Navidad Rancho Santa Fe Style

My Christmas actually began with shopping for gifts to give the girls from my hogar on Christmas morning. They receive a new clothing outfit from the NPH organization, but the only other gift they get is that from the volunteers. So, I learned very quickly that buying gifts for 22 teenage girls is very difficult and not cheap. (Thank you mom and dad for donating money to this cause.) When I set out shopping, I had an idea of what I wanted to get and how much I wanted to spend. I headed to a market in the city center where the prices are low and I knew that I could bargain. Once I was sure that they had what I was looking for, I truly enjoyed myself moving from stall to stall haggling with each vendor in search of the lowest price. I figured I had the upper hand since I was going to buy 22 of whatever, so I didn’t settle until I found the rock bottom price. Of course the biggest challenge of the day was dragging everything back to the ranch (2 taxis, one bus and ½ mile walk).

Hondurans primarily celebrate the birth of Christ on the eve of Christmas. We were blessed with beautiful weather and spent the entire afternoon outside playing organized games. The games included volleyball, orange eating contest, the biggest Yogi Bear look-a-like pinata I have ever seen and my personal favorite, chop the dulce, which involved blind folding a small child, who then flails a machete until finally chopping off their reward, a chunk off of a large solid block of brown sugar. In the evening, the kids put on a Christmas show of songs and skits. Then we all gathered on the boys side of the ranch for a traditional dinner of tamales, which were delicious. After dinner, a large bonfire was started and everyone socialized and danced. It was so refreshing to watch this large “family” spending time together and celebrating without a thought of gifts. When the fire died down a little, we roasted marshmallows. Then, they showed a Christmas movie on a screen hung from the side of one of the boys homes. At midnight, the movie was stopped and everyone gathered to share hugs and wish merry Christmas. Before heading back to hogar, we munched on apples and grapes, which is another tradition.

On Christmas morning, I woke up early and placed the gifts on the bed of each of the girls. I think that they enjoyed the gifts, but at their age, it is hard to tell. In the late morning, the girls made a collection of things (clothes, accessories, food, etc.) they no longer needed or wanted and we set out for the neighboring pueblos to gift these thing to people less fortunate. As is typical of teenagers, the girls were not very excited about the long walk in the shining sun to give away their things, but in the end, I think we all had a good time. After dark, we all gathered for a procession through the ranch along a candle lit path to the church for mass. Mass was typical and followed by a normal dinner of beans and plantains. In the evening, we started a soccer tournament that will last until the new year. Of course the volunteer team kicked it off with a big fat loss. None of us were born with that soccer gene that all Latin Americans seem to have.

Last Vacation: Guatemala and Utila one more time

Because this was my last chance to travel before returning home I really wanted to hit all of the spots that I hadn’t yet visited during my year in Honduras. So, my hope was to see a little of Guatemala, hit Copan quickly and then return to Utila to do some diving.

The trip began with a less than ideal bus trip to San Pedro Sula. I decided to splurge on the expensive bus so that I could get there faster and be more comfortable. Unfortunately, my money was not well spent. The bus smelled like the inside of a toilet (strange, since there wasn’t even a bathroom on the bus), which just got stronger throughout the trip. There was a couple sitting in the seats across the isle from me who where much more affected than I and were throwing up most of the trip. I did get to San Pedro sooner than my friends who had taken the MUCH cheaper bus. We spent the night with Santiago, one of the NPH pequenos who is going to University in San Pedro and lives with his two younger sisters who attend high school there. They were some of the best hosts ever. It was so strange to stay in their house, eat their food and let him pay for our taxi when I know where he has come from and how little money he has, but I also know that he would be offended by any offer of money for the stay.

The next morning, we took a bus from San Pedro Sula to Guatemala City (“Guate” to the locals). We were hoping to get there in time to take a shuttle to Antigua, but we didn’t make it, so we had to stay in Guate. We went to a hostel that was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide book. The building was very old, which gave it a lot of charm, but also a lot of physical damage. However, it was cheap, clean and we had our own room. Luckily we were only staying for one night because I am not sure the neighborhood was very good. When we paid for the room and the man working the desk needed to go next door for change, he peaked out the front door and waited until nobody was passing on the sidewalk. Then he scurried next door and sprinted back, quickly closing and locking the door. We went for dinner at the Chinese restaurant next door and carried out because the hostel owners recommended that we spend as little time on the street as possible.

