Coming Home

So on Sunday I finally arrived back in England after a year in the amazing country of Honduras. I left Central America feeling rather sad at what I was leaving behind but also very excited about what was to come - seeing my family, friends and starting university.

The last couple of weeks at school were amazing. We had a 'despedida' (farewell/sendoff) with the teachers on French Key (they told us we were going to a meeting) where they bought us lunch, gave us presents and we swam in the sea with them all. It was a great day and thanks to all the staff who took us there and helped us celebrate the end of a great year.

The Tuesday of the last week of school was one of the best days of the year. It was our school sendoff. In the morning all the little kids sang and danced and did the most adorable things for us and gave us a few gifts and cards. It was really amazing and showed they really appreciate what Robbie and I have done this year - I guess all the work did pay off.

Then in the afternoon we had a farewell with the afternoon children. They got us to dance and play games in front of them all which they seemed to enjoy, even if I didn't! Oh well, it was a good laugh. Again they gave us lots of lovely presents and a few of my favourite students stayed behind at the end of the day to eat cake with us, it was a great day and one I will not be forgetting anytime soon!

On Thursday, our last day of school, we said our last goodbyes to all the staff and the children at school. This was really quite sad, knowing that I may never see these people again, though one day I will be back to visit, I can assure you of that!

The Friday morning marked the end of our time in Roatan as we went to the ferry with Doris. After an emotional goodbye with her we got on the boat and made it to San Pedro at about 2pm, where we met a few more of the group. We went out and had a great night in San Pedro (and only got 2 hours sleep...) before heading to the airport on the Saturday morning.

We got the plane to Miami which was alright, then we hit the hellish experience that is Miami airport. After being told to 'respect America' because we told an angry security bloke 'this is typical America,' and 'this wouldn't be happening in Heathrow,' we made it through the maze of halls and got to the gate just before the plane left. After an 8 1/2 hour flight we got to Heathrow where I met Dad and Jack and they gave me a lift to Luke's cricket match to end the year just as I started it, and one of Luke's county cricket games!

It's fantastic to see my family again, and I've met up with one or two good friends so it's good to catch up. Yet I'm sure once the initial excitement has worn off I'll really want to go back to Roatan and do it all over again!

So overall it was an incredible year, but I advise you not to ask me the question 'How was your year in Honduras?' because I will not really be able to answer that that quickly, so ask me something slightly more interesting and meaningful if you want to know about it!

Thanks again to all those people who sponsored me, supported me and kept me going over the year - I really couldn't have done it without you. And thank you so much to all my friends and amazing students in Punta Gorda, you helped make this year one I will never forget.

Adios, for the last time,

Sam xx

The Last Visa Run

Our last Visa Run kicked off with me and Robbie as per usual getting a very early and very expensive ferry ride to La Ceiba followed by the bus to San Pedro. There we met Olivia and Alanna and made our way down to Copan Ruinas for the night where we met Bryony who’d been waiting there almost all day!

The next day involved a lot of buses as we made the trek from Copan to Antigua in Guatemala. We arrived at about 7pm after we’d tried to make it to Lago de Atitlan (we were literally running around Guatemala City like headless chickens trying to get to the bus!). We stayed in a great hostel in Antigua and met some really nice people who took us out so we could get to know the city a bit and showed us all the good places to go. We also went to a funfair which was hilarious and went on the bumper cars! The markets in Antigua are amazing and we got some amazing bargains in a second hand market, like jumpers, coats and sweats for 1 quetzal which is about 12 pence.

After Antigua we made our way to Lago de Atitlan which is a really beautiful lake with lots of small towns dotted around it. We spent our time chilling out, swimming in the lake, and as is normal with our group, eating. We also met Magda and Belle at the lake which was really nice because I haven’t spent much time with them at all this year.

We then made our way to Guatemala City to try and sort out our Visas at the migration office. We’d been told by a couple of people this was the way to renew our Visas. However when we got to the office they told us either we had to leave our passports for a week, or go to Mexico. So we went for the second option and got on a bus to the Mexican border. After 7 hours in the bus we arrived at the border at about 11pm, crossed the border, sat around in Mexico for about 40 minutes, crossed back in to Guatemala and got the next bus (at 2.30am) to Guatemala City. A bit of an experience but at least we didn’t have to pay for accommodation that night!

