So much going on!

Blogging again - what is becoming of me?! As I write this there are an untold number of things I should be doing - of which cleaning this house and doing my new display for my class are important! But never mind! The others have gone off to a waterfall to find some harness equipment that Jorge and Mark left there a few weeks ago when they were abseiling down it. I opted to stay and relax and get things done. So far this has consisted of wandering to Sue's house to have a chat!! Heh ho.

Today is our last day house sitting for Dave and Esther, they return from Canada tomorrow. I have totally loved living up at the camp, with the peaceful and beautiful surroundings, and being out of school! However, I am ready to sleep in my own bed again surrounded by my own things (instead of living a split life with things in both houses!). This has been another excellent weekend, proving to me why I am living here and showing that life can feel normal and comfortable here. I really do feel very settled here - good thing really!

Last night we (Amanda, Mark, Noel and I) went to a concert. It was held at and by Betel, the local church across the road. It was a 'youth' concert, held outside in the basketball court. We had thought it would be more like the usual concerts here - by the 'orchestra', but no. What an excellent surprise we had. It was more like a 'rock worship' concert, more like the days of going over to the Delirious concerts in L'hampton. Not what I expected to find in this culture! There are some very talented people here. The main difference however being that there is no dancing allowed - very strange when the music is hard to sit still to! There were loads of young people there, so encouraging to see so many people coming to a concert at a church - England could learn a lot! We met up with Jorge there and came back to our house up here to have pizza and watch 'Life of Brian' - great night eh?! I find that film so funny, and it is only watching it with people from different countries that you realise how different English humour is! No surprise I guess - so far everything about England is different to everyone else! I am feeling very sorry for England at the moment, but that's another story!









Amanda giving Jorge a guitar lesson on Sat night

I am also being reminded a lot of Uganda at the moment, various things happen that remind me of my life there (and yes I do still miss being there too!). One of these things being the number of 'National' Days they have both here and there. Uganda has Soldiers Day, Martyrs day, Women's day...you name it day. Honduras is somewhat similar, Friday bought us Women's Day, the school recognised this by giving the women a bookmark and chocolate bar (isn't that thoughtful?!) and today bought the added surprise of being Pastor's Day...

We went along to church this morning and it was Pastors Day. This is something that as the service went on I wished we could have in UK. A real appreciation for the work the Pastor does. It was a fantastic service this morning, a service in which I realised I was in a church I really liked and felt at home in. We are slowly getting to know people there (how I wish I spoke Spanish properly). Some of the children got up the front this morning dressed as sheep, doing a little sheep dance - very cute. One of the bands who played last night played one of their songs as a kind of contribution from the young guys I guess (they play in the worship group at our church ,it was yet again very good - and yet amusing to watch the faces of the older people), there was a small drama - well done Jorge! - all the different groups thanked the pastor in their own ways for the work he does. I just wished we could do something like that at home, we take far too much for granted in England, coming here has made me realise that to a greater extent. There is so much that I want to write about that, however, I just can't put it all coherently into words! Our church sings some of the good old hymns we know and love, but in Spanish. I sing my little heart out! I honestly love it! The longer I am here the more I feel at home. I would love to get to know more Honduran friends, I guess that will come with the Spanish!

More good news if that Amanda is considering staying next year - I really pray that she does. It would be great to have some continuity in friendships here.

Now, can I take this opportunity to say thank you to Barbara and Jean who ALWAYS leave me a message on here. I love it! Just hearing little bits from people keeps me in touch. It's greatly appreciated. So...especially my family..please let me know if you are reading this!

Tegucigalpa Aeroplane Museum - what a day!

I am getting into this blogging lark! I do have to write about my trip with Grade's 1 & 2 to the plane museum in Teguc. What a bizarre day and a day in which I was only to speak in Spanish!

So the day starts by being told to meet at 6.20am so we can be ready to leave at 6.30am. That's a joke! I was the only teacher there at that time - with very few children. But by 6.50, Xiomara (my Spanish counterpart) had arrived and by 6.55am we left - no headcount, merely a case of we're late so we're leaving whoever is with us. Now when I thought of a class trip I thought back to Chesswood...teacher ratios, counting the children, general organisation. I should have had a clue to my day when I look back and realised no-one actually told me about the trip until I read the letter (in Spanish) that I handed out to my G1's with my name on it!!!

