Day 218 March 13
To my dismay, I woke up at 6:30 after my 2am night. I stayed in bed, my form of denial, for a while, but eventually got up. I started on the Saturday morning routine of dishes, laundry, cleaning, and taking out the trash. I also went into town for some shopping. I finally bought the mug that my student Erika had pestered me about all week. It is the silliest looking elephant you’ll ever see. But her family runs the Cruz Bueso and she told me about it. Every morning at school, “Miss, you did not buy the cup!” I didn’t have time all week. They close at 5 and I’m never done by then. I was about 2$. I also replaced my diminished supplies of tea, thread, and saldo for my phone.
I chatted with Abby who was planning to meet everyone at the pool later in the afternoon. I went at 11 to meet folks as agreed, but knowing Abby and Allan were going later, and Nash and Tammi went early, I wasn’t sure I was meeting anyone, and I was right. Beth and Megan said they might come later. Luis said he didn’t have time. Sierra and Stacy said they’d meet me in a few minutes. Cid did not respond.
Sierra, Stacy, and Chris met me and we decided instead of paying 25 lemps a person, we’d hitch hike, we did have three ladies and that always makes it easier. We started walking and were picked up relatively quickly. Sierra and I enjoyed our ride standing up since the truck had a rack on top we could hold onto.
They dropped us off below the hotel and then we had to ascend the steep drive up. Apparently the truck had taken us further than their destination because they turned around and went back. We thanked them and started up.
This pool, though outside of town, has a pretty sweet deal. The pool is refrigerated, which is really nice on hot days like today. We pay 100 lemps to go in and then have an automatic 100 lempira credit. We all went up to the 100 lemp line, so with the tip we were 40 over, 10 per person. We got fresh fruit juices, nice guacamoles and cheese dips, the girls got huge soups. It was delicious and we all shared around. Nash and Tammi were there when we got there and shortly before Chris and I left Allan, Abby, and Beth arrived.
The sun here works quickly and I am usually in the shade when I’m outside so I was aware that I was reddening faster than desired. Chris wanted to head back to take care of school things (he was on a week long field trip all week, so he had catching up to do.) and I decided to get out of the sun and go with him. We hitched back and the guys who picked us up actually had us in the cabin. The driver insisted I buckle up and was a very safe driver. There was only one seatbelt latch and his seatbelt was tied on with a shoe less. Folks have strange ideas of safety in that they don’t understand the integrity of that belt is ruined by that shoelace or that a bike helmet will not help them out so much on a motorcycle. They were friendly.
I had Chris over for water and when he left I tried to nap, but failed. I read instead. A very sick Jesse visited and I gave him water and let him borrow my phone. A while later Alex, Stacy, Chris, and Sierra came over to make dinner. We invited Cid over and I discovered that my previous texts did no good since his screen was broken and he can’t read texts or see numbers that call. We all left my house and went to Alex’s for a music jam session.
We stopped by Jesse’s first to make sure he was okay and he was still in rough shape, but alive. We went and played a variety of songs. Sierra and Chris both know the original Circle Game, so I taught them the quicker, camp version with hand motions that are great fun for kids.
Cid walked me home again and we sat on the roof listening to the rodeo which is always in town while the Faria (like a State Fair) is here. I made it to bed shortly after 11.
Day 219 March 14
I woke up a bit after 8 and read in bed until I heard someone knocking on the door. I threw on some clothes and rushed down. Chris and Alex were heading out on their adventure somewhere between here and San Pedro and wanted to hang out while they waited for the bus. We talked on the roof and mocked my pink skin which should be done browning by this afternoon. It doesn’t look so bad until I show the difference on the other side of the tan line. It’s good to get a little sun before we head to Belize on the beach.
They left and when I came back in Allan and Abby were up. We talked and cooked breakfasts. I made my bachelorette meal of the month and brewed creme brulee coffee. I tried to get some internet to check my e-mail but the signal wasn’t strong enough. I hung around the house all morning until I got motivated to get out.
Sierra came by and we de-briefed each other and then I rushed off for some internet. I was only there for 20 minutes and went I went to go, the folks at Villamil were afraid it was a sign that internet wasn’t working but I told them I was just very busy today.
