On May 6th and 7th the SJBS Drama Club presented the Jungle Book. Please take some time to check out their performance (this video is way better than any photos I took). It was a great show and the first time that many of them have performed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eur8TXMRXYw
Fun With The Parents December 2010
Fun With The Parents December 2010
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
April
It’s been a long time since I last posted. I hope this will update you on the latest in this crazy yearlong adventure of mine.
Where I last left off I was down to one good leg and taking a lot of ibuprofen. Things have changed for the better. Two days after I injured myself we went to Belize to renew our visas. This is a trip that we had all looked forward to and was a light at the end of a tunnel (fun after several weeks of school with no break). Well needless to say it wasn’t all that for me and for a few others. I was basically a hermit. I had to get a piggyback ride to our hotel. Then again to dinner. Got home from dinner day one and got a stomach bug that had me out of commission for two days. Which meant no bacon for the entire time I was in Belize. Such a disappointment. I was 200 feet from the beach and never set foot on it. Had V8 and meals delivered to me. And took off the temporary cast that I’d gotten the day before we left. But luckily the rest of April was looking up! I got back to school and began working on projects (costume designing for the Jungle Book production, labeling books for the library, etc.) Anything that meant that I didn’t need to move. I also had to bum rides to school.
The weekend after Belize my friend from childhood Tara came to visit. Her first time outside the US and she picked Honduras. Her trip started off rough with getting into Honduras a day later than planned but other than that things went perfectly. We headed straight to Copan and spent two days there catching up, seeing the ruins and enjoying happy hour. Neither of us are very good with the cameras so we only have a couple of photos together (all oddly enough in the back of a mototaxi) and I was so prepared that my batteries died on about photo 10 at the ruins so I couldn’t document anything).
Here we are – don’t mind the beans in my teeth (left over from a great breakfast) or the uber large sunglasses I have on ($3 at the San Pedro bus terminal – can’t beat that!)
Copan is known for its intricate carving detail. It was great to go back after not visiting for 10 years. This was the first time I visited in the dry season, my memories of Copan were all green but as you can see the ruins mix into the scenery.
Before semana santa (holy week) we had an assembly to celebrate Dia de las Americas, Earth Day and Day of Spanish language. Here are some photos from those events:
Semana Santa allowed me to check off the last “to see” place in Honduras that was on my list. I’ve previously had two trips scheduled there and they were subsequently canceled. So third time was a charm. This was a fantastic, relaxing, beautiful trip. My photos won’t do it justice. First the most important thing to know about the Mosquitia is that it is remote. You can only access it by boat or by plane. We started our journey Friday after school and took a bus to Ceiba. The wonderful tour company we used Ecoadventuras la Moskitia gave us a free night of lodging before we took off at 4:30 a.m. in a 4X4 truck. This truck took us to Iriona where we crossed a river like this:
We then proceeded to drive on the beach for the next 1.5 hours. Here’s the view from my seat in the truck cabin:
From there we reached Pueblo Nuevo, where we started our first of many boat rides.
The spray was pretty bad so those behind me had to take cover. After 1.5 more hours on a motorized boat we arrived to Raista, our home for the 1st night.
We were seconds away from the Laguna de Ibans and a 2 minute walk away from the Caribbean. It was peaceful and magical. We left early the next morning for a 4.5 hour motorized pipante ride down the Rio Platano. Here are some photos of the scenery, houses, and river (people’s lives revolve around this river – its their only mode of transport (no cars), their bathtub and laundry mat, they eat fish from there, etc.)
Our second home for 2 nights:
The view from our balcony.
Las Marias.
The start of day three. A 45 minute walk. A 2.5 hour boat ride. 2 hour hike. Petrogliphs. A 2.5 hour boat ride. Crocodile tour. Was nervous as my ankle was still weak but I survived….more than I can say for my camera.
View from our hike.
How we made our way up river.
Going through rapids.
Petrogliphs.
Crossing the river to get to the next set of petroglyphs my camera fell into the river and I had to dive to get it. So no pictures of the famous petroglyph , the crocodile tour or our time after la Mosquitia until Trujillo. Here is what picture quality looked like:
After returning from the day on the river, we rested and then after dinner (around 7:30 p.m.) we went for a crocodile tour. 8 of us got into a large dugout canoe and we began to go down river. We were all armed with our flashlights. Soon the boat stopped and we were told to flash our lights around. Soon we began to see red dots along the water. A guide jumped out and stuck his hand into the water close to the red dots and came up with a small crocodile. He proceeded to tie it to our boat for photos then let it loose to chase us around a bit. Scary but cool.
We then did the same return trip to Raista the next day. And the following day we left for Iriona (by the rope pulled bridge. We left the tour to spend the day with an SJBS family. This was the best home visit ever. Two current students and their sister who graduated last year along with their mom, grandma and plethora of cousins welcomed us into their Garifuna village. We learned how to make Casave (from ground yucca – a great chip), ate machuca and fish, and spent the day at the beach, playing volleyball, hair braiding (I just watched) and a late night (8:30) dance party. The time in Mosquitia showed us that Honduras has a varied culture. We heard Moskito and Garifuna language. Saw their traditions. I learned so much new about the country I’ve come to call my 2nd home. From there we headed to Trujillo. A beach town I frequented a lot as a Peace Corps Volunteer. My how it has changed. When I went there were about 10 tourists. Semana Santa produced about 5,000 visitors. The beaches were packed but a fun, relaxing time was still had.
