Visita de Anna y Justin

Over a month has passed since their departure, but I want to share with you my first visitors: my sister Anna and brother-in-law Justin. They arrived on December 2 and stayed for eight days. I picked them up at the airport in our rental SUV Suzuki Vitara and we headed to the mall so Anna could shop for a bathing suit, we picked up some groceries, and had lunch at Wendy´s…so Honduran, right?! My roommate Monica also had her boyfriend Jake visiting as well, so we spent the majority of the week together. We arrived at the ranch in time for dinner. I brought Anna and Justin to my hogar, where they were overwhelmed with the presence of 32 11- to 13-year-old girls. The girls had fun practicing their English, teaching Spanish, and posing for pictures with Anna and Justin. The ranch activity for the evening was a soccer game and a fogata/bon fire. Afterwards, we headed to Casa Personal to have our own fogata in celebration of Monica´s 23rd birthday and Anna, Justin, and Jake´s arrival.

We woke up early the next morning, packed our bags, and headed out…destination Roatan! We stopped on our way at the Lago de Yajoa for a quick lunch, which turned out to be a great stop. We wound our way through curvy, mountainous roads and traditional pueblos in search of the only brewery in Honduras…the D&D Brewery. It is owned by Bob, a guy from Oregon who picked up and moved to Honduras about 14 years ago. He brews his own soda and beers. The brewery has cabins and rooms for rent, all situated in a quiet, peaceful garden area. We had a quick beer and blueberry soda, and ordered corn dogs to go (they were sooo good). Bob gave us a quick tour of his gardens, naming all the plants, even letting us eat some of them. We all fell in love with the place, and knew that this was a place we wanted to return.
We continued our travels, with Monica as the driver to La Ceiba. In La Ceiba we ditched the car and hopped on the ferry to Roatan. Anna got a little seasick and puked when we arrived on the island. We stayed, once again, at La Mariposa Lodge, had breakfast licuados at Rudy’s, beached it at West Bay, and had a wonderful dinner at The Lighthouse. We were pretty much beach bums; too tired to do anything at night from spending too much time in the sun. One of our days, we decided we wanted to explore the island. Justin was into fishing, and Anna and I wanted to snorkel. So, what better way to get the best of both worlds by renting a water taxi?! Not quite. While Monica and Jake were exploring the island on a scooter; Anna, Justin, and I hopped into our water taxi, which is a large motor boat with a small motor. Justin was the driver, but not for long. Soon after we headed a little off-shore, we realized that our boat was not meant for sightseeing. We almost tipped once. The waves were way bigger than we were. We settled for anchoring the boat in the West End and hopped out to do some snorkelling. The snorkelling made up for the money spent on the water taxi. It was absolutely beautiful; National Geographic in real life. We spent three nights and two full days in Roatan. Our original plan was to head back to the ranch, but we were tempted by the D&D Brewery, and just had to return for two more days.

Monica and Jake stayed in Roatan, whereas Anna, Justin, and I headed back to the mainland. We went back to the brewery and spent a conversational evening with Bob, the brewerer, and Malcolm, a 60-something British hippie birdwatcher with long gray hair and a braided beard. The real adventure was about to begin.

The next morning we woke up really early, ate blueberry pancakes (there is a blueberry farm nearby) and headed out. Justin went with a local fisher named Rafa, who has super long finger nails, to the Lago to do some tilapia fishing. Anna and I went with Malcolm to hike the cloud forests (rain forests up in the mountains). In order to reach the beginning of the trail, I had to drive our Suzuki Vitara partway up the mountain. This was not easy. The roads were pretty much non-existent, being very rocky and muddy. I’m surprised the car survived. We parked our car at a family home; a very typical, Honduran home. Marcos and his 10-year-old son Neri would join us as our guides. Marcos is the husband and father of 10 children. They live in a three-room house with mud floors and newspapers covering the walls. Chickens and dogs come and go as they please. I have never received such a warm welcome. They offered us chairs, brought us coffee, and the kids stared at us like we were from a different planet. Now this is Honduran culture at its best! People with little to nothing offering others (complete strangers) anything and everything they have, with lots and lots of Honduran pride!

The five of us (Anna, me, Malcolm, Marcos, and Neri) began our ascent. Keep in mind that this was a spontaneous stop on our trip, and Anna and I were not totally prepared for serious hiking. In fact, Anna had to borrow a pair of tennis shoes from Bob’s wife. Yes, tennis shoes; whereas a prepared hiker would be wearing serious hiking attire. The terrain was intense: steep hills, muddy, rocky, high altitude. But the views and scenery were priceless. We would hike for a while and then just stop and observe. Malcolm was constantly looking through his binoculars and consulting his bird watching guide. Anna was excitedly taking tons of pictures. Marcos had lots of stories to share about past travellers. And Neri was clearing the path with his machete. We hiked for about six hours. We were with Malcolm to witness his first sighting of the Quetzal; a large, tropical bird with a really long tail. At times I felt like I was in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids because the trees and ferns were so huge. We went through some “campesinos”/farmers lands, ate carrots and banana bread. After our incredible hike, we returned to the mountainside pueblo, only to be welcomed by all the kids who were waiting for us. We went back to Marcos’ home, had another coffee with cookies, and Anna and I were escorted into the kitchen to chat with the women of the household. It was a great way to witness and share, firsthand, Honduran culture with my sister. It was a day that will remain in our memories for life. That evening we met up with Justin, who had an interesting, yet uneventful fishing day on the lake. I forgot to mention that Justin does not speak any Spanish. Well, Rafa, the fishing guide, does not speak any English. Justin said he had a “quiet” day, but I guess they must’ve found someway to communicate. Ha-ha. That night we had a really nice dinner at the brewery. Anna and Justin stayed up and chatted with fellow travellers, but I hit our cabin and enjoyed a nice, relaxing Jacuzzi. It was wonderful!!

The next day we left the tranquil, serene lake and headed back to the dirty, dangerous city of Tegucigalpa. Justin was not too excited about that! This was my time to show them how we volunteers live here in Honduras. We checked into the Nan Kin, known for its hot water, cable, and late night moaning. We met up with the other volunteers at Pincho Loco, a typical Honduran restaurant. The rest of the volunteers were out celebrating the Jean’s despedida/going away party. We had a nice dinner of pinchos and gringas and then headed out to go dancing at Bamboo. We danced the night away to reggaeton and Latin beats. I think it was a little bit of a culture shock to Anna and Justin, but we all had a good time.

Saturday morning we headed back to the ranch, went to misa/mass, and Anna and Justin got to spend one last night with my girls. The girls fell in love with Justin, especially Digna and Evelin. We spent the night goofing off and playing around; a typical night in Estrellas de Belen.

The next morning Anna and Justin packed up their things and headed to the airport. We got lucky and scored a jalon/hitchhike from the ranch porton/gate to the airport. Anna did a little last minute shopping in the airport and then it was “Adios”!

It was nice to finally be able to share a little bit of my life and adventure here with others that are close to me. I am definitely looking forward to more visitors!!