I went to the hotel Calle Real for worship at 3. Urban Promise had some guests in town there and I warned them that I had plans at 4 which meant I’d have to leave early. Folks didn’t finish arriving until around 3:20 and then Allan went to get his guitar and we got started finally at 3:45. I got in a prayer and the start of his story, which was fascinating. It reminded me a lot of Pi in the book I’m reading right now, but I wouldn’t have told him that. Hopefully Abby will fill me in later.
At 3:59 I went down and met with Cid who had invited me to the rodeo, which I’ve been wanting to go to. We walked down and discovered it didn’t start for another hour, so we walked back to town and got coffee. We walked back and got our stamps saying we’d paid and took our seats. Shortly, one of my students arrived and convinced her mother, aunt, uncle, and cousin to come sit by me. She was decked out in her braids, boots, and cow girl hat. It was adorable. She did very well to speak English about the rodeo.
The extremely drunk man behind us spit when he talked and talked a lot. He was more amusing than anything, but sometimes annoying. He thanked me for being beautiful and informed Cid that he knew everything about me. I walk to school at 6:20, I’m 23, and I work at Mayatan. It’s close enough. Apparently I walk by his house.
Also, no one died in the rodeo, so I consider it a success. Most of the riders fell off quickly, but there were a few who held on really well and long. However, by the time I left they were only having one bull out every half hour or so. We walked home and chatted on the roof for a while before it was time to go to bed.
Day 220 March 15
I woke up an hour before my alarm and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I started to read. After my alarm went off I got home, grabbed some tea from yesterday that was still in my room and headed downstairs. In the dark, I missed the last stair and fell to my knees, spilling the tea all over, twisting and crushing my toe, and hitting my head on the concrete wall. My first fear was for my head, which terrified me a bit. I shook, but I slowly got up and went to the bathroom to look at my eyes. However, I was comforted by the fact that the pain in my toe was far greater than the pain in my head. It seems that my head is fine. My toe does want to bend and has pins and needles, but it walked me to school.
I walked up with Sierra and got to school early or on time, depending on how we are looking at things now. I got ready for the day and had a good morning with the kids. Periodically paranoid about my head and noticing more and more the pain in my toe as it swelled.
My kids were talkative all day, but that’s expected on a two-day week. I’m drinking enough coffee to kill a horse, or something. We had a full day and in the end, went to Sierra’s class to teach the first graders the refrain of The Circle Game, motions included. My kids rocked it. I was so impressed with them and when they were done teaching the song, we taught them to play 4 corners. One of my girls translated the instructions and Sierra’s kids responded very well too it, though it was very hot.
After school, we had a meeting about tomorrow’s father’s day celebrations that doubled as a surprise party for the fathers on staff. It was fun, but I felt hurried because I had a meeting with the parents of my students in the public library. I took the bus down and was 15 minutes early. I finished my Spanish homework while we were waiting.
We met about Folklore day and I left 10 minutes before they wrapped up to go to Spanish class, as it’s my only chance to go this week. I went to class, which went well. Some topics were skirted that I was glad to avoid and when it was over, I was happy to go home and shower because I smelled like I wore a thick polo in a hot climate and walk everywhere.
After I showered I headed to Casa de Café to visit with Cid. Who’s surprised, but I got a little lost. With Cid’s help, I figured it out. There were plenty of tourists around the hotel and they gave me the third degree about my work, but they were all so pleasant about it. I certainly did not mind and it seemed to add to their evening. They went off to dinner, after I recommended Baleadas because they hadn’t had them yet!
I stayed at the hotel chatting until past my bedtime and then I went home for some sleep (after finishing the wonderful book Life of Pi.)
Day 221 March 16
My toe isn’t better. In fact, a student accidentally kicking my foot almost resulted in the first time I cursed in front of my kids. I refrained and bit my lip and was quiet. It hurt a bit more than expected. Otherwise, the kids and I had a god morning. I drank extra coffee to make up for the lack of sleep the last several nights and they talked a lot, but we got along well enough. We played a fair number of games. Some were educational, some were not, but it helped make the day go smoothly.
After school we all grabbed our swim suites, which we planned to bring, and went to the bird park to go swimming. It was lovely and cool. We had a fun time and headed back to school for the Father’s Day celebrations. As to be expected, they started almost an hour late. The activities were fun, the food good, and the father’s seemed to enjoy themselves. Some papers were thrust upon me during the celebration so I found myself working through them and hunting down those students who were there to give them out.
