Adventures in Tela Punta Sud

On Saturday morning I signed up for a trip to Punta Sud. This is a national park which is only accessible by boat. It is part of the reserve named after Jeanette Kawas who worked for many years to try to establish wildlife reserves in this area. There was great resistance to her work from some of the land owners and she was murdered defending the park. However, it is accepted now.

I went for a run but while I was having breakfast, the heavens opened. What I had not realised is that the North Honduran coast receives 150 inches of rain per year and it does not fall as a drizzle either. The meeting time was 7.45 at the tour office which was 3 blocks away from my hotel. I joined the throng gathered at the hotel door waiting for the rain to stop at 7.40. At 7.55, the rain looked as though it had slightly eased and being English, I ran for it. Even though I was wearing my waterproof from walking holiday I arrived absolutely soaked to the bone. As a burst in through the door, I could see a group of Germans who were absolutely dry, immaculate and looked at me as I was something the cat dragged in. We were joined by two honduran groups who arrived in cars. So I was feeling a bit out of place to put it mildly. Anyway, the rain stopped and off we went to the jetty to catch the boat.

The guy in charge (Ramon) said that we would have a 45 minute boat trip to the resort. The Germans confidently put the sun cream on whilst I hoped to dry out a little.
As we were leaving the wind got up and then the rain lashed down. I was sat at the front of the boat.









As we made our journey accross the sea, we were definately getting wet again, the boat hit the top of a wave and we were then in the air. The ladies screamed and the guys groaned when we hit the sea. When we landed in the water, it felt like being hit by a charging Rick Yapp at football. We had 45 minutes of this and it was great fun. I now see why JetSkis are popular. You were never quite sure when you were going to take off or plough on through so we all laughed when the screams petered off.






When we arrived at the reserve, we were taken on a hike. Now this was in theory to see the monkeys and other wildlife. All the wildlife was taking shelter and we saw one solitary monkey up a tree about 30 metres away. Of course, by now the Germans had joined me in being absolutely soaked. They did have a sense of humour though. While a lady took this snap of me, her husband was setting up a position to film the rest of the group trudging along looking pissed off as it would be great for his movie!




However, as it typical of the area, the storm blew over after an hour or so and our hike ended at the beach. Here we could lay out our wet clothes on the banana leaves, have a dip in the Caribbean. There is one family on the beach and they supply the visitors with a lovely lunch of fish. I had a steak from a King fish, yummy with fried plantains(banana). So as you can see, turned out alright in the end.

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Adventures in Tela (1)

Tela.
This is the remains of the jetty at Tela which is now used as a fishing point. The boys tie up their canoes to the remnants.

Well now that you know about Honduras and bananas, I can tell you about my visit to Tela which is on the North coast of Honduras. It has the Caribbean lapping at its beaches so sounds perfect. Tela made its fortune with Bananas but lost its position as the preeminent port in the fifties.

I had the Friday off as school was closed because the kids were off to do something with the "programa" which is another charity involved with the community.

I set off on the Friday morning on the seven oclock bus to San Pedro Sula. This was a nice bus with airconditioning and the trip took three hours. San Pedro Sula is the equivalent of Crewe Railway station in Honduras, all routes seem to go through this rather than the capital Tegus. So the bus station we arrived at is enormous, Victoria would fit into several times. You get off the bus and you get hustled by people wanting you to take a taxi or bus to their destination. It is a free market here and every bus company has their rep trying to get you to catch their bus even if it is not to where you want to go. The other problem that i had was that noone believed I wanted to go to Tela. Conversation went

Tela,
La Ceiba *the popular tourist resort*
No, Tela
La Ceiba
No, Tela
No intiendo

I could not find any signs for Tela as each bus company displays its name and not the route. I guess the locals know who goes where. Anyway, I eventually get a ticket and board a bus. On this bus, the air conditioning was opening the window. This bus certainly had a lot more character, I was the only gringo on it. There were many food sellers who get on the bus. I was surprised at how hygenic they applied themselves. Plastic bag on one hand for handling the food and the other for money or the food was wrapped in clingfilm. Anyway, I was given a sample of a tasty pastry.

