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!!