Canada

I have been a failure to my followers. Just kidding, this blog was mostly for my trip to Honduras but I have done a fair share of traveling after that. As you all know, life is a journey in itself so my blog will always have some sort of relevance, even if the traveling I am doing is only to the store.

I'm a list person so I will list my adventures by occurance this summer. This will take a few days to get them all out so stay tuned!

Canada

After being delayed a day in getting back from Honduras, (see Claire's blog for details) Amelia, Shannon, Nancy (my car), Sydney and I took off for an adventure to Canada. I should have probably not scheduled the two so close together but I was fortunate not to get sick when I returned from my month long excursion. With little time to plan for this trip, we booked a hotel in Winnipeg, Canada not knowing what we were doing. It's an adventure, right? Wrong. Although we did not really want our parents input, after hearing from several people that this hotel had had recent stabbings and that cars get robbed on the regular, we decided to upgrade to a Marriott. We drove 11.5 hours and avoided flooding along I-29. We got through the border after intense questioning (probably because Sydney's passport picture looked like a mug shot :)) and made it to Winnipeg without a GPS! All of our phones were roaming which we hadn't really thought about.

The first night we went to a nice dinner, got to order drinks like big people, and headed to the hotel to settle in. We got lucky in that our hotel was brand new and we were not likely to be stabbed there. Ha!

Friday we shopped around in a cool area of town called The Forks which was in downtown Winnipeg. That night we went to a dance club called Alive and had a great time dancing, meeting some locals and enjoying their accents. Saturday, Sydney and I went to the Titanic museum which was soooo cool. We were obsessed with Titanic as kids if you didn't know this already. It was fun to see what things were real and not real from the movie. We were also assigned identities. I was Ms. Funk...she died and Sydney's identity lived. That night we went to Puckacinos...I mean Buccacinos. Luckily we sat outside because the inside smelled really gross and the service was not very good. After that we went to Whiskey Dix, a dance club with some live country music and a patio with more hip-hop type music.

While we were in Canada we also enjoyed amazing crepes, some horse races, and a giggly waiter that served us amazing yam fries!

Allahandro.

Betting at the races!

First night out with our new outfits from Forever 21.

Titanic Museum!

Whiskey Dix night...thanks self timer!

I'm probably forgetting a lot but all in all it was a great trip with my besties. We have all been friends since Kindergarten or 1st grade and I'm so lucky to have them.

Starting to Pack, Beginning to Panic

Don’t worry. I’m not actually panicking but I am realizing that I don’t have as much space in my suitcase as I thought I did. I guess I have the space but the weight might do me in. I have 4 pounds worth of coffee, souvenirs, a few books, and my clothes to factor in. Oh well, it will work out.

This week we met a girl named Haley from Alabama who is going to language school before she sets out to do some awesome mission work in a remote village at an orphanage. This is her 4th trip to Honduras doing work with orphans and this is her longest trip yet...2 months! I'm getting rid of some of my baggage by donating some of my "Honduran" items to her such as Dramamine, bug spray, sunscreen, Pepto, and anything else she could use on her trip. I don't have a link to it now, but she just started a Tumblr account if anyone wishes to follow her travels.

As for today, my last day here in Copan, I have had a relaxing morning. I got up and ate with Claire before she took off for kindergarten and I went back to bed for awhile. I'm now procrastinating before I do my homework and thank you cards for my teacher and family. I need to take a lot of pictures today so I can show anyone who is interested when I get back. I think I'm done shopping and tonight will be the big night of packing.

Yesterday morning we were supposed to go to the coffee farm but our driver didn't show up so we did the next best thing....shopping! Claire had to do some shopping for her nanny girls and family and I found some more things as well. In the afternoon during class we went to the coffee farm...the driver had completely forgotten that he was supposed to pick us up that morning and came and got us immediately. That's service! Anyway, the coffee farm is called Guacamaya which is the national bird (the red macaw). We saw a little bit of the process of coffee before it's roasted and the lady giving us the tour used a machine to take off the shell of the beans so I could buy a pound of green unroasted beans for my dad. After that, we went to a flower shop and I took some flower pictures. Kind of random, but it was pretty!

Last night we went to a restaurant called Nia Lola's and it was so good! I got a Gringo taco which was 2 tortillas with chicken and cheese in between with salsa and guacamole. We then went and got chocolate covered fruit like we do every night because it's only like 50 cents for a big piece. Luckily we just discovered this place so we haven't gone TOO much.

That's all for now from Honduras. Thanks again for reading. I'll post when I get back to the USA! More pictures to come on Facebook as well.

Coffee before it is roasted.

Coffee plants in the shade.

My teacher...we are too much alike.

Dinner!

Us at the school!

