I'm going to miss my students...

Teaching and living in Tela has definitely been the greatest and most rewarding experience I've ever had. I feel so blessed and grateful to have had this opportunity to meet with all of these wonderful people, children and adults alike! I have done many things this year that I never saw myself being able to do, such as teaching adults and junior high/high school students.

The best thing about all of this is that I haven't regretted anything I've done while being here. My main reason for coming to Honduras was to volunteer my time and try to reach out and interact with as many families and children as possible, learn about their culture, and try different things, all while making great friends, and creating wonderful memories. Luckily, I feel like I was able to do just that! So, with that all said, I wanted to take the time to share pictures of all of my students with you, so you could see a few of the people that helped to make my experience here so amazing! I will miss each and every one of them so much!

These are my 2nd grade kiddos. They are all holding up books they created during our last few months of school. The most rewarding thing is realizing how far individual students have come since the beginning of the year, especially when I notice they have gained much more confidence in themselves. These are the students in my 7th grade Earth Science class.
These are the students in my 8th grade Life Science class.
These are the students in my 9th grade Physical Science class.

Notice that in the past three pictures, the kids are all taller and bigger than me! I'm so glad I had a chance to teach these great kids. I learned a lot from them and about myself. They were fun to be around, and actually made me miss and remember being in High School myself. It was definitely hard at times, having to spend time trying to reteach myself Science concepts that I haven't thought about in forever, but it was all worth it!

This is Marieli. I have been tutoring her since November about 2-3 times each week. She is in first grade and attends a different bilingual school in town. Her parents are planning to move her to my school, Blanca Jeanette Kawas starting next year.

These are some of my students that I teach English classes to every Saturday night at the Cristian church near my house called Amor Viviente. These kids are so adorable! One different and challenging thing about teaching this class was that there was such a wide range of ages (4-13 years) and they all had knew different levels of English. However, it was nice to have the freedom to do different things with the kids, and forced me to think of creative ways to keep them interested! We played a lot of games, and I taught them different songs with funny movements to help build vocabulary.

Oh my adult English class!!!! I teach this class every Thursday night at the same church. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture with all the students in the class, a few left early and some weren't able to come that night, but this is most of them anyways! This class, by far, is one of the main reasons why my experience here in Tela has been so memorable and rewarding. I think the main reason these students have made such a great impact on me is because teaching adults is so far beyond anything I've ever considered doing! I think it's because of all these reservations and insecurities which I had at the beginning, that I learned the most about myself as a person, and as a teacher, needing to always push myself out of my comfort zone. Everyone that I've meet through this church and especially in my classes have become like a second family to me and they really helped to make Tela feel more like home to me. I looked foward to seeing them every Thursday night, and I will miss them so much!!On June 12th, during our last class, the pastor and students prepared a dinner for us to enjoy together.I wasn't prepared at all for the amount of crying that was coming later that night... Each one of them came up to the front of the room and said a special thank you and goodbye, coming up to hug me after, then the pastor presented me with a certificate, and everyone said a special prayer for me. Although they did make me cry like a baby...it was the sweetest and most thoughtful thing!

Tomorrow Sara and I are leaving for the island of Utila. If all goes as planned, we're taking scuba diving classes there, which takes about 4 days, and then spending a few last days on the beautiful beaches. On Thursday, June 19th we should be returning back to Tela, then we leave on Saturday, June 21st, to go back home for good!

I have a few more blogs to catch up on still, and those of you that know me well, know that I'll probably be finishing up my blog by the time I'm already back home in California! :) But I guess better late than never right?! Be sure to check back in to read my last few blogs. I'll see you all soon!!

Keeping busy during my last few weeks...

Final Exams and Recuperation Week:

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic for me. Between teaching my second grade class and my 7th, 8th, and 9th grade science classes, teaching English to adults and kids at the church, and doing extra tutoring after school, I was keeping pretty busy. That along with dealing with the crazy schedules that come along with the end of the year, I apologize for not being able to update my blog more often.

