Welcome back, long time no seeee!

A lot has happened in the last three months – mainly that we’ve been to (if I’ve counted right) 7 countries, so I think I can now safely say that I’m an actual traveller, super chivoo! Oh and side note, the day I’ve started writing this is the fourth which means I’ve now been here for 6 whole months, halfway there! I’m also writing this two hours before I’m away to go and meet Mum, Dad and Caitlin in Gracias (Angus just doesn’t love me enough clearly) which is very exciting.

So since a lot has happened, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a blog post for each country we visited to try and split it up so there’s going to be many short posts (if you call 4000 words short) instead of one huge one, if ya don’t mind (well you don’t really have a choice – it’s what I’m gonna do 😊).

First stop Belizzeee

On the 17^th of November we left Belen with embarrassingly overpacked rucksacks which defo provided some amusement in our house. We said our goodbyes although Anderson assumed we were going to school which is fair enough since that’s about the only place we go to. I remember sitting on the bus driving out of Belen, so excited for the next few months ahead. It was kind of unbelievable how quickly it came around, I remember my first few weeks where I told myself I just needed to get through these three months to get to travelling – when things got tough (which quite often they did) it was the only thing getting me through. Yet, as I was sitting there driving out of Belen, I thought to myself that I could go another month before having a holiday, which could either be because I was finally feeling very settled or maybe just because we’d only been back a week and a bit since our impromptu visa run (read last blog), but I’d like to believe it was the former.

Iona and I were supposed to be meeting Flossy and Emily in San Pedro Sula to meet up and continue travelling to Belize together however they were too busy throwing up, so their travelling had to be postponed. This left Iona and I alone to travel to another country by public transport, and I think it’s relevant to point out that we’re probably two of the most incompetent people in the group to do so. So we arranged with the lovely owner of our hotel to give us a lift to the bus stop the next morning and from there she’d put us on a bus to Puerto Barrios to get a boat to Belize. With our next days travel plans sorted we spent the evening supermarket (a proper big one as well, first one we’d seen in over three months!!) shopping and then eating food in bed while watching Netflix – the best way to start travelling! The next day was an early morning start and we got put on this big boujee coach that would take us straight to Puerto barrios (apparently). With our bags safely underneath the bus instead of traditional Honduras ways of thrown onto the roof, I settled in to get a bit of sleep. Unfortunately, this bus was not direct to Puerto Barrios as we were previously told and we ended up driving an hour past our stop. Bags off the bus and left stranded on the side of the road with no clue what to do. Luxury over – this felt a bit more like the Honduras travelling we were used to! Luckily not too long later, a “bus” which in reality was the size of a big car, stopped to let us on. This bus was already over-flowing, people stuffed in to make them fit like Tetris. Add Iona and I to the mix with rucksacks bigger than us, I just did not see how this was going to work. Anyways they managed to do it, but it meant that I was literally sitting on the step of the bus (door open) with my legs hanging out of the vehicle – Honduras safety at it’s finest. We made it to the taxi boats in one piece (just about) and were rushed along (imagine us already really sweaty running with our huge rucksacks that we can barely walk with) to immigration office since the boat was supposed to be leaving in about one minute. After the huge big rush and eventually getting to the boat five minutes after it was supposed to leave, we ended up sitting there for about twenty minutes.

Made it to Puerto Barrios safely. Unfortunately I had bought a big bag of apples at the supermarket the night before and hadn’t eaten any of them, and now I’m standing here at immigration where there’s big signs saying no fruit, seeds or farm produce are allowed to be brought into the country. I was just hoping that they wouldn’t check my bag so I didn’t throw my apples out. And now he asks me whether I have anything to declare. I have some options here, say no – which would be straight up lying and I’m not as wild as Iona so I couldn’t do that, I could pretend I don’t speak Spanish which would normally work but they speak English in Belize. Just saying yes would be the clear answer but I wanted my apples. So instead I told him I had tajadas which was not a lie. He didn’t know what they were to my absolute horror so I took a while explaining them to him and even ended up showing him my bag. Bingo, thought I’d managed to distract him, then he asks me if I have any fruit. So close, and now I’ve just provided him with 7 apples for his lunch.

This is going to be a very long post considering I just wrote a whole paragraph on apples. I’m sorry, try to stay with me here.

Since we’d spent a few days in Punta Gorda a few weeks ago and we were pretty tired we just chilled in the hotel room (double bed each and an ensuite since we’d booked for Flossy and Emily as well) before going to buy food for tea and I ended up having a nap. Which was then interrupted by Iona telling me there was a crab in a toilet – yeh you read that right. There was a full-on huge crab rattling around in our toilet bowl. With no clue how to solve this issue we closed the toilet lid and put a hefty bible (because I never leave the house without one) on the lid because only Jesus could save us now. This meant we did not use the toilet until the next place because we’re wusses and I didn’t want a crab to pinch me while I’m trying to pee. At night I could hear the lid flapping up and down which meant the crab hadn’t left, and Jesus didn’t save us which is probably because Iona is a sinner.

The next day we got onto a bus to Plancencia, which wasn’t too cramped although I think that was the windiest bus I have ever been on, like my face was doing the flubber thing if you know what I mean. Anyways we got dropped off at this random petrol station and got a taxi to the boat taxis to take us to Placencia. Our timing was perfect – the boat was just away to leave but they seen us coming so held it for us, saving over an hour of waiting for the next one. When we arrived in Placencia we made our way to our accommodation – Lydia’s guesthouse which was really lovely and we just had a little room with two beds in it, Flossy and Emily’s room was opposite and there was two bathrooms in the corridor to share (with hot water hurrah!). That afternoon we wandered along the beach and came across the only two bars in town. One was relatively busy so we grabbed a drink and sat up the top at this balcony overlooking the sea. It just so happened that the day we arrived was Garifuna settlement day in Belize. If you want more info then google it but pretty much it is the celebration of the Garifuna people arriving into Belize (British Honduras at the time) from mainland Honduras. So we sat and watched a re-enactment of this which was pretty cool then we watched some traditional Garifuna dancing.

That night we went out to the only two bars and had a pretty chill evening just sitting on the beach bars chatting before we went and got pizza which was probably one of the best decisions we ever made and we took it back to the hostel and sat eating it in bed before going to sleep. Unfortunately that first night we got off on a bad foot with Lydia (the owner of the guesthouse) because we came home just after midnight but we couldn’t unlock the door so she had to come do it for us and she was not very happy at all, and made us out to be stupid for not being able to open a door. Although to be fair we chatted with some other people from the guesthouse who also said they struggled to open it, so not just us thanks very much Lyds.

