Well, I am forcing myself to update this for my last 25 minutes in this internet cafe because I haven´t for a while and I keep getting distracted by other emails and facebook! Since my last update I was able to recover from my sickness and gain some of my strength back, and some of my weight.. those of us who stayed back, me, another student, our leader and her daughter, then met up with the rest of the group after two days of traveling.
We all headed to the tropical island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras for 5 days for our spring break. It was long awaited and much needed. Our little island cabins were right on the beach, looking over clear water of different shades of blue and white sand! It was gorgeous and so were the sunsets. I did some snorkeling for the first time ever in the coral reefs there and saw some amazing fish with unique shapes and brilliant colors. It was neat to discover another part of God´s wonderful and mysterious creation, although sometimes it was kinda scary because you never knew if there was a baracuda or small shark lurking up behind you! HA!
After that time was up the entire group split up into smaller groups of 3-5 people for a week of free travel. We are allowed to go basically whereever we want in Central America for this week as long as our budget of $50 US dollars a day allows for it. The point is to travel around on our own and learn how to cross borders and find buses and hotels etc while also exploring the countries we visit and learning more about their history and culture.
My group of 4 others (we have 3 of the 4 males in our group.. added security and protection) headed to a neighboring island, Utila, for the first 3 days. It was nice to make a smoother transition and not have to deal with any border crossings or taxis or anything right away. The morning we caught a ferry to that island from the mainland I was kind of hungry because we hadn´t really gotten breakfast. I said to one of my group members that I was craving a cinnamon roll. After a few minutes I started to think that I smelled one. I turned around and much to my surprise the Israeli young woman behind me was eating a cinnamon roll! I was shocked. I asked her where she got it and she said in the cafe in the building across the street. So naturally I ran over there and bought myself a cinnamon roll for less than a dollar.. it was so worth it. God really does answer prayers.
The pace of life on the island was very CHILL.. no agendas, nowhere to go, nothin to do but chill. There were lots of other tourists and Australians with sweet accents who are there for a few weeks or months to learn how to scuba dive. One day we rented bicycles and toured around most of the island.. that was a new experience for certain muscles I hadn't used in a while. Let´s suffice it to say it´s still a little tender when I sit down on hard chairs. : ) Living on this $50 budget has been a fun thing, because it forces us to watch our money and it´s fun to try and save so we can walk away with some extra cash! Yesterday we bought pancake mix and made our own breakfast for $1.50 each and then also bought mac and cheese and baked beans and fruit for lunch and all ate for about $2.50 per person! It was a day of great savings!
This morning we got up at 5:00 and boarded the ferry back to the mainland by 6. We are staying in the city of La Ceiba, Honduras for today, catching up on some homework and possibly exploring a nearby waterfall this afternoon. I think w´re splurging on some pizza hut for lunch too! Yum. Then tomorrow we travel by bus (I´m not sure how early, possibly at 3 am!) to the capital of Tegucigalpa where we will stay for two days. We are hoping to get to a soccer game tomorrow which is why the bus ride might have to be really early. We´ll visit a national park there and some historic sites and then continue our travel by bus to Nicaragua´s capital of Managua in two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) which is when we need to meet up with the rest of the group.
I was a little anxious about traveling on our own without leaders for this week but I have felt fairly safe and confident so far. I trust the guys in our group to protect us and figure out a lot of the details.. Hopefully all of the other group members are safe and will arrive on time and in one piece to Nicaragua on Wednesday. The only time I felt threatened so far was when I almost ran into a huge spider web containing the biggest spider that maybe I've seen in my whole life. It was a close one!
Well, my time is almost up.. this is the cheapest internet cafe I have found yet so I was very productive on it today! Again, I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. We only have about 27 days left.. not that I´m counting or anxious to get home or anything.. haha. I can´t upload pictures right now of my tropical paradise vacations but just know that it was beautiful and you would probably be jealous! Hope all is well whereever you are this fine day.
Until next time,
Linds
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