¡Hola Amigos y Familia! I apologize in advance for the crappy writing....Alyece seems to be the pro at this...but I figure I better say something once and a while.
I am not sure where we left off, but I think it was in Utila (one of the Bay Islands in Honduras). We happened to bump into our lovely Scottish friend James (who we were certain was long gone) and decided to stay for the night and leave bright and early at 6am to head back to La Ceiba on the mainland, on our journey towards Nicaragua. Our day In Utila was wonderful....as usual the sun followed us and we happened to be there for the first day of sun in two weeks. We wandered around the island, feeling a bit bummed that we weren´t doing our diving course, being that it seemed the whole island was just a series of dive shops. We did happen to catch an amazing sunset, which made us both feel like we were in a different world.
Then, we decided to go for a few drinks at a local bar .....
Which led to a couple of hangovers on the boat ride over to La Ceiba the next morning. 
We picked up a couple delightful ladies on the way over, Natalie, a lovely dutch girl, and Yaela, a full of personality Israeli chica. We all decided we would stay in La Ceiba for the day and head to the Jungle River Lodge for a forest canopy tour before carrying on. 
(grabbin´ some grub before heading out)When we arrived at the jungle lodge we couldn´t believe the beauty of the place. It was set isolated in the river valley of the jungle and we just happened to have good weather.... yet again.
We were extremely lucky because just a week and a half before the flooding had gotten so bad and the river had risen so high it had come over the pools and left them full of sediment. The locals were still digging them out with buckets and shovels and it looked like it was going to be a long job. It was pretty insane to picture being how far up the pools were from the water level in the river. 
Anyway, no one there seemed to be in too much of a hurry to take us out, so we decided to go for a swim and relax before zip-lining over the jungle.
One thing we could have lived without at the lodge was the insane amount of large black biting ants that seemed to be everywhere. The bites were none to pleasant and even running as fast as you could through the lodge you couldn´t seem to avoid them. It got even more fun when we realized they were starting to infiltrate our room. Even though there were 7 single beds in our room, Alyece and I decided to share a bed that night. 
On the upside, the two parrots that lived at the lodge were pretty cool and one took a liking to me, following me around everywhere, even into my room and my bed....
After a few hours of hanging out and checking the place out, our guide, Darwin, came around to get us ready for canopying. He was as charming and charismatic as all our guides have been, with an equally cool (and what we think is a made up) name. We figured it may not be coincidental that our guides names have been, Jesus, Elvis, Caesar and now Darwin. Ha Ha. 
(getting ready to head out)We started off wandering through the jungle, where James and Alyece were convinced by Darwin to eat live termites (he said they were really good for you)....I definitely wasn´t going to fall for that one. The tour was a really good time and we took eight lines over the river and through the jungle, Donkey Kong style! As always, Alyece was a show off with perfect technique...never falling short and having to pull herself part of the way...like some of us.
(me cruisin´ over the river)
(poisonous mushrooms: Darwin said in Spanish...you eat and you will die)
(Sergeant Alyece) After canopying we had an awesome dinner at the lodge and we all hit the sack at the crazy hour of ....about 8 pm. The next day we headed to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. It took us all day to travel so we decided to stay there for the night. Of all the big cities we´ve been to, this one was actually quite nice. Maybe it was because the weather was great, or maybe it was that people wern´t harassing you everywhere you walked. We decided we were going to spend a day there before Nicaragua to take a hike and look over the town, catch a futbol game and see the new James Bond in movie theatre there.
One thing we noticed about Tegucigalpa, was everywhere we went we semed to attract a following of street children.
Particularly James, who seemed to be a crowd favorite.
(the children amused at seeing their faces on film)
After wandering the town in the morning, we decided to head up to see a monument in the hills. The two girls opted out, So James, Alyece and I headed up for a beautiful walk with an awesome view of the city. 
On multiple occasions, one, or both of us, nearly got hit by passing vehicles and James kept telling us we were both crazy. As we wandered up the hill into a sort of shanty town we saw many many broken down cars
and tons of barbed wire...everywhere. 
