September Break in Utila

We got back to San Pedro pretty late last night (9:00, which is late for Honduras when we leave for school the next morning at 6:00am).  Despite a long chicken-bus style ride, (one that stops OFTEN to pick up essentially anybody along the side of the road), we made it back in one piece from a FANTASTIC weekend.

We got one of the school drivers to drive us to La Ceiba at noon on Friday. It was pretty packed with 28 people on the mini-bus.  We got to the ferry just in time, with only about 5 minutes to spare.  The ferry took about an hour and was pretty rough, but everyone told us that was one of the smoother rides.  A couple of our friends got sick, but luckily both TJ and I were OK.

Erica on the ferry.

We got in to Utila and walked about 10 minutes to our hotel, called Rubi’s.  It was one of the best places we’ve ever stayed.  It was perfect.  I beautiful dock for swimming, lots of hammocks and just enough rooms for everyone who went (although on the first night we did have to share with Mark and Kelsey… 4 people in that room was pretty....cozy).

View of Rubi's from the dock

Lazy afternoon in one of the Hammocks.

The island itself is really unique.  It’s filled with expats who moved there to open restaurants, hostels, dove shops or just live.  It’s definitely got that “island” feel, and everything moves at a slower pace.  You can never really predict when something will be open.  For a really small island with only two main roads there are over 10 dive shops, and many more restaurants and bars.

One of the shores of the island from our dock.

We went for dinner to a great restaurant called Babalu on our first night.  It was built out over the water and had an open spot in the middle where you could see all the fish swimming by… SO COOL!  The food was good, HOWEVER, when we were finishing up our meal, I got bit by a cat!  I was a bit freaked out, but after a quick phone call by us to mom (who LAUGHED at me….) We both felt better.  We were both glad we got our rabies shots after that though!

Erica and Kelsey at Babalu (pre- cat attack)

After dinner we all went out for a birthday night to a bar called Skid Row.  The ambiance wasn’t the best ever, but they have T-shirt challenge, where if you do 4 shots of this disgusting rum based booze filled with herbs and roots and other stuff, you get a free t-shirt.  Although we all claimed we wanted to “take the first night easy” we all got a t-shirt on that first night… I’m sure everyone can imagine how the rest of that night turned out… (TJ got 4 t-shirts by the end of the weekend…)

Shinanigans (with spiderman?)

Saturday and Sunday were relaxing… We hammocked, went paddle boarding, rented bikes, went snorkeling (it really is the best in the world… not even in the same realm as Mexico and Cuba).  We found a bunch of great seafood restaurants, and even some delicious Italian.

Our own private beach!

On our last day, we discovered a private beach, and we snorkeled, lounged and had a quiet morning before we had to take the ferry back at 2:00.  The boys also had a romantic kayak courtesy of TJ.  Just before we left, we met a pretty awesome Macaw that hung out with us for a while.  It was pretty sad leaving the island, but it felt like we had been there for more than 3 days.  Really great experience, and we would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a unique and relaxing place to have an adventure!

TJ, Mark and Mike going for their romantic (yet manly) kayak ride.

TJ with our macaw friend.

September in Hondo.

Just over a month in, and we are already officially slacking on our blog.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, getting into the swing of things around here.  We are now almost halfway through the first bimester (half of a semester), and everything is starting to normalize a little bit.  With over 120 students each, it's a lot of marking to get through.  

The past two weekends we have just stayed around San Pedro Sula, and spent a lot of time at the pool (we have access to a hotel pool that one of the parents owns).  We've also started to get our apartment set up.  We are pretty excited about getting our living room painted grey next week!  

This weekend is a long weekend (to celebrate teachers day on monday!) and we are heading with a bunch of people to Utila, an island off the coast.  We are leaving at noon on friday, and taking the ferry there at 4:00.  We will try to post some pictures next week when we get back…. We are planning to do some snorkelling and paddle boarding and get some much deserved RandR.

During the week our neighbours have kept us busy with ultimate frisbee, spinning class and yoga.  It seems like there is something going on every night. I think we are even starting to get used to the heat.  The first couple days we played frisbee I thought we might drop dead from the heat…. seems to be pretty usual now.

We have also started to notice less desirable things about our apartment.  Today I found a gecko in our kitchen (so small! About half the size of my pinky).  Last night, a cockroach dropped on TJ and not only did he scream like a six year old (a wimpy six year old), he also ran himself int me to try and get it off…..  While I didn't mind the gecko, the cockroach was pretty gross….

Today was the independence day march at the school.  It was kind of neat to be a part of the celebration that is so important to the country. HOWEVER, it involved marching around the entire school (which it pretty big) with 800 students, and trying to get them to stand int a line.  All this in sunny 30 degree weather… Needless to say, we were all pretty hot and tired by the end of it.  Teaching 7 periods after that was no easy task.  Still, compared to our jobs last year, it was delightful!

Hope everyone back home reading this is doing well, and we hope to talk to you soon!