Visita de mi hermana Rita/My sister Rita’s visit

As many of you know from my past blogs, I had to return home for a medical emergency. It turned out to be perfect timing because I was able to catch a flight back to Honduras with Rita (who was nervous to fly alone). When we landed in Honduras we picked up our Chevy Aveo, stopped at the Metro Mall, did some grocery shopping, and then headed to the ranch. We went to hogar where Rita was swarmed by all my girls. By now they had met everyone in my family, except for Rita, so they were pretty comfortable with her and called her “Jennifer Aniston”. No one on the ranch could believe that Rita was my younger sister because she is way taller than me, even though she is six-and-a-half years younger!

We left early the next morning to head to Tela. Kris, Monica, and Tess were already there, so we were going to meet up with them. It was a long drive, but we had the iPod to keep us company and we made a few pit stops to pass the time. A few of these pit stops were to Honduran banks. It turns out that my ATM card stopped working and I was unable to withdraw money. Rita, being the poor college student that she is, only had the cash that she came with, which was not much to get us through the week. So, it was a bit stressful, especially being that it was a Saturday and the banks all close at noon. One bank sent us to another bank, which sent us to another bank...meanwhile, we were trying to make it to Tela in a reasonable amount of time. We finally ended up at a bank in Siguetepeque. By the time we waited in line and our turn was called, they told us that their machine was broken and we would not be able to withdraw cash. Luckily, when we got to Tela, Monica and Kris lent us some cash, which got us through our travels. We stayed in a hotel a block away from the beach called Mar Azul (Blue Sea). It cost us 75 lempiras per person per night (about $4.50). The five of us shared a room. We had to shower out of buckets because there was no running water, they had to wheel in an extra bed, and the ceiling didn’t quite meet up with the wall. It worked though. We went to the beach to catch the last bit of sun, ate freshly macheted coconuts, and had a little happy hour to hold us over until dinner. After our bucket showers we headed out to dinner. We ate at an Italian restaurant. Rita ordered (for the first of many times during the week) camarones al ajillo/garlic shrimp. She loved it! Rita is a pretty picky eater (for example, at McDonald’s and any other place she orders a hamburger, just ketchup), but she loved Honduran food. Crazy that my parents couldn’t eat the food on the ranch, and Anna and Justin refused to drink out of plastic bags, but Rita loved all of it. During dinner we met up with a group of five other Americans who are working in San Pedro Sula. They met up with us later in the night to go dancing. I was able to show Rita a night out in Honduras, northern coast syle. She got to see the Punta...quite a cultural experience. We spent most of the night watching all the locals dance, in awe.

The next morning, the other girls left pretty early to head back to the ranch. Rita and I went to the nearest licuado stand for licuados and coconut bread. I had been told about a beautiful beach not far from Tela, called Miami. It’s a Garífuna village. We asked a few people how to get there and we ventured out of town. Our little Chevy Aveo braved dirt and sandy roads. We drove through several Garífuna villages and even drove across the beach. Finally, about 45 minutes later, we reached Miami. It was a sight to be seen. Miami is a narrow beach with the Caribbean Sea on one side and a lagoon on the other. Lining the beach are palm frond houses. It was beautiful! Immediately when we arrived and parked the car we were approached by two locals telling us they would watch our car. They also offered to take us on a boat ride through the lagoon. We thought we might as well since we drove all the way here. So, we paid the guy 400 lempiras ($15) and hopped into the boat. It was a beautiful ride. We stopped at a lookout, hoping to see monkeys, but we didn’t have any luck. Afterwards, we laid out on the beach and napped. I think we dozed for a little too long, because when we woke up we were fried! Rita especially. We were soooo sun burned! We made our way back into town, bucket showered, and headed to the boardwalk. We did some souvenir shopping and then had a wonderful dinner at Cesar Mariscos. We passed out after a filling three-course meal.

The next morning we had a licuado and coconut bread breakfast and hit the road. Next stop El Lago de Yajoa. For those of you keeping up with my blogs, you now know that el lago is a destination I bring all of my visitors. Rita was no exception. However, we were out of luck in that there was no vacancy at the brewery. Instead we stayed at Agua Azul (Blue Water), which is right on the lake, so it had gorgeous views. Even though we couldn’t stay at the brewery we headed there for lunch. We enjoyed corn dogs, onion rings, beer and brewed pop. Afterwards we went to Pulhapansak, the waterfall park that is just a short drive away. This is now my third time in Pulhapansak. I went once with volunteers and once with my parents. I knew that I wanted to bring Rita here to hike, climb, and jump underneath the waterfall. We found a guide right when we got there named Rafa. He remembered me from the past two times I had been there. He flirted with Rita a lot. We had a great hike into the waterfalls, jumped off low cliffs, swam underneath the falls, and climbed up into the caves. It was great. Afterwards, we hiked above the falls and took a bunch of pictures. That evening we chilled out at Agua Azul. We watched the sunset from the patio, I introduced Rita to anafre (refried beans, cheese, and tortillas in a ceramic pot), we had a huge dinner, and we played gin, Egyptian war, and listened to the iPod. The following day it was time to head back to the ranch. We returned our rental car and I got to show Rita how to “jalón”/hitchike. She had her camera out the entire time taking so many photos. We spent the evening in hogar and went to bed early because the next day I had to work, and Rita came along with me. Since it was the first week of classes, and I am now the only speech-language pathologist on the ranch, I spent my day screening all of Julia’s students (the speech-language pathologist who left in February). Rita hung out, took pictures, and read magazines. We worked in the school and Casa Suyapa. I brought Rita to the cocina/kitchen for lunch, introduced her to employees and ex-pequeños, and we relaxed in the afternoon. One afternoon that Rita was here we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all the girls in my hogar and we brought them to la posa/swimming hole. We had a great time swimming, hanging out, taking pictures, and eating pb&j’s. Some of the girls had never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in their entire life, so it was fun to share that with them. The week went by really fast. I think Rita had a good time. I could definitely see her doing something like this when she graduates from college. She may be following in my footsteps to go to Spain next year, we’ll see if she continues in my footsteps to come to Honduras.