The next day we had a beach day, we found a spot on the beach and spent the morning just chilling. We both ended up falling asleep – biggest mistake ever made, my bum burn was the worst I’ve ever had. It was so sore and looked just as bad as it felt, still have the lines now oops, won’t make that mistake again. When we went back to the guesthouse Flossy and Emily were there which was a lovely surprise and we all headed out for lunch. I got the lunch special which was enchiladas and probably one of the best meals I had the whole of travelling. We got cocktails and lay on the loungers on the beach and went swimming in the sea, it was a really good day. That night we went out the four of us which was (mainly) a lot of fun. Emily ended up singing karaoke, she also attempted the frisbee challenge and failed (miserably if I’m honest although way better than I could’ve done) and then many bitters later Iona thought it would be a good idea to have a shower, I cut my hand open, Emily and I got in trouble and Flossy was enjoying a glass of water. As you can guess there’s a bit of a story to that one, which I don’t think is suitable to share, sorry.

One of my favourite days of travelling was this next day. We rented a buggy for the whole day, brought our bikinis and speaker (essentials) and spent the day driving up and down the peninsula just singing. I won’t lie, we didn’t really do much mainly just drove around (well Emily did since she’s the only one with a licence – thanks Em) but it was a lot of fun. We stopped once at this pretty little walkway that went out onto the ocean where we took some photos and then Flossy pushed Emily in (which was really quite horrible and I didn’t realise Flossy was capable of such cruel things) which started a bit of a war. We also followed this sign that took us to this little art gallery which was very cute. Emily really wanted to see crocodiles and manatees so we went on a hunt but our time for the buggy was running out so we stopped to watch the sunset which was gorgeous although there was this couple also watching the sunset and I don’t think they were too happy that Flossy was in all their photos and we ruined their romantic peaceful evening, oops soz. When we arrived back Esther, Izzy, Lois, Libby, Alice and Molly were there and we had a quick catch up before all getting ready and heading to Barefoot (one of the bars) for drinks. We ended up having a really good night and making some American friends. We ended the night in a mansion party (in reality we sat and ate crisps and had chats until it turned into political chats where views didn’t match up and it was time to leave) and brought in Lois’ 19^th birthdayyy! Flossy, Lois and I may or may not have stolen a boat and a golf cart that night, a bit random but what night out isn’t.

The next day – diecinueve babbbyyyy!!! Lois’ 19^th birthday woohoo! Anotha beach day which was really chill and fun. We spent a lot of time in the sea and played “who has the rock” which is a really stupid game that I love a lot and nobody else does. We all went out for lunch to the same place I had my amazing enchiladas but this time I got coconut curry tacos which were so insane and another one of the best meals I had while travelling. That night we all got dressed up ready to celebrate Lois’ birthday. Not much happened that night, just a lot of dancing and a fair few bitter shots. Ended the night on the beach with Emily eating the best burger I have ever had in my life (apparently). Although Em tells me the next day that they were both bought for her and I just kept eating them, oops soz.

We had another chill day soaking in the sun and ended the next night on the beach but this time it was almost all of us and we just sat there chatting which was nice. Iona, Emily, Flossy and I got up the next morning to head for Caye Caulker and it’s safe to say Lydia was very glad we were leaving. In fact, we’re actually not allowed to stay there again oops don’t think she was too happy with us four for some reason. Okay so we were quite loud and almost every night that we came home late we couldn’t open the door BUT neither could any of the other guests. Also just pointing out that we read her reviews on trip advisor and everyone said she was grumpy.

We then made it to Caye Caulker, I don’t really remember how but somehow we got to the ferry terminal which was very boujee and had proper tickets and a luggage drop-off. From this we knew that Caye Caulker was going to be touristy. We had a bit of time before our ferry so we went to a café and got some nachos which were highly recommended to us by the couple next to us. I’m not saying they were bad but they weren’t worth the hype. Anyways Iona wouldn’t know since we had to end up rushing and so Iona went up to pay for all of us and threw almost all of hers away because she didn’t want to eat them on the ferry.

As soon as we got off the ferry we fell in love. It was picture perfect, stunning, and I knew I wouldn’t want to leave in a couple of days time. We collected our bags and the guys there asked how old we all were and said that we looked about 14. Only one week in and this seems to be a common theme. I get that we look young – we are young, but 14, seriously?! I think Iona and I bring the age down a bit, everyone else could pass for 21, but certainly don’t think we bring it down to 14.

Anyways, we were in a shared dormitory room, which was fine, very basic, and bathrooms weren’t great. We had our own little upstairs attic bit which sounds cute but there was only three mattresses between the four of us so was a bit inconvenient. Although we did actually have a fourth bed but it was in a separate bit so we decided it would be easier if we all had that share section so we could make a mess and not bother anyone.

That night we were all very tired but only had three nights in Caye Caulker so wanted to make the most of it. We had a wander to see what there was and ended up on this little restaurant by the sea where we got some food (I got a chicken burrito which was quite disappointing) and a cocktail then called it a night.

We spent our first day at recommended Iguana Reef, and we had such a good day. We chilled in hammocks with cocktails. In the sea they had hammocks and swings which we spent quite a good bit of time in just trying to take insta photos. There was also a lil part cornered off where the seahorses lived which was really cool. The owner became quite attached to us and was telling us everything about Iguana Reef and what they do for the animals which was interesting. He came over and asked who the brave ones were which apparently was Flossy and I. So the two of us were given this extremely hot chilli called a bird pepper. I actually don’t think you understand how hot this thing was, I felt like my mouth was on fire. Meanwhile Flossy looks like she’s just eaten ice cream. Pretty sure after that the next time someone asks who the brave ones are, my name will not be making an appearance. While I’m still recovering (crying saying I’m dying) this man sitting under a palm tree was cutting up coconuts so he gave us all coconut water as well which was very kind of him and actually helped the burning. We stayed there all day, and after watching the sunset we helped feed the pelicans. To do so, you had to hold a dead fish by its tail over your head and then it would swoop down and grab it out of your hand. It was a little scary at first – imagine a dock full of people holding fish over their head and huge birds flying everywhere snapping trying to get food. After that we watched the stingrays get fed – there was sooo many of them it was really cool. And then it was the sharks turn! Again, another one of the best days in travel. We went out that night and had a boogie which was a lot of fun.

