Blogs from La Esperanza, Western, Honduras, Central America Caribbean

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Central America Caribbean » Honduras » Western » La Esperanza February 16th 2011

Slept in until 7:15! It's practically a record for me! I still was a cup of coffee in before Geoff woke up, but at least it wasn't 6am. The shower this morning was the best since home. Somehow the water pressure improved like a million times & it was so hot. Seriously, the things we take for granted on a daily basis are the basics. Hot shower, with great water pressure = an absolute luxury in this part of the world. I took a long shower. I think the hot springs did some sort of cleansing for me. I was exhausted after the hot springs, but I feel great this morning! We did our usual pack up routine & headed out to the bus terminal, which in this town is basically a large 2 stall garage. ... read more
A delicious lunch...
Our hotel for the night.
Honchos for sale!


La Esperanza is a small town in Honduras whose name means 'hope'. We arrived on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 11 with the hope of - cold! After sweating it through the lowlands of Guatemala and Honduras, I wanted to feel cold again and to have some reason for the two sweaters in my backpack. At 1721 m, La Esperanza is the highest and coldest town in the country. La Esperanza is actually composed of two towns, La Esperanza proper and Intibuca, an indigenous community of the Lenca people. Although our guidebooks suggested La Esperanza as a good place to view or experience Lencan culture, not too much cultural happened during our couple of overnights. Perhaps we would have seen more if stayed for the potato festival and the crowning of the 'potato queen'. What we ... read more
An alter set in a cave
View from our hotel balcony
Church next to the parque central


Sunday, August 2nd Honduras is your urinal. If you ever have to make, Hondu is where it´s at! No need for shame, just embrace it, whether it be mid-street, a nice corner, behind a truck or through a fence. I almost forgot how free you are here. It takes very little to reacclimate to his lifestyle: the peeing, spitting, lifting of the shirt above the stomach to the lower chest area to allow the belly to gain access to outside airflow (men only) and darting out to cross the street just as a speeding car (that will not stop) approaches. I´m on a strict diet of baleadas, fried chicken, fruit juices and chillied fruits and veggies in a plastic bag. I hope to regain my adonis-like physique over the next month. Ah, the fried chicken. I ... read more


A string of coincidences led me to be here, I met a girl from Bishop Auckland (the town where I was born) in Tegus and we talked about visiting Valle de Angeles. I missed the bus stop for Valle and had to backtrack, which meant I ended up on the same bus as the volunteer coordinator for i-to-i. When he suggested I could help at a construction project in La Esperanza, I asked if he'd heard of an English girl called Trish, and lo and behold my friend from San Pedro was staying another month here...So I arrive in this dusty old town again and the family I'm staying with has a one year old called Zoe...what are the odds of that? So I guess it was meant to be and I shall learn to enjoy ... read more
Our luxury transport
Dona Maria and Louis
Enjoying a break time snack


Volunteer Retreat- The ranch paid for us all to travel to La Esperanza, a place in Honduras, to have a volunteer retreat, basically getting to know each other better, talking about things from the ranch, supporting each other and so forth. The volunteer coordinator set up the weekend with the help of some others and it was really nice. The place we stayed was a beautiful lodge in the mountains. La Esperanza is the coldest place in the country and november is one of the cooler months, so we were all "freezing" in the 50 degree F weather, wearing multiple sweaters and using the cozy blankets they provided. Here are some pictures.... read more
Artistic
Little Towns
FOG


So I guess my time in Honduras is coming to an end. Wednesday was my last day of teaching. The actual Honduran English teacher called Diana was away so i took all the classes totally on my own. I guess i'm on my own most of the time anyway because Diana always tends to leave the lesson....but usually i'm with one other English person! Being completely on my own was a scary prospect but it actually went really well. We just did revision of the words they find tricky eg butterfly, uncle, white...i could go on! They listened really well and I found stickers were a good bribe for fast writing! (Copying each word 10 times can take them a while!) Today was my last day of building. We were carrying adobes around but mainly ... read more
Hum
7th grade
Supergran


Sooo, last week was Samana Santa, Easter week. Quite a big thing this section of the world. Basically, it sucked because everything was closed the whole time. Even our beloved internet cafe! (Mind you it did open once or twice). I've become an avid reader within the past week. I finished my book and swapped with Gaelyn. Now i'm reading ''A Walk In The Woods" which is pretty funny. About hiking which i may have to try sometime. On a larger scale than D of E. Other than reading i've just been hanging out with people. We built Monday-Wednesday because the family are too poor to go away for the week. Friday Gaelyn had a free house so I went to hers and we made vegetable soup. So good! Except we had warm juice because ... read more
Tortillas
Soup
Balloons




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