Merry Christmas everyone! Hope it was wonderful. Hata got a machete and I got some beautiful locally made earrings. We had the day off from school so we walked to a macaw rehabilitation center. Christmas eve is really the day of celebration here in Honduras. Everyone LOVES fireworks so every few minutes BOOM, and gangs of kids sitting on the street corner with a little campfire going and a pile of firecrackers to throw in the street! Hata picked up a few aptly named "bombas," because when it exploded the street shook and a few car alarms went off! We also tried to go to the beautiful Catholic church on the square for evening mass but it wasn't really our thing..... great kid watching though.
Spanish school was great, we both feel it really improved our ability to communicate and to understand. On our first day while describing myself in spanish, I found out that in Copan I am not short with brown hair but alta and rubia! Tall blonde in Copan-watch out! Hata broke his teachers record of speeding learning- what a guy!
We eventually had to leave Copan to head for the Bay Islands to meet up with Terra and Randy. Spent the night in the grubbiest, grimmest hotel in San Pedro Sula, but it was worth it for the amazing cabin we are in now on the island of Utila. Marina, the owner, is really amazing. She has spent most of her life working for the UN on various eco-tourism projects around the world and now lives on the island with a beautiful lodge. She and Hata have been really amazing taking care of me as I am sick with some sort of bug so unfortunately no diving yet. But were not giving up hope.
Love to you all!
m n h
Friday, December 28, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Bienvenidos a Honduras
There is clearly no fear of the threat of terrorism here in Central America. Crossing the border between El Salvador and Honduras was so much easier than flying from San Francisco to LA. The bus dropped us a few hundred meters from the border [that being a few rocks blocking one lane and a couple of guys checking to see you paid your $3 entrance fee] and a taxi picked us up on the other side. We got to keep our shoes on the whole time, no body scanners or bag checks. In fact it took awhile to even find anyone who was interested in seeing our passports! Brought back memories of the old days....
Honduras is remarkably different than El Salvador. A lot less people means a lot more trees. Our bus ride to La Entrada went through some amazing landscapes [shade grown coffee plantations, steep mountain roads, cloud forests, charming mountain towns, wide valleys] and then plunked us off in a dusty, semi-grim bus station where we were hurried onto a bus for Copan Ruinas that wasn't leaving for 30 mins. Men, women, and children came onto the bus selling all sorts of tasty vittles or knock off watches which filled the time quickly. We got to share some Reeds Ginger candy with a little boy selling fried something, who wasn't too sure if he liked them [porque son picante], but liked that they came from so far away.
We met our first travelers! They were Kiwi's coming from Costa Rica who were also heading to Copan to see the ruins. Once we got off the bus and walked through the town, we began to really miss El Salvador. All the colorfully painted buses, the pupusas, the chocolate [an amazing drink made out of ground cacao beans and water], the lack of tourists, Francis and Rene, and the friendly people. Where did all these English speaking, sun-burned people come from? The town itself is immaculate. No basura, cobbled streets, kitchy stores, international cuisine, and internet everywhere. Similar to Lahina, Maui or Disneyland. Total culture shock! Within a few hours our legs were throughly attacked by blood sucking beasts while the bars cranked out techno music and touristas mightily quenched their thirst. Maggie came to the realization that she's growing old as this would have been heaven when she was 22 [minus the mosqitoes], but just really wanted a good nights sleep at 30.
Next morning we awoke chipper and eager to go to the Copan Ruins just down the road and found our first cup of amazing coffee. Hata was stoked and had a few more to make up for lost time. We got a guided tour of the ruins, which was beautiful and full of rich history, and afterwards made a change of plans. We've decided to stay in Copan and go to a Spanish school [4 hrs/day for 4 days excluding X-mas]and THEN grab a bus and head for La Ceiba. This town isn't really so bad, DEET is okay in small doses, and the beer tastes great. There is still the problem of too many tourists, but maybe they'll push on to Guatemala or Costa Rica for the holidays.....Even if they don't we think it will be worth it to improve our spanish.