The next day we woke up and we were keen to go snorkelling since it was meant to be really good in Caye Caulker so we searched around and booked the four of us in at 3pm. Iona wasn’t feeling too good due to a previous wild night and we were all quite tired anyways so just had a chill morning. We went to see ‘The Split’, which is essentially a split in the island, dividing it into two. The first split occurred due to a hurricane but then people dug it to make it bigger and into a feature of the island. It is possible to cross the split to go to the other side of the island but we didn’t have enough time for that unfortunately. Instead we sat on the promenade by the sea until Emily pushed Flossy in, getting her back for Placencia. But we all decided to go for a swim anyways since the water looked so clear and blue and we were all roasting. We then went to this really cute pizza place for lunch and were joined by the infamous ‘no – shirt’. Just as we were getting ready to go snorkelling, it was very windy and looked as if there was a storm coming (“There’s a storm coming Harry, and we all best be ready when she does”) but in the little boat we got anyways. By the time we were getting into the water it was chucking it down with rain and there was lightning. But then again when you’re in water, it doesn’t really affect you does it. Anyways Flossy didn’t want to get it so she stayed with the boat while we went and seen loads of fish and coral, it was amazing. I had never been snorkelling before and I loved it so much, I seen a rainbow fish and it looked exactly like the one from the book (please tell me that you know which one I’m talking about, if you don’t then you didn’t have a complete childhood clearly) and I was very content. When I lifted my head up, I couldn’t see the boat (where Flossy was currently sitting alone) and I panicked thinking that she’d floated off by herself, then I realised I was just looking in the wrong direction so all good. We then got back on the boat to go to another spot, this time Flossy got in the water with us. This time we were surrounded by stingrays and sharks – I’m not exaggerating when I say surrounded, like it made it difficult to move. I even got to stroke a stingray, which was weird, bit too slimy for my liking, wasn’t too desperate to do it again. We got in the water one more time and this time our guides didn’t come with us and we just got about 45 minutes to swim around and see what we wanted to which was cool. Oh and they even gave us fruit and water and at the end we fed fish in the water by holding a dead fish over the surface so they could jump out and get it. Overall one of my best experiences, loved it all , and who said that rain spoils the fun?!

When we got back from snorkelling Esther, Izzy and Lois were there since they were coming to Caye Caulker for a few days as well so there was a very short layover. We all went out that night except Iona since she had a well needed early night. We met this group of American girls who were all 17/18 – this was the first time (and pretty much the only time) that we met people our age. They were all family friends here with their parents for thanksgiving since they owned a house on the island. In fact we got invited to their house for thanksgiving dinner the next day. Although I’m sure if we actually turned up they wouldn’t have been too happy.

We got up fairly early the next morning to leave and head for Mexicoooo. I was very glad I’d packed the previous night and I slept most of the ferry back to Belize City. At the water taxi terminal this taxi driver offered to take us all the way to our next destination since he needed to go there anyways. There was no buses until very late afternoon and they were more expensive than what he was offering so we decided to take the deal. So we all got into his dodgy white fan (broken aircon) and thought wtf are we doing. If you’ve ever seen we’re the Millers, this was the type of situation I was imagining. Luckily that didn’t happen, we were joined by another couple who were lovely and we’d seen before so I felt a bit more safe.

We got through the Mexican Border and to Laguna Bacalar problem-free and saved a bit of cash so no complaining there.

Anyways, Belize was over – we had the most amazing first week and a bit of travelling and now vamos a Mexicoo!

Hello again,

So, in my last blog post, which was part one to this story (go read that first) we had a mix up with our visas which means that we had to spend three days in Belize!

When we got off the boat in Puerto Barrios we had to go through immigration. We had to fill out a form which caused a lot more confusion than it should’ve considering we just had to write down our own information, but anyways Scottish is a nationality – enough said. The guy who handed us our forms was getting a lot of enjoyment out of this so at least we made his day.

In Belize they speak English, so it was weird going to speak Spanish then realising they speak the same language as us, although I couldn’t actually understand what they were saying – they had really thick accents that either sounded Jamaican or for some of the little kids, American. It almost sounded like pidgin English that honestly Spanish might’ve been easier.

When we stepped outside it was dark and we were all quite tired (it was 6pm) so we wanted to get to the guest house as quickly as possible. We asked around at the boat terminal if they knew where the hostel was. Worryingly nobody had heard of it. Until one guy took us outside the terminal and right there was a huge sign for A Piece Of Ground (name of hostel) – perfect. We started wandering down the street looking for it, but despite the sign that gave no direction whatsoever, it wasn’t there. We asked around again and someone told us it was a 25 minute walk. With it being dark and carrying our rucksacks we decided to get a taxi. Unfortunately taxis weren’t very common so half of the group got into one then the rest of us waited for the same taxi to return and pick us up. A recurring theme here – we were scammed. To be fair, I think this was partly our fault, we were just a bit too trusting. The guy said that the other group hadn’t paid so we had to pay for them as well since they only had $50 dollar notes (we’d all just been to the bank so this was true). Throughout the whole journey he kept checking with us that this was a fair price. We were just like yeh whatever, but we knew that this was a little suspicious. Writing this now is making me realise how stupid we actually were, but as you can guess, the other group had paid, wow big shock.

We stayed in a pod dorm room – not quite like the pod hotels in Japan (you know the ones, really swanky and cool but probs not good if you’re claustrophobic) – but they were still very cool and we were all very excited by them since they had windows (hey gurl heyy) that you could open to the next pod. But don’t worry you could also lock the windows, which Lois did quite a lot when she was sick of me – I know, I can’t believe that would happen either.

The first night we went to the restaurant at the hotel. There were so many options but I went for the cheese nachos, mainly because the were the cheapest #budgeting, however unlike Emily I didn’t ask for them without jalapeños #hardcore. That night since it was Halloween we decided to watch a scary movie, and after a vote we watched The Purge – was happy I was safely secured in my pod that night.

The next day we just spent our time chilling and doing our own bits and bobs. Some people went off for a walk and then for lunch. I wasn’t feeling too great (have I ever not said that in a blog post?! I promise I’m feeling good most of the time) so didn’t have much of an appetite. Later Em and I went along to the supermarket, it was the most like a supermarket we’ve seen in a longggg time since it had high ceilings but was still not like an actual supermarket. We bought a loaf of bread, cheese and butter to share between us as well as some chocolate of course. So for lunch/mid afternoon snack I had buttered toast, something I’ve been craving. It still wasn’t like home but did the job. That day, Esther, Lois and I went with Emily to the hospital since she’d been dying for a while and could no longer eat without crying. The doctors in Honduras had given her antibiotics that were too harsh for her stomach, so this gave her some sort of gastric acid thing – I really have no clue, just making this up now, but yeh it hurt. So, we went to a Belize doctors clinic for the first time – as exciting of an experience as it was, we were sitting outside of the children’s clinic so there was a lot of sick babies which was quite sad. Anyways Emily got given a prescription which seemed to help, so that’s good that we got that sorted. We were going to watch a movie that night but we ended up just putting on tunes and having a sing song, the way all good girls nights in are spent.