We took an early shuttle the following morning to Antigua and arrived by 10. We spent all 4 nights in a great hostel called Hostel 5. It was simple, but clean and the woman that owned it was so nice and helpful. She even let us spend 2 nights in a one bedroom apartment next door for the same price ($10) because the room we were in was booked. The only downside was that there was nobody really staying in the hostel the first few nights, so we didn’t meet other travelers. We did meet several people during the day trips we took. We spent one day climbing Volcan Pakaya. It is an active volcano, which took about 3 hours to go up and down. This volcano was very different than the one that I did in Nicaragua because it was barren and covered in volcanic rock rather than a wet, dense cloud forest. The attraction to this volcano is the lava and we were lucky to find a flowing river of hot lava. The day after that, we took a day trip to Lake Atitlan, which is a large lake surrounded by 3 volcanos. During this trip we met Gus, a Canadian man traveling from the Arctic Circle to somewhere in South America on his motorcycle. (After spending the next 2 days with him, Angela actually got a ride back to Honduras with him.) We also met an Indian couple from NYC who were a far cry from the usual backpacker crowd we find while traveling. They were very nice, but so funny to watch in the setting of Central America with their high expectations for quality and service.

My original plan was to head to Copan (famous for its Mayan ruins) after 2 full days in Antigua. I was disappointed to learn that the bus was full the day I wanted to travel, but it turned out to be a great change of plan because we spent that extra day visiting the NPH Guatemala house. It was so amazing to see how different it was from the one in Honduras. The home has less children and is much smaller in area. The home is much newer, so all of the buildings appear much nicer and cleaner. The kids and volunteers live much differently than we do. I could definitely see myself volunteering there. The only disadvantage that I noted was the poor therapy resources.

I spent the entire next day on several buses from Antigua to La Ceiba (my old stomping ground). I spent the night in Ceiba at the cheapest hostel I knew off and met a fun group of Aussies while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. The next morning, I took the ferry to Utila, which I later heard referred to as the great iron puke bucket. (Very appropriate since I have been on the boat 8 times and never made it all the way across without seeing someone vomit.) I got off the ferry and went straight to Captian Morgans Dive Shop. Right away, we hopped into a motor boat to Hotel Kayla in the Cays. I was hopping to reunite with some of the people I met last year, but the only familiar faces were of the owner and the boat driver, Luis, who actually remembered me. I suppose that is common because most people in the diving world are transient. Between the other Captian Morgans guests and the empolyees, we were a very diverse group. One of the dive instructors was from Mosambique and his regular (or not so) job is as a archaeological biologist, but since he is just contracted for each job at a time, he also does dive instructing in between jobs. He travels all over the world doing both jobs. What a great life! I also met 2 couples, one that just finished a year of travel around the world and another just beginning their year of travel. They were full of great valuable travel information.

I only dove one day while in the Cays and as it turns out, it was the best day to be there. The boat driver spotted 3 different whale sharks that day and we were able to swim with 2 of them. This was my second time, but it was just as exciting as the first. After our dive, the dive instructors had planned a party on Water Cay, which is a deserted island near the hotel. We spent the rest of the day drinking beer, eating a local coconut fish soup called Bandu, talking and snorkeling. We stayed on the island to watch the sun set then headed back to the hotel. The following day, I was planning to hang out on the dock and catch some sun. However, it poured rain all day long. When the dive boat returned to the hotel that day, I had to get on it and head back to Utila to spend the night since the ferry was leaving at 6 the next morning. Luckily, there was another couple taking the same ferry, so we were able to share a room. One of the guys, Shandel, had been fishing with one of the local fisherman and had 2 large fish to cook before leaving. We took the tuna to an island style restaurant and they cooked it up for us. We shared our dinner with 2 of the other dive instructors and boat captain. We had a good night partying on Utila, but all agreed that we preferred the tranquility of the Cays. I dragged myself out of bed the next morning and spent the day on various modes of transportation heading back to Tegucigalpa.