We arrived after about two hours at a place called Entrada de Tela so I thought we would soon be there. However after a further 10 minutes, and with a quick consultation I determined that the Entrada was actually as near to Tela as the bus got. You were meant to get off there and catch a taxi into Tela! Needless to say that I did not know this. So I got off the bus and with a quick basic conversation I established that I could catch a bus back. At the moment, I discovered this, the old lady pointed and there was a chicken bus to Tela. The chicken bus is how the locals travel and is an ancient US school bus. So a quick dash and I was aboard. Twenty minutes later and I was in Tela. My hotel was on the beach so it was easy to find but I approached it via the back way so I did not see its best side, which after the hassles of the trip did not put me in a positive frame of mind.

Now this is why I find Americans irritating as a species. When I learnt Spanish from the CD, you were taught to ask for a room with shower(douche) or bath(bano). As I do not have a bath here in Copan, I wanted a bath. Over here, because Americans use the word bathroom for toilet then asking for a room with bano is asking for a room with a toilet so I was back to having a shower.

Anyway, when I finally unpacked, I began to appreciate the hotel and Tela did have some charm. The position of the hotel directly on the beach meant I could go for a run first thing in the morning. Indeed the runs were quite exciting as you also had to wade through a river as well as splashing along the wave edges. The hotel restaurant was recommended for its sea food and I had Conch as in the shell. I thought it was like snail then I remembered that the alternative options were for Conch with garlic or Conch with butter, just like snail.

I also booked for the following day to go onto a trip to Punta Sud so after the journey over, it had turned out fine in the end.

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I think it is time for some education on Honduras and bananas.

The Standard Fruit company was founded in 1899 to plant and ship Honduran bananas to compete with the United Fruit company monopoly based in Costa Rica.

The banana companies cleared land and drained swamps. Port facilities were expanded and rail lines extended to bring fruit to the ports. As there was nothing in governmental services, the banana companies established their own medical and social benefits. Immigrants were attracted for lanour and Lebanase and Syrians became established in Honduras. Research centres were established to study new crops and diseases.
Honduras became the largest exporter of bananas in the 1940s. However, the plantations started to suffer from Panama disease and it was only with proper rotation and planting of new strains and pesticide that saved the industry. Honduras share of the world market has declined and the banana companies have diversified into pineapples, palm oil and cattle but it remains the countries economic engine.

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My class

Well, here are pictures of my ninos. They are my class until "proper" school starts on Feb 11 and then there will be more kids but the current plan is that I will continue with them. They are first grade but to go into second grade they need to do sums with one carry and borrow and to be able to write a simple story and read well. Some have already been in this grade for than one year already. Of course I already love them all and want to bring them home with me.


JoseLouis. We think he is dyslexic so his reading is not good enough to move on. I certainly do not have the skills to change this so it is sad. He is 10. He is the cheeky person but sadly he thinks it is cool to be the big person in the class even if it first grade.



Oto. He is the best at doing the sums but his writing is small and spaces between the words are nonexistant. Sounds familiar to me. He wins most times when we play pairs as he has a good memory. He often says No Puedo (I cant) but I have to say Si Puedo.

Delsi. She is very studious and also is determined.

Elsa. She is quiet but loves to giggle. She is not bad at her sums also.

Daniel. He is a bit shy at first but when he settles in he can be a bit of a handful. He does like a cuddle though. We spend most of today's recreation throwing and catching a ball. Because they do not get enough play when they are small, some of their coordination is a bit off.

Ada. She is an enigma to me. She gets absorbs by certain books and loves to keep looking at them. They are books with big detailed pictures. Her reading is poor and I need to work on that and she does not have a clue with sums, 3 plus 1 gets her guessing. When the class did a difficult word search she was totally absorbed and kept getting it out to do when I was trying to get her to do her sums.

Elsa number 2. You can imagine the confusion with two elsas and a delsi in the class! Like all the rest she is charming and irrestible.

Well then, thats my class. I expect I might get boring and start writing about individual children so at least you can put a face to the name.

I am planning on printing out the pictures so that they can draw their self portrait and write some positive adjectives about themselves and they can take this home with them.

I think I am the lucky one to be here.

