Fiesta time!

We stayed in a city in Honduras, called La Ceiba for a few days as the biggest party of the year went on. According to some, it´s the biggest party in Central America. It lasts a week long and it it´s to celebrate a saint... can´t remember which one. It was full of all the things a fair would have; cotton candy, singing and dancing, food vendors, beer, jewelery and trinkets and all sorts of things.
Some people from the parade in costumes.
Our favorite meal there. Baked potato with refried beans (so good), and pickled vegetables and salsa on the side. Yum! And beer.

Some parts of the streets were so packed, you literally couldn´t move. This was a good time to hold onto your wallets and keep a hand on your purse.

Our favorite restaurant at the party.

They let kids gamble! Just fun little games, but still... strange to see.
I got my hair braided there.


Fun fun fun!

Parrots!

Yes, there are parrots here... neat, isn´t it? We´ve seen them a few places, but these ones are from Honduras, at a site we went to to see some old Mayan Ruins, in a place called Copan.

It´s all about the ocean floor now.

The seaweed is always greener, in somebody else´s lake. You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake. Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor. Such wonderful things surround you. What more is you lookin´for!!? Under da sea...

Hey all! Just a little update here. I have some very exciting news! Dan and I are now official SCUBA divers! We are certified to dive on our own, any where in the world, for the rest of our lives. We are certified to dive down as far as 18 meters, which is what we dove down to yesterday... actually, we went down as far as 20 meters when we were looking at a sunken ship.

We know what to do if we run out of air under water, how to share air with our buddy, how to get water out of our masks when under, how to navigate using a compass, how to equalize the pressure in our air spaces as we descend (ears, sinuses and lungs), how to float weightlessly without touching the surface or bottom of the ocean using the air in your lungs, how to set up and take apart all of our equipment, and a whole lot of other skills. It´s really quite amazing, I think. :)

We´ve been on a tropical island in Honduras, called Utila, for about a week now and this island´s primary industry is Scuba diving. They thrive and live off of students who come here to learn how to dive, just like we did. There are plenty of schools to choose from and a whole lot of different dive sites to go to, filled with things that you couldn´t dream up if you tried.

Our team. The guy in the middle is our instructor, Chris. The 2 in the bikini tops were students, like us and the other 2 girls are dive masters, who assisted us when diving.

Scuba practice in the shallow water.


The boat loaded with our equipment.

Dan setting up his weight belt.

Hoover, our boat driver. He always played reggae music and sang on the boat, great guy!

The island is on the Caribbean side of the country, so the water is about 28 degrees celsius and the vibrant colors vary between teal, blue and green. Imagine slowly deflating your jacket and sinking down to the bottom of the dive site. Ears popping and hurting as the pressure builds, causing you to breath faster or slower than normal, and you are trying not to hold your breath, so your lungs don´t explode, but you want to hold your breath, cause when you are in pain, you tend to breath in a strange way or you go as far as holding your breath for periods of time. As all this is happening, you are wondering why you are doing this to yourself. But, then your ears finally equalize and the pain is gone and your breathing returns to a normal, in, out, in, out. Remember not to breath in through your nose, cause by now there is water in the nose part of the mask and it´s gonna be there for the remainder of the dive. Baby bubbles or big bubbles, whatever, just be sure to always breath - the most important rule in scuba diving.

Now you are down there and surrounded by fish you have never seen before, sting rays swimming along the sandy surface, walls and clumps of colorful coral and sea plants, fish swimming in, around and out of it all. Tiny little garden eels poking their heads out of the sand, swaying back and forth with the current, popping their heads down as you swim over them. They look like grass, but they´re not... they´re alive and watching you. We saw a few sea horses! I spotted one of them and he was pregnant... yes, HE. Crabs, jelly fish and other strange things all around you. This world exists and most people never get to see it and it´s just crazy! I´ve always looked at the ocean and thought about how beautiful it is and how nice it sounds as the waves hit the shore. But, now, I look at the ocean a little differently, cause I know a little more about it, I know that we know more about the moon´s surface than we do about the ocean and all it´s special little secrets. I know that I am lucky to be a part of it´s world, if only for a little while at a time.