The next day, four of us went for lunch to this little place on the seaside that was very scenic and had good food. I got a wrap that I can’t remember what it had in it, but it was tasty. I also tried my first Belizean beer which like all other beer just made me feel bloated, but Iona and I’ve decided for travelling we need to learn to like beer – it’s so much cheaper. Esther bought some ‘sea – treasures’ from these little children who we think were the children of the owners, but they were soo cute and we promised we’d take a look at their stall. The restaurant had led down to a dock/pier thing, I can’t remember the name for it but in the photos you’ll see what I’m chatting about, so we went down there for a bit and decided it would be a good place to swim and we would bring everyone back the next day. After lunch we went for a walk to the market to get veg for tea and headed to a supermarket where we found this hugee big dairy milk chocolate bar. Oh em gee it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen but it was also $20 dollars so with much regret I didn’t buy it. That night for tea we were planning on having fajitas however unlike Honduras where tortillas are literally everywhere, like for real EVERYWHERE, apparently the don’t sell them in Belize. So instead Esther, Iona and Flossy (I think) made this rice, mixed with bean paste vegetable thing which didn’t look very appealing I must admit but actually tasted quite nice. The only reason I didn’t eat it all was because I was still ill, I promise.

Okay I’ve just realised I’ve spread the activities of one day between two days, so technically I’ve created a day that never existed, but I can’t be bothered to change it so oh well soz my mems bad.

The next morning we got up and went for breakfast, the breakfasts were so big and delicious and most importantly free! After a great breakfast me and Emily went back to the doctors just to get a repeat prescription, but we had to go through the whole process again and in the end, we didn’t even get the prescription since the doctor wasn’t there. After this we all went out for lunch to the same place, and I just got ‘an oreo frozen delight’ which was tiny and such a rip-off, unlike all the other amazing lunch foods they had. After lunch, we all went swimming in the Caribbean sea, it was a lot of fun and quite toasty. Unfortunately Izzy dropped her phone into the sea so those of us who were already In the sea went on a search. We eventually found it however by this time it had been at the bottom of the sea for quite some time so it was looking unlikely it was past the rice trick. We watched pitch perfect on the last night, a classic, despite the fact I fell asleep halfway through.

The next morning, we had breakfast, paid for our room, got a taxi to the boat terminal, seen a dragon and got on the boat. Esther, Lois and I had bagsied the seats at the back – we’d only just begun to recover from the boat ride over and I wasn’t up for another five days of pain. That boat ride was a lot smoother that the first one – in fact a few of us fell asleep. When we got off we had a shuttle bus waiting for us that was going to take us the full day journey back to Santa Rosa where we were going to spend the night. It was a bit of a squeeze for all ten of us in the shuttle bus – I was in the back with all the luggage. Any sharp corners and I would’ve been squished. They did however make a comfy pillow for me to sleep most of the way.

The next day was the end of our little visa adventure so before we all went our separate ways back to our projects we made a stop at pizza hut. We’d been wanting the cookie dough pizza all week but hadn’t found it in the pizza hut in San Pedro, so three of us shared one, and lemme tell you it was defo worth it. Yum. Iona and  I had a few hours in Gracias before our bus to Belen so we went to the post office and collected our parcels! We sat in Izzy and Lois’s hotel room (they were staying in Gracias) and opened our mail. I had birthday and Christmas presents as well as just random bits and bobs. Thank you everyone who sent me mail 😊

Back in Belen for a week before our main travels. The day I’m writing this is Saturday and we head of for our Christmas holidays/travel time for almost three months tomorrow. It’s been a quiet week, although we arrived back mid exam week which is always a little stressful – who thought exams were stressful for teachers as well. We went out for coffee one night as well with one of our friends. He thought it was just a date with Iona (I turned him down obvs) but Iona made me tag along which I don’t think he was too happy about since he couldn’t give her his roses and put them in the bin instead, but I’m sure he’ll get a chance one day. I’ve been watching a lot of Christmas films to get me in the mood (not proper ones, just the cringey Netflix ones) and somebody sent Iona facemasks so we did them one night, so I can thank my new glowy skin to that. I put up some fairy lights around our bathroom door that mum sent me in a parcel which are really cute, and Anderson loves them and is very intrigued by the “mucho luz”.

The past couple of days we’ve just been getting ready to leave, last night I tried to fit everything into my rucksack. I was very close to a breakdown and so just went to sleep instead so I’ll need to try tackle that some point today. The annoying thing is that I thought I’d done well to pack light – it looked as if I had a lot less clothes than Iona, which I made sure she was aware of. Yet somehow, with the same sized rucksack, she’s managed to fit all her stuff in. When we came back from Belize our Birkenstocks were covered in mould, so we put that off for a week and have spent this morning cleaning them, that was definitely a highlight of this year so far.

So that’s everything that’s been happening the past couple of weeks. I can’t wait to go travelling, and funny enough our first stop is Belize!

Hasta luego!

Seriously, not clickbait.

When we first arrived in Honduras, we received a 90-day tourist visa stamp as unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get a visa for a whole year. This visa was to last us until the start of November and instead of getting a new visa we had planned to get a 30-day visa extension. This would last us until the end of November when we would be leaving Honduras and the c-4 anyways for our travel holidays. So, this was our plan, to head to San Pedro Sula for a weekend, get a 30-day extension at the immigration office and return to our projects after missing only one or two days most of school. Sounds quite simple, all we had to do was not mention that we were volunteers since we have a tourist visa which leaves us in a bit of a grey area. As you can imagine, it didn’t go to plan.

So, on Friday, we left our projects to head for Santa Rosa, a little city to spend a couple of nights and do a bit of shopping and relaxing. The hotel we stayed at was really nice and had a rooftop seating area which had a view over Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is a lot bigger than gracias, there’s a lot more places to eat, to shop and has a lot more people. On the Friday we went on a search for baleadas (not too difficult to find in Honduras) and we had a look around some shops. There was a lot of thrift shops but also some bigger bougier shops as well. We were planning to have a movie night on Friday so for tea we just bought some snacks since we weren’t too hungry after having a late lunch. We ended up just chatting instead of watching a movie which was nice to chat to everyone after being apart for three weeks. On Saturday we had a shopping day, I bought three tops, two being striped -oops definitely didn’t need any more- and also a little peplum blouse for teaching. After spending as much as we could afford (and a bit more) all ten of us went to this cute little café next to our hotel. I got a cheese and chicken panini which was delicious. Unfortunately, there was only two people working and there was ten of us, so we were there for at least two hours and some of the dishes and drinks were handed 45 minutes apart. On Saturday night we went out for tea, most of us went to this chicken place that was really delicious – Esther and I shared a platter but were defeated, there’s only so much chicken two girls can eat. After tea some of us headed out and we found this club that looked the best out of a bad bunch. There was a deal on tequila – 2 shots for L45 – which was too good to pass and after a couple of doubles we decided to hit the dance floor with our best salsa moves.

