Independence Holiday Vacay in Sambo Creek

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Honduras's Independence Day is September 15, and Teachers' Day is September 17, so we get to enjoy 3 days off from work for a lovely 5 day weekend!

Jessica, Paule, and I were originally going to head to Utila (Bay Islands) but Paule had a death in the family and flew home to Canada, so Jess and I decided to join some others on their travel plans to Sambo Creek. I have never been and was excited about seeing something new.

Jill and Dan (new administrators) drove their own car, while Jessica, Mollie, Elisa, Colin, Baby Dunnivan (Colin and Elisa's 6 month old), and I shared a rented van. It was about a 10 hour journey to get there (starting at 5am!) but we arrived at Villa Helen's in Sambo Creek, just outside of La Ceiba on the North coast of Honduras. It's run by some French Canadians!

What a great place! Day 1 of our arrival we checked out the place, and unpacked. Jess and I were sharing a "cabin" that for $50 per night (split) we got two double beds, a bathroom, dining room, kitchen with fridge, stove, and toaster, plus living room with cable tv! It was really nice! The hotel has 2 pools (+ a little kiddie pool), lots of hammocks, and lots of tables.

Next, Mollie and I set up our scuba diving for the next day with Pirate Islands Divers, then joined the rest of the gang, ordered dinner and drinks and then we all headed to our rooms around 8pm! We were real party animals all week, let me tell you! ;)

Day 2 Mollie and I started with our scuba trip. It was $90 for a two tank dive, and was only us and the owner/instructor named Tony. Tony is a very nice guy but very "hands off" when it comes to his diving. I would only recommend him to experienced divers, not first-timers. So out we go in the speed boat to Cayos Cochinos, which are a bunch of islands off the coast. This is where the famous pirate Captain Henry Morgan had his main post, as he'd hide in the bay of the island until it was too late for other approaching ships, making a surprise attack on them and overtaking the ships. Some fun history!

It took about 40 minutes to get out to the islands but they're beautiful! Apparently a couple countries have filmed their "Survivor" seasons there. There are still a few Garifuna (natives) villages in the islands, and the corral surrounding it is beautiful!

Our first dive was fine to begin as we drifted along a lovely corral wall. There wasn't a lot of fish but the corral was great! The dive started to go downhill when Tony turned around and tried to have us swim against the strong current that had been pushing us along. I swam for maybe 30 seconds and realized how hard it was to do it, and realized I was breathing twice as fast, and started to panic. Panicking under water is not fun, as you can't communicate and the more you freak, the faster you breathe and the more air you consume. I ended up grabbing Tony's flipper (as he wasn't turning around to see how we were doing) and motioned to him that I couldn't swim that way and motioned that we went the other way. He still swam against the current for awhile and I motioned again. We finally went WITH the current but not for long, as I'm sure he was worried about being too far from the boat, so we did our 3 min safety stop and went to the surface. On the surface was bad too. We swam over to a buoy and hung on to the rope, we even that was tricky! I was not having fun, was tired and slightly panicked. We had to blow whistles to get the attention of the boat and were eventually picked up. We had about 30 mins to relax between dives and I was promised that the next site would be better.

The second dive was in a bay, so it was more protected from the current and was a MUCH better dive. It was more shallow and had more sandy patches, but some great corral formations, some swim-throughs, and great fish! We saw a stingray, a large drum fish, Peterson's shrimps, several conch traveling across the sand, and a HUGE grouper (or possibly Jew fish?) that was about 6 ft long. I have never seen such a big fish! I felt like I was in the "Big Fish" movie or some sort of cartoon. It was definitely bigger than me! This dive was much better and I was glad that I calmed down enough from the first dive to do it.

Coming home from the dive, we spent some time on the beach, experimented with feeding Dunnivan solid foods, and ate dinner under the shelter of the hotel's restaurant, as the rain poured around us. It was another 9am bedtime!

Day 3 was my relaxing day. I spent time on the beach, time in the ocean, time in the pool, time in the sun, time reading, and time getting a massage! The massage was fantastic, as it's in a little hut on the hotel property but on the beach. You can hear the waves coming onto the shore! The best part? It cost $10 for an hour! YES PLEASE! The lady was really good and covered the whole body. I even had my stomach massaged! The only part that reminded me that I was in Honduras and not Canada was when she answered her cell phone in the middle of my massage... and had a conversation while attempting to continue my massage with one hand. Haha. I suppose I can't complain for $10.

That night we went out for dinner at a hotel/restaurant just a few buildings down the road, called Paradise Found that had really great food! One of the owners named Dante, looks a little like a pirate and offered to pose in a pic so I could tell my students I met a pirate! ;)

Day 4 was another relaxing day. It started off really sunny so I soaked up some rays but then the rain moved in. We had been so blessed with 2 great days of sun so it was only fair I suppose. I decided to do another massage (for $10, why not?!) and then spent most of the day inside our cabin reading my book.

We decided to go into town (La Ceiba) for dinner that night and found a really nice place with a great atmosphere called Las Palapas.

Today was only enough time to settle up our bills and head out onto the road again. We managed to get home in only 8 hours instead of 10, so that was a plus. It never even felt like that long of a journey, because we had so much fun traveling together. We played games like "name that 80s/90s sitcom theme song" and counted things (like kettles of vultures) along the way.

It was a wonderful vacation full of lots of sleep, resting, good food, good friends, and good fun. I would definitely recommend Villa Helen's to any traveler!

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