We got to Guatemala City early in the morning and got straight on another bus to San Salvador and then another down to Playa El Tunco, one of our favourite places from travelling. There we met a few nice people from Canada, Australia and even a couple from England. We spent the time there by the pool and at the beach, though the sea was a bit rough to swim in!

We made our way back to Roatan via a few buses and got back here on Monday morning (and ran up to the house and got changed and were teaching 20 minutes after we got back!) ready for our last stint on the island before we head back home to the UK on the 1^st August!

Sorry for the lack of pictures but I didn't actually take any - we had Bryony as the official photographer so she'll have lots of great snaps I'm sure!

See you all very soon,

Sam xx

My Family came to see me!

So just a day after getting back from Mexico I headed to the airport on Saturday morning to meet some folk from England. My family had finally arrived to come and see me and my new home! It was very strange for about the first ten minutes but then it all suddenly became very normal and as if we were never apart. Punta Gorda was our first stop off, where they got into a hotel and we went to Mary Lou’s for lunch. She cooked rice and beans with coconut milk – on of my favourites and it went down pretty well with them all. After lunch and a bit of getting to know Mary Lou, we went to the beach, and because it was the Easter Weekend, there were so many people so it was nice to play in the sea with all the kids, and lots of them wanting to know my family. We also explored Punta Gorda, and met loads of people asking who the ‘gringos’ were! After dinner out, they went to bed quite early very tired after all that travelling and I headed back home.

The next day we all went to church for the Easter Service, which was really good, though I don’t think they understood much of it given their level of Spanish! After church we went for lunch, spaghetti and sweet bread, delicious. After that we went for a swim and down to Perla, where we watched Punta dancing for a while before grabbing some baleadas and pastelitos for dinner before we went to bed.

On the Monday, after quickly going to the school so my family could meet some teachers and the kids, we went to Pineapple Villas in French Harbour. This was a great, though rather empty, hotel. Our suite was huge and really posh and we had a private pool for pretty much the whole week! Luke did forget his iPad so us two went back on the bus to Punta Gorda to get it.

The next two days we spend by the pool at the hotel and on the beach and Little French Key. This is a beautiful little island with rescued animals on it and amazing beaches. We swam and snorkelling, and rented a kayak which was really good fun. Also we played basketball and just chilled out for a good two days by the beach.

On the Thursday, after relaxing by the pool in the morning, we came back to Punta Gorda so I could drop off some things and so my family could meet the older kids and some more teachers. A fair few of them went very shy though some were nice and chatty with my lot which was really nice. They tried to work out whether or not I was adopted because I apparently don’t look like either of my parents! Also they were judging who was the ‘prettiest’ out of me and my brothers; we can guess who won that one! After that we headed back to the hotel with Robbie where we went in the pool for a bit before a really nice meal out in the restaurant.

The next day we went down to the last hotel, in West End. It was more basic than Pineapple Villas but it was really nice and right on the sea in Half Moon Bay, right next to an abandoned boat which you can swim out to and jump off. So that’s what we did for an hour or two, there’s also a rope swing and you can climb up a ladder and swing into the sea – its great fun. After that, while we were relaxing on the beach, a girl called Sierra came up to us and offered us a free ride on the Glass Bottom Boat – if she could film us for her website – yes please! So after a bit of filming we jumped on the boat and off we went. We saw loads of fish and even a turtle! When we got back we headed for lunch before spending a lot more time in the sea and snorkelling (and seeing another turtle!) before having an ice cream for tea because we were all still so full from lunch!

Saturday was our last full day together and we spent it on the best beach I’ve been to – West Bay! We walked there and Mum fell over into the sea which was funny, thank goodness she laughed too though! We got there and swam and snorkelled for most of the day. After lunch we got half price tickets for a big inflatable water slide and trampoline which was good fun. After that we got a water taxi back to West End and went out to the boat for one last time before dinner. I had a huge pizza but no one could finish theirs because they were so big! Really good food though. Back to the hotel and chilled out before bed.