Hope you are well in your respective places, sending you some warm weather in our thoughts!
xoxoxo M and H
PS for those who requested photos, we still haven't found a card reader, so for now no podriamos upload.
Honduras is remarkably different than El Salvador. A lot less people means a lot more trees. Our bus ride to La Entrada went through some amazing landscapes [shade grown coffee plantations, steep mountain roads, cloud forests, charming mountain towns, wide valleys] and then plunked us off in a dusty, semi-grim bus station where we were hurried onto a bus for Copan Ruinas that wasn't leaving for 30 mins. Men, women, and children came onto the bus selling all sorts of tasty vittles or knock off watches which filled the time quickly. We got to share some Reeds Ginger candy with a little boy selling fried something, who wasn't too sure if he liked them [porque son picante], but liked that they came from so far away.
We met our first travelers! They were Kiwi's coming from Costa Rica who were also heading to Copan to see the ruins. Once we got off the bus and walked through the town, we began to really miss El Salvador. All the colorfully painted buses, the pupusas, the chocolate [an amazing drink made out of ground cacao beans and water], the lack of tourists, Francis and Rene, and the friendly people. Where did all these English speaking, sun-burned people come from? The town itself is immaculate. No basura, cobbled streets, kitchy stores, international cuisine, and internet everywhere. Similar to Lahina, Maui or Disneyland. Total culture shock! Within a few hours our legs were throughly attacked by blood sucking beasts while the bars cranked out techno music and touristas mightily quenched their thirst. Maggie came to the realization that she's growing old as this would have been heaven when she was 22 [minus the mosqitoes], but just really wanted a good nights sleep at 30.
Next morning we awoke chipper and eager to go to the Copan Ruins just down the road and found our first cup of amazing coffee. Hata was stoked and had a few more to make up for lost time. We got a guided tour of the ruins, which was beautiful and full of rich history, and afterwards made a change of plans. We've decided to stay in Copan and go to a Spanish school [4 hrs/day for 4 days excluding X-mas]and THEN grab a bus and head for La Ceiba. This town isn't really so bad, DEET is okay in small doses, and the beer tastes great. There is still the problem of too many tourists, but maybe they'll push on to Guatemala or Costa Rica for the holidays.....Even if they don't we think it will be worth it to improve our spanish.
Hope you are well in your respective places, sending you some warm weather in our thoughts!
xoxoxo M and H
PS for those who requested photos, we still haven't found a card reader, so for now no podriamos upload.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
San Ignacio
¡Hola familia y amigos!
Well, we had to say goodbye to Francis and Rene in La Palma. They were kind enough to take us to Suchitoto (WilkesHodges faction-you guys would LOVE it here). Suchitoto, a sweet colonial town with cobbled streets, built by the Spainards, was once the capital of El Salvador. We thought it was pretty similar to Nevada City in the sense that it is picturesque and no one can build outside of the Spanish style for cultural preservation. We got a tour of Senor Alejandro Cotto's house who is a famous movie director-producer from the 60's n 70's. He has all sorts of art and artifacts some of which date back over 600 years and a beautiful garden that overlooks Lago Suchitlan. Super cool!
We then went to La Palma which is high in the mountains and cool enough to wear jackets. This town is so neat. There was a painter that moved here in the 70's who taught many of the town citizens how to paint in his specific style. Over 75% of the town makes their living through this craft. Think brightly colored village scenes on various cuts of wood. They are really pretty and unique to this town.
On to San Ignaico (which is 15 mins down the road) for a nice quiet last day in El Salvador before crossing over to Honduras. We just ate an incredible meal and are about to go to our beautiful room in a huge colonial style posada and swim in the pool. This is living the good life!
