Sorry this wasn’t posted earlier. We have had some serious rain/thunderstorms the last couple of days and those knocked out our Internet. That is why I didn’t post this when I wanted to on Wednesday.
So I realized I forgot to mention this incredible pizza place that we went to in Copan in the last entry. It was called Pizza Jim’s and a guy who moved down to Copan from California ran it. It was delicious. We ate dinner there after our long day of the ruins, swimming, and horseback riding. Again, this was the second time we had had pizza in three days—do you think I miss my pizza, and really all American food? Yes.
After our long day Sunday we crashed and went to bed early because we had to get up at 5 the next morning to catch the 6 am bus to San Pedro and then a bus to our final destination, Tela. We were all walking zombies when those alarms went off at 4:45, 5, and 5:15 (different people set different alarms so that they could get the extra sleep). I was the early bird at 4:45 and was ready to head towards Tela. We went straight to the bus stop at 5:30 and luckily for us a Pulperia (a convenient store) opened across the street and I had a breakfast (no platanos) consisting of chocolate milk and package of powdered donuts. Mmm donut. At 6 we were off. Now our understanding was that this first bus was a direct bus to San Pedro. By direct I mean we weren’t going to stop every 10 minutes to pick people up as was the case with most bus rides we had been on. Well, as we have learned, you can’t have such high expectations while traveling in Honduras. This bus stopped less often then others, but it still stopped and tried to cram as many people on the bus as possible. Ask my friend Steve how this worked out.
Steve and I were sitting next to each other and I was lucky enough to snag the window seat, which put him in the aisle seat. Half way through the trip to San Pedro, at one of the several stops, a young mother got on the bus with her young son and a few friends. Shortly after she got on she proceeded to start breastfeeding her son (which is a common public practice). Now, having two nephews I know that once a baby eats it also needs to burp—and more often then not cough up whatever didn’t make it down the first time. Well, this happened to occur with this young Honduran baby, and happened right over Steve. It was almost slow motion. I was watching the baby and Steve, while Steve was glued to the baby. The baby threw up once on the mother’s shirt when the mother was facing us, however now the mother had turned her back on Steve and was sitting on his arm-rest (the bus was packed with people), with the baby staring down on him. Suddenly I saw the baby’s movements—the movements I remember seeing right before my nephew Peter threw up all over me on Christmas morning. Luckily for Steve one of the young mother’s friends also picked up on the movement and just at the right moment took a plastic bag and put it over the baby’s mouth and caught all of the throw up. However, there was still some drooling and some of the first throw up that did drip onto Steve’s pants. However, the baby-throwing-up crisis had been mostly avoided.
We later learned that day that one of the other teachers was on a bus and was sitting in the window seat with her window open. Well, unlucky for her someone sitting in front of her threw up out the window. That throw up flew right back into the bus through the window Sarah happened to be sitting next to. Not as lucky as Steve.
After an eventful bus ride to San Pedro we went to go find a bus to Tela. I had never been to the bus station at San Pedro (it is large and crazy) but luckily both Rachel and Laura Beth knew where to go to find a bus to Tela. We had to wait for about 30 minutes but eventually we loaded onto a direct bus to Tela. Now this direct bus was more direct then the one we just got off of. We only stopped two or three times on our hour and a half ride. In fact it was probably the most comfortable bus ride we had all week.
We arrived in Tela and found two taxis to take the seven of us to our hotel. Now Rachel and Laura Beth had stayed at this hotel when they were in Tela earlier in the school year (before I came down) and they had tried to explain it to me. But you cannot understand how awesome this place was (in regards to its location right on the Caribbean) until you actually see it. I have never stayed at an ocean front hotel so this was a first, and it was awesome. May I remind you that for three nights it cost each person only about $90? This is when I decided that I would be coming to Honduras for vacations the rest of my life. When you are able to get a ticket for $300 (about the average price for a ticket several months ahead of time) and then only spend the amount of a one-night stay at a midrange level hotel in suburban America for an ocean side hotel in Honduras for three nights, it’s a simple decision. Go Honduras.
Now the original plan for us leaving so early for Tela was so that we could get there and enjoy most of the day on the beach. Well we arrived in Tela right around noon and this was the plan. However, I needed to make a quick run to the bank to grab some more money for the week. Now banks in Honduras are very unique. Although there are ATMs there is a long process to go through to get a card (which I haven’t done). Because of this most people go into the bank and do what they need to do. Well this often includes anything and everything. Not only can you deposit and withdraw money at banks but you can pay most bills as well. This often creates long waits. So my intention of going for a “quick” bank run disappeared when I walked through the doors of Bank Atlantida in Tela. I needed money (I couldn’t wait another day because we had to pay for our hotel and the banks were closing for Semana Santa) and had to wait. I stood in line for just over 2 hours. There goes my beach time. Luckily the bank was air-conditioned.
Laura Beth also needed money so we were able to keep each other company. But we both felt like we were in line at Cedar Point. Yet, it ended up being ok—we just told stories to each other to pass the time and before we knew it we were one and two in line. I made sure I withdrew enough money so that I didn’t have to go to the bank again.
After the bank I made it to the beach for about an hour, but with my luck the clouds rolled in and it was a downpour by dinnertime. That night we went to a restaurant right next to the hotel. I decided that I was going to splurge a little bit and ordered the filet mignon. That was a disaster. I ordered it medium and when it arrived it was closer to rare. So I ate the cooked parts and picked through the red meat. The manager came out to see how we were doing and noticed what I was doing. He quickly snagged my plate to put it back on the grill. When it came back parts were either still rare, or too over cooked. I just went with it and probably left 33 percent of the steak on my plate. Oh well.
After dinner we had high hopes for going out and exploring the nightlife. We went back to the hotel, showered and changed. When we went downstairs and asked where the nightlife was we were told that everything was closed on Monday nights. Awesome. So we went swimming in the Caribbean at 10:30 at night.
I will write a third post later this week/this weekend. I hoped you enjoyed this entry! More pictures are coming, I promise.
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