Sunday morning we headed to the airport to say goodbye – only three and a half months till I come home – don’t miss me too much!

It was a great week or so with my family. It was great for them to see my ‘home’ so they can understand a bit better what I’m on about when I talk about people and places and my stories that they have to listen to! It was a bit sad to say goodbye but it’s so little time before I come back, and I know that time will fly by, so see you all soon!

Sam xx

Four Days on Buses for Two Nights in Mexico…

The first of three 4.30 am starts was last Friday, as Robbie and I got up to head to the ferry port to make our way to the mainland, and San Pedro Sula. After meeting Lisa and Olivia, and Ellie and Bryony, we went to the City Mall (as we always do in San Pedro) and then caught up on all the stories we each had from the last two months.

The next morning was another 4.30 am start, as we took a bus from the terminal to Flores, a city in the north of Guatemala, more or less half way to Playa del Carmen, our destination in Mexico. The first bus was about five hours, mostly spent sleeping, before we got to a service station to change buses. Now, after paying 700 lempiras (35 dollars) for the bus, and any volunteer will know it is very hard to part with that amount of money, we got on to our second bus of the day. With all the seats taken, us six had to sit on the floor for a good two hours before people started to get off. Feeling every gear change and every bump in the road, it was a very long two hours before we eventually got three seats between the six of us and made that work, all of us somehow squished in! We got to Flores late at night, it was a shame to only see it in the dark because it seems like a beautiful city, but we got some good food and headed to bed.

The last 4.30 am start came on Sunday morning as we got a direct bus to Belize City. To save money, Robbie has said at the start of the day that he wouldn’t eat until we got to Mexico (which would be at about 4 pm). I was thinking that’ll never happen. But, after being shoved on to a bus in Belize City, we arrived at the Mexico border still without any food. We made our way in to Mexico and on to the next bus and it was more or less 6 pm before we ate that day. Safe to say we had quite a big dinner to fill ourselves up! We stayed at a hostel called Hostel Playa (in Playa del Carmen) which was most probably the best we’ve stayed in all year. They had free breakfast (including Nutella on toast!!) great staff and we got ourselves a private room!

The next morning we spent exploring the town/city of Playa del Carmen, it was pretty big. We headed to 5^th Avenue which is a really long street with loads of shops – really Western so nice to have a few home comforts for a while. We spend the afternoon chilling on the beach which was really beautiful before cooking ourselves noodles (typical travelling meal) for dinner.

On the Tuesday (my last day in Mexico) we headed to Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the modern world. First of all we went to a Cenote which is a big underground cave filled with water, where we swam and kicked out any remaining hangover from the night before! Then we headed on to the ruins at Chichen Itza. Very impressive! A huge main temple surrounded by lots of little buildings, we learnt a lot about the history of the place which was really nice. It was a really good day, and thank goodness for the bus journey back where we all slept like babies!

Then on the Tuesday night at 11.40 I had to catch a bus, and say goodbye to the group, just over 48 hours after arriving in Mexico. So I got a direct (arctic) bus to Belize City where I then jumped on a chicken bus (old American school bus) for 6 hours or so to Punta Gorda in the south. Being absolutely shattered this part of the journey can only be described as hell. Got myself on to a boat with some Nicaraguan bloke to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala where he asked me all sorts of questions about British history which I couldn’t answer. After spending a night there I got a couple of buses to make it to San Pedro Sula where I wanted to get a bus back to La Ceiba to get the boat. But…because it was the day before Good Friday, all the buses had stopped at about 11.30, so I had to get a very expensive taxi all the way to Ceiba with three other guys. Well, 30 dollars for a 3 ½ hour taxi ride isn’t that bad I guess. After quite possible the worst crossing back to Roatan ever (I threw up very badly) I made it back to Punta Gorda for one of Mary Lou’s famous meals!

