Honduran Independence Day

Today, September 15, is Honduras's day of celebration in honor of gaining independence as a nation.  As a result, an assembly filled with cultural dancing and singing was held at school the day before, parades were held in the street, and best of all -- I left with a group of other teachers to the northern coast of Honduras in for what becomes a four-day weekend!  Currently I am laying in bed typing this out as the others are sleeping from what was a spectacular R&R day of beach, jungle, and sun.  I suppose I should first back up because the trip so far has been an adventure since its very beginnings.

The trip started yesterday, when the final school bell had rung for the day at 2:40.  Racing out of the classrooms, we rushed to catch a van waiting to take us to the bus station on the far side of town.  There, we were to catch a bus departing at 3:30.  We arrived at 3:35, five minutes too late.  The bus had left leaving us pondering the next move.  Thankfully, through luck or divine fate, an additional bus was leaving 15 minutes later and meeting up with our bus 3 hours down the road.  Hopping aboard, we arrived at the rest area, swapped busses and were once again on the road to Tela!

Our hotel, the Sherwood Hotel, was great.  Although the rooms reserved were closer to hostel quality than hotel, we had beds for everyone, AC, and privacy.  I'll ignore the fact that the floor was dirty and that the shower had no hot water or that the sheets were really not that clean.  And of course, waking up in a puddle of water under a leaky roof wasn't exactly that wonderful, but blessings abound when I consider that there are four guys and six beds;  I simply swapped beds and glorious sleep abounded.  The price is pretty dirt cheap as well.  It's not like the hotel was the big draw to Tela anyhow.

Today, I woke up to Honduran Independence day and, as I sat eating a donut from a pastry shop down the road, I got to watch the parade march by.   Soon thereafter, I caught a taxi with another teacher, Will, and went up to the Botanical Gardens nature reserve in Tela.

Túnel de Bambú

The place was gorgeous and filled with fantastic trees and bird-life.  It was massive too.  At some point during the trek, Will and I got lost following trails and came across a sketchy looking dude with a machete.  After walking deeper into the forest, Will turned to me and whispered, 'hey, just so you know, that guy with the machete is following us!'  I looked behind and sure enough, machete-man was not far behind.  I told Will that we should pick up the pace, so we started scampering up the trail at a quicker trot.  A quarter mile later, I turned briefly.  To my surprise, back at the same distance machete-man was still on our tail.  We soon realized we were headed the wrong direction anyway and needed to turn back with machete-man blocking our path.  Will bent over and picked up a couple rocks.  "Okay Josh, we're going to just book it down the hill as fast as you can and we'll have 'these' if he tries to mug us."  I took a rock in each had, turned around, and one the count of three sprinted down the hill.  No conflict ensued.  Machete-man had mysteriously vanished.  When Will and I finally made it back to the visitor's center, the taxi we had requested to pick us up never showed.  As a result, we hitched a ride back into town on the back of a pickup.  Eventually we made it home and I changed to get some time at the beach.

Botanical Gardens

I am thankful for all the summer tanning prepwork I had done before coming to Honduras.  Many of my group ended up with red blistering backs, but I escaped with only the unavoidable Rudolf red nose.  The beach sand was wonderful and the water was warm - estimated to be in the mid 80's.  Swimming again was something of a nostalgic relaxing dream come true.  I raced my roommate Dan but he really was not much competetion.  However, Dan did show me up in the sandcastle building showdown we had shortly thereafter.

To end the day, tonight I got pizza from an Italian lady who has a shop in Tela and walked along the beach under the moonlit, royal blue, star-ridden sky listening to the gentle waves of the Carribean waters massage up against the shore.  It was a wonderful closing to the night as I lifted up my eyes to the heavens and praised God for the wonderful blessings in life.