The next morning we headed for San Pedro Sula, unfortunately I wasn’t feeling too great (I was just ill not hungover I promise) but luckily unlike most Honduran roads it was a smooth road all the way since we were in the city, allowing me to sleep pretty much all the way. The lady who owns the guesthouse we stayed at in San Pedro picked us up from the bus terminal. Her and her son were lovely and welcome project trust volunteers every year. They showed us where the mall was and assured us that even though it’s only a ten-minute walk that they’d be happy to give us a lift if we didn’t feel comfortable walking. After dumping our bags, we headed straight to the mall since Allana and Jennifer (two other volunteers who don’t live in the Lempira district so therefore haven’t seen since the airport) were coincidentally in San Pedro on a school trip that day. It was great to see them and have a chat even if it was only for a brief five minutes. And most importantly they pointed us in the direction of the food court.

This was the first time in three months that we’ve seen proper shops – pull and bear, bershka, Stradivarius, Zara – so it is fair to see we were very overwhelmed. We spent the whole day shopping although I didn’t go crazy like some people *cough* Emily *cough* Lois *, since I only bought one pair of jeans, not three. The food court was just as overwhelming – pizza hut, noodles, burger king, kfc, dunkin donuts, subway – and I won’t lie, we spent the majority of our day there. There was frozen yogurt which was amazinggg but I can justify that since it’s made of real fruit, and the ice cream was perhaps the best I’ve tasted, so I can justify that as well. It was so nice to be with everyone and eat good food, so I can’t complain, but everything was so American and so unlike the Honduras we know and love that it was difficult to not feel un-settled. We decided that we had our first taste of what it must be like to have reverse culture shock and that although the mall was great, we didn’t want to spend any more time there.

On the Monday morning, Blanca (owner of guesthouse) and her son took us to the immigration office. We had our passports, we had our flight itineraries, we had our dollars for the visa, we had our story, we were ready. Izzy goes up to the lady at the desk and hands over her documents. It was all going well so far. Now as I mentioned at the start, we couldn’t say we were volunteers and we were all very clear on that. Blanca, however, was not. She walks up to the desk to where Izzy is standing and says to the lady “I have ten volunteers here”. Passport closed, documents handed back. Our chance of getting our visa extension was gone in about five seconds. Two of the volunteers had to go into a meeting room with the man in charge to try and explain our story and hopefully get the visa extension. He said that he needed some documents from PT and our representative (Vegas) to come to San Pedro Sula. We spent a lot of time sitting and waiting, with phone calls back and forth to Vegas and Project Trust, who were also calling the Man at immigration, and it was decided that we would spend another night in San Pedro and return to immigration the next morning with some additional documents.

That afternoon we went to the mall, pretty much the only place we could go since it’s too dangerous to just wander and had lunch then late afternoon we went to the cinema. Blanca’s son speaks English and informed us that Monday night is the cheapest night for the cinema since tickets are only L45 (£1.50). So, he came with the ten of us and we watched maleficent 2, we went to an English screening of the film but there was Spanish subtitles. We bought snacks and I really enjoyed the film and it was nice to finally watch a film that I didn’t gave to watch on my phone.

On Tuesday we returned to the office, we had printed off more documents that PT had sent us and at this point we were sick of two days in the mall so were hoping for a decision, whatever the outcome. Tuesday went a lot quicker than Monday; two girls went in with all our documents into a meeting with the same man from the previous day. A card game or two later, they came out of the office. The decision was made that we were being kicked out Honduras, we had to go to Belize. When Lois told us we all started cheering in the immigration office, which we quickly stopped when we realised that to the people working there it probably looked a bit dodgy after having our visa rejected. But this news meant that we were getting a three day holiday – so I guess being illegal immigrants and getting kicked out of the country could be worse??

So, to explain a little bit if you’re interested – because our visas were rejected this meant that we had to leave the central 4 for 72 hours. Then when we return, we can get another visa. Since our visas were going to run out early November, the Sunday, and this was the Tuesday, it meant that we were pushed for time and needed to get out as soon as possible. Belize is the closest and easiest country to get to out of the central 4 so that’s why that was the country we went to.

We decided that the best course of action was to spend another night in San Pedro then get a 5am bus the next morning to Guatemala then a 2pm ferry to Belize. This meant another afternoon in the shopping mall. While we were eating our pizza hut we were made aware of a state of siege that was going on in Guatemala and could affect our ability to move freely. After another day of phone calls deciding whether or not to continue with our travel plans, since there was a risk of getting stuck with limited time on our hands, we were told to wait and Project Trust would let us know the next morning whether it was safe to go our planned route through Guatemala. So that evening to take our mind of the stress we went back to the cinema, this time to see Hustlers. Blanca’s son didn’t come with us to this one – didn’t think he’d enjoy it as much, but it had JLo and who doesn’t love her.

The next morning there was 4am calls with Project Trust to find out whether we should get on that 5am bus, and they pretty much told us to go back to sleep and they’d let us know the plans when we wake up. A few hours later – still very tired – Emily was woken up by a call from Rosie, and we were told that it was safe enough to go through Guatemala and we shouldn’t have any issues. After breakfast we set off on our day travel to Belize, we were still trying to make that 2pm ferry but it was looking tight. On our second bus, the tyre flew off while we were on the road and so we had a delay to get it fixed, at this point it was looking very unlikely that we would make it. Once we got through the border crossing, we still had about a 20 minute drive and only 15 minutes until our ferry (and the last ferry of the day). A man said that his bus could fit all ten of us and it would cost around £5 each (I think, I can’t really remember) and that he would take us straight to the ferry terminal. So in a rush, they chucked our bags on the roof and we clambered into an already full mini bus. On our way to the terminal we seen some extent of the state of siege. On the same straight road within the space of five minutes we were stopped by officials to get our passports checked. One guy also wanted to check our rucksacks all stacked up on the top of the bus but the driver said “son mujeres” and so he didn’t check them – a bit sexist but saved us time so not complaining. At this point we had missed the 2pm ferry so we asked the bus boy if there was another one after 2 that we may have just not read about online. He assured us that there was one at 3pm and we could get that. How naïve of us to believe him.

When we arrived at the ferry terminal, these Men came up to us and told us that they had a private boat and it would cost us £35 each (I think, again my memory is bad). We said no because we were going to get the public boat at 3pm, in which their response was that there is no such thing and our only option was to get their boat. This bit was all a little confusing, but there was a lot of shouting, we were told there was one at 3 but they were obviously working together and ripping us off a ridiculous amount because we were ten white girls. Anyways, we asked around and there was no other ferry so our options were to stay a night in Puerto barrios and get the first public ferry in the morning or get the private boat that was more expensive. We decided that staying an extra night would probably cost more than paying a bit extra for the boat. It would also mean that we’d miss another day of school as we still had to stay in Belize for 72 hours. So we got on the private boat, and we got to admit it was a lot of fun. Esther, Lois and I were right at the front of the boat and it was speeding along and bumping down on all the waves which we were getting full hit off. Fun at the time, a lot of regrets afterwards – I couldn’t sit down for about five days.