There were about 40 children that came, and on the bus were 15 parents too - along with Profe Edit (Director), Xiomara and me.

Not too many parents I thought - how wrong could I be?? We had a toilet stop half way into our 3 hour journey and suddenly about 10 cars pull up behind the bus, a whole load of parents jump out, pile onto the bus and give their children a drink! Even a Grade 5 girl came too, her sister is in G1 and so she came along for this family day out! Hilarious! So...there were lots of parents with us, only about 12 children came unaccompanied! When we were ready to move on again the parents piled into their cars and we were off. We got to Teguc and the driver got lost but eventually we found the museum! It was a pleasant surprise indeed.

It was the military school base and we went to a field of old (and apparently very important) planes. We were given a talk as we were taken to see every plane and told all about it. I was very pleased I could understand it all in Spanish. The children - and adults - were allowed onto the last plane and they could go into the cockpit etc. All the planes were very old and broken by the way - historical!!

I just like this picture!

Then a quick play and we were off to lunch. 2 hours in the museum and we were done. Lunch was then to be a whole new experience!! Not a packed lunch as we would have done at home...oh no!!

The children had been given 3 options for lunch which they had to choose (supposedly) before coming. Now, here is where the day started to fall apart slightly. Some children had paid for food in advance to Profe Edit, others hadn't, some had their parents with them and some had not decided. Profe Edit looked at her list, divided up the children and we split up between the 3 places next door to each other. Edit took 4 children to a chicken place, Xiomara took 3 to Burger King, and that left Profe Norma (was there as a parent) and me with the other 30 and their parents in Pizza Hut! It was hilarious, some had paid and yet others hadn't, some had paid but their parents had come and so their parents ate but didn't order for their kids! It was absolute chaos trying to work it all out - and I was having to do it all in Spanish to boot! I thought we'd order the slices you can buy, but oh no - we were ordering full on meals! There was a play place there so at least the very hungry children were occupied. We eventually got it sorted, and then Pizza Hut didn't have enough of the very small pans for the children and so we had to order large ones, but there wasn't enough for all our kids. By this time, other parents had driven to Teguc (in a car about 1.5 hours) to meet their children for lunch!!! Utter chaos prevailed!

However, we muddled through and I think everyone ate something! Then came getting back on the bus. Some children went with their parents back in the cars - some taking cousins and neighbours. There was no list of who was where and so when we thought we had everyone we left! No counting children!

3 hours there
2 hours in the museum

2 hours in Pizza Hut
3 hours back

This really was a trip with a difference!

Never give a ball of wool to a 7 year old boy!

Ok, if I ever suggest making pom-poms again with my Grade 2's please shoot me! I thought it would be a lovely idea for my Hogar class (home making/craft class). New-girl Megan helped me cut out all the cardboard circles, I had the children bring in the wool and thought it would be great!

I have to say that the children loved it... so it can't have been that bad. In my planning I had forgotten that Grade 2 consists of only 8 girls and 15 boys. 15 seven year old boys! It was hilarious. Roberto, who is in a dream world, wandered around the classroom oblivious to the fact that he had the end of a ball of wool in his hand. I turned around to find the wool wrapped around the entire class like a spiders web. Isaac didn't notice the wool attached to his foot and he did the same thing - only he managed to wrap it around Jennifer (it was her first day at our school!) and thus tied her legs up. It was very amusing because they were genuinely oblivious to it all. Most of the boys found it far too difficult, at least to start with and so I found myself a pom-pom making professional, rushing round sorting it all out. My class was a tangled mess, a lot of the boys just had piles of tangled wool in their hands where they had dropped it. Please......never again! I gave it to them to finish as homework!

<<<< This is Sergevy's at it's best!

Some managed it!

I thought it would be a nice calm afternoon in Grade 1 - and it would have been had Fernando not vomitted across his desk in the middle of a spelling test! What a great day!!

Tomorrow can only get better, we are taking Grade 1 and 2 (50 children) to the aeroplane museum in Tegucigalpa. I can foresee lots more vomiting on the bus - but going on some of the planes (on the ground) will make up for it. There are no other English speaking teachers going so it will be a long day of Spanish!

The price of freedom.....