(we loved the hearts on the fence, juxtaposed by barbed wire)
We didn´t make it all the way up to the monument being that it was getting close to futbol time, but we definitely had a good time chatting with the street kids and a local drunk man, and got a good enough view from part way. 
We bolted back to pick up the girls and headed to the futbol game. On our way there we obviously had to pick up some Honduran jerseys....just so that we could look cool! 
The game was as exciting as I expected...... 
But, we somehow ended up in a barbed wire closed off section away from most of the fans. The whole top of the field was barb wired and there were lots of cops in full gear on the field and with the fans. We didn´t see any fights though, which was a bummer; probably because there didn´t seem to be any of the opposing teams´ fans at the game. 
(What James says is his face for every emotion) 
(Beer and Pizza!!)
(Apparently also a good place for political campaigning)
After an already super full day....we headed to the huge shopping mall in the city to catch the newest James Bond flick. It was crazy to see a real shopping mall, even fancier than the malls in North America. The food court was totally packed with American chains like Wendy´s, Burger King, Pizza Hut and even Quizno´s. The majority of the population would definitely not be able to afford to shop there...it seemed out of place in the city. Nevertheless, we were excited to have some American fast food and see a Hollywood blockbuster...and even though the movie was slightly disappointing we had a great time. Definitely a full day!
In the morning we were headed to cross the border to Nicaragua to the northern town of Esteli. We knew we were in for an entertaining bus ride when we saw the ¨Jesus is Love¨ sign on the front of the bus, accompanied by a traveling priest who preached to everyone as we went.
We made it across the border with not much trouble and had a quiet night. The next day we decided to run/hike to a nearby waterfall. The whole journey turned out to be over 2 hours there and another 2 hours back. I didn´t realize how unfit I was until I saw James and Alyece pulling away, rather rapidly, and some locals laughing at me, calling me ´red face´ in Spanish. 
We all made it though, and when we arrived we didn´t realize that it was actually a Natural Reserve and we brought pretty much NO dinero (money). The park entrance fee was the huge amount of 15 cordobas (about $0.70) and between the three of us we couldn´t even make the amount for one of us. Feeling terrible, we begged the boy to let us in and James proceeded to pay him in our three granola bars....he seemed to be pretty satisfied with it though. The place was amazing. The fact that James and Alyece had dragged me there on foot, we were lucky enough to just miss the morning bus leaving and the late bus arriving and there was no one there at all. 
We were all smoking hot and quickly went for a dip in the very brisk water. We relaxed, swam through the waterfall and caught a little sun before making the trek back.
(heading back, with the herd of cows)After some great food, we went to bed early in preparation for our next adventure. Again, waking up at my favorite time, about 5 am, we got ready to take the bus to Miraflor, a large area of farms and countryside just out of town, to ride some horses through the mountains and coffee plantations. We were both slightly worried having never had any experience with a horse before. Luckily we had another great guide, Edwin.
Alyece and I were the last two to get horses and when we got on, with pretty much no instruction, we headed out. Neither of our horses listened or responded to anything and were definitely on the slower side.....Alyece´s being the worst. 
It wasn´t till the end of the day that we found out they didn´t have enough horses and we both got work horses, generally not riden by people. This may have explained why mine went darting up a steep rock ledge, completely freaking out and the guide had to come save my butt from being thrown to the ground. It may also have explained why they wouldn´t run or gallop without the guide on his horse behind them....whipping them. And then as soon as he stopped our horses would basically stop dead. 
It didn´t matter all that much though, because we saw some amazing scenery and lots of farmers and people working 
and even got to stop off to swim in a waterfall.
On the way back, Natalie managed to snag us a ride in the back of a pick-up...as opposed to waiting another hour for the chicken bus. 
The downside was that our butts were already pretty beaten up from our first ever day of horsebackriding and today all three of us are walking like cowboys. A little sore, we are planning to pack up and head to Matigalpa with James to see another small town and hopefully the organic chocolate farm they have there. Again, travel plans decided by food...
Until next time, Smiles and Hugs :)
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