The 2 top and 2 bottom pictures show the rustic huts that lined the Garifuna village of Miami.
On Saturday, February 9, Sara and I decided to visit Miami, another Garifuna village about an hour and a half away from Tela. We had some trouble trying to figure out exactly how to get there. Everyone we asked told us different things, some said we could ride our bikes there, while other said it would be too far and dangerous. Some people said we could take a bus directly there, still others said the roads were closed because of construction and flooding so we wouldn't be able to get there at all! After all this confusion, Sara and I decided to just find out for ourselves, and try taking a bus in the direction of the village, stay on until the last stop, then find a cab or walk the rest of the way. The local bus took us from Tela to a town called Tornabe, still about 45 minutes away from Miami. Once we arrived in Tornabe, we realized why buses and taxis could not drive all the way through to Miami, the roads literally had huge holes we had to walk around because of the construction. The picture below shows exactly that. 
While walking around Tornabe, we saw a random thatched roof hut right in between two concrete houses (the picture below). Our only choices from that point were to walk to Miami, wait for a van that gives rides to and from Miami and Tornabe (for 20 lemps/ about $1), but that wasn't coming for another 3 hours, or pay extra and take a taxi directly there for 100 lemps (about $5). We chose to take the taxi. 
There was only one very bumpy,one way, dirt road from Turnabe to Miami. As you can see from the picture below, our taxi came head to head with a truck coming from the opposite direction. We had to sit there for about 10 minutes as our taxi driver argued with the truck driver about who was going to back up and let the other one pass through first. In the end, our driver gave in and we backed up to let the truck pass by. 
When we arrived in Miami, we looked out the window and saw nothing but palm trees, huts with thatched roofs, laundry hanging on clotheslines, the ocean, and the sand. Miami is definitely one of the most rustic villages we've been to, there were only about 10/15 huts, and very few people, and the only car I saw there was our taxi. The taxi driver dropped us off at the only "hotel" in the village, and Sara and I got out and walked around to explore the tiny, quaint, village. The pictures below show some of the things we saw as we walked around.
The village of my Miami lies on a narrow peninsula with the Caribbean Sea on one side, and a large lagoon called "Laguna de Los Micos" (which means lagoon of the long-tailed monkeys) on the other side. The most bizarre thing was that while walking through the village, we turned one way and saw the ocean with its waves coming onto the sand, and from the same exact spot, turned the other way and saw the very calm and tranquil lagoon. The picture below shows the huge lagoon, the water was so still and peaceful it looked just like glass. Sara took a video showing that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slFr14Hk-CA
While we walked a little further down the peninsula, we came across a small merendero (a small restaurant/store), and sitting drinking a beer, was a guy named Fernando. He introduced himself to us in English, and told us that he lived in the US for over 10 years, and just moved back to Honduras a few years ago (he's now 31). He said while working in the US he was able to send a lot of money back here to his family, and to help him start up a construction company that has now really taken off. Just when I started thinking he seemed pretty nice, he proceeded to ask me how much I weigh, shocked by the question, I had to ask him to repeat himself, and just as I was starting to get offended, he pointed to a jet ski he had parked in the lagoon. He was apparently asking our weight to see if the three of us would fit on his jet ski. Luckily our combined weights were just right, and he offered to give us a free ride around the lagoon, and even all the way to Punta Sal, about 45 minutes away by boat. (a trip there costs about $30 with a tour group!)
Sara and I jumped on and held on for our lives as we zoomed past mangroves, birds, and fisherman in the lagoon, and then when we crossed over into the ocean. Then the ride started to get a little more intense with the waves. Poor Sara was getting squashed between Fernando and I with every bump, all while I was digging my hands into her stomach and smashing up against her back. Although I felt better having the only life vest on, there were times I was sure I was going to fly right off the jet ski! Aside for the few scary moments, the ride was amazing! We were able to see Tela, Punta Sal, and the Carri bean Sea, and a beautiful lagoon in an entirely different way, it was like our own little private tour! The greatest part was that it was total random luck that we stumbled upon Fernando, not to mention it was all for free! Can't beat that!