My first week teaching

Well that is my first week done of having my own class. I have to say it is pretty scary having 16 eyes looking at you and not speaking any Spanish. There is no chance that I can make it up as I go along so I have to prepare the lessons thoroughly and if there is something I need to explain then I need to script it out as well. And when I write something on the board and I spell it wrong Delsi will come and correct my spelling! I am not sure who is teaching who! Anyway, one of my plans for next week is to take a photo of them all, print them out and get them to draw a self portrait so I will upload photos of them then. Yesterday, I had a girl and it was her very first day at "big school", so there were some tears. I now find I am wondering around trying to think of ideas to entertain the kids and to introduce literacy and numeracy as a by product. Well, it certainly is a big chance from having drs software matters cluttering up my mind.

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Los Sapos and my guide on the hills.

LOS SAPOS. Spanish for frog , toad as a rock here looks like one.




As I enjoyed my last walk, I decided to do another walk. This time it was to Los Sapos which is a collection of rocks and I sussed out the route to do on my own. When I got to the rocks, there was a guide giving an explanation. The rocks are so small that I could not help to overhear so I had the English problem of not wanting to butt in. All was solved when the guide beckoned me over. Anyway this was the Mayan birthing area. The lady lies in the gully in the rocks above, incense is burn on the flat area on the left and the baby is delivered on the flat rock at the front. Various other offerings are made to the gods. It was very interesting as otherwise I would have thought it was a pile of rocks.

When the others had left, there was me and a dog. Normally you stay well clear of dogs in Honduras but this had a collar on and looked well fed. So I said to him La Pintana which is the name of the nearby Chorti village that I was planning to walk onto. Anyway the dog trotted off so I thought I would follow and he led me there. After about 15 minutes of walking around the village and he was bossing all the other dogs there, we set off back but he wanted to go a different way. I went on a lovely walk by a stream, saw more exotic birds and ended up back at his home, the Hacienda where I had a relaxing drink and lunch.

My guide making sure I go the correct way at a footpath junction.


Here are some more snaps from the walk, I enjoyed cooling my feet off in the river. You can certainly see how fertile the land is around here and why the Mayans settled here.

The tastiest oranges.

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Yesterday at School, the guy in the next door plot (this means a shack, it is really poor, but photographs of the community are not allowed so you will have to use your imagination) told the kids they could climb up the tree in his "garden" and shake the tree. You could tell they were used to this by the speed they disappeared up and soon the others were quickly gathering up the oranges. The oranges had a partial grapefruit taste and they were so tasty. In the picture above the kids are peeling the oranges (JoseLuis is squeezing his) around the tap but there is no running water at the moment so water is drawn from a well half a mile away.

Copan Ruins

As I have been in Copan for over a week, I really should go and see the famous Mayan ruins here that give the town its name. They are a pleasant 1 km walk out of town and I went early in the morning when I hoped it would be quieter. The entrance to the ruins is made by walking through a grove that is covering up an old airstrip. It must have been something to land by the ruins. I was not really certain what to expect but when I walked into the Great Plaza, it certainly took my breath away. You could see why this is a world heritage site. What was also better, was that because it was so quiet, it felt very spirtual and had that spooky eerie feeling of following many such people over the ages. If you are ever nearby, you should go.

I was planning to take a guide which everybody recommends but I went straight to the entrance. It did not matter as I found that wondering around with a good guide book worked well as it increased the feeling of awe rather than somebody telling me the facts. I am planning to return because it is so good and I will have a guide next time.

Here are some snaps.



This is part of the residential area. There are other ruins around Copan of more residential areas. There were 20,000 people living in Copan during the reign of Smoke Jaguar *he was followed by 18 Rabbit* this was around 680 AD.

Another temple.

Looking down from the Acropolis on the Grand Plaza.

this is of the ball court which was a Mayan game with a rubber ball. There are several remains of ball courts in Copan vicinity. It is alleged that losers were decapitated as there was a ritualistic aspect to it. Maybe I should bear that in mind for Sunday night football.


