North Coast Road Trip

Destination: The North Coast
Budget: $200
Plans: none, avoid tourists
People: Elena, Phanie, and me

We decided against going to the tourist trap Roatan and instead decided to tour the North Coast with basically no plans. I was in charge of the budget and keeping track of who owes who, calling the hotels, making reservations, and finding the bus routes. Phanie was in charge of contacting an ONG to get a school project out of the way, and Elena was in charge of....bring a phone charger.

We randomly met a lot of very unique and fun people along the way, and got a lot of connections and free lunches :)

Saturday: Left at 6:15am and arrived in Tela before noon. Found our hotel Mango, did a short photo shoot on the beach, and headed off to the central park to people watch. This is where we got our first phone number from a random guy...no worries, Phanie had her pepper spray in hand.

Sunday: Spent the day at the beach, and looked for a restaurant on top of a large hill for dinner. On the way there, we got a little lost and ran into Roberto, a local Garifuna artist. He showed us where to go and invited us to his gallery the next day. We ate at a gorgeous restaurant with a beatiful look out, but didn{t realize that taxes were not included in the final price, and didnt have enough money to pay. Thankfully, we realized on the bill that the tip is optional, so we left the money and Phanie explained that we weren{t leaving the full bill because we honestly didnt have enough money.

Monday: Walked 30 minutes to Roberto and his brother Cruz art studio. Cruz talked to us for about 2 hours about his philosophies of life, beliefs, and culture. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We then took a bus to La Ceiba.

Monday afternoon: Arrived at Hotel Olas del Mar (ocean waves resort) and got a bit dissapointed. Although I was told twice on the phone that the price included breakfast, the cafeteria was under construction. And it was raining, so we were all a bit depressed that day.

Tuesday: We woke up early and got in a mini bus to head off to Sambo Creek to take a small boat to the Cayos Cochinos Islands. We were a bit confused as 2 older men got in and started arguing and making a big fus with our driver. There names were Bud and Grover, 2 old men who own a house on the island. Just our luck! They chatted away with us and explained that they had been waiting for 4 days to get to their island but it has been raining so they couldnt leave. Grover sells large garage doors, and Bud is a retired mountain hiker guide. Talk about 2 funny weird old men. Needless to say, they lent us a plastic bag so we wouldnt get our stuff drenched on the boat ride, and offered to let us eat lunch with them in their island house. We dropped them off on their island, and took our own tour. Our tour guides name is Exon, and he is a Garifuna man who knows everything. We snorkled in the second best barrier reef in the world, and I cannot even begin to describe the ocean floor. Vibrant colors, huge fish, Baracudas, all kinds of incredible animals. The pictures will describe more than words.

For lunch we met up with our two new friends, where we laughed histerically at their stories and ideas. They served us tuna salad with red wine. They offered us to stay there the whole week, but we didnt bring anything with us so we turned it down. The last part of our tour was on an island called Chachauate with a Garifuna community, where Phanie got 2 marriage proposals. We were offered a hotel room for the night as well. We also saw pink boas, which only exist on 2 of the Cayos islands in the whole world. Pretty sweet.

Wednesday: We visited a Garifuna Justice ONG that fights for Garifuna rights in Honduras in the afternoon, and then we spent 3 hours at the bank trying to figure out Elena{s bad credit habits. :)

Thursday: We arrived at the Quinta Real hotel for our last night. We spent the day lounging at the pool and ocean, and went out for fresh fish at night. We slept so good that night in huge comfy beds without ants or other insects or wierd smells.

Friday: Woke up to a bit of a rainy day, but had a huge free breakfast (finally). We walked the beach in the light rain and Elena and I had a big ping pong match. We met a man named John from New Mexico who just built a resort in Roatan, and he offered us a free weekend trip there. So many connections! We took the bus home friday afternoon and arrived home about 9pm.

All in all, we got to see 3 cities and visit different communities in the Cayos Cochinos Islands. We met a lot of interesting people and got to see a lot of incredible things, wihtout falling into tourist traps and english speaking people.

Now its a few weeks of class, a week trip to Guatemala, and then I{ll be home!
I hope to post pictures on facebook before Monday!