Villa Helen's Hotel & Restaurant La Ceiba

... outs that we have had since entering the mainland of Honduras. Not sure why but electricity in Honduras and Nicaragua seems to be a bit of a problem. We were walking down a suburban street trying to get back to the bar that sold $1USD beers when all the lights went out. This should have been ok except we remembered that there were human sized pot holes all over the place...<br><br>

... finding a cosy spot on carpet underneath the escalators and had a surprisingly decent night&#8217;s sleep. At 10am the next day, we boarded our flight direct to Vancouver.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>< br><br> We arrived a few hours later, made our way from the airport to the American Backpackers Hostel in Downtown Vancouver and promptly headed to the pub for a cold beer and our first poutine &#8211; a Quebecan delicacy of hot chips covered in gravy and ...

... Time to turn around and head back! Stopped at the grocery store, half to pick up stuff for (what we thought would only be) the next 2 days and half for the wonderful AC inside. Back at the Hostel we had the chicken tamales we picked up from a street vendor and then had a nap in the hammocks until our ride showed up. <br><br>Our ride turned out to be a massive green bus that I'm positive was originally an army vehicle. The thing was enormous and the whole way up to the ...

So, our fist stop (apart from the changes in buses) in Honduras was la Ceiba. It is an small town (I would say a village) in the Caribbean cost of Honduras. Itself is not a very interesting town, but is a good point to go to several very nice places, natural reserves and islands. Again, our lack of money made us taking a decision on concertrate ourself in just one of all possibilities. We chosen "Utila", an Istald near La ceiba, wher people ...

... she sat at the front of the bus with the driver until her stop. Very random. The next bit was the ferry crossing across to Roatan. We sat outside to get a better view and some sun. Sick bags were handed out and dustbins were placed in easy reach, which was a very bad sign. I could see that it was blowing a good force 5 to begin with which rapidly turned into a force 6-7 with waves for 2-3 meters high. It was heavy going. The ...

... close to Puerto Cortez and cruising through some pretty good swells (10-15 feet). I was sitting below the edge of the roof and all of a sudden a stream of water came sloshing down on me off the roof! I was completely drenched and now sitting in a pool of water! Oh well. I was dry soon enough, with a crusty layer of salt on my skin, although my skirt stayed wet until I got off the boat. At about 2 o'clock, we ...

I thought I had it all figured out, when I made my plans to leave Utila. There are 2 boats that leave...6 am & 4pm. Having experienced the afternoon crossing, I bought a ticket for the morning sail. Thinking that it would be not be as rough as the wind would not have had all day to build up the sea's....wrong... I was a real hero on the way over...even giving up my puke bag....and not having to use it...( a first for me )... Well ...

... have the lingual confidence to give the response to certain grammatical questions although she likely knows the answer. Regardless, I was quite elated to see such marked improvement. And finally the children's jovial attitude towards me was treat as always but felt even more special this week. In some respects however I felt that I had left some things incomplete. I wanted to help Iris more with her computer skills but it became challenging to find some common time where Iris and I were ...

... there as Maidelyn was about shopping for the supplies. Arriving at the orphanage they were estatic to see all this food. Actually, they had been excited all this week because it seemed that every day I was involved in bringing some mass of supplies over to them. They were truly grateful beyond words. What was further enriching about this experience was that Jeff, Maidelyn and the two boys had never been to Casa Feliz. They had only heard me, and other volunteers, talk about it ...

... this before. La Ceiba is unlike anything I've seen before either. It seems to be growing - construction everywhere! Even here at this hotel. Tourism is what makes this town the third largest in Honduras. The value of tourists was exemplified when a police truck escorted our bus from the airport. I've seen a few rifles today, at the airport, on the street, and on the security guards around the beach. We plan to do a city tour mañana.