Yes, lots of temples. The big feature is the heirogryphical staircase which is the longest writing in the Mayan world. However, it is protected from the elements so you do not get a good picture.

pictures of the school

There are three classes (but only two teachers)

First day in School

I was certainly nervous. It has been a long time since I started a new job and also to have a boss. Charlotte does not like to be decribed as the boss but she cannot come up with a better word. Anyway, it was meet a 7.15 to get into the pickup for the journey into the hills. The roads are the same as in Costa Rico, so it is bumpy.
My fear was very much of the unknown so I was vas anxious when we arrived. There were no children there. Charlotte had explained that it was not proper school time, that starts in February, so she was running Summer School. After the gates wwere opened, two smiling children came down the road. Holas all round and we then started to sweep out the classrooms, the dust is amazing and the leaves were all over the playground. There is no glass in the windows so everything can blow in. The chickens from the houses next door were happily pecking around.
After that we set down to read some books. It is also important part of the project that the Children get fruit each day so Charlotte had bought plenty of fruit so at the end of the day, Rosa and JoseLuis went home with a melon each. They are as delightful as Charlotte had promised as you can see. I felt as though this was not really the first day so I am still anxious.
On the second day there were five children, we now had Otto, Carlos and Samuel also. We did a world map jigsaw so they could see where England was and we played a card game Go Fish. I still feel as though I have not started work but I guess that will not happen until Feb when the proper school starts. there are pictures of Rosa and JoseLuis from the first day above




By the way,they get their school uniform from another charity.

Pictures of Copan

The road up to my room, it reminds me of the Hovis advert everytime that I walk up it which is usually twice a day and a picture of Copan from the hills above. I had taken a hike up into the hills. I can see my room in the picture (trust me)

Learning Spanish

Clearly anybody who knows me knows that I do not speak Spanish and on next Monday I will be teaching a class of 7 to 9 year olds in Spanish. So I have been studying with CD in England before I came out but because of work pressure, I do wish I had done more as I did not complete the CD. The organisation I am with has also included forty hours of Spanish lessons at the Guacamaya school in Copan Ruinas(http://www.guacamaya.com/). It is a lovely school. I am doing twenty hours this week from 8 to 12 in the morning and it will be 10 hours in the afternoon for the following two weeks as I will be at the school in the morning. My teacher (maestra) is Gaby and we have lots of chats about family, we got into sharing medical problems this morning as I was not moving well after the horse riding and she told me that her heart is on the right hand side. Anyway we played a game called Busca (Stop) which reminds me of the games we used to play on camping or on ski holidays. There are categories of words (names of things in the school etc..) and we take in turns to choose a letter and then think of words beginning with that letter. Not surprisingly, I lost. Gaby´s score was 42 so I explained that this was a famous number in England which I think I did quite well with the explanation. Gaby said that 52 was a popular number in Honduras as it signifies the weekend = like 24-7. Anyway I have to go now to do my tarea (homework).


This is Gaby.

Clearly anybody who knows me knows that I do not speak Spanish and on next Monday I will be teaching a class of 7 to 9 year olds in Spanish. So I have been studying with CD in England before I came out but because of work pressure, I do wish I had done more as I did not complete the CD. The organisation I am with has also included forty hours of Spanish lessons at the Guacamaya school in Copan Ruinas(http://www.guacamaya.com/).

It is a lovely school. I am doing twenty hours this week from 8 to 12 in the morning and it will be 10 hours in the afternoon for the following two weeks as I will be at the school in the morning. My teacher (maestra) is Gaby and we have lots of chats about family, we got into sharing medical problems this morning as I was not moving well after the horse riding and she told me that her heart is on the right hand side.

Anyway we played a game called Busca (Stop) which reminds me of the games we used to play on camping or on ski holidays. There are categories of words (names of things in the school etc..) and we take in turns to choose a letter and then think of words beginning with that letter. Not surprisingly, I lost. Gaby´s score was 42 so I explained that this was a famous number in England which I think I did quite well with the explanation. Gaby said that 52 was a popular number in Honduras as it signifies the weekend = like 24-7.

Anyway I have to go now to do my tarea (homework)

My room

The family I am staying with are very nice. The lady of the house is Cori and the head of the house is Otto. They are old hands at having people stay with them, you feel it is a well run machine. Otto has shown me the photograph album from previous guests and the photographs that they send to him when back home. I was pleased to understand from my limited Spanish that an earlier volunteer had celebrated Nov 5th by making a guy and mini bonfire in the gardin. However, my explanation of how Henry 8th had six wives came out the following day that thhere is a religion in England that allows many wives. Do not ask me how we got onto such subjects. The garden is lovely and they have two budgies in a cage in the garden which I think is a shame but at least it is larger than many other cages I have seen.