Anyways, all a little dishevelled, sore, tired and skint, we made it to Belize!!!

This is now extremely long and not very exciting so I’m going stop here and write a part 2 of this post about our time in Belize.

Hasta luego x

Hello hello hello,

It’s a Sunday, I’m a bit bored, a bit of a common thing here so I’m going to use my time to write another blog. So, my last one was about El Tunco, aka best week in the best place ever, yes I’m still not over it, still listening to that playlist. If you haven’t read my last blog post that was about our holiday then I think you should, just a suggestion. I have now been back for two weeks, and I have one more week until our Visa Extension run to the big bad San Pedro. I’m very excited as we’re stopping in Santa Rosa for a couple of days, a city bigger than Gracias, and rumour has it there is a pizza hut and a shopping mall, so that’s my plans sorted.

Soo what’s been happening these past two weeks? Not a lot to be honest, we haven’t left Belen so that limits our capability of doing things. On the 9^th of October, we had a visit from Vegas, who is our country representative for Honduras. This means that he is a volunteer for Project Trust, who lives in Honduras (Roatan) and he overlooks all 20 Honduras volunteers. He is a point of contact for us if we need any help in our projects, or while travelling or if we get stuck in a bad situation, he can help. We have only spoken to him twice, once on our training course in Coll where we video called him to have a chat about our project, and once when we first arrived in Belen to make sure everything was alright. We met him afterschool at the café where he bought us food and a drink for lunch and we sat and chatted over general things about our project – accommodation, timetable, Spanish, etc. He then drove us to Gracias to go to the hot springs, I was a little nervous for this as we’d never met him before, and I was worried it was going to be awkward. It was a bit, I won’t lie but it could have been worse. We took this opportunity to chat about travels (one of our favourite topics) and he gave us some helpful recommendations. After the hot springs, we got changed and went to get tea. We went to Guancascos, the hotel in Gracias that we normally stay at (has a good restaurant as well) because our project host (just another contact who lives closer and knows our town better) owns it. I got spaghetti Bolognese which was delicious and a nice treat on a Wednesday night. Our project host joined us for a chat as Vegas wanted to run over some issues that we’d mentioned to him with her. This was a little awkward as she clearly doesn’t want to be involved, something she actually told us within five minutes of meeting her for the first time. So when Vegas mentioned things such as inappropriate behaviour from students, she’d just shrug her shoulders and say “it’s just the culture”. Luckily Vegas likes to take things a lot more seriously and when we went back to Belen we went to the café again to meet with the owner who is also a teacher at the school as well as our host mum and issues such as this were raised. We were very grateful to Vegas as he bought us lunch, dinner and pudding (we were full, but he pretty much forced us to at least share a brownie and ice cream) and took us to the hot springs, so overall it was a better afternoon than expected.

The weather here has become a lot rainier. It’s still extremely hot mid-day but the rain starts a lot earlier now, normally around 1:30 compared to 3:30ish like it would about a month ago. It’s currently 9:50 am and 27 degrees so like I said, still hot, just more rain. I quite like the predictability of the weather here, I know roughly when it’s going to rain, when I’ll need a jumper and when it’s going to be hot. The school is meant to finish at 1:30 (although it’s not consistent) but with the rain beginning a lot earlier school for the next couple of months is ending at 1pm since a lot of the students have to walk a long way to get home and they don’t want to be caught in the heavy rain. I’m not complaining about ending half an hour earlier though, nor getting lunch half an hour earlier.

Biggest thing that has probably happened is that we now have friends, yes proper Honduran friends. One of them can speak English although we mainly communicate in Spanish, so it’s a great way to learn. This means that we actually now have plans in Belen which is very exciting even if it’s just going for a walk or to the café. The only downside is that our plans are always made for after tea at 7:30/8ish, when normally I’m in bed by that time. I’m not joking, i’m almost always in bed by 8, teaching is more exhausting than I thought. However, at the weekends they said they’d take us to San Juan, a neighbouring little town with a café only 20 minutes away and to Gracias to get ‘the best baleadas we’ll ever taste’.

Recently I’ve been a lot more adventurous, especially in the kitchen. This has involved me making a cup of tea, with one of the two teabags I brought with me here. So one afternoon when I was chocked up with a cold and feeling brave I asked if I could have some “agua caliente porque no me siente bien” that literally translates to “hot water because I don’t feel well”. This was a pre-practiced sentence so when she looked at me funny and said she’d need to ask Delmi, I panicked at what I had said and frantically started saying that if I couldn’t have any then it’s okay. I then realised that she thought I meant I wanted hot water, as in for our shower, so that was awkward and I cleared up that I meant for my tea. Anyways I know now how to work the stove for boiling water.

I opened one of my birthday presents early (oops) but only because I was telling Mum how I wanted fairy lights and she told me Auntie Joanne had gifted them to me for my birthday (thank you very much) so after feeling my wrapped presents I managed to guess which one it was and I now have fairy lights wrapped around my bed! I don’t turn them on much because they attract the bugs and I don’t want to take Iona’s share of them. However, they’re cute to have on when we are having one of our little movie nights. The last film we watched was really quite bad – I can’t remember the name of it sorry – and we have to watch it on my phone but snacks make everything better, so it still makes for a good night.

The first day we arrived there was two bags of clothes sitting there that we assume were left by previous volunteers. Scared we would find cockroaches in them we just shoved them under the desk and never looked at them again. The other day while packing for San Pedro I decided to have a look through them, and we actually found a lot of things we both liked – and thankfully no cockroaches! So, we decided to procrastinate from packing and have a little try on fashion show instead. We only have a tiny little mirror that is cracked so we couldn’t see the outfits properly so after each outfit we just took a photo. After spending a good hour having a mini fashion show we were left with a big clothes pile to tidy up but some good finds. Unfortunately most of them fitted Iona but I’m not too bitter I promise.

School has definitely become a lot less scary and a bit more enjoyable. I think I might do a separate blog post if I find time on school – all the grades I’m teaching, what I’m teaching and how classes have been going so I won’t go into too much detail.  I’ve seen most improvement with first grade, I no longer dread a 45 minute class with 35 five year olds. I won’t lie, they’re not my favourite class and they are a handful but I’ve started noticing what they like and what works well with them which definitely makes a world of difference. What I’ve been doing is teaching a different song each week – they love it! Esther gave me some songs which she’d been learning with her kinder so I’ve been using them and it’s been a game changer. When we first start learning the song nobody knows it so it’s only me singing it and I have to sing it really loud to try encourage them. If you’ve ever heard me sing you’re probably feeling sorry for all these kids now but I’ve got over the embarrassment and it’s great watching all the kids singing along in English.

Edit – I’m really bad at blog posts so I’m actually already back from San Pedro Sula now but hopefully once I get this one up I’ll find time to write about that before our travels next week.

