Last Wednesday I left my site and traveled to San Pedro Sula, where I was meeting up with my closest Peace Corps friend up here on the North Coast. San Pedro is notorious for being the most dangerous city in Honduras, which is quite the achievement for a country considered the most dangerous in Latin America. Anyway, in preparation for my first real visit to the city, I took off all my jewelry, hid most of my money in my bra, and tried my hardest to avoid looking like a tourist. Well, the bus arrived and I went to meet my friend in the Central Park--about a 4 block walk. The city of San Pedro surprised me—much, much cleaner than the capital, well-organized, and seemingly more convenient. Of course, I stayed in the better, more policed areas of the city, but the experience was not nearly what I expected. My friend and I then hopped on a bus to Santa Rosa de Copan, which is a colonial town about 3 hours from the Guatemalan border. The trip is about 2.5-3 hours, depending on how many stops it takes (unless you pay extra for a direct bus, the buses will generally stop at any point on the trip if someone flags them down from the side of the road). In general, there are a large number of volunteers in the west of Honduras. In fact, the Peace Corps only began putting volunteers on the North Coast a few years ago due to violence and drug trafficking problems that has since decreased, thus allowing us lucky volunteers to have homes on the Caribbean. Anyway, due to the large numbers of volunteers in the West, there is a Peace Corps house located in the city of Santa Rosa. It’s basically a frat house, where volunteers can stay for only 50 lempira a night if they need to come in from smaller sites to get groceries, use internet, etc. My friend and I stayed there for the night, where we relaxed and took advantage of the Peace Corps book exchange there. Being in Santa Rosa felt like being in a completely different country compared to being in my site. The town is well-developed with many foreigners living and working there, as well as many amenities like restaurants, real grocery stores, coffee shops (with wireless internet!!), etc.
The following morning, we hopped on a bus to Gracias, in the department of Lempira, Honduras. It was a beautiful bus ride in the mountains. We arrived in the late afternoon, and met up with my good friend that lives there. She is living in her own place with another volunteer in a large 5 bedroom house. In her giant house, she has a TV with cable and a stair-stepper exercise machine—not things one might imagine in a typical Peace Corps house (nor can afford on the Peace Corps salary), but to each his own I suppose. We explored the town, and I was continuously amazed at my ability to not only walk around without sweating, but be comfortable in jeans and a fleece—the climate is quite a bit different than what I’ve become used to in the North.
The following day 2 other volunteers from our training group met up with us in Gracias, and we made preparations for the following day, when we were to begin our hike to the highest peak in Honduras in the national park of Celaque. Luckily, one of our friend’s host-country counterparts had climbed the route several times before, so we did not have to hire a guide.
We set out at 6AM the following morning, beginning with a 30 minute jalon to the base of the mountain. We began the actual hiking around 8am, and it was rough going. I thought I was in decent shape, but running on the beach is not enough to prepare you for walking/climbing/pulling yourself up a mountain. We started at 1400m and made it to the peak around 4:45PM at an elevation of 2400m. After a full day of hiking, we paused for about 5 minutes to take pictures and had just began to put up the tents when it starts POURING. My friend and I shared one 2-person tent while the 4 guys shared a cozy 3 person. We all hung out in the larger tent, cooking dinner and hoping the rain would let up. Around 8PM, my friend and I headed back to our tent only to find it had about an inch of water in it and all our stuff was completely soaked. We salvaged our sleeping bags and whatever warm things we could, and sheepishly went back to the guys tent, hoping for a place to sleep. With no other option, the 6 of us crammed into the tiny tent, where we spent a few uncomfortable hours trying to sleep (we actually couldn’t all fit unless everyone was on their side, so every hour someone would call out ‘rotate’ and we would switch to the other side). I forgot to mention that this whole fiasco took place with our Honduran guide, who spoke no word of English and I think was pretty confused at why we were all trying to cram into his tent. Anyway, around 1AM the rain let up and we managed to get the rain out of our tent enough to be able to sleep comfortably for a few hours. Unfortunately, this coincided with when my body decided to punish me for drinking river water (we figured we were high enough on the mountain that the water source couldn’t have been contaminated by anyone above it) or eating old fish (which I had done the day before) and I stayed awake most of the night with an upset stomach and fever. We woke up around 6:30AM, and after a quick picture taking session and breakfast, we set off down the mountain. Initially, I had dreaded going down because I had images of losing balance with the weight of my pack and falling off one of the many drop-offs, but it was actually quite fun and I only fell 4 times—once on a giant jagged rock that left quite the bruise on my butt. We made it down around 3:30PM with my knees feeling like there was no cartlidge left and my legs almost as sore as when I ran the marathon. I forgot to mention that I completed this long day of hiking without eating anything, because I was concerned the state of my stomach might punish me with numerous bathroom breaks in precarious positions on steep cliffs. Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from my site.