Around 6:15 we were able to leave. Megan gave us our money for the Belize trip and we headed into town. I left at 5:40 in the morning, I arrived back in my house at about 6:40 in the evening. I forgot that I had forgotten my keys and called Chris to see if he could let me in, but as I got him on the phone, I saw his girlfriend sitting outside a closed Picame waiting for him to come back to town (it’s the closest house to the bus station.)
I showered, cleaned, and started packing. Franqi and Norma came by for some of the class money and when they saw my organized bag, which had not been changed at the bank for the biggest possible bills, with a tag saying how much I had in each denomination, they laughed. That’s fair. They also said we should hang out again, which made me happy.
A bit after 8 I headed to the park and saw the band for a bit. There were several students and parents out. Beth, Eileen, and Blake were on tourist street and we chatted for a while. I continued on to the hotel where there were fewer tourists, but a more constant flow of activity. I gave a frequent traveler to the area, but who never been to Antigua, tips about his trip tomorrow.
After such a long day at school, when sleep came, it was a beautiful thing.
Day 222 March 17
At 4:30, a loud advertisement for the fairia started home, complete with a loud speaker and fireworks. By 5 I was actively getting ready: showering, finishing packing, making sure I knew where I was going. Before six I was off to meet the other teachers.
Not surprisingly, the bus was late to take off as teachers straggled in. We took off and headed to the border where Alexis was supposed to meet us and make sure everything went smoothly. However, he’d just gone in the night before to talk to them. There weren’t any big troubles. They just took forever and wouldn’t give back any of our passports until they had dealt with them all, which means it took twice as long as necessary because no one could go through the Guatemala side until everyone was done on the Honduras side. We were there for about an hour. We finally got through and I got my standard bread and water regiment.
The bus stopped for breakfast around 9 and I got pineapple and cucumbers in a bag. I have to keep up the tradition of making money on any per diem I’m paid. When we got to the port, we stopped by immigration, paid the 10$ it takes to exit Guatemala and enter Belize, got stamped and got on our boat. We were about 2 hours late, but it was a private boat for us…so they had waiting. Unfortunately, the water was really choppy. The 45 minute ride became an hour and a half since they had to stick close to land. The ride was very bumpy and we got a little wet. I still enjoy traveling by boat.
We got to our old stomping grounds in Belize, including the old border stop off. This time they actually checked our bags instead of just asking if you were bringing anything you shouldn’t be. We wondered around looking for food, wondering if we would run into any of the locals we met last time. We didn’t.
We caught the brightly colored James bus which picked up teachers at a variety of locations around town. The bus ride was interesting and it was strange to switch bag to casual conversation on a bus in English. The land all around us was flat and the schools in Belize are much more open air.
The driver sped along so we could catch the next boat over. If we’d gotten there 5 minutes later we’d have to wait 30 minutes. We thanked him and ran to catch a ferry to Placencia. We got off and hunted down our hotels. My job was to pay for our hotel, which I did. The woman was very helpful. He gave me a little Placencia news paper, recommended places to eat, get coffee, and go drinking, as well as describing the town and the layout.
The Caribbean is beautiful and Placencia is worlds better than where we stayed last time, in Punta Gorda. The water is clean, the beach exists, and there are tourist places around. All of the buildings are bright colors, though many were just skeletons left over from a hurricane. The palm trees were low too because most of them were wiped out a few years ago. There was an abundance of coconuts to be had and we got pretty good at opening them and drinking/eating.
We went for dinner and drinks at a beach bar called Tipsy Tuna, which many teachers mistakenly called Twisted Tuna (as we’re used to Twisted Tanya’s here in Copan.) There was Garifuna dancing and we met a few of the other tourists in town.
However, I was exhausted so at 7:30 I went back to the hotel and turned in for the night. It was a good choice.
Day 223 March 18
I woke up refreshed at 6:30. Alex, who is also an early riser, and I went for coffee around 7. We split a breakfast and just watched the water as we refilled our coffees (a self serve coffee place, which was nice) and chatted. We decided the first endeavor of the morning would be to walk to the tip of the peninsula (which was tiny, at certain places you could see ocean on either side of us.) We headed back to get bathing suits and start walking.
Chris joined us for a while and we all had coconut milk water bottles and when we finished them, we broke them open and ate the meat as we walked. I had the best coconut I’ve ever tasted. We found a variety of sea stars. They were large and red. Beautiful animals. There was a long dock out and we hung out on it for a while, jumping into the giant school of fish that lingered below. We came out and lay on the dock to dry and after a few rounds of this continued walking.