After our amazing ride on the jet ski, Fernando took us back to Miami. Sara decided to stay behind and spend the night in Miami, and I had to get back to Tela to teach an English class for kids at a local church (I just started that a few weeks ago, more on that later). Fernando was nice enough to take me all the way back to Tela (again for free), but not until after we stopped back in Tornabe to eat some fresh seafood. I ordered steamed shrimp with garlic, it was delicious.......that was until a few hours later, when I returned back home and the shrimp came back up the way it went down! I'm not sure if it was bad seafood, motion sickness from the bumpy ride on the jet ski, or maybe a mixture of both, but I spent most of the remainder of the night paying for that "yummy shrimp"! The pictures below show me excited to eat my shrimp, and the plate of food that cost me the rest of my night......
After teaching my English class, Fernando was nice enough to pick me up from the church, and take me back to Miami to check in on Sara. We rode on his 4X4 through all the dirt roads (not very smart of me since I was already getting sick from the shrimp) leading back to Miami. After a quick visit, seeing that Sara was comfortable spending the night there, and after a moment to steady my stomach, he took me back home, where I continued the rest of my sleepless night! The picture below shows the little hut that Sara spent the night in.
I woke up very early in the morning to heavy rain and loud winds. All I could think about was Sara and how spending an entire night, and possibly the entire rest of the next day in a little hut, with the weather this bad, would be horrible, on top of that, no electricity! Luckily, Sara was able to find a ride back home for only 80 lemps($4) instead of the 300 lemps ($15) we were told it would cost to get a cab ride from Miami, straight to Tela. Apparently, Sara had a sleepless night in Miami as well. The battery that powered the light in her hut had ran out in the middle of the night, and her ipod battery had run out as well, so she spent the night in the pitch black, wide awake because of all the loud wind and rain, plus she had felt sick from all the events of yesterday too! Despite us both feeling a bit under the weather Sunday morning, we both agreed it was a small price to pay for such a fun and unexpected Saturday!
Starting the first week in February, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to begin teaching two English classes (one for adults, and one for kids) every Thursday and Saturday at a local Christian church called "Amor Viviente." Marlon, the first grade teacher at my school, had been telling me about his church, and that many people that attend the church would really like to learn English. He asked me if I would be interested in volunteering to teach English classes, and I immediately jumped at the chance. I love working at my school and being able to travel, but I couldn't help but feel like I could be doing a lot more with my time while living here! I was so excited to be able to interact with more people and families in the neighborhood. Plus, get to know and build stronger relationships with at least a few of the people I am living here, in Tela, with. Besides the students and families at my school, I haven't really had that chance until now. I just wish I would've started teaching these classes when I first got here!
I knew right away I wanted to teach English classes to the kids in the church, but at first I was really apprehensive about teaching adults. Never in a million years could I picture myself in the front of the classroom with 15-20 adults staring back at me, the very thought of it scared me to death. With kids, I've never had that problem, I've never had any doubts about wanting to teach kids, but with adults it's different (or so I thought). What if I bore them completely? What if they think I'm treating them like my 2nd grade students? What if they all think I'm completely wasting their time? But after meeting with the pastor, I couldn't say "no" after seeing his face and how excited he was. He told me how much the adults in the church wanted to learn English (including him), and how many of them had already signed up for the class. So sure enough, I decided to bite the bullet, and give it try.....if all else fails, at least I know I tried my best! (yes mom and mama tess, your little sayings still stay with me, no matter how much I rolled my eyes at you every time you said things like that to me while growing up!:) And if nothing else they'll at least know a little bit more English than before I came, right?! or at least that's what I keep telling myself... 
