COPAN!

So i feel like the ocean behind our house is a little crazy...I swear there's something new every day. First it was the metal crown of thorns that attacked my foot, then I got stung by a jellyfish, then there were little fish that would attack you in the water (they were actually jumping out of the water and hitting me in the head at one point...), and on THURSDAY...a freakin 5 foot stingray washed up on shore! It was dead (had been stripped of its meat and thrown back in the water I presume), but this thing was massive! I'll post pictures of it in my next post, but it was so shocking! We were just hangin out on the beach, and all the sudden this huge thing washes up...I guess the storm the day before must have brought it towards shore. So I'm VERY curious to see what happens next on the beach...but other than that crazy ocean experience, a lot of other things have happened!

Joe, Shawna, Natasha, and I went to the town of Copan Ruinas from Friday through Monday. It was about a 9 hour travel day...so Friday and Monday were both spent mostly on the busses and whatnot. We arrived in Copan on Friday about 5PM after a VERY long bus ride...we had to stop a lot because something was wrong with the tires or something (typical Honduras), I don't really know exactly what it was but it held us up for a while. Anyways we arrived in the BEAUTIFUL town of Copan Ruinas where all the streets are made of cobblestone and there's this beautiful "Central park" area in the center. It had a very European/Italian/Greeceish feel to it. It was definitely more touristy than El Porvenir is but it still wasn't as touristy as Venice (Let's just say I saw a lot of white people). But right when we arrived we found this really nice Hostel called La Manzana Verde, and for only $6 a night! After we got settled in, we headed out for dinner at a place called Via Via Cafe. I ordered a dish with a grilled garlic chicken breast, which was literally the best chicken I have EVER tasted, and on the side were potatoes and salad, which were also very good. I absolutely loved the atmosphere of it, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who plans on going to Copan. Then we headed back and crashed early because we had a long day ahead of us the next day!

So we woke up early on Saturday because we wanted to get to the Ruins when it opened to avoid tourist traffic, and the first thing we did was check out this local coffee shop called Cafe Welchez and had probably the best coffee I've ever had. Great way to kick off a long, tiring day at the Ruins! We picked up a snack on the way out at the Pulperia (Pulperias are very common shops in Honduras that are kind of like mini 7-elevens) and then we set off to go to the Ruins which was within walking distance of the edge of the town. Unfortunately we didn't thoroughly check the map while we were walking, and we ended up walking down a street called "La Entrada", which means "The Entrance" in Spanish (so we obviously thought this was the entrance...?), but it was actually just a road that led us straight back into the city of Copan Ruinas...but along the road we met this Polish guy Lucas who had been working construction in Haiti for a couple years, and we actually ended up going through all of the Ruins with this guy! So he led us back through Copan Ruinas and took us to the ACTUAL entrance to the Ruins. Then we embarked on our 6-hour trek through the Ruins! I'll be posting pictures next with descriptions so you can see how it was. The Ruins were extremely interesting, especially learning the history behind all of it! Beautiful views, wonderful structures, and crazy history made the Ruins more than worth the 9 hour trip! After walking through all of the Ruins, we ended up walking on this extra trail exhibit thing with Polish, and we took a wrong turn at a fork (which was completely unclear on the map...) and walked for probably a mile along the outskirts of the property of the Ruins until we ran into a DEAD END. Polish didn't really want to turn around and backtrack the whole thing, so he led us into the forest in hopes of miraculously running into a trail that would bring us back to the entrance. After about 10 minutes of walking through this ridiculous jungle-forest where I swear there was poison ivy, spiders, and probably man eating birds, we turned around and backtracked through the jungle and ran into the path, and ended up just backtracking the trail. When we got back to the fork, Polish decided to go along the other path but we just wanted to get out and be certain we would actually return to the entrance, so we backtracked completely. When we got out, we waited for Polish for about 20 minutes to show up, but he never did, so we just bounced back to Copan Ruinas without him (he was a savvy guy, I'm sure he put two and two together). We got back around 3, got some phenomenal homemade food from some of the street vendors. We watched them make the tortillas on a grill, grill the meat, and put together our meal right in front of us, and it was super cheap too! After a long day of not eating much besides a few granola cookies and a Clif Bar, lets just say some great street-cooked food was exactly what I needed. We went back to the hostel and kicked back for a couple hours, talked to some new American friends we met at the hostel and then got ready to go out for dinner. For dinner I had basically two chicken enchiladas with rice and tomatoes, which was pretty good but not as good as what I had the night before. We all gave Shawna shit because she decided to get a good ol fashioned "Amurrican" hamburger because she was craving it, but I guess it's whatever floats her boat! Then after dinner we all went out for a few drinks with our new friends from the hostel at this place that had an amazing deck view of the city, the sky (which was lit up because it was lightning outside), and the beautiful mountains as well. Such a wonderful place to be. Then, to top it off, it started raining, which covered the streets with a beautiful glaze and made the atmosphere of the whole city very calming and beautiful. I think I fell in love with that town at that moment when I could see the lightning in the distance lighting up the sky and the mountains, the streetlights illuminating the wet cobblestone streets that the rain had covered, and just the experience of great times shared with great friends in a beautiful country.

