Written Friday, May 28 2010

Sorry for the delay. No excuses other then its been raining and that has made me really lazy.

Last Sunday was a good day. I had gone to town early because my school’s girl’s soccer team was playing the other bilingual schools team early in the morning. Rachel, LB and I made our way to town at 10 to watch the game. Now there are no referees that you hire to come and referee these games, it is usually a parent or someone who happens to be there. The first half ended up being refereed by a student of the other bilingual school. Therefore, it only made sense for the second half to be refereed by someone affiliated with our school. The whistle was handed to our principal at halftime and before I knew it he walked over and handed it to me. The girls went crazy and started chanting my name, so I had no other option—I refereed the second half. I would like to think this gave the girls motivation because they ended up breaking a 0-0 tie by scoring two quick goals two begin the second half, but I’ll give our coach Mr. Bran the credit. The girls went on to win 3-0 and I feel like I refereed a pretty good game.

After the game Rachel and I went into town to grab lunch at Guancascos and I used the Internet to work on my TEFL class. At 2 we made our way to another field where we watched the first half of our 3rd and 4th graders play. It ended raining pretty hard so we went back home but the boys were down 1-4 at halftime (they ended up coming back and only lost 5-6).

The rest of the day we just hung out and relaxed.

This week went by very quickly, and I think the next two weeks will be the same way. Things are wrapping up. I have officially planned out the rest of the year for my classes and it is hard to believe it is almost June (let alone my 24th birthday…). I just felt like I arrived here in Honduras. Anyway, more update later!

Written Sunday, May 30 2010



My back hurts, my legs hurt, my knees hurt, shoot, my entire body hurts. But I did it. In just under 10 hours Rachel and I, and the father of the family I live with, made it up and down Celaque. At just over 9,300 feet it is the tallest mountain in Honduras and was one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done.

Rachel and I had decided midweek that we wanted to do this on Saturday (yesterday). And although the weather forecast looked unfavorable with a chance of thunderstorms we figured it would be our last opportunity to do it. So, at 5 AM yesterday morning we started our trek up the mountain.

Going up was difficult. In order to reach the highest point we had to go up and down what I counted to be at least 3 other mountains. The number of switchbacks we went up were numberless and the terrain was less that favorable. We have been getting pounded with rain here in Honduras over the last week and the trail was wet and muddy. As we went up we had a few peaks of sunshine, but it was only teasing us because our downhill trek after reaching the top would be miserable.

After about 4 hours we reached Camp Naranjo. This is the last camp and stop before you take the trail to the top of the mountain. Don Luis (our guide) said it was about 2 hours to the top from this point but it only ended up taking us about an hour and a half. The trail from Camp Naranjo to the top was beautiful. Large trees covered in Spanish moss surrounded us. Add the fact that we were in a cloud forest so there was fog all around us as made it seem like we were in a dream. However, getting to the top was rather anticlimactic. We made it, and there was a nice sign welcoming us along with a Honduras flag. But being in the middle of a cloud forest meant that we couldn’t see anything (no spectacular view of the mountains) because it was all white. However, we did hear the wind blowing across the mountain and it sounded really powerful. We had made it to the top in 5 and a half hours and after taking a few pictures and resting we began our descent.

By the time we had reached Camp Naranjo again it started to rain. This was going to make the hike down even more difficult. Don Luis said going to the top would be “easy” but coming down would be more dangerous. Dangerous was right. Rachel and I were slipping and falling constantly, and even our experienced guide slipped a few times. With the pouring rain I began to count the hours until I could hop in a hot shower and lay in bed the rest of the day. After being at the highest point in Honduras 4 and a half hours earlier I finally marched into the Comedor with achy knees and feet. I sat down for a few minutes before taking a shower and going to bed for 2 hours. What a trip.

All in all it was difficult and even miserable at times. But we did it, and have one heck of a story to tell about our trip up and down Celaque.

Anyway, I am going to let my body continue to recover as I sit around all day today and work on my TEFL class and other schoolwork. I hope all is well and in a week from today I will be 24! Yikes… my mid twenties…