Goodbye Quetzales, Hello Lempiras

After taking a very VERY cramped and long shuttle, we arrived safely in Copan, Honduras.  Crossing the border was pretty anticlimactic as we put our names on a sheet, paid the small fee and got back on our bus. Once again I was bothered by the injustice of us being able to so easily pass through borders while the Latinos coming to my country go through so much hassle and many times denial to enter if tried legally.  I wonder if that will ever change?  I hope so, but I doubt it.

Upon arrival in the small town we found no electricity or running water, anywhere, for the first few hours.  We were tired from not going to sleep the night before and not being able to sleep on the shuttle.  Sigh, but we lazily made it through the day. It’s much hotter here and the mosquitoes are more prevalent.  I’m happy about the heat, but not such a fan of being bit by pesky little bugs.  Josiah had expressed interest in going to the Mayan Ruins of Tikal in

 Guatemala, but it was way out of the way (8 hours each way out of the way).  I had already

 been so we decided to come explore some new ruins, in what is a new country for both of us, Honduras!  Excited we woke up early, ate breakfast, put on our sunscreen and bug rep

ellant and headed out.  Oh man we had so much fun exploring the Ruins together.  We spent many hours in the park trying to imagine and learn about what life may have been like for people once living there.  Josiah did some sketches of the architecture and I did some

 reading.  When you buy your ticket into the park, you can pay extra to explore some tunnels

 thatrun through the ruins.  It’s double the cost and we didn’t think it was worth it.  We WERE really craving to explore what was inside, and well, we lucked out.  You know me, any chance I get to take the path less traveled by I do.  We found a path leading by the backside of one of the ruins and there happened to be a door open to a 

tunnel.  So, we went inside to explore, amazed at what we found.  After spending a good 10-15 minutes a man showed up and asked if we paid to get in so I we played the ignorant tourists who didn’t know you had to pay to get in.  There was nothing that could be done at that point, we had seen everything and have memories engraved in our brains.  Sabooya!  All in all, Ruins were a success.

On to Valentines Day…For Valentines day we decided to go to Macaw Mountain, the most peaceful bird park in the middle of nature.  Included in the 10 dollar ticket price was a guide in Spanish or English.  We looked at each other and Josiah said, “Spanish”.  I was proud of his effort and enthusiasm to understand Spanish.  And I’m happy to say that I only tr

anslated one or two small things for him!  Red Macaws, Blue Macaws, Green Macaws, Parrots, 

Toucans, Owls, Eagles, Hawks and many varieties of each all coincided on the Mountain.  I was thankful to be in the forest as I had forgotten the sunscreen!  We spent most of the afternoon here taking our time walking around down by the river visiting different birds.  As you can see, there is an interaction area where you can hold the birds.  Only having previously seen these birds on T.V travel programs or in wildlife way up in the trees, it felt surreal to be seeing them so close and HOLDING them three at a time.  Many birds are brought here from the wild that

 were born with deformities, or were injured.  Other birds may have been pets, and abused by their owners.  It’s sad to think about these animals being hurt or at danger in the wild, but I’m glad places like this exist.  I’m so excited for my mother to see the pictures as she has an extreme fear of birds.   Another aspect I enjoyed on the mountain was the coffee plants they had.  This is another way for them to fund the project as they roast and sell the coffee from the mountain.  They had a small café where we enjoyed an icy drink. 

 After returning to the city after our wildlife adventure, we were starving and decided to eat dinner early.  We went to a Pupuseria (a pupusa shop).  Most of you are probably wondering what are Pupusas?  They are an El Salvadorian food that I will poorly attempt to explain.  You can choose from various ingredients to have put inside the Pupusa.  Usually its like cheese and onions, cheese and chicken, or other veggies.  On the outside is like a corn-meal bread that they pack all around the ingredients inside.  It’s very thin almost like a pancake and you put on top salsa and a mix of cabbage and other vegetables.  I’m so sorry for all the pupusa lovers out there reading this because I did no justice just now to the art of Pupusas.  I probably even got it somewhat wrong.  Anyway, they are delicious.  Josiah ate many and I got the Valentines Special.  We both had a very sweet Mango licuado (milkshake).

 Full and satisfied we watched a movie on Josiah’s laptop at our hotel.  Then we all of the sudden hear a live band playing Merengue, Banda, Bachata, and Punta.  We didn’t even have to discuss it, and both headed for the door.  This bar was filled with ONLY Hondurans (right up my alley).  We enjoyed the music for awhile and then a merengue came on and Josiah didn’t want to dance.  People you won’t believe this…he didn’t want to dance because “People will be watching us and I feel weird about it”.  WHAT!?  I almost fell out of my chair at Josiah not wanting to be overly eager to get out there and bust a move.  But, next song he couldn’t take it and he had to get out there.  We had a lot of fun dancing and even got called out by one of the band members for our dancing.  They played no salsa, but we weren’t expecting any.  This is how we ended our Valentines adventures.  It was a day I doubt either of us will forget.

 On to La Ceiba.  A few years ago, while I was still in college, I worked at a bilingual call center for a month (that’s all I could handle of sitting still all day everyday answering calls).  Anyway, I met my friend Josue, from Honduras!  Little did we know that 3-4 years later I’d come visit him in his home town.  I got back in touch with Josue to tell him we were coming and he eagerly offered us to come stay with him in his house.  Well, here we are.  He lives on a 15 acre Finca (farm) outside of La Ceiba with his mom and girlfriend Yadira.  His house is beautiful with a nice huge comfy hammock outside.  In the next few days we will be doing a variety of activities:  Swimming in a fresh water river behind Josue's house.  Going to La Ceiba and exploring the beach there, possibly visiting Josue's friend's beach house, maybe taking a bus to see some waterfalls.  We are looking into couchsurfing on the bay islands.  We will see what happens.  We are being open to whatever opportunities come our way.  I guess we'll see where the wind blows us.  Stay tuned for more updates and check facebook for more pictures.  Below is a video I made of the Ruins.  Enjoy!