Well, my car is safe to drive now - hurray! Not that it stopped me before obviously. But what I didn't know didn't worry me, shall we say. It is going to be an amazing car once it is all sorted out! My radiator has been leaking for the past week, but as the mechanic was busy it was easily solved by making sure I always had bottles of water in the car, and provided I didn't go further than into town I could just fill it back up before coming home again! Perfect. Then the windscreen washer fluid tank-thing also started leaking, which wasn't a problem as I had water in the car anyway! Oh and the bushings, I am learning so much about cars it's untrue. Whenever I had to turn sharp corners (and some not so sharp) the car made the most awful scraping noises. My bushings had apparently been torn to shreds. Who knew eh? Well, they have been replaced too! So tomorrow, my oil is being changed as it is so dirty and next week I need someone to look at my exhaust pipe (everyone can hear when I'm coming) and then it will be perfect. All very exciting! I'm getting good at recognising sounds my car makes!

The dangerous things have all been sorted for now and it is positively wonderful to drive now the steering is sorted. Obviously I collected it from the garage and the horn no longer works - but they tell me that is easy to fix and so we'll see! All good fun. I'm very grateful labour costs are so cheap here I can tell you! All adds up though, but the freedom and independence the car brings is most definitely worth it. My fund raising will have to start soon!

Who knew I could write so much about cars - nothing interesting, but heh!? No photos today, but at least I haven't written so much!

Don't forget to leave me a comment (I'm so nosey I want to know who is reading this - and I love getting little messages from people)

p.s. packages from August are starting to come through now!

Local wildlife!

I'm getting into this blogging, but I promise this one will be shorter! I'm loving staying up at Dave and Esther's house. It's more like being at home - as in not living in the teacher's house in school! Far more relaxing living away from work, and we get to meet and see more people too. I am most definitely not living in the school next year! It is very beautiful up there, so Amanda and I seem to spend most afternoons/evenings sat out on the porch reading, singing or chatting. Wonderful!

The only draw back being the local wildlife...last night I found a scorpion in my bedroom. Esther said she often finds the small ones and that recently she had found some big ones too. I have been keeping an eye out for them in the house, and wanted to see one, but not in my bedroom! I would have liked to see it somewhere else ...someone else's house maybe!? This one was a small one, and to be honest instead of stressing, I was merely fascinated by it! Obviously, my first reaction was to go and get my camera....and then the frying pan! Amanda could hear me banging the frying pan about and now the scorpion is no more - hurray! Does make me realise the tarantula's will be back soon, now that it is the start of the hot season! Oh joy - how I hate them!


By the way.....Amanda's feet are healing ....my car however is not! The radiator is now leaking and so I have to fill it back up with water everyday before I go anywhere!! Heh ho - at least I have one! It will be going to the mechanic on Monday, but for now my mechanical skills are increasing everyday (sort of!) It is true that cars need a lot more work out here. It's going to be an expensive (but invaluable) asset, despite labour being cheap here. I need to start my fundraising!!!

p.s. don't forget to leave comments on here if you're reading this!

Hazards.....Hot Springs....and Hospitals!

What a weekend we've just had, oh my!! It's been great but not your run of the mill weekend it has to be said. The up-shot being we are still alive - hurray!! There are times in life when you know God is looking out for you, and this was one! I'll have to tell it in order so it is going to become diary like, try to read through to the end.....
Friday night.....
On Friday, Amanda and I went up to Dave and Esther's to start our house sitting duties (oh so hard!)As we were up at the camp and close to Sue's she invited us to a BBQ she was having with various people. They have had a group of 4 young lads from Chicago here working on the high ropes, so they were there. Along with Megan (new teacher), Jorge (works at camp when not at uni), Juan (camp and studying, the same as Jorge!), Ana (Ken's new PA, great Honduran girl). We had an excellent night full of laughter and humour - and good food! It was a great night - a good start to a relaxing weekend!