Anyways, I just wanted to share a little of what I have been experiencing over here in my world. We´re going on 2 dives tomorrow morning, which I am more than excited about!

El Salvador= mostly El Sickador

We went to El Salvador for a week or so and unfortunately Dan was sick for 2 of those days and I was then sick for 2 days after he got better, so, unfortunately we didn´t see too much there. But! We did go on a hike to some really amazing water falls and that was definitely the highlight of that country for us. A guide took us along the trails, he was sporting a machete, as all the men there do, and off we went.

Just as we had built up a nice sweat, we came upon some falls that had a big, clear and cool pool of water at the bottom of it. So, of course we swam and floated around in it for about an hour and felt like we were in a movie or something. It was refreshing and absolutely gorgeous. Then onto 3 more waterfalls. It was a great day.

Our guide standing in front of his house.



There was some crazy guy who kept climbing up the cliffs, as the water poured over them and jumping off them and into the pool, which I think was crazy.... Dan and I cringed every time he jumped, fearing the worst.

Then after plunging into the pool from the ledge, he would stand up here and hang out for a while, which again, made us soooo nervous!

I love markets!!

Baby for sale!! we have boys and girls and this one is only 100 bucks and you get a free bag of Thyme with him! And, I am just kidding... but I kinda wanted to ask how much for the baby, but didn´t want to freak out the vendor.

In every city and town we have been to so far there has been some sort of a market there. They are so much fun to wander around in. The vibrant colors and interesting and original art work one finds. The carvings, paintings, food, spices, clothes and the jewlery!! Oh man, the jewlery here is like nothing you will find in Canada. So unique and reasonably priced. Beautiful and precious stones, tightly weaved braclets and necklaces, cocunut jewlery, bone jewlery and the list goes on. The food all in baskets, overflowing with fruit and vegetables and color!

The vendors calling out to you as you pass them buy, ¨Come in! Look closer! Try it on! Pick it up!¨.

To that I usually say,¨just looking, thanks¨. Or, sometimes I say, ¨Sure I will, and how much is it?¨(all in Spanish, of course!)

I then give a look of suprise! Then I ask them to sell it to me for half the price they just said.

Look of suprise from the vendor follows. (I expect this, it´s all part of the game).

Then they give the counter offer, and I give mine, which is slightly over half of what they asked for in the first place and we all look like we are deep in thought and considering saying no, and then BAM! The sale. It´s great, but you have to be in the mood for it. Above are some pics from some markets that I have been to.

Our family... we love them!

Here´s Dan handing out stickers to the kids and their friends. That was hectic. They had their little hands all over the stickers, trying to get their share. Ana is making a face at the camera.

It was little Ana´s birthday on Wednesday. Ana is the one wearing green. She turned 5. There was a party at the house. All the kids from Ana´s class came over and had cake and sang and ate lots of candy. Ana was running around laughing and smiling the whole time. After they finished singing ´Happy Birthday´to her, her mom dunked her face in the cake... that was funny.

This is Tina. She´s the mother of the family. She´s an amazing cook and she always sits and talks with us, in Spanish, about everyday things. She works hard everyday, from 5 am til 8 pm around the house. Washing clothes by hand, sweeping, cooking, sewing clothes for the family, etc. She always has a smile on her face. Such a sweetie.
This is our family that we are staying with. They are the best! Dan and I are having a great time wih them. Yesterday we all went to the beach and went swimming. We played frisbee and splashed around in the lake for an hour or so. It´s like having 2 little sisters and a little brother. They come in our room, jump on us and our beds. I have been drawing pictures for the kids and they´ve been coloring them with the felts and crayons that we bought them. Today I am going to paint the girls´nails pink!