Playing Catch Up

I have not been very good at updating the past week or so. I apologize and now I’ll take the time to bring this thing up to date. We have done most of the things on our to-do list except for visiting a coffee plantation. That will be checked off the list Thursday. As far as the rest of the week, we plan on hanging out, going to class, and doing some last minute shopping. We are going to return to the bird park tomorrow because the passes are good for three days. Today a new student arrived from Alabama and we are taking her as well since she has not gone yet.

Last Thursday during class we took a “field trip” to the hot springs or “aguas termales” with the teachers and the other students in the school. The road there and back was very curvy and when it rains (which it did) the road gets washed out and it was hard to get the van up the muddy hill on the way back. The hot springs were really pretty and we spent  a lot of time in an area where the hottest water filtered down into other little hot tub areas and the further down you went, the less hot the water was. We also used the mud for mud masks because it’s great for the skin.

Friday we arrived at kindergarten to no children. We helped the teachers set up a stage and cut a large crown out of cardboard and covered it in silver paper. We couldn’t figure out what this event was for when asking the teachers about it. We figured it out soon enough…a beauty pageant! It was so cute but that would never fly in the US! They had to come dressed as a sports player (horseback rider, tennis player, soccer were the popular choices) and then they had an evening wear category as well as introducing themselves and asking for our support.

Saturday we took a trip to Guatemala. Let’s just say the tour wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The ride there was supposed to be a little over an hour. 3 hours later and a flat tire later, we arrived and went to this really cool cathedral where they worship a Jesus made out of black metal that they call “Cristo negro.” We then ate at a fast food place called “Pollo Campero” which is like the equivalent to KFC in the States. We then attended mass where we sat so far back that all the Spanish blurred into words that we couldn’t understand and every once in awhile the incense would waft back to us and almost knock us off our feet. We then tried to convince our guide to take us back to Honduras but he insisted on driving us through all these small villages even though it was pouring rain and we were all getting car sick. I had never been to happy to see the “Bienvenidos a Honduras” sign in my life. The plus side of this trip is that we all got Guatemala stamps in our passports and a pin for my pin collection from the assistant director of tourism at some gas station. And playing cards for Claire’s card collection.

Hopefully I have time to update once more before returning, but thank you all so much for reading and the comments. It means a lot!

Toucan!

Sign.

One of the beauty pageant girls.

Another pretty dress.

The stage we helped set up.

Where the hot springs came out of a rock.

The mud bath and our teachers.

Parque de aves

Unfortunately my pictures are not uploading very quickly so if you would like to see more, check out my Facebook album. Today we went to the bird park and it was probably one of my trip high lights. I got to hold multiple large and small birds and the park itself was very pretty. Our tickets are good for three days too so I will probably go back another day. Our guide spoke English and knew a lot about the birds and the park. They also grow coffee there! There were 3 big owls and 2 tiny ones as well that were really cool.

I'll update more later! As for now I am putting up loads of photos on Facebook. Check out Claire's blog as well!



Update! (And a pic of the infamous sign)

Over halfway done with our trip! It has been going so fast but I will definately be excited to be home. On Tuesday Claire was not feeling that well and instead of going to the bird park, Sarah and I went on the zipline. We took a truck up to the top of the "canopy" and took a series of 14 zip lines back down to where we started. Sarah took most of the pictures for that so you will have to check out Facebook for those. The zip line was really fun and the view was great. One of the lines was over a kilometer long!

Back to the horse story. On the way to the zip line I found the sign that I took out. It's still hanging there all jankity!

Yesterday we went to the Kindergarten again. They worked on their numbers 3 and 4 and letters "m" and "s." It's crazy to think that my friends and I were that small when we became friends!

The building that they have Kindergarten in.

Up close.

We got our nails did during class one day! It only costs about 3 bucks to get your nails painted here!

The old Ixbalanque building.

Last night after a downpour we walked to viavia for salsa dancing. We decided to just watch and played cards and ate a nasty flan like cake and some nachos. Oh yeah and our cat friend was there.

Hydrocortisone for my bug bites!



Today we are going to the Hot Springs with our teachers and the other American students. After that we are going to Jim's Pizza for dinner! Time for some Americanish food. Our friends leave tomorrow for Tegucigalpa for 2 months. We will miss them! More updates and pictures of the hot springs later!

More Pictures

Our other American friends and us!

A sweet mural on the way into Copan.

A Macaw at the ruins

Classic jumping picture...on top of a temple.

Climbing.

The "Mayan Book"

A temple thing...

Where they place the head of the loser of a game.

A part of the Mayan drainage system.

A witch doctor statue.

Electricity!!

