vacation: (n) a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel.
Vacation would be the best way to describe my time in Honduras thus far. I woke up yesterday morning and had forgotten what country I was in.
Guancascos, owned by a Dutch woman named Froni, is a beautiful restaurant and hotel down the street from us where we eat all of our meals. We finished breakfast around 10 and wondered around downtown Gracias. The cloudless sky brought on the merciless sun. The heat here is much different than the heat in Michigan or even San Pedro Sula. Humidity levels are low up here in the mountains which makes escaping the heat as easy as stepping into the shade of mango tree. Walking the streets in the midday sun, the temperature wasn't far below 100 degrees. When sheltered from the sun it dropped to the mid 80s.
We all bought new cell phones before lunch. My previous Honduras cell phone had been de-activated after not using it since last July and the charger is also missing. So by the time I bought a new charger, a new chip, and paid someone to install the chip and reactivate my phone, it was cheaper just to buy a new one. So I bought a $15 Samsung phone. It's about as big as an iPod nano but it does exactly what I want it to; it makes phone calls and sends text messages.
We did some more browsing in the stores before retreating out of the heat back up to Guancascos for lunch. It is now my goal to try everything on the menu this week before leaving Gracias. After lunch, dark grey clouds provided relief from the heat of the day. In the rain we rode in trucks up the mountain to visit the Gracias Vida Abundante School. The school is absolutely beautiful. The arrangement of the classrooms, office buildings and the landscaping is a romantic, Honduran picturesque. Of course the backdrop to this K-10 paradise is Mt. Celaque, the highest point in all of Honduras. I won't lie, I am completely jealous of anyone who gets to teach here. Walking distance from the school are about 4 houses we toured for the people staying here to teach. Maggie and Tyler chose house #1 just down the hill from the school. It sits alone surrounded by tropical vegetation and just 100 yards from the river. Laura Beth, Jennifer, Caitlin, and Shelly chose house #4 up the hill from the school near the national park entrance. It was the largest of the houses with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and 2 living rooms. The inside is painted a bright, sunshine orange, and is by far the nicest house we'd seen.
Satisfied with the housing, we all returned to town for some down time before dinner. For me this mostly consists of reading in the hammock which hangs from the porch of the hotel. The backdrop during dinner time was a thunderstorm over the city which of course called for walking in my new yellow rain boots.
For some reason being lazy pampered yesterday was tiring. I struggled to get out of bed this morning. It was cloudy and therefore cool most of the day today, and by cool I mean around 85 degrees. Before lunch we all had to set up bank accounts here in Gracias. 8 bank accounts took 3 1/2 hours to set up. Bank lobbies here are much more secure than bank lobbies in the U.S. At least 3 armed guards were in the bank at a time. Mostly 2 on the street level, 1 at the top of the stairs guarding the door and 1 inside the bank guarding the other side of the door. Think about it, at a bank in the US ANYTHING could happen at any time. Here, if you tried to pull something you'd probably be shot immediately.
After lunch those teaching in Gracias packed their bags to move into their new homes. Of course they were all ready to leave hours before their ride actually showed up to drive them up the mountain. This DELAY is known as Honduran time. Never count on anything to actually be on time. If someone says they will be there to pick you up in an hour, you will wait for 2. A scheduled meeting starts at least 30 minutes late. In this case we sat on top of suitcases for about 2 hours. Andrea and I stuck around to help load the trucks then said hasta luego so we could get back to some more hammock time.
In the evening we traveled to Los Aguas Thermales del Rio, the private hot springs in Gracias. It may have been the most beautiful and romantic place I have ever seen. Set far outside the city, down the mountainside into a valley is an entirely secluded haven of hot water. The hot water is fed into pools of all different temperatures, each surrounded by tiki torches and beautiful gardens. The romantic mood shifted quickly with a game of "keep it up" and some hand stand contests. Dinner was served in a sheltered picnic area after a couple hours of play. Another lightning storm lit up the sky and we watched as we filled our stomachs.
After being brought back to our hotel my work in Honduras thus far could only be described in one word, vacation.
No comments:
Post a Comment