Only had drinks here but beautiful view.
After Trujillo we headed home and started back to work. The week back I did 20 home visits (10 in one day). I’m down to only 15 visits left. I’ll write more about last weekends fun at the feria de San Marcos later.
Where I last left off I was down to one good leg and taking a lot of ibuprofen. Things have changed for the better. Two days after I injured myself we went to Belize to renew our visas. This is a trip that we had all looked forward to and was a light at the end of a tunnel (fun after several weeks of school with no break). Well needless to say it wasn’t all that for me and for a few others. I was basically a hermit. I had to get a piggyback ride to our hotel. Then again to dinner. Got home from dinner day one and got a stomach bug that had me out of commission for two days. Which meant no bacon for the entire time I was in Belize. Such a disappointment. I was 200 feet from the beach and never set foot on it. Had V8 and meals delivered to me. And took off the temporary cast that I’d gotten the day before we left. But luckily the rest of April was looking up! I got back to school and began working on projects (costume designing for the Jungle Book production, labeling books for the library, etc.) Anything that meant that I didn’t need to move. I also had to bum rides to school.
The weekend after Belize my friend from childhood Tara came to visit. Her first time outside the US and she picked Honduras. Her trip started off rough with getting into Honduras a day later than planned but other than that things went perfectly. We headed straight to Copan and spent two days there catching up, seeing the ruins and enjoying happy hour. Neither of us are very good with the cameras so we only have a couple of photos together (all oddly enough in the back of a mototaxi) and I was so prepared that my batteries died on about photo 10 at the ruins so I couldn’t document anything).
Here we are – don’t mind the beans in my teeth (left over from a great breakfast) or the uber large sunglasses I have on ($3 at the San Pedro bus terminal – can’t beat that!)
Copan is known for its intricate carving detail. It was great to go back after not visiting for 10 years. This was the first time I visited in the dry season, my memories of Copan were all green but as you can see the ruins mix into the scenery.
Before semana santa (holy week) we had an assembly to celebrate Dia de las Americas, Earth Day and Day of Spanish language. Here are some photos from those events:
Semana Santa allowed me to check off the last “to see” place in Honduras that was on my list. I’ve previously had two trips scheduled there and they were subsequently canceled. So third time was a charm. This was a fantastic, relaxing, beautiful trip. My photos won’t do it justice. First the most important thing to know about the Mosquitia is that it is remote. You can only access it by boat or by plane. We started our journey Friday after school and took a bus to Ceiba. The wonderful tour company we used Ecoadventuras la Moskitia gave us a free night of lodging before we took off at 4:30 a.m. in a 4X4 truck. This truck took us to Iriona where we crossed a river like this:
We then proceeded to drive on the beach for the next 1.5 hours. Here’s the view from my seat in the truck cabin:
From there we reached Pueblo Nuevo, where we started our first of many boat rides.
The spray was pretty bad so those behind me had to take cover. After 1.5 more hours on a motorized boat we arrived to Raista, our home for the 1st night.
We were seconds away from the Laguna de Ibans and a 2 minute walk away from the Caribbean. It was peaceful and magical. We left early the next morning for a 4.5 hour motorized pipante ride down the Rio Platano. Here are some photos of the scenery, houses, and river (people’s lives revolve around this river – its their only mode of transport (no cars), their bathtub and laundry mat, they eat fish from there, etc.)
The view from our balcony.
Las Marias.
The start of day three. A 45 minute walk. A 2.5 hour boat ride. 2 hour hike. Petrogliphs. A 2.5 hour boat ride. Crocodile tour. Was nervous as my ankle was still weak but I survived….more than I can say for my camera.
How we made our way up river.
Going through rapids.
Petrogliphs.
Crossing the river to get to the next set of petroglyphs my camera fell into the river and I had to dive to get it. So no pictures of the famous petroglyph , the crocodile tour or our time after la Mosquitia until Trujillo. Here is what picture quality looked like:
After returning from the day on the river, we rested and then after dinner (around 7:30 p.m.) we went for a crocodile tour. 8 of us got into a large dugout canoe and we began to go down river. We were all armed with our flashlights. Soon the boat stopped and we were told to flash our lights around. Soon we began to see red dots along the water. A guide jumped out and stuck his hand into the water close to the red dots and came up with a small crocodile. He proceeded to tie it to our boat for photos then let it loose to chase us around a bit. Scary but cool.
We then did the same return trip to Raista the next day. And the following day we left for Iriona (by the rope pulled bridge. We left the tour to spend the day with an SJBS family. This was the best home visit ever. Two current students and their sister who graduated last year along with their mom, grandma and plethora of cousins welcomed us into their Garifuna village. We learned how to make Casave (from ground yucca – a great chip), ate machuca and fish, and spent the day at the beach, playing volleyball, hair braiding (I just watched) and a late night (8:30) dance party. The time in Mosquitia showed us that Honduras has a varied culture. We heard Moskito and Garifuna language. Saw their traditions. I learned so much new about the country I’ve come to call my 2nd home. From there we headed to Trujillo. A beach town I frequented a lot as a Peace Corps Volunteer. My how it has changed. When I went there were about 10 tourists. Semana Santa produced about 5,000 visitors. The beaches were packed but a fun, relaxing time was still had.
After Trujillo we headed home and started back to work. The week back I did 20 home visits (10 in one day). I’m down to only 15 visits left. I’ll write more about last weekends fun at the feria de San Marcos later.
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