Last week, we had our exam week at school, and unlike past semesters, all the final grades had to be evaluated immediately (the same day they take the exam) to find out which students would need to return the following week for what they call "recuperation week." All the students who receive below a 70% as their cumulative grade for any subject, has to return to school for an extra 2 days of tutoring, after which they are to take another final exam.

Their score on this final exam replaces their average completely. For instance, if a student had an average of 40% in Spelling for the entire year, then he/she studies really hard during recuperation week, and can manage to get a 100% on the final exam, their final official grade for Spelling for the year is 100%, the 40% is completely wiped out! Can you believe that??? How unfair is that for the students who work hard the entire year and only receive an 80% in Spelling?? So....technically, a student could slack off the entire year, not do any work, then just work really hard during recuperation week, and still pass with high grades! This is actually what some of the high school students actually do! I don't know where the logic comes from in doing grades like this, but apparently, this is how it's been done here for years!

I had 5 kids that needed to return for recuperation. It was really frustrating for me to figure out exactly what to do with these kids. For the students that have been really low in Reading and Language all year, and have failed to come in for tutoring or never completed work, I wasn't at all convinced that 2 extra days of tutoring were going to somehow magically change their grades from 50% to a 70%. But we were told to do it anyways, so I tried, and 3 kids were able to pass the last exams with a 70% or higher. Unfortunately, 2 students still failed 4-5 subjects each, so they have to return for another recuperation week in August before school starts. After that, Sara and I aren't really sure what happens, we've been told different things. We've had people tell us the kids will have to repeat their grade if they even receive one grade lower than a 70%, to people telling us it doesn't matter what grade they get because in August the administration will pass all the students to the next grade anyways!!! If they plan on passing these students no matter what in August, then why make the teachers, kids, and families go through all these charades???

Another unfortunate thing was that one of my students that failed had a mother who cried and cried when I told her her daughter wasn't ready to pass yet. This is after I had already had a meeting with her the week prior about her daughter's grades. I told her that her daughter really needed to practice her reading all throughout the summer, come back for the exams in August, then she should be able to pass, but that she would need to practice every day. The mother was very upset and didn't hear anything that I was trying to say, only going on and on about how upset she was, and that although she knew her daughter needed extra help, she didn't feel right making her study during the summer, saying it would be too hard on her and that her daughter needed a vacation. I felt horrible after talking to her for about an hour, her crying the entire time, in turn making her poor daughter cry. What could I do but tell them the truth- that I don't believe her daughter is ready to pass until she shows a hreater improvement in her reading, as of now, she is still haivng trouble with her letter sounds. I tried to make it clear that her daughter has the ability, and that I have noticed improvement, but that she just needs extra support to keep her moving forward.

I just don't know how can I help someone that admits her daughter needs help but refuses to give her extra support at home because she feels her daughter needs a vacation???? Not to mention, all throughout the year, I offered to tutor her daughter every morning for an extra hour before school for free, and she never showed up! Sometimes it's hard not to blame myself, feeling like I've failed these students, that they should all be able to succeed in my class, but then again, I need to remember there is only so much I can do without the help and support of the parents and family! I guess that's a problem every teacher faces.....

Building the School's First Library:

Definitely, one good thing that did happen during the past few weeks is that Sara and I were finally able to finish putting together the school's first library! After waiting all year to get bookshelves for the library, we were finally able to put things together, just in time for the kids to use for next school year! Using all the donations and books we collected from friends and family, we were able to create a library for the entire school. We divided the library into 3 main sections, books for grades K-2, grades 3-6, and grades 7-High School, then two smaller sections for books in Spanish, and magazines.

We worked hard all week, organizing and labeling books, making posters for the library, and arranging the bookshelves. During our week of final exams, Sara and I took our classes to the library to help label books, and to show them how to use the library for next year. The picture below shows my kids helping to label each of the books.

It was so great to see how enthusiastic the children were to look through all the books, and to know that starting next year, they would be able to borrow and check out any books they wanted! What made things better was that the children and even some parents took part in putting the library together, spending time before and after school to help us set things up. It made the library feel more like it belonged to the school and the students because they had a part in making it happen, instead of just something Sara and I had simply presented to them. I could never say THANK YOU enough to everyone who helped us get these books down to these kids that needed them so much!! I only wish you could have seen in person the smiles and excitement on their faces!!