My room is quite large and I was delighted upon arriving that I needed something that Sam had bought for me for Christmas. It was a plug. Gladly I have not needed the water purifying tablets yet as all the water is bottled.

Cori had me making tortillas but I was useless, apparantely I did not have enough water on my hands and then my hands were too wet. As I write this a large firework has exploded which seems to happen regularly.

Journey to Honduras

Hi

I am still not certain about this blog, is it a diary where I write down my deep thoughts and give profound pronouncements or is it more of a journal. I feel the former may lead to embarrassing Ellen Macarthur moments but we shall see where it goes.



Anyway, it was an early start, 3:15, for the trip to Heathrow. Naturally I gave Matt, Sam and Ollie farewell hugs the night before. Diane very kindly drove down but it was all a bit quiet naturally at that time both inside and outside the car. I thought I had a good deal at the checkin when they promised me an aisle seat in the emergency row but it was not to be when I got on the plane at Madrid but too late to do anything about it then. It was eleven and a half hours flying from Madrid to Guatemala and it certainly dragged. I first looked at my watch and only 2 hours had gone by. I have to say that Iberia seem to have a wierd policy on music playing at take off and landing. Leaving London it was a sort of house music and on the Madrid flight it was children sing songs such as Jingle Bells. Very irritating both times.



Anyway, the time passed by with the help of Will Smith and Jackie Chan and arrived at Guatemala where immigration went smoothly. At the airport, I met Charlotte the project manager and Graham who had also flown on the same flight. It transpired that Graham leaves in Carterton and sometimes works in Enstone. That was a surprise and we chatted about floods in Witney where he works as a parttime postman.



We were taken to Antigua which is a pretty town some 30km outisde Guatemala where GVI also have a project. The hotel was very pretty with candlelight corridor but that was also practical as electricity was erratic.



In the morning, a good breakfast cooked by Rufus who was also coming to Copan. Rufus is a mason and Graham will be spending his week working with him making stoves. I will put in a link to stoves later(http://www.gvi.co.uk/pages/expeditionDetail.asp?page=moreinfo&expedition=111) but essentially they use only a quarter of firewood which is good also for the environment and smoke is ventilated outsde, the number of people having smoke related illnesses is phenomenal and also allow cooking temparatures to better regualted and reduce risk of burning and fires.



The journey to Copan was mean to take about 6 hours but our driver did not have a brake or a break and we made it in four and a half hours. Then it was to meet our host family. Graham had a lovely room looking over Copan. I was further down the hill, he can through a stone onto my house. Again I have a room which iin the house which I will cover in the next post as Diane is on Skype to me.

New Year's Day

Christmas is over so the excuse for inaction is over. The day of departure is now close which was made all the real by starting the anti-malarial tablets and they did taste foul.The field manual from GVI has been scanned several times and a shopping trip made to get all the missing items. I have decided that I would like to listen to CDs so a portable player for under £10 was bought and I burnt copies of my favourite CDs. I had to stop when I realised I had made 23 Cds and still had more to do.
I am meant to get more detailed instructions from GVI but that has not turned up yet, strangely that does not concern me as it adds to the sense of adventure. These days with the internet / email nowhere is out of reach. I have a sense of envy of the days when you sailed over the horizon and you were gone. It has all changed so quickly I realised when I watched the TV documentary on the first rround the world race. The tragic hero (Brian C..) realised that his boat would not survive the Southern Oceans so he pretended he had radio problems, and spent 3 months sailing off Brazil so that he could rejoin the race in last place. These days he would be detected straight away. Anyway, I digress.

It is amazing how the time passes by, I spent a whole morning packing my bag and rucksack to see if it would all fit and how much it would weigh. Despite the time taken, I was pleased to find that it all fitted and will just be under the 20kg limit.

It was nice to get the hugs and wishes from everybody at the New Year's party and I am writing this while U2 are playing "New Year's Day" on Paradise. I am listening on one of my treats / Christmas present to myself, noise cancelling headphones and they are good.

So to any readers, a happy 2008.