The top and bottom pictures show a lesson I was teaching to my adult English class about the names of different body parts. I taught them the song, "Head and shoulders, knees and Toes," it was so funny to see how much they actually loved the song and even doing all the movements! We must have sang the song at least 20 times throughout the night because they wanted to keep practicing over and over again. It's funny to think that I was afraid they wouldn't like the song because they might feel like little kids singing it! But they absolutely love it!!! I guess adults are just like kids, only bigger!:) 
These pictures show them cutting out different body parts of a cartoon boy. I had them cut and paste his body together on another piece of paper, and then we labeled the different parts. Many of them even named their cartoon and drew on extra things to make it look more like them! For instance, some of the women made the hair longer so it resembled a girl, and others colored the clothes to match what they were wearing. I swear sometimes I felt like I was in a kindergarten classroom! Who would think that grown adults would actually enjoy this activity! I really never thought teaching adults would be this much fun!
I came to the church service the weekend before I was going to start the classes, in order to meet everyone in the church and introduce myself. As soon as I stepped into the church, I was immediately happy. The pastor smiled, and greeted me as soon I came in. Everyone I passed on my way to a seat, and after the service, hugged and kissed me as if I was already a member of church, and even a member of their own family! It was really nice to meet the adults that were going to be in my class, and even better to hear them say that they were happy I was there and that they were really excited to learn English. The best part was that being with everyone at the church allowed me to practice more of my Spanish. Speaking Spanish (or at least trying to) with everyone showed them that I was trying to learn Spanish just as much as they are trying to learn English. It made things a lot less formal and stressful, made me feel less nervous about teaching the classes, and I felt comfortable right away. 
Everyone I met was so welcoming and friendly, and I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear throughout the entire 2 1/2 hour service. The music was so happy and upbeat, everyone was singing and clapping (from little toddlers to men and women who looked close to my grandparents age), everyone just looked so happy, it couldn't help but rub off on me. It was really refreshing to even see teenagers and young people my age getting as into the service as everyone around them! Before I knew it I was singing in Spanish (more like trying my best to read the words on the screen in the front of the church), and clapping along with everyone else. I only understood about 70% of what they were singing about, but it didn't really matter, it was really amazing and so much fun! After that night, I promised myself that I would arrive early before every children's class on Saturday (the service is from 7-9, and I teach the kids from 8-9), so that I could have extra time to be a part of the service and be around such great people. I really can't think of any better way to spend my weekends! I look forward to teaching the classes every week! 
These pictures show some of the kids in my English class that I teach on Saturdays. Aren't they adorable? They are just as eager to learn English as the students in my adult class are!
The picture below shows our room at the Jungle River Lodge.
I went into our bathroom and found this spider with enormous legs peeking out from under the toilet seat! Good thing I looked down before I was too late,.....EWWWWW!!! There are so many crazy bugs here, and they always seem to be at least 3 times the size of bugs in the states!
The tour quickly proved to be more physical than the one Sara and I had done. They had us do a number of things to help us practice and get accustomed to the river and what to do in different situations while rafting. They had us swim back and forth across the river many times (against the strong current, mind you) to practice catching the rope in case we fell out of the raft, and letting our bodies float with the current. Also, we had to climb up huge boulders while pulling ourselves up with the rope, then jump off the top of the boulders back into the river, and swim back across the river to the other side! I felt so bad for not warning my sister about this beforehand, I didn't realize that it was going to be so different from the first rafting tour I took, and be so physically demanding! Needless to say, my sister and I both agreed we were more out of shape than we thought! After all the drills and the practicing, we all split up into 3 different rafts and made our way down the river. Darwin, Belinda, and I had our own raft. In the end I was soooo proud of us for doing it, and especially proud of her, she had never gone rafting before and was a little weary at first, but by the end she was an rafting expert yelling back at Darwin the different rafting commands like "Forward, Forward!" while plowing through the water with her oar! We had a blast, all while getting a great workout!