This weekend was a pretty eventful one. I will have to upload photos later because I am at the school where it takes 9 hours to upload one photo. Overall everything has been going really well and I’m really enjoying the trip. It makes me really thankful for having constant electricity back in the states. Most of the time the electricity will go off during the day but last night it went out when it started getting dark until 11:30PM. Our family has a generator so the stove can work as well as a light bulb in the dining room so we didn’t have to eat in the complete darkness. Claire and I then went to Sarah’s while she ate by candlelight. How romantic. After that we went to a hotel that had electricity to get ice cream. We sat there for about an hour hoping that the electricity would return but no such luck. After feeling our way back to the house, we went to bed since both of our computer had died as well and we had no light.

Yesterday morning we finally got to go see the Mayan ruins. Unfortunately I’m not tan enough to pass for a Honduran yet so I had to pay to get in(locals get in for free). The 6 of us American students got a semi-English speaking guide so we had some sort of idea of what we were looking at. The Mayan city of Copan had a population of 30,000 and the city stretches over a large amount of land so I am sure we didn’t even scratch the surface of seeing what was there. There are several layers under each temple because each new king would build a new one on top of the old one. We did not go into the tunnels because it cost a lot more and multiple people said it is not worth it. We saw ball courts, sacrificing tables, and the “Mayan  book.” The Mayan book is a huge wall with over 1,000 hieroglyphics that has been reconstructed by archaeologists. It’s the only one of its kind in the Mayan cities. I really want to visit the other Mayan cities in Mexico and Guatemala now!

While I am here I am also getting credit for Concordia by doing a service learning project. This morning we helped out with a Kindergarten class in a public school and will do that a couple days a week and possibly next week as well. They go from 7AM to 11AM each day. It’s a lot like in the states but they have a 45 minute recess! Well, off to class!

I Can't Even Think of a Clever Title for this One

I'm not sure where I left off in my tales of this trip but this is a picture of my professor Sara and I at Cafe Welchez one afternoon after identifying fruits and vegetables in the market. I love her! Most of the day we just talk about life (in Spanish of course) and I ask a lot of random questions and she usually has a funny story or two about miscommunication. My miscommunications usually involve stories about Vince. The other day I said Vince bought a new cara. She looked at me with a weird look and said "cara or carro?" I meant carro of course because cara means face! She thought he had gotten plastic surgery or something! Then yesterday I said he was 91 years old instead of 21. On another note, we are 1/3 of the way done with class!! Don’t get me wrong, I like class but it’s just like school back home…a break is always welcome.

Alright I suppose I should tell my story of the sign/horse/fall. Thursday morning we went on a beautiful mountain trail ride with some horses and a nice Honduran man named Don Chalito who talked the whole time. I have no idea what he was saying most of the time but he was very happy and seemed to know everyone who we passed on the way there.

Dolarita. My crazy horse.

On the way back instead of going back the way we came on the trail, he wanted to go a different way. Since I was leading, my horse went the wrong way and when I turned her around to go the right way, she did what any horse would do; walk under the nearest highway sign to get back to where we needed to be. Meanwhile, I’m going in slow motion (well, the horse was walking really slowly) seeing the sign approaching my face and the horse just kept going. I hit the sign, rip the sign off its jankity hinges, get hit in the face by the recoil of the sign and fall off. 3 seconds later (no joke), the little man leading us is scooping me off the ground asking if I was okay. All I could do is laugh! I had a cut on my arm (pictured below) and a small bump on my cheek but if that would have been on video I would have won America’s Funniest Home Videos for sure! The poor guy felt so bad and kept saying how worried he was and how sorry he was (even though he laughed the whole way back as well) that he offered us a free ride this weekend. I think I’ll pass, but it was still a lot of fun and definitely something I’ll never forget!

                                                               

Yesterday morning I went to a yoga class at the local bar. The yoga room was located on the second floor in the back (pictured below). The cat in the picture likes to join in on yoga and the instructor said he gets so annoying that they have to give him his own mat! He didn’t bother us although I wouldn’t have minded of course. There were 2 other students, the instructor and me in the class and she spoke both English and Spanish. I would like to go back next week but we start volunteering and I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it back. A class only costs 100 lempira which is about 5 US dollars. Not bad at all!

Yoga Room

Cat friend.

Today we took a mototaxi to a pool about 4K out of town to Hotel Clarion. We were the only ones there and for less than 15 dollars we had access to the pool all day and a meal. I had a pasta dish that was really good and a Coke of course. This afternoon we are meeting up with some other American students to make plans for tomorrow to see the Mayan Ruins. Luckily there are guides available in English so we will be able to get more out of the tour. By having a bigger group the overall price will be cheaper as well so that is an added bonus.

Some more random ones....

My burrito at Llama del Bosque.

Coke!! The simple pleasures in life.

Cute puppies by our school!

My view out of my classroom

Cafe Welchez during Scrabble.

Pretties!

The pool we had to ourselves!

Muchos bug bites.

Sweet looking purple plant.

View from the moto-taxi

Where I do my blog updates with pictures...internet is faster here than anywhere else.

Cafe San Rafael!