Saturday.....
The day started off with a much needed lie in, it is so peaceful up at the camp surrounded by trees and hills. Bliss. My car is doing really well, but the bald tyres at the back were crying out to be changed. So having asked Jorge where the best place for tyres was I set off with Sue (translation and support) to the garage. It was not to be as simple - or as cheap a I had anticipated! So, I wanted the new tyres at the front and the front ones put to the back (aren't you glad you are reading this?!) After discovering it was not that straight forward and the rims needed changing and you couldn't just swap the tyres, a different man came and took my tyres away to change them over. So....our first young man - smiley chap - took one look at my brakes when he took the tyres off and said they were highly dangerous and shold be changed as he couldn't see how they had been working! He took the brake pads off and they were paper thin - literally!! So, somehow I'd been getting around without crashing!! He seemed very surprised I hadn't had an accident?! At that point -and seeing the brake pads -so were Sue and I!!?? Thank you God number 1! So, the nice young man said he could change my brakes for me. Obviously they didn't have them in stock (being a tyre shop) so he got on his bike and went to buy some for me! Smiling goes such a long way here! Keep reading....

This was all taking a while so Sue and I went for a wander along the busy highway. We found some garden nurseries and so went browsing for plants - I do love doing that! When we got back, the brakes were done and the greasy underdog man (a garage is a strange place to watch hierarchy in the workplace) was fixing the last back tyre. So whilst waiting I may have been smiling at the mechanic (couldn't speak to him and didn't want to be rude!) and he became suddenly quite helpful. He looked under the bonnet and started checking everything for me. He looked at the water for the windscreen and saw it was empty, his helpful friend came along and spat in it "it's not empty now!" Nice! Anyway, he went and found water for that, checked power steering fluid etc and then looked at the radiator. How it had not burnt I dont know as there was no water in it! I apparently need to start checking my car every weekend as I forget that being in a hot country things in a hot engine evaporate very quickly. (This is an exciting blog eh?! Just wait..!)So he sorted that for me and then decided to take out the emergency extra water tank for the radiator and clean it before filling it - nice chap! So I was set to go. Slightly poorer but happy! The bushings on my car have gone too (apparently) and so feeling lucky that I was still alive I thanked my mechanical friend, assured him I would get it sorted this week (which I shall by the way dad!)I drove back with Sue feeling very pleased with my new tyres and brakes - feeling the difference immediately.

That evening we met up with Quinton, Jessa and Olivia for dinner in town, it was great to see them and swap stories (the projectile poo being my favourite story to share obviously!) as we haven't seen most of them since before Christmas. An eventful and pleasing day I'd say! (Keep reading if you can..!)

Sunday.....
So...we were going to join Ken and Sue and the teenage lads on a trip to the Hot Springs. Excitement levels were rising as we'd heard so much about it. I was obviously running late to go and pick up Noel and Mark and bring them to Sue's, when Ken called to say he would do it for me (gave me time to get ready!) Amanda had been ill all night from the food we ate and so it worked out perfectly. We went off and got petrol to save time later and as we were at Texaco I asked Amanda if she could look there for a wrench for the tyres in case one should blow, I had bought a jack recently and it just dawned on me I had nothing to actually take the tyres off with. But..there wasn't one there and so we left it at that. Everyone got together and I drove the 4 of us and 'new-girl Megan' in my car and Ken took the landrover with everyone else. I was following behind him for directions. As we started I became suddenly very insistent that we prayed before we travelled for safety and Noel dutifully obliged! So off we went with Ken driving at the speed of light and I was slightly slower to allow my lovely new brakes time to wear in. The road is incredibly windy down the mountain and so you have to be very aware of all the cars randomly overtaking you. So I opted for safety instead of trying to keep up as I would normally have done. As we were driving I started hearing some loud banging noises and the car was becoming very bumpy. Amanda soon heard it and we quickly discussed possiblities. I asked Noel and Mark to look out of their windows at the back to look to see if the tyres had blown. Noel thought the back looked flat and so we pulled over but it was fine so we moved on another hundred yards, but the sound was very loud now and the car very bumpy indeed! This time we stopped and all 5 piled out of the car and called Ken to come back and help! We looked at my smart new front tyres...they were coming off!!! The garage had not put the nuts back on properly - or in fact tightened them at all. We could pull them off with our hands whilst barely turning them! One more sharp corner down the mountain or another hundred yards and both my front tyres would have rolled down the hill in front of me! That prayer definitely worked! Then came the problem of the wrench to tighten them up - I dind't have one (yet had questioned it in the morning!?) So we stood there wondering what to use when a man emerged with a sack ....yes you've guessed it...a sack of wrenches! With 4 different sizes! We were on a highway coming down a mountain, not near a town and there was a random man with a sack of wrenches?!! You have to laugh!! Thank you God number 2...or possibly 3 as we were alive! Ken came and sorted out the tyres for us and then we drove on - he slowed down this time!
Trying to sort the tyres:

The road to the Hot Springs is fantastic - like offroad driving (hence the need for 4WD here!). We got there and it was like a paradise. Remote and untouched. The water bubbles up and you have to go over a rocky path through a steaming hot tunnel/cave to reach the river.