After the tour we headed back to lodge to eat some fresh fruit and relax a bit before heading back into town (La Ceiba) to catch a bus back to Tela. We sat out on the lodge's pool and deck, all built within the boulders looking out onto the river, the view was amazing!
We arrived back in La Ceiba at at around 2pm, and then headed out to try to find a few restaurants my sister had found while researching good places to eat on the Internet( the most important part about traveling is the food, right?!). The bad news was that many of the places we wanted to eat at had early lunch hours, closed for a few hours, and then opened back up around 5pm for dinner, which meant we would miss our bus to Tela if we waited to have dinner. Plus we found this out AFTER we had already taken a cab and walked around a bit. So we wandered around more, until we found a small merendero (like a small restaurant). It was a perfect time and place for Belinda to try some typical Honduran food and where better to eat, than a typical merendero! We ordered beleadas (with beans, avocado and tomato) and chicken pastelitos (fried empanadas that you can get with salsa and chopped cabbage on top). It was delicious!
After lunch, we jumped on a school bus and headed back to Tela. While riding on any of the buses here, there are always people getting on and off of the bus selling everything from cds and sunglasses to various drinks and snacks, we had a chance to sample "agua de coco" (of course it came in a bag). 
This picture was taken on our balcony facing right towards the ocean. 
After going back to my house to pick up some things, we headed across the street to have a tasty cantaloupe "licuado." Licuados are sold everywhere in Tela, they basically are smoothies made with fresh fruit, ice, milk, and sugar (again, this came in a bag). 
After that we enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant later that night. The restaurant had a great atmosphere, it opened up right onto the boardwalk and beach. We feasted on fried fish and steamed shrimp with garlic, YUM, YUM! It was sooo good that Belinda cleaned off her entire plate, and I was literally drinking up the cream sauce from my shrimp, and eating chunks of garlic as if they were french fries!...Can you tell that a lot of this weekend was focused around eating!! :)
SATURDAY:
While we were hiking, we passed a giant tree whose roots were sticking out right in the middle of the path, it must have been pretty darn windy to knock that tree down!
Our guide led us up a steep path so that we could look down over the ocean.
After the hike, we got back on the boat and arrived on Cocalito Beach where lunch and snorkeling were on the agenda. Cocalito beach, is a very small, secluded beach where only two families live in little thatched roof huts. The beach is beautiful and very idyllic with palm trees and hammocks lining the shore. The families prepare lunch for the many tour groups that stop by throughout the day.We didn't get to go snorkeling because the waves were a little strong, and the water wasn't as clear as usual, but we did enjoy a typical Garifuna meal of fried fish, plantains, beans and rice, followed by a nice nap on the beach.
There were only three other women in our tour group. One of the girls we met, whose name was Sarah, was from Australia. After we arrived back in Tela we all decided to eat together at Paseo Juniors ,our favorite hangout, where we ate (for the second time in two days) pupusas and tacos. Nothing beats tons of good food and relaxation!
After our second lunch, we still were not finished yet......Belinda and I treated ourselves to dessert! She ordered a gigantic banana sundae, and I had a monster serving of neapolitan ice cream. Later that night we enjoyed a nice dinner of seafood soup and carne asada at the Sherwood Hotel, also right along the beach, next door to our hotel. I must have gained at least 5 pounds in my sister's 3 day visit!! 
That night we opted to stay the night at my house so my sister could get the full experience of living here without a TV, nice ocean view, and with a cold bucket shower just like in the Philippines! Sunday morning, we headed to the airport. This time, we decided to save ourselves from all the hassle and confusion from last time, and take a taxi straight to the airport. I was sad to see her off, but I was so glad she came! She was able to see a little of the jungle, a little of beach, and was able to sample tons of good Honduran food, but most importantly... spend quality time with her favorite little sister :) all in only 3 days!!! I just wish my Ate (my other sister, Valerie) was there with us.....we missed you!!! Thanks again for coming to visit Ditche, love you!!!