In case any of you are thinking about planning a trip to Central America, I would highly recommend El Salvador. The people are so friendly (everyone you see says 'Buenas'), and the small towns are so lovely. To be fair though, there is alot of air pollution from vehicles and in some places that sickly sweet rotting sewage smell. People like their music LOUD and rely on their car horns to commuincate everything. 'There's no room on the road but I'm passing you anyways-BEEP' And car alarms have a mind of their own, often erupting into existence while the car is driving down the road or when a big truck passes. But it is still a wonderful place all the same.
Well, tomorrow we head to the ruins of Copan for a few days and then on to La Cieba for X-mas. Love to you all!
M and H
Well, we had to say goodbye to Francis and Rene in La Palma. They were kind enough to take us to Suchitoto (WilkesHodges faction-you guys would LOVE it here). Suchitoto, a sweet colonial town with cobbled streets, built by the Spainards, was once the capital of El Salvador. We thought it was pretty similar to Nevada City in the sense that it is picturesque and no one can build outside of the Spanish style for cultural preservation. We got a tour of Senor Alejandro Cotto's house who is a famous movie director-producer from the 60's n 70's. He has all sorts of art and artifacts some of which date back over 600 years and a beautiful garden that overlooks Lago Suchitlan. Super cool!
We then went to La Palma which is high in the mountains and cool enough to wear jackets. This town is so neat. There was a painter that moved here in the 70's who taught many of the town citizens how to paint in his specific style. Over 75% of the town makes their living through this craft. Think brightly colored village scenes on various cuts of wood. They are really pretty and unique to this town.
On to San Ignaico (which is 15 mins down the road) for a nice quiet last day in El Salvador before crossing over to Honduras. We just ate an incredible meal and are about to go to our beautiful room in a huge colonial style posada and swim in the pool. This is living the good life!
In case any of you are thinking about planning a trip to Central America, I would highly recommend El Salvador. The people are so friendly (everyone you see says 'Buenas'), and the small towns are so lovely. To be fair though, there is alot of air pollution from vehicles and in some places that sickly sweet rotting sewage smell. People like their music LOUD and rely on their car horns to commuincate everything. 'There's no room on the road but I'm passing you anyways-BEEP' And car alarms have a mind of their own, often erupting into existence while the car is driving down the road or when a big truck passes. But it is still a wonderful place all the same.
Well, tomorrow we head to the ruins of Copan for a few days and then on to La Cieba for X-mas. Love to you all!
M and H
Monday, December 17, 2007
sweet Santa Ana
Hola Todos,
Happily the bag arrived on Friday, one day earlier than predicted! So we said adios to S.S. and vamos'ed to Santa Ana. This was by accident since we meant to go to Lago de Coatepeque but couldn´t tell when to get off the bus. Oh well, we were going to Santa Ana anyway. Here we got a tiny little room and had a look around the town. Since it was the weekend the plaza was in full market/festival mode. Santa Ana has a lot of early colonial architecture, including an enormous gothic cathedral- very cool. The main cross on the top steeple fell off in the earthquake (pienso que lo se caeó (sp?) en 2001), so they are in the process of refurbishing.
After that we called René, el hermano de Manny, Maggie´s friend from Whole Foods. We stugggled a bit on the phone, as I speak only slightly more espanol than he does ingles (I have to interject here. Hata did great on the phone. To me, it seemed as though he and Rene were holding a conversation and it was something to be proud of. Hata told me that Rene was coming momentarily instead of tomorrow so we went back to our hotel. Well, it turned out Francis said they came right away because Rene said ¨we got to go meet them right now because I can´t understand a word this guy is saying.¨ Back to the blog)) Somehow we managed to arrange a time and place to meet, and he brought his son, 21 yr old Francis, who is bilingual. They insisted we leave our room (even though we paid already. guess it wasn´t a good part of town)and stay at Manny´s house, which is empty since Manny lives in the States. Super luxurious, and inside a gated residential community, it felt strange to be so insulated. But also very comfortable and plush.