At the end of the peninsula was an air strip. Alex and I sat on the beach as a little plane took off over us. It was a little terrifying, but a lot of fun. We wanted to see more of the town, so we cut through some yards to get to the ride and quickly decided the burning tar of a road was not a good place to walk and went back to follow the beach back to town.
We got lunch and met up with Nash and Tammi. I read on the beach for a while after and then Tammi, Alex, and I went for ice cream, which was to die for. After Tammi and I went shopping, but I found nothing I liked for a worthwhile price. I went back to the hotel and did some hammock reading until dinner.
We met up at Tipsy Tuna’s and waited for a long time for the whole group to get together. Many played an epic volley ball game while we waited and chris and I did balancing exercises/wars on a pole. I lost. I blame my toe.
The restaurant, Tranquillo, we went to was across the water on one of the keys. It was a really nice location and the owner and server took the boat over with us. We were the only people there. I’m sure we were a disappointment because they were no doubt hoping we’d stay for hours drinking and spending money. Instead we just had a complicated bill and left after we ate. The food was fine, but not worth the price. Plus, I was really excited when I decided to have crab but crab was not in season. It is not their fault, but I was still sad.
When we got back most folks went to get ice cream but I headed back to the hotel. On the way back, Alex and I noticed some wet cement and being the young teenage delinquents that we aren’t, we had to take advantage of the opportunity. We also decided that people who write “=42” in wet cement were obviously not the kinds of people who would have written in cement as kids because they were too busy reading strange sci-fi books.
I went to sleep around 9.
Day 224 March 19
I woke up at about 5:30 and stayed in bed until 6:30 when Alex and I repeated out 1 day old routine. We got breakfast and coffee on the water. We went around checking out the cooler places in town and checked on our cement spot to make sure no one had written anything like “6x7” or something like that next to it.
I enjoyed the signs around town. “Eating guava fruit is nice, throwing trash under the guava tree is not nice.” “Thieves are the lowest kind of man.” And other morality signs. Except for the thieves one they were all rather suave and nice about what they were telling you not to do.
We packed up and got ice-cream again before we left. This time, there was a wonderfully friendly Frenchman who seems to have been born to work in an ice-cream store on the Caribbean.
We got to the boat and had to convince it to wait for a couple of running late teachers. This one was not private so there was a chance they’d just have to find their own way back to Copan, but they did make it.
Less than 30 minutes into the boat ride, which was actually enclosed, we stopped for our exit stamps. It was the strangest set up I’ve ever seen. It seemed really sketchy, but the stamps are legit and we paid our exit fee just fine. We were in the middle of a storage yard with construction workers and an empty mud field around. The border man was just there with his car, stamping our passports on the hood. I found it hilarious.
Once everyone on the boat, about 40 of us, went through, we got back on and headed toward Honduras, which took about 1.5 hours. Some folks sat up on the front of the boat and I did for a while. Once while I was up there a pod of dolphins swam around us, I saw about 10 and they were really close. It was very cool, but short lived.
A while before Honduras was in sight, I turned on my phone was still in “ninguna red.” After a time I entered, “limitado servicio” and eventually I got into regular ol’ tigo territory and started receiving the texts I had missed while gone. I shot one off to Megan telling her everything had gone smoothly.
When we pulled up to Honduras, we were basically just on the side of a street. The police had to keep the hustlers back because they needed to check our bags and collect our passports. This is one thing that always makes me nervous: a man took a bag with all of our passports and drove off to migration with it.
We hopped on our bus, which was waiting for us, and discovered a Swedish tourist who’d been traveling by herself on our bus as well. She just thought it was a bus to migration and since we had space and it was already paid for, we had no problem keeping her on board. However, we spent 20-30 minutes lost in Honduras before we found migration. It was a little nerve wracking, but all went well.
When we did get there everything went so much smoother than it ever does at our border. We also got new yellow sheets, so I shouldn’t have to get interrogated when I leave the country later. We let Ruth, our new friend, ride with us to San Pedro where several teachers split off to continue their vacations. The rest of us kept on and road to Copan. We got there around 8.
I showered and met up with the other teachers and Cid at ViaVia. They left and we walked around town chatted on into the evening until I decided I was tired enough and needed to sleep.
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