Day 2

Today was an amazing beginning to the trip. The beauty of this country has stunned us all. We woke up early for breakfast and met at the bus for a ride to the Jungle School. It is amazing how the city can disappear within a few miles and become complete rain forest. The school is along a large river, with banks filled with jungle and trees. It is crazy how you can go to a place that pictures will never do justice. The mountains in the back covered in mist, and the school nestled away in the jungle up a huge hill, with only tire stairs that get to it.

Once at the school our task for the day was to haul bags of sand up to the foundation of the third classroom. When you look at the school you can see how much they need a new classroom because the two they have are so small and fit 90 kids. So we set up a chain from the bottom to the top to haul the sand bags. At the bottom they filled them and passed it up. There was sooo much sand! And it never seemed to end. We got about half way through the pile for the day. But it is work that needs to be done and we passed the time singing and playing telephone. We also took lots of breaks. One thing we are all getting used to is Honduran time. Everything happenes about an hour after we say it will. For example, we were supposed to have water at the work sight, and 2 hours later it shows up. But in that time we got to go swimming in the river so it wasn't too bad. ;)

The weather has been amazing thus far, though i don't want to jinx it. It is humid but not extremely hot. But we got plenty sweaty and dirty working today. At 2:00 we left back to the hotel, showered, and then went to the Hogar de Amor, where 22 of the children live. This part of the day was possibly the highlight, because the kids are absolutely the cutest things you have ever seen. It doensn't matter to them if you speak fluent Spanish or can say only hola, but they ran up to the gate and started showing us all around. Nate and Rachel especially attracted their attention. They jumped on both of them like monkeys. Some of the girls came and asked us to be their 'madrinas' and my heart just about melted. As we left we had to assure them all that we would see them again Saturday.

Dinner was at the nicest outdoor restuarant right on the beach. After, we had an opportunity to walk on the beach and feel the Carribean, and the water must be at least 75 degrees. We took a walk down the beach to an extremely nice hotel where there was a dance floor and DJ, and danced with the Hondurans. One of the girls from the Hogar had come with us to dinner and she showed all of us up in our dancing skills. It was a lot of fun though.

There has been only a few incidents thus far. My hotel room had a fun night when Rachel sprayed pepper spray in our bathroom because she thought it wouldn't work any more. Half an hour later we could enter the room again without running eyes. Nate got a tick in his ankle from hiking through the jungle, and Britta had her sandals stolen, but we recovered from everything. All the girls are also accostoming ourselves to the constant hoots and whistles of the Honduran men, but it's been fine. We're all looking forward to a day at the island tomorrow!

Sorry for spelling errors (spell check is in spanish), but we shall update you again tomorrow!

Sincereley,

The Honduras Travelers

Day 1

Today was the day that never ended. We are running on very little sleep, but are definitely glad to be done with the 9 hour plane travel and 4 hour bus ride. We have however made it safely and are all checked into our hotel. I can't say we have experienced much of Honduras yet but we will save that for a later date. We were able to soak in the intense greenery of the jungle on our drive to La Ceiba, and had only a few near death experiences while watching the Honduras drivers crazily pass eachother. Looking forward to a shower and sleep, and an early morning wake up call tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately all has not gone completely smoothly. Due to passport and identification issues Wendy wasn't able to make the flight with us. We're working on getting her here a few days late and hoping for the best. Kind of a damper to the start of our trip, but she is amazing and has such a great attitude. (Give her a hug from all of us if you can. We miss you Wendy!)

The trip though seems to be promising. Our itinerary is full and we will be getting up nice and early to go to the Jungle school tomorrow. The food thus far has been amazing! They know how to cook everything right. Ok well more tomorrow.

Sincereley,

The Honduras Travelers

Arrived Safely

Hello all - this is Kyla's mom, Crista. I just wanted to post this note for Kyla to let everyone know they have arrived safely in Honduras. They had a fabulous meal and seem to be marveling at the green landscape. I don't think they got a lot of sleep, but hopefully tonight they can catch up. They do have a cell phone, although when I called back using the number in my history, there was one too many numbers, so next time I get a call I will clarify and post this number on the blog. Most of you probably already heard from your son/daughter so if you happen to get the correct number please email it to me and I'll post it. mcswans@cox.net. I can also be reached at 760-458-0797. Thanks, Crista :)

Getting Ready!

So after over a year of planning, and some major disappointments, we are finally taking off from LAX tonight for our trip to Honduras! It is going to be a very fun night, as our flight leaves at 12:30 am, we have a 3 hour layover in Houston, and then get into San Pedro Sula at 11:00 only to sit through a 4 hour bus ride. I'm predicting a good nights sleep. (Who planned this anyway???! oh wait... that was me) But despite the long night ahead we are all excited. Putting the finishing touches on our packing and hopefully we don't forget anything major.

I hope everyone keeps us on their minds and wishes for a safe trip for us! No coups while we are there would be nice. Check back for an update on our adventures. We will miss you all and happy spring break!

Sincerely,

The Honduras Travelers

New Blog Created for HHK Trip

Hope you all have a safe, fun, and rewarding trip in Honduras.