Hello everyone! I hope you all had a
fantastic Christmas and new year and those of you going back to work and school
aren’t suffering too much. I had an absolutely amazing time traveling; it was
hands down the best two weeks of my life. I’m a little sad going back to school
after having such a great time, but it was lovely to see my kids again after
the holidays and I also have another five weeks of traveling to look forward to
in July, so I really can’t complain!
We started our trip early with a 6am bus, to
get to our first destination – Copan. The bus was typically Honduran, that is
to say it was squished to double capacity whist various people hopped on, stood
up at the front and gave sales pitches on anything from smoothies to increase
your sex drive to pamphlets to teach your children English. We also had two
clowns do some sort of a show for 15 minutes. By far the most enthusiastic of
those to come on board was a very lively preacher who gave an hour long sermon
at the front of the bus which involved lots of shrieking, jumping around and
shouting something about god’s blood. Despite the crowding, the heat and the
noise bombardment the scenery made it quite a pleasant journey, as we drove all
the way up in to the mountains near the Guatemalan boarder.
We finally arrived at about 4 o’clock and
my first thoughts were how beautiful the place was. Surrounded in mountains,
the town itself has quiet cobbled streets and a strong tradition of arts and
handicrafts. We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering the streets going
into visit the numerous shops selling all sorts of multicolored clothes and
fabrics, lovely straw dolls and various Mayan hieroglyphics on necklaces or
blocks of wood. One of the artists took us into her studio where she makes all
of her crafts: all of the walls were painted different colors and various
prints on fabrics were hanging out to dry, it was all very inspiring.
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| Our lovely hostel - Iguana Azul |
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| Erin's lovely photo of one of the artist's studios |
The next day we went to the Mayan ruins
which the town is named after. The Mayans were an ancient civilization that pre
– dates the Aztecs. It was so incredible. The main remaining structure is the
courtyard where the entire civilization would assemble to hear sermons and to
witness sacrifices. Also standing was a large ball court where prisoners would
be forced to play a Mayan ball game, and the loosing team was sacrificed! My
favorite structure was this gigantic staircase with hieroglyphics all the way
up it. Instead of using a book, the Mayans carved their entire history into the
63 steps that make up this stairway. There were 16 kings in the Copan dynasty,
all with fantastic names such as Smoke Monkey or Moon Jaguar. Why don’t the
British royal family have names like that? When Copan was toppled by war,
famine and rebellion some of those left fled to the forest, and as a result
nowadays about 20% of Hondurans are from Mayan decent.
That afternoon we went to Macaw Mountain,
which is a bird sanctuary for scarlet macaws. Scarlet macaws are so beautiful
and now hands down my favorite animal. Red, yellow, green and blue, the closest
thing they resemble are what I would imagine a phoenix would look like. We got
to feed baby toucans, and have huge macaws stand on our heads. We also learned
about the sanctuary, which does really good work rescuing the many macaws that
are kept in captivity, educating the local children about the birds and
releasing the babies into the wild. We actually had some wild ones fly over our
head when we were out walking the next day.
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| The ball court - looser gets sacrificed! |
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| Some Scarlet Macaws |
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| Erin having a chat with her new friend |
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| Erin's picture of me a blue Macaw on my head |
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| Erin's pic |
After Copan we headed over to Utila. After
a long bus ride and prettily sickly boat journey (I won’t go into details) we
finally arrived on the island. Utila has to be one of my favorite places on the
planet. From the Caribbean men playing dominos furiously on the street, to all
the people I met from all over the world. There is an atmosphere were nothing
is done in a rush, and you can spend all day chilling on the dock, leaning a
new card game, playing volleyball or walking on the beach. It was lovely to see
all of the other volunteers as well, and hearing about their experiences in
their projects across the country.
I also learned to scuba dive, which was
amazing. We swam through corals and saw all kinds of beautiful fish – some an
array of rainbows colors, others all black with one white stripe through them,
or camouflaged in with the coral so you had to strain your eyes to spot them.
There is a whole world underwater, that you are never even aware of until you
dive, and suddenly you are swimming alongside a shoal of fish in this huge
underwater city. It is so relaxing, just focusing on your breathing and taking
in all the life around you, and diving really alters your perspective when you
surface, it really makes you think about how insignificant we really are in the
grand scheme of things.
On New Years Eve, we all went out for a
meal at this lovely restaurant called Neptune’s, as it was of the other
volunteers, Ione’s birthday. To get there you have to take a boat through a
mangrove forest, and it was so peaceful, gliding along the river with my
friends, the sun setting behind us. After a delicious meal, we watched the
midnight fireworks off the dock. The other Scottish volunteers and I lead a
rendition of Auld Lang Syne and then we went to the beach and danced the night
away.
We were very sad when the time came to leave
Utila, to say goodbye to all of the amazing people we had met, and of course
the other volunteers who make up our Hondi family.
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| Jenny and Jos took this picture of the Utila sea |
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| Trying on some Honduran hats |
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| The Girls on Hogmany |
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| Erin and I on Christmas morning |
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| The family on New Year's |
Erin and I then headed up to the little
town of Gracias for my birthday and to meet up with Kate and Rachel, two fellow
volunteers who had spent the past few days in Guatemala. They had bought lots
of lovely wares – including a waistcoat and some flutes. We had good catch up
with them, and then decided to visit Gracias’ famous hot springs. However, it
turns out that there are two hot springs, and we went to the less famous, and
generally worse of the two. This being Honduras, everyone was fully clothed,
while we, having just been on Utila, were in our bikinis. We sheepishly
shuffled over to the “more” private section of the springs, but even so we soon
attracted a staring crowd. I have never felt more like I was an exhibit at a
zoo! Despite this, the springs were still really nice and the closest thing to
a bath I’ve had since we’ve been here.
After a slightly hair-raising journey home
where we managed to get stranded in a small town in the middle of no where (due
to misinformation about the bus times), and had to take taxi ride home over a
very badly maintained road, in the dark. We did make it in the end, and finally
we were back in Sigua.
It’s a bit depressing being
back, especially as it is much colder and rainier here, than it was on Utila.
However, it was great to see my kids again and I defiantly did miss them. We
are approaching the six-month mark now, which is a very frightening prospect,
knowing we are half way in to our year. Despite all of the challenges of living
here, Honduras has really become my home and I can’t think of what it will be
like to leave the dirt – track roads, multi – colored houses and street sellers
which have become the backdrop of everyday life.
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| Erin wearing ALL of Kate's Guatemalan purchases |