Now, to me it seemed slightly dangerous to go swimming, exploring in the water as you were unaware of where the boiling water was. You could tell most of the time by the steam outlets coming out of the rock or the fact the rocks themselves were blazing hot. But I am assured that upstream it is much safer, by the waterfall etc.
Some pics of the boiling water:

Sue and I stayed and read our books and the others all went rock jumping and exploring behind the waterfalls etc. There were gorgeous pools of warm water around me and so I was happy. The others floated around on the current and we awaited their stories. First being that Megan had been sucked down a small hole at the foot of the waterfall. Amanda is caught on video screaming that Megan had been sucked under. If I could get it on here I would! Luckily Megan got spat back up through a chute and all was ok. Noel, then got sucked into and fell down the waterfall. I was happy to be sat on a warm rock with a warm pool - grateful I was alive after all the antics with the car! Not shaken up at all - purely grateful!





So we had lunch and then Ken, Mark, Megan and Amanda went off to find warmer/hot water to swim in. Let's just say Amanda found it. She was walking in a pool of cold water when it turned into a boiling pool and she put both her feet in it. She did really well as she burnt both her feet with minor 2nd degree burns. She sat with her feet in the cold running water of the river for an hour and then we had to get her back up the rocky bank to the car. Her stubbornness came up trumps as she just walked straight up the mountain, screaming only occasionally, gripping Kens hand. At the car we filled the cool box with water, put her feet in it and we set off to the hospital!
As we went back along the offroad drive the water was splashing everywhere and so Amanda was desperately trying to shove more towels aeround her. At various intervals she stuck both her feet out of the window for the cool passing air!

We all turned up at the hospital where she was cleaned and bandaged by Dr Nazrala - very old, very wonderful, English speaking dr. Excellent sense of humour - you can tell by the picture:

A view on the way home:


What a day! Amanda is doing well and her feet are healing well. My car is going to the garage this week - although the wheels are now sorted!

2 more weeks at Dave and Esthers, what else can the week bring? Hopefully not too much! It is exam week this week, I have managed to get them written and I hope the kids do well.

I just thank God for keeping us all safe. There have been so many opportunites where we should have ended up in a mess or an accident (Amanda aside! I thank God I'm alive!

The joys of living in Honduras!

Well done for reaching the end of this blog - it's an epic - I know I haven't got the stamina to read it back to check it makes sense!!! Please leave me a message if you read it, you don't need an account. I just love reading what people write!

By the way...thanks for the input people gave me on toast racks...the Brit Bashing continues!!!...

And a new term begins....

Well term has started again and I feel like I have been run over by a 10-ton truck - how can I be so tired after 3 days back at school?! Crazy! As much as I loved the holidays I do like being back with the children again. To my huge relief they didn't forget all their English over the holidays and so far this week has gone really well....I hope I'm not speaking too soon! I'm having great fun with the Grade 1's who are just lapping up the English and so somehow every lesson is turned into a game, which I enjoy as much as the kids do - nothing new there!

We have a new teacher who has started here and will be here until June. She is Canadian (yet another!)and will be working with Grades 1-6 doing both booster classes for those who are struggling and extra classes for the able pupils to stretch them. I am really pleased someone is going to come and help my Grade 1's and 2's as I have lots of very special needs in those classes and they just get overlooked in the system here. It is nice to have a new friendly face around too. Poor girl doesn't actually have anywhere to live yet, but she is staying with Ken and Sue in the meantime.

The new (well not so new but reinvented) sport in my house is Brit-bashing! How many ways can I be mocked for being British?! They have endless ways! The latest thing is the Toast Rack. Apparently Canadians have never heard of a toast rack, Megan read about it in a magazine and I am never going to hear the end of it!! Nowt wrong with a toast rack in my opinion!! I can hold my own that is for sure - though it does get very tiring sometimes....does anyone know of an English teacher who would like to come and work here next year? Actually, that's a serious offer, Esther is recruiting teachers for next year and is looking for qualified, Christian teachers. If you know of anyone just let me know!!