Aside from the past hectic weeks at school I've been keeping busy outside of work too....

Going to Birthday Parties:

Marlon a friend and coworker from school, invited me one night after work to go to his friend, Ingrid's house. Her son was celebrating his birthday, and she had prepared a cake and tamales. Ingrid and her family were very friendly, inviting me in and offering me food right as I walked through the door, and this was the first time I had met them! Ingrid was very nice, only seemed to be in her mid twenties, and definitely didn't look like she had 2 children. After eating, we sat around and talked, and I learned that Ingrid and her friend Melissa (the two girls at the far left of the picture) were both taking English classes. They were both so nice speaking slowly in Spanish so that I would understand them, and trying out different phrases in English with me. We all agreed that it was too bad we didn't meet earlier, then we could have all practiced our English and Spanish together. It made me so sad that I had only met them now, when Sara and I only have a few weeks left. Sara and I have been wanting to make friends with girls our age the entire time we've been here, so that we could practice our Spanish, and hang out with nice people in the town. Unfortunately, all the girls we've been able to meet, though nice, were either much younger than us, or if they were our age, they had children and a family, and couldn't really hang out. I guess better late than never right?! I'm glad I at least had the chance to meet them before leaving!

On Monday, May 19th, Marlon celebrated his birthday. Sara, his good friend Isabel, and I took him out for dinner to a nice restaurant called Cesar Mariscos right along the boardwalk and beach in Tela. We got the waiters to sing him Happy Birthday and we all shared a chocolate cake I had made for him.
The Carnival in La Ceiba:

Sara and I went to La Ceiba on Saturday, May 24th a larger coastal city about 1 and a half hours from Tela. They were celebrating there annual gran carnival, La Feria de San Isidro. Most larger cities throughout Honduras celebrate their own carnivals (or "ferias") during different times. Tela has it's carnival in June. La Ceiba's carnival is supposedly the largest in Honduras, so we went to see what all the hype was about. After our bus ride that actually took more like 2 hours because of the crowds of people on the bus, as well as the traffic on the streets, we made it just in time to see some of the parade. It was getting pretty hot and humid as we stood there along the street, but luckily we were able to find refuge under the shade of one of the street vendor carts. At first we saw many people on horses ride by, then several minutes later floats and trucks filled with people in costumes standing on the beds of the beds of the trucks passed. The parade overall was very slow, there were large gaps between each float or group of people that walked by. Often Sara and I were confused as to whether the parade was over or not. There were many large floats that went by with dancers, all throwing out beads to the crowds below...there were Garifuna playing music on drums and dancing.and also many Garifuna men and women dressed in traditional clothing. We only stayed for a few hours because I had to make it back to Tela to teach at the church that night. Supposedly there are huge parties and celebrations that go on to all hours of the night and things can get pretty crazy. I can imagine that, with all the crowds of people that we saw, and it was still daytime. Luckily we were able to see the more calm part of the carnival, and leave just in time for all the craziness to happen.

Having Guests Over for Dinner:

Just this past Sunday, June 1st, I invited my friend Genesis and her family to our house for dinner. I met Genesis, her mom, and her two sisters through the church and the English classes I teach. They have been the nicest and most welcoming family I've met here while living here, inviting me to their house to have dinner within only a few days of meeting me, and continuing to make me feel like family anytime I see them at church or around town. So, I wanted to do something nice for them before leaving.
Just the weekend before, Genesis had come over to teach me how to make pupusas (fresh corn tortillas stuffed with cheese). So, I decided to make spaghetti with garlic bread for dinner (so they could try something different), and pupusas (in case they didn't like the spaghetti, and wanted to eat something more familiar). The picture above shows Genesis and I making the pupusas, trying to get things ready before the rest of her family arrived.

