Blogs from Western, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 4

The fourth peak on my list of Central America's high points was Cerro Las Minas in Celaque National Park, Honduras. The name of the park means "box of water" in the local, extinct Lengua language possibly owing to the fact that the park contains 9 rivers supplying water to 120 cities and pueblos. The peak is not very high, 2,849 meters or 9,347', and the visitors center is at an elevation of 1,400 meters so there is not a lot of vertical to overcome. However, that is a bit misleading as I found out. The trail is very steep in places and crosses many creeks, dropping and rising through each one, so the cumulative elevation gain is much more. Not only that, I am certain that the trail is much longer than the reported 7.5 km ... read more

Hola! Still in Copan and my last class is tomorrow. While I don't feel confident enough to carry on a full conversation in Spanish, I feel 100 times better than I did after my first class. I've had a chance to 'chat' with a few locals and while it's a test of their patience, I do understand a bit and only manage to make them giggle a few times with my terrible grammer. Better yet, I love how I sound and if you didn't know Spanish, you'd be impressed, lol! The last couple days have been fun, class from 8-12 then the rest of the day to explore. I did a canopy tour, zip lining along the tree tops. Holy moley, a person can get going on those things, muy rapido! A couple of times I ... read more

After three years, I'm sweeping off the internautical dust to keep all my fascinated friends and family up to date with my holiday travelling. I've recently been to Morocco and Istanbul, but Cental America has, even after a mere three days, proved itself well worth the extra long flight (which consisted of watching films anyway). Landing after dark in Guatemala city; which I'm reliably informed is "like a bomb landed in a giant toilet and rubbish tip", we decided to save its dubious charms for the night before our flight home and head straight for Antigua, the tourist, and former poltical, capital. Having braced my patience for hordes of annoying cabbies and my buttocks for some pretty dodgy roads, I almost couldn't believe it that we easily tagged along in a friend's shuttle taxi, sped along ... read more

Today we didnt have to meet too early thankfully – 8.30am and 'the bridge'. No one knew where the bridge was as our tour leader hadnt elaborated on 'the bridge'. So we all ended up at Welchez Coffee shop for breakie as Jacob had recommended it. It took ages for food to come out cs we all arrived at similar times so we changed meeting time till 8.45am. We both had an omelette and ben got a smoothie and I had a coffee. All was good and we were stuffed full to start the day. Thankfully as we were debating where the bridge was, our guide for the ruins walked in looking for Jacob and then walked us there himself. He was brilliant. His name was Saul – like China he claimed! He says he learnt ... read more

I am a little behind in my blog. Wednesday, I hit the wall physically. I worked hard all day, and by the time I got back to the hotel I was capable of little more than shower, food and sleep. We began our day by building rebar frames to be used in the construction of the roof support around the perimeter of the house. We worked as a group and were quite effective in getting the task done. I moved onto making my first adobe bricks. I enjoyed the task and quickly fell into a nice Pattern. I played my music, worked alongside other team members and got the opportunity to dance when I needed to stretch. The masons and their helpers found my antic entertaining, as I could see the laughing with with (at) me ... read more

I am struggling with the internet connection tonight, more than other nights. It has been a long day with lots of hardwork and activities. Our first task on tyhe job site today was mixing pinestraw into mud. We use our legs while wearing way too big rubber boots. Think Lucy and Ethel stopping grapes, only a lot harder. I only fell once and did not do a faceplant but caught myself on my hands. It was hard work and a good workout for my butt, legs and abs. Afterwards we took to the less strenuous activity of collecting pineneedles on a nearby coffee farm. That was a welcome pleasant reprieve from the hard physiucal labor. On the walk back with the pine needles, a local women invited us into her yard, where she had just finished ... read more