Sorry I don’t have more photos on this blog – they’re not working and it’s doing my head in so I’ve given up 🙂

Adios!

Hola, sorry for the lack of blog posts, but honestly, they take kind of long. We have wifi but it’s not great so trying to add photos is such a task. Anyways, our holiday was insanneee. One of the best weeks of my life. Not Joking. Playa el Tunco I love you forever. I’m currently listening to my Honduras playlist which has all the songs we were dancing to and it’s making me sad, I miss it ☹.

For our October holiday, 10 of the Honduras volunteers headed to El Salvador. We stayed in a little surfer beach town. It was tiny, yet beautiful and consisted of two streets. It was a different world to Honduras, it almost seemed fake. It was low season which meant it was quite quiet, just full of local surfers, and since it’s so small anyways meant that as a group of 10 white girls we stood out a lot and everyone knew our business – after a night out, maybe not a great thing hm.

Before our holibobs could begin, Iona and I had to travel to a little town on the El Salvador border called Mapulaca where two other volunteers stay. To save us some cash, six of us stayed in their room, this meant three people in each bed – it was a bit of a tight squeeze. Luckily I was snug between Izzy and Esther meaning that the rats couldn’t get to me. The next morning we got up nice and early to make the 6am bus. I was tired but I was also looking forward to crepes for breakfast in El Salvador which Libby and Esther assured us were definitely worth it. So after a few hours on this cramped bus with our big rucksacks we trekked up this huge hill, to unfortunately find out that the cafe was closed. This instead meant that I had the opportunity to try my very first pupusa, an El Salvador specialty, basically a tortilla, most commonly filled with beans and cheese, but there are lots of other options such as prawn or garlic.

We stayed in Papaya lodge in an 8 bedroom dorm which worked out great (although unfortunately two of the girls had to stay in another dorm) for $10 a night which was alright as it had a pool that we took good advantage of.

After two months (yes I’ve been here two months now, see y’all in 10) of pretty much getting fed the same food everyday and not having a say of what and when we eat, it was seriously amazing stuffing my face with bagels, croissants, chips and pesto pasta!!! For those who know me you can imagine how happy I was when I seen pesto on the menu.

Trying to stick on somewhat of a budget (more difficult than I thought) we ate at the hostel sometimes which consisted of peanut butter sandwiches, porridge (yum) and homemade pancakes. The first meal we made was spaghetti and we added a sachet of tomato sauce? Sounds very simple I know. Unfortunately we didn’t buy enough sauce, we needed like 3 or 4 more packets, and then when Emily tried to drain it with a saucepan (DofE style) it all started to fall out so we gave up and just had watery spaghetti with a tomato tinge, delish. While we were being MasterChef’s, there was a couple next to us also making spaghetti, but properly, like they were chopping things, and this made us feel a bit stupid but it’s okay because soon we’ll have three months to practice.

It was hottt, like I thought Honduras was hot, but this was roasty toasty. Luckily because it was a beach town, we could go wild and just wear bikinis and shorts all day. This was great since I like to think I’ve got a bit of a tan now, however most of the others are just burnt. The beach in El Tunco was a rocky beach and full of surfers so we didn’t want to swim or sunbathe there, so instead we headed to a quiet black sand beach just a short five-minute bus journey away. The waves were hugeee and we had a great day swimming.

On the Wednesday we went to visit some waterfalls with a couple of tour guides who we’d met on a night out, so we got a pretty good deal. I wasn’t anticipating any treks, so I didn’t bring my trainers so rip my no longer white Nikes. The walk down to the waterfall was steep at parts and there were a few falls (think that’s two tequila shots for Alice?!) but considering Kevin (tour guide) was in flip flops, in the words of Esther ‘it really wasn’t that bad’. We walked past three waterfalls on the way down and stopped at the final one for a swim. On the trek back up we stopped at another waterfall where we jumped off a little cliff. Some people were a tad hesitant to jump until Kevin pointed out that if we can come for a year to Central America then we can jump into a waterfall. We all jumped.

Iona and Esther both got tats. Esther got a little butterfly that is super cute and looks lovely. Iona got a smiley face on her big toe. Iona also didn’t realise that they needed time to heal so now she’s scared to put pressure on it (so walk basically) lol. It’s actually pretty cute though and I can’t wait to get a tattoo in every country we visit while travelling, so by February I’ll have seven.

That was a joke Mum

It may have been low season, but the nightlife was still the best (if you knew the right people and places). Saturday night was the busiest and we ended up dancing on tables with free cerveza singing karaoke to Katy Perry. The rest of the nights were a bit quieter but just as great, we made friends with a group of Salvadorans who were a lot of fun and one night we ended up teaching them some ceilidh dancing (didn’t last too long) and they taught us how to salsa. They kept showing us one girl and telling us “that’s how the Latinos do it” but that was just a little too intense, so we stuck to our version of salsa. Hopefully by the end of this year we’ll be pros and Iona will be able to do it well enough that Emily and I can stop laughing. Wednesday was ladiessss night, so we were getting free pink drinks for about three hours straight, so obviously we made the most of that before hitting beachlife. We ended a great week by going out Friday night, despite a 5am bus the next morning and I don’t regret it one bit. We said goodbye to all our friends and had a boogie.

Oh and I bought a super chivo wave ring and I love it a lot despite it turning my finger green. Although now I feel less inclined to get a cliché wave tat. Some other girls bought it as well so now we’re matching. Unfortunately I got a bit too excited when a good song came on and It un-twisted but thankfully the tears were saved as Ricardo fixed it, forever grateful.

I also have to mention the sunsets as they seriously were stunning, no picture could do it justice. The majority of the nights before eating tea or getting ready to salir with my bezzies, we headed down to the beach and sat and watched the beautiful sunset, and the surfers too of course which was also a beautiful view. Some of them were really good and whenever someone would do a flip or even just ride a wave, all 10 of us would go “woahh” which would make all the locals surrounding us laugh.

Favourite thing about my week in El Salvador was for sure being with everyone else, we became so close and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girlies to spend my year with. We created so many memories together that I’m sure we’ll never forget. Lois and I loved it so much that we’ve decided that at the end of this year teaching we’re going to move to el tunco and become surfer girls instead of uni because that sounds a lot cooler. Again, jokes Mum, I promise I’ll go to uni. Seriously though it makes you realise that sometimes life just needs to slow down, and you need to go with the flow because as a smart Salvadoran once told me ‘It is what it is’.

Okay now that my cringe gap yah para is over; we can stop judging me and move on.

Being back is weird. As soon as I arrived back in Honduras, I felt culture shock for the first time which came with a bit of homesickness as well. I’ve now been back for two days and feeling a lottt better, in fact they were two really good days. It did however make me worry for when I return from travelling after three months if that’s how I felt after only one week. Anyways I’m sure I’ll just need a couple of days and my routine will kick back in.