Her family arrived at 6:00 on the dot, and not a minute late, unlike many Hondurans. Which would be great in any normal circumstance, but with me, and how things never turn out as planned, I was far from being ready to serve dinner. Luckily, Sara and Genesis were there to help me out! Sara helped keep everyone entertained, while Genesis and I ran around crazy in the kitchen.

After a while I realized just how long it had been since I had people over for dinner, being so used to only cooking dinner for myself. I was totally flustered, trying to rush to finish cooking, that I forgot to put more than one bag of pasta in the water! I didn't realize until after I drained the pasta in the strainer, that it clearly wasn't enough pasta for all of us. Luckily, we still had the pupusas. So while the next pot of pasta was cooking, Genesis and her family were able to eat, while Sara and I worked in the kitchen and waited for the next batch of pasta to finish. Fortunately, her family didn't seem to mind, laughing at joking with me.After dinner and the kitchen was a mess, we all sat around and talked. It was really nice to have them over, Just being around them puts me in a happy mood! The picture below shows Sara and I with Genesis, her sisters, Mariella and Milly, and her mom, Sumaya, on the far left.

Buying Some Local Art:

Also last weekend, I was able to stop by a small art gallery in town and buy a painting from a local artist. Sara and I had passed this gallery on our way into town numerous times, but we never stopped in to have a look. The gallery is a small, adorable wooden house on stilts, painted purple. Knowing that I wanted to take a painting home as a souvenir from Tela, I decided to finally stop by. I was so glad I did, I met the three local artists whose work was displayed, a man named Cruz, a women named Maria, and unfortunately, I can't remember the other man's name. They were very friendly, showing me their many beautiful paintings that lined the walls, all depicting various places throughout Tela and Honduras. It made me very sad and happy at the same time, looking at all this beautiful artwork inspired be to start painting again, but at the same time I felt sad and nostalgic, looking at paintings that showed various places that Sara and I have traveled to all over Honduras during our 10 months here. I really couldn't believe that our time's almost up here! After several minutes walking around and looking, I finally decided on a small painting of the Garifuna village of Miami. It was so hard to decide on just one painting (I actually think I need to come back before I leave and buy at least one more), but I chose it because it showed exactly the picture in my head that comes to mind when I think of Tela. The picture below shows me with Maria, the artist, whose painting I bought to bring back home. So as of now, we just finish off the rest of this week cleaning up our classrooms, finalizing and averaging grades. The final grades have to be written by hand on large sheets of paper. then they are copied onto a giant notebook that has page after page of handwritten grids and lines, complete with every child's full name in the entire school (which here means at least 4 names per child- their 1st and middle name, then their mom's maiden name, and their father's last name).

Next week we have to transfer these grades yet again onto an even larger notebook, which is given to the government. Thank God we don't have to do this every year in the States!! I think I'd go nuts having to spend all this time tediously writing down each grade for every student multiple times! Next week we also have graduations and awards for all the students, and then the following week Sara and I are spending a few days on the island of Utila to get certified in scuba diving. Then on Saturday, June 21st we both fly home! Time is quickly running out for us here in Honduras!!

Alison's Visit

On Monday, May 12th, one of my best friends, Alison came to visit me for about 6 days. We've known each other since Kindergarten, and went to the same school up until high school. Since then, we've been living in completely different areas, states, and even countries, so it was really nice that she was able to find time to visit so we could catch up and spend some time together. She has been living and going to law school in Iowa for 3 years, and was just leaving extremely cold weather right before she came to Honduras. Our plan was to go to Utila, one of the 3 Bay Islands, and go to Pico Bonito to do rafting and the canopy tour. I'll break up this blog into each day that she was here:


MONDAY, MAY 12:

I picked her up from the airport at 12 noon in a taxi, and from there we headed back to Tela. We went to the beach in town, and walked around, laying on the beach, and enjoying all the food you've heard me go on and on about before like beleadas, pupusas, and liquados. After dinner at Paseo Junior's, we headed back home to start packing up for our trip to Utila.