Here is a picture of my Grade 2's. We had been doing some work for a school in Canada who had send us a 'Flat Albert'- like a travelling Flat Stanley.....anyway..here is the photo we took:


On Friday Dave and Esther are off on a recruitment trip to Canada - trying to find more teachers for next year. It means that Amanda and I are going to house sit for them for 2 and a half weeks! It's not safe to leave houses empty here and so I am turning into a professional house sitter! As they are up at the camp they need someone with their own transport this time - hurray that's me! It will be good to stay somewhere out of the school for a while - I'm longing for my own house and this is the next best thing!

Well, I need to go and write some exams now - I can't put it off any longer! I hope you have all had a good start to 2008. Please keep in touch!

If you are reading my endless witterings that is my blog, please please do leave a comment, I love reading what people think and seeing who actually reads this. It's amazing how one small comment can cheer you up!

Costa Rica - Bull fights, rainforests, beaches and body surfing!!

Well, on the 27th December Amanda, Mark and myself caught a bus to Tegucigalpa and the airport and our Costa Rican adventure was about to start! What an amazing time I had, a week away from Honduras and life here - a much needed breath of fresh air.

One of the many things that stood out about Costa Rica to me was how developed it was compared to Honduras. The taxis all have meters (instead of bargaining a price) - and you pay for the taxi and split the cost between you instead of paying per person here; the houses all look far more 'modern' than here, the roads are tarmacked and don't have huge potholes in them, the cars all have number plates and aren't falling apart, the people are a different colour...so many things. It showed how very behind Honduras is and how underdeveloped. But...if CR can do it so can Honduras. They have worked out how to develop tourism and how to maximise on it.
I had spent days planning out the trip whilst Amanda spent time with her family and had booked hotels etc. Sue and Ken used to live in CR and so were able to proved us with links to places to stay and people in San Jose - the capital. So we arrived at San Jose airport and there was Romeo the taxi driver waiting for us with a huge sign with my name on it!! I was very excited at this! Ken used to work with a wonderful CR girl called Sillenia and she had arranged for us to be met at the airport and taken to the Guest House she runs. She was hilarious and without thinking we were chatting away to both her and Romeo in Spanish - apparently I can say more than I thought!! Good to know!

That evening the 3 of us ventured out to the town, we were heading to the shopping mall - not something we have in Sigua! There were literally hundreds of people out and it turns out there was a Fiesta in town for Christmas/New Year. It was a giant carnival/funfair/party and so we jumped out of the taxi and went to explore. Low and behold there before us was a long queue and upon enquiring about it we found out there was to be a bull fight!!! Oh yes!! So a bull fight we went to!! At first it was fun and yet as we watched further it became apparent it really is just a 'bloodsport' and they just torment the poor creature. It wasn't a bull fight as we have all seen on TV..one man with a red flag and a bull....no...more like 150 men in a ring with a bull. It was crazy, all these young guys (and yes Mark did join in, but it wasn't exactly dangerous!)jump into the ring and try and get hte bull to chase them and then run away from it or jump out of the ring again. It was quite amusing at times and yes some did fall and get flipped up or rolled over by the bull (and then they get picked up and taken to the Red Cross booth!)But by and large the bulls were very confused by so many people and occasionally just stood there! We stayed a good long while and watched different bulls, bull rodeoing (riding)and different 'games' with the bull. I however, was quite taken by the uniform of the people working at the stadium and quite wanted the t-shirts they were wearing - with Torros and Tico's written on the back (Tico is the name of CR person and torro a bull, and some other Spanish writing I wont bore you with. Anyway, the nice older lady showing us to our seats was wearing a particularly nice red and black ong sleeved shirt and so we sent Mark off to see where we could buy one. Alas ...not for sale. But..I liked it! SO as we were leaving I went to said lady, gave her a hug and a smile and well, she went to someone else, who went ot their boss, who radio miked another person and next thing I know along comes a man with not 1 t-shirt for me but one for all of us. Alas not red but orange...but FREE! Obviously had to hug everyone at that point and he made us put them on there and then! At that point, the crowd all started shouting as they also wanted one and so we left quick smart!! So, although we didn't have a cameras for hte bull fight we did get a free t-shirt! And all for a smile!! You have to love it!!!