Yesterday they took us to Lago de Coatepeque (think Crater Lake)for a quick swim. The water is warmed by thermal vents so it was awesome! We could have stayed all day but Rene and Francis don´t swim and had a lot of places they wanted to show us.
So we headed to Cerro Verde, a mountainous forest between two volcanoes, where we got a manditory guide to show us the cloud forest (in Spanish). EL Salvador is really funny about their tourist area´s. There is a whole government movement to seperate the people from the tourist. So there would be two different parks, one for the tourist and one for the Salvadoreans-not too cool. For right now they have armed policia at the main attractions for safety although everyone is so nice and friendly here it is hard to imagine what they are protecting you from.
On to the town of Juayua for the Feria Gastronomica. Here they have a food festival every weekend with the kind grinds (roasted toad, baby goat, seafood, fried things, fruit, you name it)! Hata got some sort of steak plate that was huge and Maggie got a big pile of paella. Both were great! This town was super cool with cobbled streets and tiny sidewalks. Most business are open behind locked gates so if you want something you ring a bell and hand your money through the gate. This is common throughout the country. Guess those armed guards aren´t such a bad idea if everyone is locked away from each other too...
After the food fair, we went to some epic waterfalls (forget what they were called) with another guide who carried a big machete. Here the river comes gushing out of mutiple cracks in the rock cliffs. There are pools built at the bottom which are left overs from a Japànese company that was trying to develop hydropower here. The policia was in full force as it is a popular place for people to go for a swim.
All this in one day, a bit exhausting but very cool to have local guides who drove us everywhere! Rene and Francis are really great and since they are both on vacation right now (from work and university) they have the time to show us around.
This afternoon we will go to see geothermal springs. And tomorrow we will head north, crossing into Honduras the day after. But you know how plans go....
Love you guys! Mom´s and Dad´s, don´t worry, we are doing fine and having a great time!
H&M
Happily the bag arrived on Friday, one day earlier than predicted! So we said adios to S.S. and vamos'ed to Santa Ana. This was by accident since we meant to go to Lago de Coatepeque but couldn´t tell when to get off the bus. Oh well, we were going to Santa Ana anyway. Here we got a tiny little room and had a look around the town. Since it was the weekend the plaza was in full market/festival mode. Santa Ana has a lot of early colonial architecture, including an enormous gothic cathedral- very cool. The main cross on the top steeple fell off in the earthquake (pienso que lo se caeó (sp?) en 2001), so they are in the process of refurbishing.
After that we called René, el hermano de Manny, Maggie´s friend from Whole Foods. We stugggled a bit on the phone, as I speak only slightly more espanol than he does ingles (I have to interject here. Hata did great on the phone. To me, it seemed as though he and Rene were holding a conversation and it was something to be proud of. Hata told me that Rene was coming momentarily instead of tomorrow so we went back to our hotel. Well, it turned out Francis said they came right away because Rene said ¨we got to go meet them right now because I can´t understand a word this guy is saying.¨ Back to the blog)) Somehow we managed to arrange a time and place to meet, and he brought his son, 21 yr old Francis, who is bilingual. They insisted we leave our room (even though we paid already. guess it wasn´t a good part of town)and stay at Manny´s house, which is empty since Manny lives in the States. Super luxurious, and inside a gated residential community, it felt strange to be so insulated. But also very comfortable and plush.
Yesterday they took us to Lago de Coatepeque (think Crater Lake)for a quick swim. The water is warmed by thermal vents so it was awesome! We could have stayed all day but Rene and Francis don´t swim and had a lot of places they wanted to show us.
So we headed to Cerro Verde, a mountainous forest between two volcanoes, where we got a manditory guide to show us the cloud forest (in Spanish). EL Salvador is really funny about their tourist area´s. There is a whole government movement to seperate the people from the tourist. So there would be two different parks, one for the tourist and one for the Salvadoreans-not too cool. For right now they have armed policia at the main attractions for safety although everyone is so nice and friendly here it is hard to imagine what they are protecting you from.