Pictures from Celaque:
Bright, smiling faces at 6AM...
Me and my friend in the back of the pick-up, en route to base
Top of the mountain in the cloud forest
Me on top of Honduras...
Now, I’m happily back in my site and so excited to be able to enjoy all the goodies sent by my mom. The chocolate held up quite nicely, and the tea is the perfect thing to wake up to. Drinking a cup, it made me realize the little things I miss-like waking up in the morning, drinking tea and doing the crossword puzzle. Also, I shared some peanut butter and apple with my host fam here-they love it!
I’ve also just found out my boss (the person in charge of Peace Corps Honduras health project) has placed a transfer volunteer (formally in Paraguay) to Tela, which is the city nearest me. She is replacing the girl that I was in training with who decided to go back early to the US. Anyway, I will meet her tomorrow in a lunch meeting with my boss and an evaluator from Peace Corps headquarters. The evaluator will then travel to my town and talk to my counterparts about the work I’ve been doing, how the Peace Corps is/can help, etc. I also may be lucky enough to visit to a Honduran medical facility. Since I’m no longer in training, I don’t get to see the Peace Corps medical staff right away. As a volunteer, I have to go to a regular Honduran clinic, see a doctor, get treated by him/her, and if it doesn’t work, the Peace Corps pays for my trip down to Tegus to see a Peace Corps doctor. Although I’m a bit skeptical of this process, I plan on saying ‘no’ to any sort of shot (most Hondurans don’t believe their illnesses will be cured unless they get some sort of shot, so most doctors will take the pills that would ordinarily treat someone, crush it up and make it into a solution, and inject it) and I think I’ll be fine. We’ll see how my stomach feels in the next few days…
Final news…just signed the contract with my landlady for my new place! All the other volunteers from my training group are moving in to their places July 1st, but I’ll be waiting until August 1st. I’ll try to take some pictures soon, but am very excited about the prospects of having my own place. It’s on the main road of my town (really the only road), right next door to the house of the patronato (similar to the mayor), so it should be safe. It has one large room, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom. Right now, there is no ‘kitchen’ per say, but I bought a hot plate and a small refrigerator from a soon-to-be former volunteer, and there is a pila out back (a multi-purpose water source with a faucet where most people wash their closes, dishes, etc), so that should do. We do lose electricity pretty often here, so eventually I’ll probably have to buy a gas-run stove, but the basics should do for now.
Here´s a few other random pics...
I give private English classes to a girl in my site in exchange for braids. I was too lazy to take out the most recent batch, left them in for a week, and nearly had dreads. I would say I lost about 10 handfuls of hair trying to get them out...lesson learned.
You´d think in a beachfront house, one might desire a vacuum to get all the sand off the carpets. Well, apparently these are hard to come by, so I´ve devised my own method of ´vacuuming´ my room...
Also, if anyone is sending any packages and has any small, old (clean) towels, it´d be great if you could stick them in. I use them as sweat rags, but buying new towels is pretty expensive here. Thanks!
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