La Ceiba - Part II

We woke up around 8am on Saturday morning, ready to get our grub on! We hit the breakfast buffet - and we hit it hard! The food was decent, but I think the thing that impressed us the most was the abundance. I always get ´buffet shock´ anytime I encounter one. So many choices, such a small plate! I get so overwhelmed and excited about all the options that I nearly always go overboard at a buffet (I often try to avoid them for this reason alone!) This case was no different! The worst part though came next - putting on a bathing suit after stuffing myself like a Thanksgiving dinner turkey! I still don´t quite get the whole ´beach resort´and all inclusive ´all you can eat´buffet combination?! A ´juice fast beach resort´makes more sense to me. I mean, who wants to get in a two piece after eating so much food! It is a catch 22 because since your food is all included in the price of the hotel, you want to take advantage and fill up! Who knows?! I am just kidding though...I love it!

So anyway, we were out on the beach resting and relaxing (trying to kick our food coma) by around 10:30am. It was so great to just lay back, listen to the waves, and not have a care in the world (for a change!) A few hours later we relocated to on of the private pools where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We retreated inside around 4:00pm, just in time to get in a game of Scrabble before dinner. We decided that we were buffet-ed out, so we opted to go into town for dinner. We settled on a seafood joint called ´Arrecife.´ Everything looked good on the menu, so we chose a seafood sampler platter for 4. The thing was HUGE, could have fed all 6 of Greg´s brothers (and they eat a TON)! It was tasty, but by the end, we had hardly made a dent in the thing! (The photo to the right was taken once we finished eating!) Afterward, we went home and hit the sack. We had a long day ahead - of snorkeling, visiting Cayos C0chinos (13 small islands off the coast of Honduras) oh and of course, the 6 hour intense drive home. Check out the following link for more information about Cayos Cochinos: http://www.hondurastips.honduras.com/english/cayoscochinos.htm

The boat arrived at 8:30am on the beach to take us out to the islands. After a pretty rough 40 minute ride, we landed on the first island. It was beautiful! The powdery sand sparkeled like sugar crystals and the water was transparent aqua. We walked around a bit, then boarded the boat to check out more islands. 3 of them were off limits for the conservation of the natural habitat of sea turtles (one of the few places in the world that they inhabit.) We went snorkeling off of the coast of Cayo Mayor (the biggest island) where we got to see part of the world’s second largest barrier reef system. What a cool experience! After that, we headed over to Chachauate Key where 200 Garifuna people live (Visit this link http://www.garifuna.com/ for more details on the Garifuna. It is very interesting!) Anyway, it was so fascinating! About 200 people ranging from babies to ederly folks all living on this small island in huts constructed from grass, palm branches, and sticks - complete with a natural sand floor. They make money there by selling handmade jewley and food (lobster, fish, rice, and beans) to visitors. There is no doctor´s office, no grocery store, no electricity, only a small community out house-type bathroom, a couple pulperias (little convenience shops that sell necessities, usually the front room of someone´s house) and a homemade open flame oven and stove (see photo left). They had several canoes docked on the shore, for entertainment and transportation. It was really hard to take it all in - I just couldn´t imagine their lifestyle! Sure, it would be amazing to live on a beautiful island and be surrounded by breathtaking views, but I mean, they are basically living in tiny, poorly constructed huts, all connected together and cut off from the rest of the world! They love it though, and they seem very happy there! It was amazing how they just opened up their homes and just let us intervene and watch as they went about their daily duties. We hung out with the local people for about 2 hours then we headed back to the La Ceiba shore.

It was around 2pm when we got back to the hotel and we knew we should get heading back to Comayagua. As we loaded the car, I noticed that I was misisng my flip flops. One of the front desk staff gave us the villa key (we had already checked out earlier that morning) and told me I could look in the room. We decided that this would also be a good opportunity for us to change out of our bathing suits too, so we grabbed our bags and headed back inside. Sure enough, I found my shoes and after putting on dry clothes, we were on our way out of town. Not even 5 minutes into our trip though, we hit our first police road block. This time we wern´t so lucky....we were pulled over! Thank goodness my dad was driving (since he actually has a valid US Driver´s License) and we had a Spanish speaker with us, Jenny! After dealing with several different officers and exchanging a lot of paper work, the head policeman let us go (about 10 minutes later). Whew! We were all super nervous! God surely had his favor upon us! Most of the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful (just how we like it!) When we got back to Comayagua (around 9pm) we dropped Jenny off, then headed back to our apartment.

Greg popped the trunk and began unloading our things. He then came to the back seat to get our bag (we shared one of his big lacrosse equippment bags). I told him it wasn´t back there - he told me the trunk was empty! Please tell me your kidding me and we didn´t really leave our luggage 6 hours away in La Ceiba! Sure enough, when we went back to change our clothes in the villa, we managed to leave our bag behind! Unbelievable! Leave it to the Bice´s to do such a thing! Howevever, we were so exhausted at this point, that we didn´t really care! At least we got home safely, we told ourselves! That pretty much sums up our La Ceiba trip! We had a great time exploring more of this beautiful country and spending quality time with friends and family (and Alicia too, of course!)

EPILOGUE:
We found out at school on Monday that one of our Honduraño coworkers (from La Ceiba) was going there the following weekend to visit. Fortunately, he was able to retreive our bag and we got it back safe and sound! God sure looks out for us here, I´m telling you! It is truly amazing!

P.S. We still have not unpacked it yet....