TUESDAY, MAY 13:

We woke up early at 6:00 am to eat breakfast and get ready. We had to take a bus to La Ceiba (about 1 1/2 hrs away), where we were catching a 9:30 am ferry to Utila. I was a little weary about the hour ferry ride to the island, the boat was not very big, and like I mentioned before, my motion sickness has been acting up since living here, so both Ali and I opted to take Dramamine to help us get through the trip. Although the ride was bumpy, we sat outside to get fresh air, and luckily didn't neither of us got sick. We took the picture below right before the ferry took off.
Unfortunately, we sat nest to a loud group of travelers, who talked the entire trip. I tried my best to block them out, just trying to focus on the water ahead, but poor Ali was pushed up right against them and had to hear their entire life stories the whole way there. I offered her my ipod to help drown them out, but of course only one earphone was working, so that plan didn't go a planned.

An hour later, around 10:30, we arrived in Utila. Utila is a greatly smaller island in comparison to Roatan (where I went with Aaron), and has a more younger "backpacker" atmosphere, as opposed to Roatan that tends to cater to travelers who aren't so much on a budget. As soon as we got off the ferry we were approached by many dive instructors from various companies handing out flyer's, all trying to get people's attention to sigh up for their dive courses. The Bay Islands (Roatan, Utila, and Guanaja) is known to be one of the most popular, top-rated, and cheapest places in the world to become a certified scuba diver. Sara and I are actually thinking of spending our last week in Honduras in Utila, getting certified in scuba diving, which takes about 4 days.

However, on this shorter visit with Ali, our plan was to stay for a few days, just to check out the beach and island. We walked around the main street of town trying to find a hotel to stay in. It was a little tougher for us to find a place, like I mentioned before this is an extremely popular place to dive, so many hotels reserve cheaper rooms only for students who are also taking dive classes. We were both pleased to see what a small, laid back, friendly atmosphere we were in, but eventually that happy feeling faded a bit, after what seemed like hours walking around in the hot sun, carrying our bags, trying to find a place to stay. We found out fast that many "businesses" on the island, such as hotels, inns, stores, and restaurants have random signs placed on the street, but as soon as we walked up past the signs, we pretty felt like we were trespassing into someones private property. Often times, we had to slowly walk into the yard or house while calling out for someone to help us. Another thing that added to this "fun" moment of the trip was that island and the main street was so small that we were running into the same people over and over again while walking up and down the street like 2 lost puppies. We even had a dive instructor come up to us, after the 4th time passing him, if we needed help, obviously we did!

We were so tired that we decided to stop to rest and eat, before continuing on our hunt. We stopped at a cute restaurant called Munchies. Its on the 1st floor of an old, restored island home built back in 1864. Unfortunately the food and service took forever, but the food was pretty good.

Finally, soon after lunch, we found a cute hotel called the "Hotel Bavaria." Once again, we had to walk up to the porch of the house, and call out to the owner, through her screen door while her kids were sitting on the couch eating lunch and watching TV. The hotel was perfect, and luckily we found it just when we were about to loose hope! It was a small hotel on the 2nd floor of a huge house (where the owner lived with her family), with six double rooms (all with a private bathroom). All the rooms had fans, and opened up to a large, breezy balcony that wrapped around the 2nd floor of the house. It had everything we needed, was clean, and it only cost $8 a night for each of us.

After getting our things settled, we got dressed for the beach and decided to visit Bando Beach. This beach is actually a man made beach, weird! The beach was pretty nice, had white sand, and was lined with many beach chairs and palapas (small thatched-roof huts).The water was very warm, but not as clear and bright blue as a typical Carribean beach. The weather was really nice, and we laid out for a while, and I actually dozed off for a while. When I woke up, I found Ali walking along the water, apparently she was getting attacked by bugs and couldn't lay in the sand any longer. This was the very first time I've been with anyone who has gotten bit more than me! Sympathizing with her pain, we decided to head back to our hotel to take showers and get ready for dinner before the bugs had a chance to suck up any more of her blood.