SO the next day, Amanda and I went off to Arenal and Mark went to climb a mountain (a 10 hour hike up - no thanks!) We went to Arenal Volcano, one of the 10 active volcanoes in the world. Our hotel had a perfect view, on a hill looking right at the lava side - perfect! Except...it was raining and cloudy the whole time and we saw nothing!! However, we met up with 2 other English girls at our hotel, who were lovely and we all went together to the Hanging Bridges. WoW! These were bridges (they looked like the ones on I'm a Celebrity get me out of here!) and went through the Rainforest. We had a 2 hour walk through the rainforest - in the rain- and crossed bridges that went through and above the rainforest canopy so we could look down upon it all. Truly truly amazing. Everything you expect a rainforest to be and more. The humidity was intense though even in the rain.












After a rainforest tour we caught another bus down to Manuel Antonio. This is a beach where the rainforest (part of the National Park) comes right down to the beach. Wow wow and wow again. What a place! White sand and rainforests! We went for a walk through this rainforest and the heat was intense. Blazing hot day and the humidity of the rainforest combined...wow! We saw monkeys (squirrel and white faced), iguanas, lizards, a raccoon type thing - agouti?, a large rodent type thing with legs - I forget the name, birds, views..WOW! Truly stunning. As we wondered past our hotel down the road a large iguana just crosses our path and as we sat on the beach in front of a large rock a large lizard just lay on the rock basking in the sun just behind us! Sadly for that I didn't have my camera with me. The weather wasn't amazing the whole time, cloudy and then in the evening s it rained. But we still got some colour and were able to swim in the sea - and get stung by a jelly fish?! I even did some body surfing! Have to laugh!

New Year's Eve was quite rainy so Amanda and went out to dinner and then watched movies on Cable TV on our beds! We then fell asleep and missed most things. We woke up to watch some of the fireworks. There were parties on the beach but the weather wasn't great and 2 white girls on their own probs wasn't too safe! Get ready for all these pics!....














Then we were on a bus again back to San Jose. You'd think that going by bus for hours at a time (our shortest bus journey was 4 and a half hours) that I would have seen a lot of the country...I however slept for every journey! Amanda assures me it was beautiful!! Back in San Jose we met up with Mark again and shared stories - and made it to the mall. It was like going to a Shopping Mall in Brighton - better in fact. You'd never think you were in Central America.

Here we are on the plane home (neither plane journeys were full!)


Photo of Honduras through a dirty plane window:


Coming back to Honduras was a shock, realising just how behind our life here is, how 3rd world it really is. Quite a shock. We went straight to Sue and Kens where we stayed for 3 days dog sitting for them whilst they were away. It was great - we had a movie marathon and just stayed and watched films, making the most of their home comforts!
Now, however, I am back at home. Thinking how much of an empty shell our house is - despite fact it is hugely modernised compared to others! Tomorrow, Amanda and I are going to try and make it more homely?! I have been thinking about next year and where on earth I am going to live in this town. I think there is a possibility that I like the sound of. A gringo couple here are building a house next to Ken and Sue's new house but are going to the States for 6 months...and they need a house/dog sitter! Perfect! They think it is great too and so I am hoping it will all work out that I can live there Sept - Jan. We shall see.

I have just come back from town to finish adding photos to this blog and it is now that I am certain I am back in Honduras. Mark, Amanda and I went into town this afternoon to try and find some lamps for our bedrooms and to buy food and as we were driving down a bumpy road in town, an old lady (about 70, who was clearly not compus mentus - is that how you spell it?!) just lifts her dress and poos on the side of the road as we pass. Hiding nothing. Quite a sight really! Yes.... I am most definitely living in Honduras!

So...it is now 2008..I live in Honduras...school starts again on Monday. Let's see what this year is like! I hope you all have a great 2008. I have hundreds (literally) of photos of the rainforest and can't fit them all on here and so I shall have to find a way of putting them somewhere where you can all access them (other than Facebook!). Here is a link to a photo album with some of my pictures in..i hope it works!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81513&l=1ae87&id=876635272