On to the town of Juayua for the Feria Gastronomica. Here they have a food festival every weekend with the kind grinds (roasted toad, baby goat, seafood, fried things, fruit, you name it)! Hata got some sort of steak plate that was huge and Maggie got a big pile of paella. Both were great! This town was super cool with cobbled streets and tiny sidewalks. Most business are open behind locked gates so if you want something you ring a bell and hand your money through the gate. This is common throughout the country. Guess those armed guards aren´t such a bad idea if everyone is locked away from each other too...
After the food fair, we went to some epic waterfalls (forget what they were called) with another guide who carried a big machete. Here the river comes gushing out of mutiple cracks in the rock cliffs. There are pools built at the bottom which are left overs from a Japànese company that was trying to develop hydropower here. The policia was in full force as it is a popular place for people to go for a swim.
All this in one day, a bit exhausting but very cool to have local guides who drove us everywhere! Rene and Francis are really great and since they are both on vacation right now (from work and university) they have the time to show us around.
This afternoon we will go to see geothermal springs. And tomorrow we will head north, crossing into Honduras the day after. But you know how plans go....
Love you guys! Mom´s and Dad´s, don´t worry, we are doing fine and having a great time!
H&M
Friday, December 14, 2007
Rough guide...
For the curious and the fam,
Our travel itinerary-which is very rough is as follows:
We are slowly going to make our way to Honduras, stopping in the towns of Lago de Coatepeque, Juayua, Suchitoto, and La Palma. It will probably take us a week to get to Honduras although it is tough to gauge. With waterfall rappeling and a feria de gastrinomica (food fair) in Juayua, lake swimming in the lago de Coatepeque and possibly staying in an empty mansion of a friend for free, and open-aired markets in La Palma plus hiking El Pital (the tallest mt. in El Salvador) we might move slower than we think.
Once we get to Honduras, our main plan is to check out the ruins of Copan, and then head to La Cieba on the Carribean coast for lots of eco-tours. Rafting the Rio Cangrejal (class4-5), hiking in the cloud forests, and snorkeling the reef. We then plan on taking a ferry to the Utila in the Bay Islands (our target date for this is Dec. 27th) where we will meet up with our friends Terra and Randy. We want to get our scuba certs here on the island and then whoop it up for New Years! After leaving the islands, we´re gonna head to Nicagarua to visit with Olin and Ophelia. Our plans in Nicaragua aren´t very defined at this point, but we´ll figure it out soon.
We love you guys and hope all is well where ever you all are!
Sending you muchos besos from San Salvador!
M&H
Our travel itinerary-which is very rough is as follows:
We are slowly going to make our way to Honduras, stopping in the towns of Lago de Coatepeque, Juayua, Suchitoto, and La Palma. It will probably take us a week to get to Honduras although it is tough to gauge. With waterfall rappeling and a feria de gastrinomica (food fair) in Juayua, lake swimming in the lago de Coatepeque and possibly staying in an empty mansion of a friend for free, and open-aired markets in La Palma plus hiking El Pital (the tallest mt. in El Salvador) we might move slower than we think.
Once we get to Honduras, our main plan is to check out the ruins of Copan, and then head to La Cieba on the Carribean coast for lots of eco-tours. Rafting the Rio Cangrejal (class4-5), hiking in the cloud forests, and snorkeling the reef. We then plan on taking a ferry to the Utila in the Bay Islands (our target date for this is Dec. 27th) where we will meet up with our friends Terra and Randy. We want to get our scuba certs here on the island and then whoop it up for New Years! After leaving the islands, we´re gonna head to Nicagarua to visit with Olin and Ophelia. Our plans in Nicaragua aren´t very defined at this point, but we´ll figure it out soon.
We love you guys and hope all is well where ever you all are!
Sending you muchos besos from San Salvador!