On Sunday we woke up around 9 and we all felt pretty hungry, so Natasha, Shawna, and I all went out to the local veggie market to gather up a few things for breakfast because there was a kitchen for us to use in the hostel! We ended up making Homefries, veggie omelettes, and Pico de Gallo (sp?) on the side. It was just what I needed after a long day of hiking the day before, and it was extremely satisfying! We originally had intentions of going to the Bird Park after breakfast, but then we all discussed our interest in bird watching and we decided not to do it and just use the money we would have spent on it to shop around town for souveniers, gifts, and local snack food. We walked through town, going into a lot of the local shops and also hitting up all of the street vendors (who sold mostly jewelry, so Mom, Nancy, and Megan, you should all be excited!) and then we got a coffee craving and went to another coffee shop near the edge of town. After coffee, we all got an ice cream craving, and after ice cream, we all got a craving for grilled raw corn with salt and butter all around...they were all perfectly-timed cravings because they were all amazing. And amazing is an understatement there. By this time, dinner was just around the corner but we had just ate a lot of random food, so we ended up having a late dinner around 8 at Via Via Cafe again, where I got Baleadas Grandotas which is basically a huge homemade tortilla with beef, homemade cheese, salsa, and sour cream in it. Another great dinner at Via Via Cafe! After dinner we went back to the place we went to the night before, but since it was Sunday they just had a movie playing (Life as We Know It) and we just kicked back on a couple drinks. I had my first bloody mary, and damn was it spicy! Even people that had had bloody marys before said it was incredibly spicy. Then we went back and crashed early because we had to get up to catch a 7:00 bus the next morning back to El Porvenir!

The bus ride back to Porvenir was not much different than the ride up, except we had a much better bus on one leg of the trip. The last trip we had a straight up school bus for 5 hours, but this time we had a nice Greyhound-looking bus for that same trip back. When we got into San Pedro Sula, I realized that our Honduras cell phone had fallen out of my pocket while I was sleeping on the bus, and I literally ran around the bus station trying to find the bus we took in, but I could never find it L. So looks like we won’t have a cell phone for a while (possibly the rest of the trip…I’ll let you know though). The rest of the day was just travel, and when we got back we just chilled out, talked with the girls about our trip, and then crashed early from the long travel day.

On Tuesday, after Ninos (which I’ll talk about below), we saw our first movie in Honduras! Half price movie night in Ceiba! It was basically $1.50 to see it (better than $12 in SD). We saw Pirates of the Caribbean and we actually ended up sitting in the stairway to watch the movie because all the seats were taken…that’s Honduras for ya! I thought the movie was great, much better than the previous one, and seeing it in Honduras made it even better. Then we all headed back around 10 by cramming 8 of us in a little taxi to save money which was hilarious.

The next day, Mary took Joe, Michelle, Lindsay, and I out for coffee in downtown, which was great for us to catch up and learn some things about each other. Mary really is one of the most kindhearted and loving women I’ve met. She genuinely loves and cares for the boys so much, because she sees them as her own sons, and seeing that makes me connect with the kids all the more. I’m truly going to miss everyone here so much when I leave L.

From Tuesday-Thursday we went to Ninos de la Luz, but since the school doesn’t have class all week, we just went to spend time with the boys at the orphanage (they call it the Boys Home), and we got to know a lot of them really well! We played ping-pong, soccer, and other games with all the boys. I got huge blisters on my feet from playing soccer barefoot on the scorching ground whilst constantly running back and forth along the field. But it was really fun nonetheless! I haven’t played soccer in years, and it felt good to get some cardio in also. Spending time with the boys is great, and I feel a lot more involved with the boys, and I feel like I’m giving them a lot by spending time with them because they don’t get to spend a lot of time with us during the school week because we’re just teachers to them in that time. But the one-on-one interactions are what make the time so special with these boys. I love em to death already, and just the thought of leaving them makes me tear up a little L but I know that they’ll always be in good hands as long as Bill and Mary are running the organization!

I miss everyone so much, and I wish I could just take everyone down here with me to experience Honduras for themselves, it truly is an individual growth experience and I think being here has already made me see things much differently and made me a better person altogether!