I think today was probably one of the best days I have ever had on and off of the island by far. It was also just a roller coaster of a day in general. My day started at 6 am instead of my usual last minute "It's almost 8 am and you better get out of bed or else you don't get breakfast" ritual. Today Austin and I were being sent into La Ceiba with the two guests (two older really kind women, one of which took the picture of me going into the water with Danny the boat captain), with a list of snacks from the girls on the trip, and a bit of nerves about the boat ride and being in La Ceiba with limited Spanish knowledge. Luckily, Thomas, the student had woken up too and decided that he was going too which was a relief because of his fluency in the language. We had been waned that the boat ride out and back in could be rough but it was one of the best mornings we could ask for and we didn't even get a single splash. The women behind us were covered in their massive raincoats because they had gotten one of the worst rides of the 3 weeks we had been here and didn't want to repeat the process but everything went smoothly. The boat ride only took about 45-50 minutes and when we got to shore Neeto (the guy who drove the boat for us) put us in the nicest cab I have ever been in. It was a clean, not smelly or dirty, Toyota sedan of some sort with a large, olderish man in a hot pink polo shirt who drove us to the La Paiz grocery store where we struggled to find what everyone wanted. The hottest commodities on the island are chocolate and peanut butter which are both imported, very expensive, and thus not in high demand so hard to find in the stores. We looked ridiculous and were slightly embarrassed wheeling the cart of junky snacks down the aisle. Some of the stuff we were able to find and others, such as the peanut butter seemed nonexistent. I was happy to get some good coconut and chocolate sandwich galletas, mango and tropical flavored aloe drink, and some ganabana powdered drink mix. These small, common cookies have been such a treat and I am savoring them like gold nuggets. After we finished shopping we headed over to the La Colonia where Austin and Thomas got chicken and beef emapanadas with a tamarind juice while I looked on an sipped on an out-of -this-world, to-die-for papaya blended ice and milk drink. Ice on the island is not common and so a cold blended drink was one of the best treats! Not to mention is was smooth and sweet and everything that we don't have here. The entire thing was 137 Lempiras which we got a 21.85=$1 exchange rate (really good mind you) on! You do the math my friends. ;)
After the Colonia we headed back to stand in front of Hotel Paris where we stayed coming in to wait for Roger and Chris (Adam's wife) to return with the taxi that would take us back to the boat. We ended up hanging out way longer than we thought but it was perfectly fine with me. The temperature was perfect and a small bustling city was hurrying by us. The streets were lined with pirated movies and CDs from all over the world with hand printed album art, women hanging up brightly patterned clothing outside their shops with music blaring from within, stray dogs lolloped along, women hurried by with children on their hips or balanced precariously on their bicycles, and cars loudly beeped their horns at every single moving object that was in their general vicinity. Across the street we saw older men smoking cigarettes, playing dice, reading the paper, and drinking coffee or coconut water out of bags with holes poked in them. Two things that we say while we rested under the weathered awning of the hotel were: a man dressed in huge red and white plaid from head to toe with really fancy sunglasses on that made him look like a bouncer and woman with a large square plastic tub of corn tortillas balanced on her head crossing the perilous street without a care in the world. I think that the funniest thing I saw was your stereotypical emo kid walking down the street wearing a Walking Dead t-shirt. Oh how quickly America culture permeates every other country in the world.
Finally Chris came up to the hotel and it was time to go. It's funny to see how living on an island where time isn't really a concept transfers to meeting a deadline that you are already an hour late for. It turned out that it didn't even matter though because after we had loaded up the boat and taken off, we realized that we were in for one of the most beautiful, most peaceful rides of our lives. The only thing that could have made it better Chris said was if there had been dolphins coming up to the boat.
We got back to the exact opposite atmosphere of what we had experienced on the boat ride back. There's a common phrase here that Austin and Adam brought to the group: flimflammed which means you are going to be destroyed essentially. Grace caught us in the water as she was snorkeling and yelled up to that Thomas was gonna be flimflammed. We were all rather confused as to why this was happening but it was soon apparent. Because Thomas was a highschool student and a minor and Dr. Gilchrist was his legal guardian there was a lot of worry about him going off to a very dangerous mainland. The worry was warranted too since Honduras has the second highest death rate in the world, but I can definitely vouch for him and say that he had the best intentions in mind and if we had not had him we would have been out of luck! He took care of everything from telling the cab driver where to drive to where we could get some food to dealing with paying for everything with a good exchange rate. Everyone was upset and worried and there had been some talk of him being sent home but instead he just isn't diving anymore. I am glad that bullet got dodged.
I spent the rest of the day in a constant state of panic pounding out an entire 1000 word essay on symbiosis and then a 2000 word essay on how I would build a tank for an aquarium that wanted an accurately represented coral reef, and on top of that we had class where we were told about even more assignments that were due by the end of the week before we leave and then more that we have due next week that are to be finished remotely. I finally finished my stuff late today and am leaving the editing until tomorrow.
The night was one of the most enjoyable nights of my time. We kicked off the night with sitting around with most of the staff plus Dr. Gillman, and Austin with Guiffiti which is a medicinal drink that is made by the local Garifuna people that Adam had bought. The whole night was pleasant with crazy stories from the island of Utila (known as the young people's place) and times that various staff members worked in the bars and dive shops around the crazy island. Some of them seemed like they couldn't be true but they are apparently. Look up Utila on youtube and you'll see what I mean. We sat around talking and arguing over the dumbest of things such as the name of certain nuts in various languages, talking about our dogs at home, and the actual lyrics of stupid Christmas songs. It was really funny to see Dr. Gillman come out of his quiet shell. After everyone started heading off we moved out to the dock to see the brightest Milkyway and bioluminescence I have ever seen in my life. I can't explain how great the night was because it sounds really normal but people were relieved their assignments were done, there were massages being given, music being played occasionally, and laughs echoing across the water. I am really going to miss this place and the people that are here. Gnight!
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