After getting cleaned up, we headed out for dinner. We went to a nice hotel right down the street called Mango Inn that had a restaurant called La Dolce Vita Pizzeria. I had read about it in my travel book, boasting that they had the greatest brick oven pizza, so we had to try it! We were starving so much, that we each decided to order our own pizza.....BIG mistake! We quickly realized how much our eyes were bigger than our stomachs as soon as they brought our food out! We each were only able to finish half our pizza, of course the smart thing would've been to share one pizza, but we decided just to wrap it up and take it back to our room to eat later for a yummy midnight snack.After stuffing our faces, we headed back to our hotel, to relax a bit, before going back out to walk around town and get a few drinks. While at the hotel, Ali decided to eat another slice of pizza while she waited for me to get ready. Soon after, I heard a loud yell.....seconds before she was about to take anther bite, she just happened to look down to find a large, dead fly in her pizza, wings and all!! Not one that had looked like it had just landed in the pizza, but one that looked like it had actually been cooked with the pizza, hidden under a tomato. Ewwwww!!! We were both nauseous trying to block out the fact that we quite possibly could have already eaten many other dead bugs while eating at the restaurant. Needless to say, we immediately threw out the pizza!

Later that night we ended up at a bar/restaurant called Bundu Cafe. It was pretty crowded, filled with many young backpackers. We sat down at a table on the porch and enjoyed beers and a "flaming brownie sundae".........yeah right....sadly, they brought it out with no flames, which defeated our whole purpose for ordering it, and it wasn't even that big of a desert!! Boo hoo!

After that we went to the famous Treetanic Bar. It's a bar located in the Jade Seahorse (I'll write more about that later). It gets it's name from the fact that it is literally a bar built in a large mango tree, decorated to look like a ship. It was a nice, interesting place, very crowded, but eventually we were able to find a place to sit down and catch up on things while sipping on some yummy drinks. After that, we walked up the street to our hotel to pass out for the night.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14:

We had planned to take a day trip to one of the many cays (pronounces "keys") off the coast of Utila, called Water Cay. It's a tiny, 3-acre uninhabited island, lined with white sand, palm trees, and blue water. It's very easy to hire a boat to take you there in the morning, and arrange it to pick you up that same afternoon. However, after Ali's experience with the brutal bugs yesterday at the beach for only a few hours, we both decided that spending an entire day on a deserted island might not be the best thing. So, instead we decided to head back to La Ceiba on the 2:30 ferry, a day earlier than planned, so we could get an extra day at the Jungle River Lodge in Pico Bonito.

Since we had some time to spare on the island before the ferry left, we ate breakfast at a restaurant called Zanzibar. Again we ran into the same group of people we had already run into about 5 times the day before (inevitable on such a tiny island), sat next to them, and ordered a huge breakfast.

After breakfast we decided to walk around and see some sights in town. We walked to a small "gallery" called "Gunter's Driftwood Gallery." An artist/diver, named Gunter Kordorvsky, creates art in this gallery using materials he's found in the ocean and on the beach. I use that word gallery in quotes because again, it was of course another private home we felt like we were trespassing into. We only actually continued walking up the road to the house because we ran into a local who said we were going in the right direction.

We walked up to the large, wooden two-story house, passing though clothes hanging on clotheslines and various other clutter like wood scraps, and a lot of random junk and knickknacks scattered throughout the floors and shelves in the entrance. The door was open and after slowly stepping into the house and calling out, two young girls emerged. I wasn't sure if they were the daughters of the artist, but after looking up I realized that the front room was this "gallery" that my guidebook had explained. While walking around the room we saw that the artist actually did all his work in that same room, there was a desk with all his materials spread out across the top. The place and the art was interesting but was not at all what I had expected. He had many pieces carved from wood, and many pieces containing sea shells, shark teeth, sand, and other remnants from the sea.

