Sick day

Today is a sick day. Right now, I'm at home, feeling weak and wobbly from food poisoning last night. It wasn't enjoyable, but it has passed. The exciting thing is that we now have an Internet connection at our house, so I am able to easily connect with the rest of the world. What a moment this is!

This past weekend was a four-day weekend. Friday was a national holiday (Dia de la Raza, Day of the Race), and we didn't have school yesterday. On Friday, my roommate Jessica and I journeyed to the capital, Tegucigalpa, in order to resolve passport issues at the Oficina de Migracion. When we arrived a month ago, we were the only volunteers to check "volunteering" as our reason for being here, and were thus awarded a thirty-day permit to be in the country. The other volunteers, who checked "tourism," received ninety days to be in the country. This makes sense, right? Tourists spend money; volunteers do not. Fortunately, all went smoothly and we're now clear to be here until mid-December. Who knows what will happen at that point? We may have to cross the border and reenter to obtain another ninety-day permit.

I'm not a huge fan of Tegucigalpa. Each time I've passed through the city, gray clouds hang over the slum-like neighborhoods stacked on the mountainside, adding to the depressed atmosphere of the capital city. But on Friday, we did have the opportunity to stay in a nice hotel (with hot water) in the center of the city. Later, we met up with our friends Mateo and Angel (both are CUSSO volunteers living in Juticalpa), went to the mall, ate Quizno's and Dunkin Donuts and saw The Bourne Identity Ultimatum. Small thrills.

On Saturday, another volunteer, Brendan, met up with us in Tegus and the three of us took a seven-hour bus ride to La Ceiba, a city on the Caribbean Sea, on the North Coast. La Ceiba is known as the party city of Honduras; while we were there, we sipped pina coladas, listened to reggaeton and dined under a straw hut by the sea. The next day, we took a guided hike to El Bejuco waterfall in the cloud forest of Pico Bonito National Park. Within the first five minutes of the hike, I fell into Rio Cangrejal during the river crossing and my clothes were completely soaked. The hike was rainy, beautiful, but very challenging. All of us slipped several times on wet rocks and left the forest with bruised knees and elbows. I didn't realize until later that we had been hiking at an elevation of over 7,000 feet. That night, we stayed at an Eco Lodge in the park and hung out with new acquaintances from Germany and North Carolina. Yesterday, we traveled the full ten hours back to Juticalpa by bus. I don't mind bus rides here, though. The drivers usually play bachatta or American 80's music and the scenery outside the window is amazing. The entire terrain of Honduras is mountainous and at this time of year, everything is green and gorgeous. The window seat is the perfect place for reading and reflection.