After a super chivo (insert surfs up emoji) week filled with tequila, dancing and a whole bunch of gorgeous sunsets (they were seriously the best), I think I’ll have a chill three weeks before seeing all my gals in Santa Rosa.

Adios,

Eeeeerre/RRRRR/Scotland/Erin

Bien bien! I think it’s been over two weeks now since my first blog post oops but here we are after a busy week in Honduras. In Honduras, the 10^th of September is Dia del niño (Day of the child) which is pretty much just an excuse to cancel classes all day and eat as many sweets as you possibly can – what’s not to love?! No but seriously, why wasn’t this a day in Scotland? Pretty sure on every Mother and Father’s Day somebody would say it wasn’t fair that there was no day for children. I completely agree and that is why Honduras is doing it right. Iona pointed out to my students that I’m only 17 and therefore technically still a child, however unfortunately I still didn’t receive a goody bag. The day started out with every pupil in the school carrying their desks outside, which I found hilarious, especially the first graders who would take a step at a time and had to take a break yet refuse to accept any help. We watched the teachers sing a song which was a bit uncomfortable, and by the faces of other students, I wasn’t alone. Iona and I were told to prepare an activity for the day so us Scots decided we’d teach a ceilidh dance. We put a lot of practice into this, practicing the night before just the two of us in our bedroom. The teachers unfortunately didn’t understand that this was our plan and invited us up in front of the whole school and told us to sing for them, we were extremely confused due to our non-existent Spanish and swiftly sat back down. Instead we watched all the grades perform a dance, or in the eight grade boys case, stunts. Best part of the day was piñatas, there was one for each grade and I sat on the rockery watching Honduras’ lack of safety in action.

Iona and I have started going on walks. We’ve found this hill that’s a bit of a steep climb but some of our students have to do this a few times a day so I won’t complain. At first we tried to go a bit further each day since sometimes the heat was just a bit too much to continue. Now we’re having a lot of thunderstorms almost as soon as we come home from school that last into the night so unfortunately we’ve not been able to go out as much however I quite like the rain, it’s homely. In fact I’m currently sitting outside writing this while it’s chucking it down around me, very relaxing. On these walks I’ve realized how high up in the mountains we live. I love our little Belen and it’s crazy that this beautiful village is just perched in the Honduran mountains.

One day we were told that we would be going to take part in an election for the queen. Now i would like to point out that my Spanish was not wrong, that is definitely what they said. So then there’s the question of what queen? Since when did Honduras have a queen? -confused.com – is this the whole of Honduras that’s voting for this queen yet she’s coming to little Belen? Yes it doesn’t make any sense I know. After sitting in this mini stadium for 20 minutes Iona realises that it’s a beauty pageant! We were going to vote for the Queen of Belen (winner of the beauty pageant). Personally I thought candidate two was the best and she works in the cafe so I know and like her but I’m pretty sure if I didn’t vote for candidate 3 like our host family asked us to then my host Mum genuinely would’ve kicked us out of the house. Anyways I voted 3, 3 won and I still have a bed to sleep in.

Dia del independencia – this is huuugeee in Honduras. I wore my 20 lempira dress, feeling very faancyyy. We watched our whole school in the parade as well as the band that we’d been hearing for the past week straight. I was impressed at first, just a bit sick of it now tbh, like please find a new tune. It was cute seeing all our students who had missed classes all week since they had been practicing hard for this, finally show of their outfits, marches, dances and singing. After watching the parade, we then seen the whole thing again, just this time on the stage, a little unnecessary. Then the thing I was looking forward to most- the Honduran dances. I love it so much, especially the dresses; my aim for the year is to wear one of them and dance the traditional dances. I mentioned it to Neyzer but it’s still not happened, need to up my hinting game. Other things that happened included lots of photos, being asked for my number, reenactment of someone dying, mucho hugs and a great t-shirt tan. We also seen a horse (yes a real life one omggg) and the friends we were with had a ride on it (mainly for the photos, because yes, Hondurans care about the gram as well) however Iona and I didn’t get a go which was unfortunate as I was wearing Neyzer’s hat which was very traditional and I would’ve looked supaa cool.

Then last weekend we headed off to Gracias to meet up with all the other volunteers in the Lempira district (I think there was 14 of us). This was such a great opportunity to hear about everyone else’s project and to also destress and spend some very much needed time sleeping and chilling all day. I took full advantage of this although out of choice as unfortunately I spent all weekend extremely ill. I lay in bed pretty much all day everyday and leaving bed for meals was a bit of a struggle. And as frustrating as this sounds (and was) I was very happy to have a hot shower (something that I miss dearly) , great wifi to binge watch netflix – while everyone else was out shopping or trekking to waterfalls – and of course, great friends. Luckily, despite my illness I still managed to drag myself out of bed and go out for pizza and cocktails (although I only allowed myself half a tequila sunrise) which is a huge luxury and now I’m craving pizza. After a great meal some people headed back to the hotel while seven of us made our way to a club we heard about. After one tequila shot (I’m in Honduras, I just had to) we were up on the dance floor salsa-ing the night away. Honestly it’s surreal, everyone grabs a partner and it’s salsa all night long, I loved it. Flossy and Iona can’t salsa so instead chose to make fun of me because they’re bitter. Flossy has decided that I have ‘a strictly face’, compliment or not, I’m glad about 8 years of Jackie screaming at us to use our faces paid off. More stuff happened that night but don’t think that all stories should be shared here soo we’ll move on, but we all made it home safely and had a great night.

After a mostly great weekend we’re now back in Belen for a week (almost) of teaching and resting before our holiday to El Salvador this weekend. I’m loving it here so far, for the most part, obviously there’s days more difficult than others, especially when you’re ill or something bad happens, it’s hard, but you push through it to get to these good days and it’s all worth it. The first day we came back from Gracias and I had to get up early and have a cold shower before teaching was a tough one, but having a great day today, so you see how things work. Listening about everyone else’s projects was exciting but it’s also very easy to compare your situation to others. Hearing about how integrated everyone was or how many things they’re getting up to makes it easy to think my project is bad since we’re not getting taken to as many places. But I realized I need to stop comparing and be grateful for what our project does have that others don’t, for example, we have an ensuite, we’re only 25 minutes from Gracias (making it very cheap and easy for weekend trips) , we live in a lovely house and get given great food and the people here are really lovely (for the most part) and we have Anderson who makes things easier. Oh and most importantly we don’t have rats! 

Okay so I think that’s me for now. Sorry if this was boring and a bit of a mess but I also know that only my family reads this soo I’m not too sorry.

Hasta luego!!

Mucho amor, chacha xx

Side note – didn’t manage to post this before my holibobs so i’m back now. oops i’m really not good at this.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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