After our trip to the gallery, we decided to return to the Jade Seahorse (where we had been the night before), so we could see the crazy garden and Treetanic Bar that we had heard so much about, in the daylight. The Jade Seahorse is a hotel, restaurant, bar, and gift shop, and garden. A former art professor from San Francisco, moved here and has created a fun and eccentric fantasy wonderland. Looking through the colorful front gate, you would never imagine all that is hiding behind it! There is so much to look at all the explanations and pictures couldn't capture this very unique place. The entire place is decorated with mosaic tiles, broken glass bottles, porcelain figurines, mirrors, plates, paint of all different colors, and just about everything else you can think of! If you are not a customer at the hotel, restaurant, bar, or store you have to pay 20 lempira ($1) to even get inside and walk through the garden. The $1 is well worth it to be able to walk through this giant art exhibit.There are about 5 or 6 small cabins, called the "Nightland Cabins," which are scattered within the large, winding garden. Each of these cabins is unique in its own way, each having a special name and theme, such as " Mona Lisa" and "Dalai Lama."The garden had many different paths and stairs leading to different gazebos, sitting areas, and even to the Treetanic bar, built high up in a large mango tree (the bar Ali and I had gone the night before).

After visiting the Jade Seahorse, we decided to walk to the large Iguana Research and Breeding Station. We had heard a lot about it, so we decided to try to get a look at these endangered animals before having to get on the ferry at 2:30. Notice I say try because after walking around the island again for what seemed like forever in the heat, we followed the many signs failing to notice that on a few of them, they said in tiny print at the bottom the hours: 2-5pm!!!! So, even if we made it there, we couldn't see anything because we would miss our ferry if we waited for it to open! Sadly, Ali and I didn't notice the hours printed on the sign until we were almost there and had already been walking around for about an hour and were covered with sweat!
After that we decided to visit one of the dive shops where Sara and I were thinking of taking our scuba diving lessons when we returned to the island in June, called Cross Creek Dive Center. One of the instructors took us on a tour to show us the classrooms and accommodations, and answered all my questions. Everyone there seemed very nice, we'll probably return here in June. I'll keep you updated on the scuba diving part later. We'll see if I can make it though the classes and actually get certified, I'm a little scared and nervous about the whole idea of it, but know I'll regret it if I don't at least give it a good try!

Then we walked back to the pier where we joined a few others also waiting for the ferry. Unfortunately, we had to wait until about 4 pm for it to finally arrive. Apparently the ferry had broken one of its engines during the earlier trip to La Ceiba, so it took them a while to repair it.

After arriving back in La Ceiba, we took a taxi to the Jungle River Lodge in Pico Bonito. If you remember me writing about this place from my earlier blogs, this is my forth time here. Out of all the places in Honduras, I can't pass up taking a visitor there, it's too gorgeous a place to miss, and it's so close to Tela! We settled into our room and returned to the restaurant to sit, relax and enjoy the beautiful views before dinner.

Sara and her friend, who was visiting the same time, actually came later that night. It was nice to all meet up and have dinner together. We all made plans to take the canopy tour together the following morning.

THURSDAY, MAY 15:

We woke up early to eat breakfast before starting our canopy tour at 9:30 am. The picture below shows Ali about to fly over the Rio Cangrejal.

After the canopy tour through the jungle and all the hiking we were ready for a big lunch! The four of us walked up to the Pico Bonito Visitor's Center, where we walked across a large hanging bridge going over the river. Sara and her friend then headed back to the Jungle River Lodge, they were returning to Tela that afternoon. Ali and I continued to the Omega lodge to have our huge lunch.
After lunch, we headed back to our lodge to relax, hang out, and wait for dinner. Can you tell we did a lot of eating on this trip! At dinner we booked our rafting trip for the next morning, then passed out for the night.

FRIDAY, MAY 16:

We woke up early again this morning, ate breakfast, then started our rafting trip. This was my fourth time rafting on this river, but I didn't mind it at all, knowing htat this was going to be my last, and I was able to do it with Ali! It was only hte two of us and two tour guides. WE had so much run hiking up the river, jumping into the river off large boulders, and floating down the cool rivier with the current. This rafting trip was a little bit different than the past ones. Since it hadn't rained in a while and the water level was pretty low, we stayed more upriver, and did a lot of rafting down the rapids, then turning back around up the river to "surf" on the rapids (which basically means paddling the raft into the rapid to let the cool water splash into the raft and onto us), then jumping off the raft many times to float down the safer, smaller rapids one by one. It was so much fun, and nice to be able to do some different things than the last times. I even fell of the raft for the first time, and Ali luckily pulled me out of the river and saved me!

