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| We didn't really know much, except that we wanted to get on the Rivera bus to San Pedro. |
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| We were both pretty sleepy after staying up late trying to pack for over a week in our back packs. |
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| At last we were ready to go! |
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| I found Kadian this back pack the day before at the market since she was out of town. |
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| Yes, I fit everything in this back pack, save my towel that I had to carry around. haha. I am the kind of girl that can fill a giant suitcase just for the weekend. This is impressive. |
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| After wandering around the HUGE bus terminal (it's pretty much like an airport for buses) in San Pedro for half an hour, we finally found the mini bus we needed to take to Puerto Cortes. When we arrived in Puerto Cortes, we weren't sure what to do next. While I was very glad to be done with buses for the day, an uneasy feeling quickly replaced the queasiness and exhaustion the bus rides had left. I've never felt so much like a tourist; people seemed to stare even more than usual. Two young ladies with back packs and a decent amount of cash (well hidden of course), obviously foreigners, wandering about the city asking every other person for directions. Finally, after many blocks and helpful strangers, we found the Office of Immigration only to discover that there were two offices. We needed to go to the other one. By this time, we were quite hungry and tired of being confused. We had to find the boat so that we could buy our tickets for Belize and leave in the morning. All our plans depended on it. Laugh so you don't cry. We decided to find a place to eat, dig Kadian's phone out, and try to buy some credit so we could call the boat company. We ate at some baleada restaurant that had some cafeteria style dishes. I had some rice, a plantain, and potato salad--all warmed up in the microwave. Shortly after I finished eating, I saw the lady through out the remaining left-overs. That really didn't help settle the icky feeling in my stomach that the warmed up potato salad had left. We ended up having to go to the Digicel store next to have Kadian's phone activated. Thankfully, one of the men at the restaurant was super nice and drew us a map of how to get there. The boat number didn't work. Kind of out of options, we just decided to grab a taxi and go to La Lancha where we hoped to find the boat company. |
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| Two short boat men found us before we even stepped out the the taxi. Before we could blink, they took us back to the boat dock and went to get their boss who spoke English. The whole situation just felt a little iffy. We asked questions, made plans, and were then escorted to a nearby hotel. The men insisted that we change our money into lempiras into Belizean money right away, because the lady that was exchanging it was going to be gone in the morning. They told us we couldn't change lempiras in Belize so this was our only chance. After changing a total of $200, we were finally left alone in our hotel room, flustered, frightened, and fretful. We passed the rest of the evening by walking down to the ocean shore (the waves looked black from all the sawdust), visiting a grocery store, and eating some really greasy tajadas (fried green plantains). After dark we wasted the evening away by watching some TV. The TV was held onto the wall by a contraption that reminded me very much of what I've always imagined head gear for braces to look like :). That night we were both ready to get out of Puerto Cortes. We feel asleep praying that God would make the weather bad if we weren't supposed to go to Belize. At 2 am I awoke with a start as thunder shook the hotel. I looked outside to see lightening and heavy rain. Kadian was wide awake too. We were so relieved that we wouldn't be going; all we could think about was getting out of there. |
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| In the morning, we tried to find another way to change our money back. Unfortunately, Honduran banks don't change Belizean money, so we were stuck waiting for the two boat men to come back. The bathroom in the hotel smelled so strongly of mold, we couldn't even stand to take showers. I tied a shirt around my face to try and lessen the odor. At 8:30am, one of the men showed up and told us (no surprise) the boat wouldn't be leaving that day. We explained that we couldn't stay another night and needed to change our money back. He told us that the lady had left, so instead of getting a 1 to 10 rate, we would only be able to get a 1 to 8 exchange back. Ouch. One fifth of the money we exchanged lost. However, we were just glad to have it in lempiras and get out of Puerto Cortes. Still not ready to head back to Comayagua, we switched plans and decided to meet up with Ashley and Emily in the beautiful little coastal town of Tela, Honduras. Thus, we took a mini bus to San Pedro, got another bus to Tela, and finally a taxi to the Sherwood Hotel. We had called Ashley and Emily when we got to San Pedro. They were super excited and upgraded their hotel room to a larger one for four. |
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| Vacation!!! Tela, in short, was a breath of fresh air. Exactly what we needed. The ocean was right out our front door, our hotel was clean and beautifully decorated, we felt safe, we had more friends to spend time with, and we could finally relax. |
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| If you're ever in the area, this hotel has my recommendation :) |
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| Beautiful wood floors, stone tile, and wood carvings helped make our hotel feel like the vacation escape we were dreaming of. |
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| The front porch where we got to eat breakfast faced the ocean. Despite several persistent Garifuna women trying to braid our hair and sell us things, we did enjoy a lovely breakfast. |
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| In the spirit of vacation, Emily and Ashley decided to look into getting their hair done. |
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| I really want one of these for my future house. So pretty! |
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| Kadian relaxing on our bed while we waited for Profe Manuel to pick us up. He's from Tela, and he offered to show us around the city the second day we were there. |
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| My rock from the Tela sea shore. |
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| First Profe took us to this really neat old dock where lots of people go to hang out and fish. So picturesque! |
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| Time has really taken a toll on the wood, but there were still safe places to walk. |
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| Kadian, Ashley, Emily, Profe's daughter, and me |
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| After the dock, Profe took us to this choice little beach in the heart of a Garifuna community. While we were there, we got the best pan de coco (coconut bread) I have ever tried! It was freshly baked and so delicious, plus we bought it from a cute little boy. |
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| Next Profe drove us to a tall lookout place with a really good restaurant. We waited here while he went to pick up his wife and older daughter from shopping. |
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| When they arrived, we all walked up the flights of stairs to the gorgeous view at the top. |
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| Isn't his family adorable? |
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| That's the hotel they had their wedding reception at. Aww. |
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| Perfect timing--we got to see the sunset! |
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| After lots of pictures and visiting with Profe Manuel and his family, we walked part way down the stairs to the restaurant. We said our goodbyes and went into the Maya Vista Restaurant that Profe had highly recommended. |
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| The waiter even split our order of 1 piece of cake and 1 order of ice cream into four plates for us! How sweet. We had to sneak and steal Kadian's dessert so the waiter wouldn't feel bad that she didn't eat it (she's vegan). :) This made for some laughs. |
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| So, plans change. Sometimes that's great :). |
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