A Story Worth Telling...

Here goes take two! My first, nearly finished post got erased! That's the worst! Anyway, now that I've checked that at least this little bit is saved...here goes again!

I was very fortunate to have the Thanksgiving weekend off. Since we're a private school, we can kind of pick and choose which Honduran and which US holidays we celebrate. It was a much needed break. On Tuesday night, we tackled the mammoth task of cooking an almost traditional Thanksgiving meal for our fellow Honduran teachers. We were cooking for 20! We brought it to school Wednesday and it was enjoyed by all! You should be impressed at our culinary and transportation skills. (: The next night we cooked up a storm again, preparing for the Thanksgiving potluck at our pastor's house. I made potato soup and eggnog. All the food was delicious and the fellowship was great!

We're obviously starting a band.

Jungle River Lodge

Early friday morning, Amanda M, Jenna, Kaley and I began our La Ceiba Adventure (aka Thanksgiving Break 2012) with a....light rain and a long walk to the bus station with heavy backpacks weighing us down. We were lacking the proper excitement for a beach trip, so we took turns giving pep-talks about how awesome the trip would be once we got out of cold, rainy, Siguatepeque. We took a bus called a "rapidito" to San Pedro and scarfed down some breakfast baleadas while waiting for our next bus. Mirna bus lines provided us with a cheap, sketchy, direct bus ride to La Ceiba. Gotta loves buses! Once we arrived in Ceiba we wandered for a little while and were fortunate to find their rather large mall. We opted for American food for lunch because we knew lots of cheap, Honduran, street food was in our future. Subway was my choice. Is there anything more delicious that a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie? No, there is not!

The Rio...

The next leg of our journey was a jaunt into la selva (jungle). We hired a taxi for a staggering price of 17$ to drive us about 1/2 into la selva to a place called Jungle River. A small, slightly odd hostel that is actually located on a river! This taxi driver was an expert at fording rivers, avoiding cavernous potholes and talking. Do we know Raul's life story? You bet! Jungle River was beautiful and relaxing. We hiked down the river some for a swim and some hilarious risky moments. That night we all took freezing cold "showers". Can you really call a faucet in a dark closet a shower? Not sure. Dinner was delicious Honduran food. Our room was delightfully odd. It was tiny, but had a loft with a bed in it. We squished 4 ladies into 2 beds and shared a bathroom with no door. Definitely a fun experience. We woke up early again, knowing that the bus back to town was coming pretty early. As we were paying, the owner told us it was coming any second! We made a mad dash for the road and got to the bus stop just in time. After the bus stopped, the back door opened and revealed to us a very full bus. We stood in the back, where a couple seats had been removed to make room for luggage, bags of beans and coffee, 5 men and 4 gringas who are always looking for adventure.

We took this bus as far as we could and caught another bus to Sambo Creek. We had plans for a day on the beach. Clouds did not deter us! We were sure that once we got to the beach, it would be sunny. A little naive, but don't doubt our power to wish a sunny day into existence.We got off the bus right next to the "Bienvenidos a Sambo Creek" sign and walked toward the ocean. We reached the beach and asked directions to the hotel we were headed for. This is a direction quotation "There's no road there from here, you need to walk down the beach about a mile". This wasn't the best news we'd heard all day, but a walk on the beach is always fun. Unless it's raining, and you end up having to cross a river and get your jeans soaking wet. We did successfully find our hotel.

We're also pretty good at Spanish and we know what "Cerrado" means. Closed. Great. Luckily there was a swanky hotel next door that told us for the low, low price of 30L ($1.50) we could hang out for the day. Gracias! Muy amable! (Very kind). We donned our trajes de bano and prepared to enjoy the ocean. The sun slowly made a glorious appearance and we were able to fully appreciate that we were standing on a beach, on the edge of the jungle, looking at a majestic mountain range. Awesome. God's world is incredibly beautiful. We wrote crazy things in the sand, swam like fishes in the ocean and sunbathed by the pool.


Around lunch time, we hiked back to the highway and caught a bus back to Ceiba. This bus ride, like all bus rides in Honduras was eventful. We got on the bus, noticed how nice it was, and held on as the driver sped off. Maybe the brake pedal wasn't working, or maybe he just enjoys driving like a maniac. Either way, he barreled down the highway, passing every car, bike and truck, especially on turns. Amanda and I exchanged many terrified looks on the short ride. We were thankful to get off and head to the hostel Jenna knew about. She assured us that despite horrible reviews, she'd stayed there before and enjoyed it. We ditched our bags in another small room, with another cold shower and head out in search for lunch. Asking locals about eateries is always a good choice. We were pointed to a delicious typical restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed our baleads, pastelitos, enchiladas. Yum!!


We enjoyed some ice cream next and did some mandatory souvenir/ Christmas gift shopping, then went back to the hostel to change for dinner. We decided to dressed up and go to a nice Honduran restaurant at a water park nearby. I recognize how strange that sentence was, but I can't change the truth. The whole night was fun and relaxing.


We woke up early Sunday morning (WHY must you always wake up early whilst traveling?!) and went to the bus station. If you've been counting...this is the 6th and final bus. It took us about 5 hours to get home and we were so glad to see the "Bienvenidos a Siguatepeque" sign.

I am thankful and blessed to have great friends who double as co-workers and travel buddies. I'll do an update about my life soon. For now, enjoy this story and these pictures!



"My heart says of You, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek."

"Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart    and wait for the Lord." 

  ~Psalm 27: 8, 14