4 deer that lived on the hotel
grounds.  Linnea was feeling brave here.

Honduran Topiaries

We have been "admiring" these ficus trees around our neighborhood for a while and finally took a camera around today to capture their creativeness...

"The Basket"

"The UFO"

"Shelves"

"Three Sisters"

"Oh, No You Di'n't!"

"Bridge"

"Birdhouse"

"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb"

I bet you never thought you could do this with a ficus!?  Feeling inspired?

School Pictures!

Typically, in the states, school pictures are taken in the fall.  These benchmark photos can be compared from year to year to see how much people have grown.  It's always fun to see how many changes take place from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Well, we are now in Honduras.  If we have learned anything in our 9 months of living here, most things that we expect, assume, or unconsciously rely on are not going to happen in the manner we are accustomed to.

Pictures were taken in February, so for those of you who wonder how much the kids have changed since last summer, here they are...

Jaguar's First Basketball Game

Dempsey had his first basketball game of the season.  He played the first and third quarters and says he prefers defense.  Just as it was during the soccer season, his coach speaks only Spanish, so he is figuring out instructions poco a poco.   Of course, his Spanish skills have vastly improved since last fall, so he's doing pretty well.  His team took the lead in the beginning of the game.  Then by half-time it was tied 6 - 6.  His team ended up loosing to the Dolphins, 10 - 9.

At half-time, his teammates got the coach's clip board 

and started planning their next moves, without the coach.

Before the game, the kids had a bit of a water gun fight on the balcony.  It was more like a water dance with a lot of laughter...

Semana Santa Part 1 - Nicaragua

We just returned from a week long trip in Nicaragua.  We had intended on only spending about 4 days there, then returning to Honduras for the remainder of our vacation to visit different places here, but we were having such a great time, we decided to stay.  Not all of the trip was great, however.  Both Chuck and E lost their driver's licenses ("lost" meaning the Nicaraguan Police removed the licenses from their hands) and we collectively shelled out too many cordobas to the roadside cops who stopped us way too often.  More on that story later.

These pictures show only half of the trip, as our traveling buddies have the other half in their camera.   Here are some of the highlights from our camera:

       

Laguna de Apoyo, between the cities of Managua and Granada.

This was taken on night 3 at a restaurant in Poneloya.  

After this night, things went down hill, intestinally speaking, for all of us.

Abuela's, Laguna de Apoyo

Abuela made the rounds to all the guests at her restaurant 

and she particularly loved the table with the Spanish speaking gringuitos.

Smart gecko eating dinner.

Just north of Masaya is an active volcano.  We are standing at the edge of the caldera.  We had to park our car facing toward the exit and we were warned to stay near the caldera for only 20 minutes.

Standing above the caldera.  See the cars parked below and the stone wall?
We are standing near that stone wall in the picture just above.

Sleep writing.

Obligatory Smoke Post

Well, if you are a blogger in Honduras eventually you will write about the smoke.  We figured that we would be the type to always frame the challenges of living in a developing country in the most positive way possible.  It is always better to be positive right?  Well... you would not believe the smoke!  It pretty much sucks! How's that for positive?  Truth be told the fires are very beautiful at night.  Actually it is not that bad, you learn to deal with things that might have seemed out there but when you are faced with it... it's not really that much of a big deal.  We are happy, we have electricity, water, we are all healthy and tomorrow we all drive out of the smoke to the beach because we are on VACATION!!!

Obligatory before and after pictures:
It is hard to see the smoke but as a blogger in Honduras it is our duty...

Before:

After:

Celebratory Haiku!

Tomorrow's Friday

Semana Santa here we

come!  Sun waves beach fun

Father's Day in Honduras

March 19th marked Father's Day in Honduras.  Eric was quite busy visiting Dempsey and Linnea's classes last week.  Here are a few pictures to fill you in on the happenings...

D reading a book he wrote aloud to Papa.

L's gift to Eric

On Sunday, we went on a hike to Ecos de la Montana.  A short drive outside of the city, we go there about every other weekend to play, hike, eat, jump on the trampoline, etc.  Linnea spotted a rare black stallion and wanted to get a closer look.

Air plant that we found while hiking.

An old barn that is now used as housing for the staff.  You can't quite see it, but these plants are lantana, which grow easliy in Sebastopol.  

Our dinner in the restaurant.