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!!!...