M&H
hemos llegar, pero la maleta no ha llegado...
Hola Amigos y Familia,
Well here we are in San Salvador. Our first bit of excitement occurred on the runway in SFO, when we began to accelerate for take-off, then abruptly slowed and stopped. The captain informed us that air traffic control had made a "boo-boo" (his term) and cleared us for take-off on a runway that was being used for landing a different plane! This after I had recently read an article about a study showing that these types of collisions are very likely due to over-worked air traffic controllers. Yikes, but no blood no foul.
We arrived in San Salvador yesterday morning at about 6:45, and after going through migracion, discovered that Maggie´s backpack was still in LA. No worries, it should be here manana, and our new friend Natalia (una Salvadorena que viva en france who was also missing her bag) helped us negotiote the lost baggage claim process, reccomended un hospedaje, and had her SUPER nice family give us a ride to the guesthouse which happened to be near their home. We only wished that they would have adopted us, because we love them and they are the sweetest people ever. This seems to be standard for El Salvadorenos, because everyone we´ve met has been very simpatico.
Looking on the bright side, having to wait a couple days for the backpack has given us the opportunidad to explore S.S. which we had not planned on but is very cool. Today we went to un museo de arte folklorico-home of the famous sopresas(teeny-tiny boxes with mini-figurines inside them; one even showed the process of sneaking into the US), and el Metrocentro, the "biggest mall in centroamerica" so Maggie could wear a different shirt besides her one tank-top that seems to attract attention.
More later, we´re off to find some pupusas to eat!
Love, M& H
Well here we are in San Salvador. Our first bit of excitement occurred on the runway in SFO, when we began to accelerate for take-off, then abruptly slowed and stopped. The captain informed us that air traffic control had made a "boo-boo" (his term) and cleared us for take-off on a runway that was being used for landing a different plane! This after I had recently read an article about a study showing that these types of collisions are very likely due to over-worked air traffic controllers. Yikes, but no blood no foul.
We arrived in San Salvador yesterday morning at about 6:45, and after going through migracion, discovered that Maggie´s backpack was still in LA. No worries, it should be here manana, and our new friend Natalia (una Salvadorena que viva en france who was also missing her bag) helped us negotiote the lost baggage claim process, reccomended un hospedaje, and had her SUPER nice family give us a ride to the guesthouse which happened to be near their home. We only wished that they would have adopted us, because we love them and they are the sweetest people ever. This seems to be standard for El Salvadorenos, because everyone we´ve met has been very simpatico.
Looking on the bright side, having to wait a couple days for the backpack has given us the opportunidad to explore S.S. which we had not planned on but is very cool. Today we went to un museo de arte folklorico-home of the famous sopresas(teeny-tiny boxes with mini-figurines inside them; one even showed the process of sneaking into the US), and el Metrocentro, the "biggest mall in centroamerica" so Maggie could wear a different shirt besides her one tank-top that seems to attract attention.
More later, we´re off to find some pupusas to eat!
Love, M& H
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Two hours till blast off
Well here we actually go! For the past six years we've been wanting to leave the country and now that we're going it's kind unreal. No Christmas carols (thank you tiny baby Jesus all swaddled in your golden fleece diapers), no construction in the rain (this one's Hata's), no rocky ski slopes barely covered in man-made snow, and no figgy pudding. Actually, we wouldn't have had figgy pudding even if we were here, mainly because we've never had it, though it sounds quite tasty.....
So we are sorry to have to say goodbye to all you guys but maybe a few pupusas on the banks of Lago de Coatepeque in El Salvador will take away our sorrow. Lots of love to you!
M&H
So we are sorry to have to say goodbye to all you guys but maybe a few pupusas on the banks of Lago de Coatepeque in El Salvador will take away our sorrow. Lots of love to you!
M&H
Friday, December 7, 2007
packing it up
Well it is nearly the eve of our voyage, so we're trying to get organized. Packing light is always easier than it sounds..
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