We hiked up to a large boulder, where in all the rafting tours I've taken before, we jumped into the river below, the jump's about 5 meters (15 feet) high. Last time whenI was with my sister, Belinda, we were in a large group with about 10 people. At this point in the tour, the tourguide toook all the brave guys across to the oposite side of the river, where we watched them scale up the rocks to jump off an even higher platform, about 12 meters high, 36 feet! At that time I was too terrified to try it. all the girls, opted just to watch, and jump into the river off the smaller boulder.

This time however, knowing this was going to be my last time here, and having already seen those 6 guys jump off before, and come out fine, I felt like I needed to try it, or else I knew I'd regret it. Since living here, I've really faced my fear of heights by jumping off bouldres and rocks.

So, with the two tourguides helping me, I actually did it!! I jumped off the smaller boulder, swam across the river, and the two guides literally had to pull me up with a rope, and help me climb up to the higher platform. This is seriously the closest I've ever gotten to rock climbing, and honestly, the closest I ever want to be to it again. I had to pull myself up the wall, hanging on for dear life to the small ledges and grooves between the rocks, trying desperately not to look down, or think about how high I was. We I finally arrived at the top, about 36 feet over the river, I was so proud of myslef for doing it, but now I had to worry about the part of actually jumping off the rock.....NOT EASY!! I just kept thinking I had to do it fast, before I chickened out, and climbing back down the rocks wasn't really an option because that looked 10 times scarrier than climbing up! So after I watched the first guide jump off, it was my turn. It helped as I looked down and saw Ali down below cheering me on, and there were a few other guys down on that rock with her that were on a rafting tour from another lodge. With all of them looking up at me and cheering, I finally found enough guts to jump off. It was seriously the best and most exhilarationg feeling ever!!! It felt like I was free falling forever before I finally hit the water! This is probably the most amazing thing I've experienced since living and traveling here. I'll remember that feeling forever, and it makes it that much better, knowing that I've faced my fears of heights like I never though I could! The picture below shows us with one of our tour guides, yes, he had a mullet!!!

After our rafting trip, we went back to the lodge to enjoy some fresh fruit. We hung out and swam in the pools overlooking the river, relaxed and enjoyed the amazing views around us and hte nice sunny weather.Since I still had my helmet and lifevest on, I decided to take advantage of it and finally jump off the bolders near the pool, down into the river below (about 6-7 meters, 20 feet , high). In all my times visiting here, guests and tourguides alike jump off the boulder like nothing without helmets of vests on! I've always hesitated, but I figured now, after jumping off that much higher one before, I definately do this! Plus, I felt safer doing it with some protection. Luckily, Ali was able to catch this jump with her camera, we weren't able to bring a camera on the rafting trip earlier, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, I forgot to keep my legs straight, and landed right on my bottom, OUCH!!! My butt was so sore I couldn't move, luckily, the pain died down after a few minutes!

We had planned to go back to La Ceiba early, so we would have time to hike to Rio Maria, but becasue we had to wait so long for a ride back into town, we ended up not having time to go. Instead, we headed back to Tela where we went out to dinner with Sara and stayed for the night.

SATURDAY, MAY 17:

Ali and I went into town to get a few more souveniers for her to take home to her family, and to walk around town and get lunch. We had to make it back home by 10 am to catch a taxi to the airport.

While in town, Ali had her last typical Honduran meal: beleadas (fresh tortillas with beans, tomato, and avacado), and a large soda in a glass bottle.She even took the soda to go, in a handy dandy plastic bag, just like everyone else here!

I was so glad that she came to visit!! We had a great time, and it was nice to spend time together, catching up, and being able to show her a little bit of where I've spent the last 10 months! Now that she's gone, the countdown begins until I'm home on June 21st for good!!! Wow, how time flies!!