Thursday, August 6, 2009

SCUBA!!!!!




The size of a small child....








Rafting and river hiking

Vacation!!!

Hey guys! Sorry it’s been so long since my last update… Kristin, Faith and I officially started our little vacation on July 16th in a hostel in San Pedro Sula for a night and then went straight into the jungle in La Ceiba for four nights. While we were at the jungle lodge we went rafting on the Rio Cangrejal, horseback riding on the beach, relaxed, spent a lot of time laying in hammocks, of course reading for school all throughout, went on many hikes and discovered many new bugs that reside here in Honduras that I am glad I do not encounter on a daily basis. After leaving the jungle we went to Utila to spend some time by the beach…well really just the water. We spent another six nights at a hostel there and are now certified scuba divers. It has been a lot of fun and I definitely have not felt like I’ve been in Honduras for awhile…we have met a lot of interesting people, and by interesting I mean crazy :), from the UK, NZ, Canada and Europe…we are definitely true backpackers now! Anyway, we stayed at my house in Santa Rita for a couple nights and went to the Copan Ruins and zip lining. We randomly decided to take public transit to Guatemala, leaving at 6:30 in the morning on Friday, getting to Guatemala at 2pm and leaving straight from the hostel, which we arrived at 5 minutes before, to hike the volcano Picaya. It was probably on of the best workouts, a two hour hike just on the way up, and it was pouring down rain and foggy so it made it pretty hard to see. We were suppose to roast marshmallows on the lava at the top but unfortunately once we got to the top it was still raining and we could barely see what was right in front of us so the guides told us we couldn’t go any further because it was too dangerous. We were only two minutes from the lava and it felt like we had walked into a stream room because the heat was already so intense. On the way back it was dark but thankfully we had a few smart people with flashlights and headlights to light the way. The lava started flowing down and as we turned back we could see it glowing; it was so beautiful and so incredible! Although at points we were freezing and sore from the hike and falling on the sharp lava rocks, it was definitely worth it! We got back to the hostel at 10:30 that night, went out to get some dinner, went to bed at 12:30am and then got up at 3:30am to catch the bus at 4am. We got back to Honduras at 10:30am on Saturday. The next day we were back on the bus at 7am and off to San Pedro Sula to pick Matt up from the airport!! Faith flew out the following day, Kristin went back to her town and now matt and I are back in Santa Rita. It has been an amazing vacation and it is going to be hard getting back into the normal routine and doing homework again :/ I am, however, so excited that Matt is here now and I told him he gets to help me with my papers :) He also brought me a suitcase full of good foods like cheese-its and chocolate, peanut butter, etc. that I have been craving!!! Honestly it might seem ridiculous but you really never know what you have till it’s gone…and that even includes junk food!! I’ll post some pictures now and some pictures later… it takes quite a bit of time so it might be awhile till I get a good amount up! Hope all is well with everyone else!!