honduras

sorry for the lack of posting recently. i will attempt to bring you up to date, starting with our recent adventures in honduras.

late on july 29th, we started our adventure. we flew from seattle to atlanta and then to tegucigalpa, the capital city of honduras. to be quiet honest, teguicigalpa is not a tourist mecca for a reason. it was hot and dirty, which would have been ok, had their been something to do or see. but we were jet lagged anyway, so we found a quaint place to stay, hotel macarthur

 hotel macarthur

we posted up there, and enjoyed our first taste local cuisine. the food was really good, very similar to mexican food, but it had it's own unique flair. my personal favorite, was something called a baleada. it consists of a wheat tortilla folded in half and spread with mashed beans, a crumbled white cheese, and cream. after a small meal and a few beers we wandered into a local grocery store, la colonia, to stock up on a few snacks for the next few days.

the next day we went to the bus station to purchase a ticket to our next destination, copan ruinas. we arrived early (around 9) to get a good start on the day, but the next available tickets were for the 1pm bus. since the bus station was in a somewhat shady section of comayaguela, we decided it was best to stay inside to pass the time. we waited for 4 hours for the bus to arrive, pretty boring...but it was made worse when the 1pm bus arrived 2 hours late at 3pm. the bus itself was actually really nice, there was air conditioning, snacks, and a tv with a english close captioned nicholas cage movie. when we finally arrived in copan ruinas, it was 10pm and we quickly found a motel and called it a night. 

the next day we down-graded our hotel option to save a bit of money. we went with hotel patty, which although bare-bones, it was clean and acceptable.

hotel patty

our main objective while in copan was to just relax a bit and to eventually visit the world famous ancient mayan ruins located about a mile from town. our favorite breakfast spot was the  via via cafe which served amazing honduran food and we could lounge on their balcony and people watch. afterwords we explored the town a bit. the town itself is a pretty, sleepy, colonial village. and because we came during the down season, there wasn't many tourists either. the streets were made of uneven stones and were dotted with palm trees. the buildings were white adobe with red tile roofs. for such a small town, there was a plethora of motor taxis offering their services at every opportunity.

motor taxi

after some relaxing and exploring of the town, we finally ventured to the ruins themselves. they are from the mayan civilization and date back to the 5th to 9th century. it is hard to actually describe them without showing pictures (hopefully, aaron will post all of our honduran pictures on his website soon). needless to say the ruins were breathtaking. i love visiting sites like this and envisioning ancient cultures living their normal lives. 

after copan our plan was to take a bus to la cieba, and from their a ferry to the island of rotaan. spontaneously, we booked a rafting tour in the jungles near la cieba and decided to go rafting and spend the night there, then take the ferry the next day to the island. our plans went awry. we awoke early so that we could catch our bus out of copan and to la cieba. however, aaron had a fever and a bad case of...well, travelers diarrhea. he was a sick boy, but he rallied and we ended up catching our bus on time and arriving at the eco jungle lodge where we were to raft the following day. however, the rafting was not to be, as aaron was still to sick the next day to do much, let alone white water raft. we packed things up and decided to head to take the ferry and get to the island, where we could just relax, and hopefully aaron could recoup. 

the ferry was an adventure. aaron was sick. i was worried about aaron being sick. there were screaming children. and then we boarded the ferry. the ferry itself was pretty pleasant. there was nice seating and it wasn't uncomfortable...until we started moving. the water was extremely choppy and the boat went violently up and down with the waves. along with our tickets we were given dramamine to help with the sea sickness. i do not know what i would have done with out that pill. the crew was amazing at keeping the boat clean as they passed out sea sick bags to all who were in need and their were  numerous people in need.

we finally arrived on the island and hired a taxi to take us to our hotel. we settled on the posada arco iris were we lavished in a clean, beautiful, air-conditioned room. there were hard wood floors, a balcony with a hammock, a mini-fridge, and plenty of light and mirrors. exactly what we needed after a rough few days. aaron finally decided after 2 full days of sickness to take his prescribed medicine and when he awoke the next morning was doing much better. i, however, had just started my bout with travelers diarrhea. i rushed into town and bought us some food and water and then came back to the hotel were we both had a rest day. we played cards, talked, and enjoyed each other's company while we both got better. i took my prescription medicine much faster, after watching aaron's ordeal and we were both on the mend the next day.

once it was clear we were both getting better we rented a scooter and explored a bit more of the island. it was a lot of fun to zip about and feel the breeze. it was incredibly hot and muggy on the island and any sort of breeze was amazingly refreshing.

aaron wanted to snorkel while on the island. i had tried my hand at snorkeling before in jamaica, and didn't have much luck (i was terrified of the jellyfish, and ended up vomiting sea water). i bravely tried again, and i'm so glad i did. it was nothing short of spectacular. the reef was a short swim out from the shore. there were starfish, sea fans, a sting ray, a sea turtle, a fish of about every shape, size, and color imaginable. and no jellyfish to speak of.

a fun side note, is that aaron and i made quiet the friend of a local bartender. everynight we would return to the same place for dinner, eagle rays. it was a nice restaraunt, at the end of a dock. each time we came back the bartender, mark, would open up more and more to us. he was quiet jovial and continuously drinking. he began giving us free drinks, showing us pictures of his kids, and introducing us to his girlfriend and sister. he was quiet the fan of ryan adams and played his ryan adams cd every night. when other customers complained he would rotate with a country cd. i'm not too sure why mark liked us so much...we would constantly see him give pretty rude and questionable service to other tourists, but we egged him on to tell us stories about other tourists and about his life. on our last night, he told us our whole meal and all the drinks were on him. he was incredibly generous, so we made sure to sneak in a equally generousness tip.

the day before we left we flew out of rotaan, back to tegucigalpa, where we stayed at the hotel macarthur again. the next morning we began our journey back home. we made it back around 1am to seattle. i was thankful that i had taken the following day off work as well to recoup. before this adventure i wouldn't have had the slightest clue what honduras had to offer, but it was well worth a visit. 

i'll try to post some more pictures soon!