As you can tell by the amount I’ve written about each part of the week, travelling seemed to take up much more time that actually being in Mexico, which is very true. On reflection it probably wasn’t the most sensible idea money-wise to travel two days to spend two days in Mexico then travel another two days back. But oh well, I had a good time and enjoyed spending time with the travelling group, and I had to renew my VISA, and I can now say that I’ve been to Mexico so yeah all is good.

Oh, and my family come tomorrow, so I am one very excited boy! 

Actually now I'm posting this my family is already here so another blog will be coming soon about their visit!

Hasta Luego,

Sam xx

A New School Year

After coming back from travelling, which was the best time of my life, you may’ve though it would’ve been hard to get back to school and into the old routines. Well, you’d be wrong there.

After helping out in the office at lot with Profa Ligia and Profa Doris, the school year finally kicked off at the start of February, with new timetables, a few new kids and one or two new teachers. So far this year I’m loving teaching pretty much all of my classes. Yeah, there are some who annoy me from time to time, but on the whole they’re all great to teach.

Profa Ligia headed to the mainland to have her baby at the start of March which she called Sam. She’ll be back in June, but in the meantime she’s lent us her dog, Max, while she’s away, so that’s nice and gives us something to do in the evening and whenever we’re free, which isn’t often!

So far this term we’ve had Father’s Day, a school excursion to the beach and Felicity’s visit. Father’s Day was really sweet, all the kids brought their Dads to school and there was a talk and a few games, though in typical Honduras style the event started late and we couldn’t finish it. Oh well, we got free food and fresco so we weren’t complaining.

The school trip to West Bay was really good. We were meant to go and watch the dolphin show at Anthony’s Key but because the kids didn’t have their uniform on we couldn’t go at the discounted price, so we went to the beach instead. About three hours of playing with the kids in the sea, I was absolutely exhausted, and a bit pink which the kids all laughed at on Monday!

Felicity came for our desk officer visit last Thursday which was really nice. It was really good to see a familiar face and spend a day with her. She observed some lessons, which went pretty well; we went for a walk around town and had a meeting with the principal of the school and a couple of other teachers. It’s really nice to be spoken about positively by the other teachers; it shows all the hard work really does pay off!

I’ve started to work in the ‘caseta,’ the little shop that sells food at school. It’s incredibly hot in there and with a tonne of kids shouting their order at you it can be a bit stressful but they give me free fresco and sometimes a bit of food so it’s worth it for me! One day a couple of weeks ago I ate a plate of chicken with plantain chips from the ‘caseta,’ then it was someone’s birthday so I ate a plate of rice and chicken and a massive piece of cake before heading to Mary Lou’s for lunch! Hopefully I didn’t offend her by not eating very much. If I’m not obese by the time I get back to England then a true miracle will have occurred!

That’s about it for now so hope you’re still enjoying reading this and only 4 months or so till I get back home!

Sam xx

10 weeks of travelling...

Well, how do you write a blog post about the best part of 2 and a half months of travelling?

I’m not too sure either, but I’ll give it a go.

Basically, I wrote a short blog about El Salvador way back in November I think, but then I got way too lazy and didn’t write any more about all the other countries we visited. Also, it’s a lot harder to write the blog on an iPad than on a laptop, so that’s my real excuse!

So, in order to keep this short and not cause too much boredom amongst you all, I’m going to talk about my top 5 of travelling. Enjoy!

  

      5. Antigua, Guatemala was one of my favourite cities of all the places we’ve been. This old little city is famous for its cobbled streets and markets. The markets are incredible, with so many hand-made clothes, ornaments and anything else under the sun that can be hand-made! There was also a second-hand market full of absolute bargains so we spent a fair bit of time there. Around the city there are a couple of active volcanoes, and we saw smoke coming out of them which was rather cool. We also walked up to a viewpoint which had an amazing view over the city, with the volcano in the background. Our hostel was owned by a couple of Irish guys, so a few from our group were chuffed with that!

        4. In Belize, it was only Robbie, Ellie and I because everyone else had gone off back to their projects or to meet people. We were in Caye Caulker, a stunning little island a boat ride away from Belize City. One of the days we decided to go on a snorkelling tour. Now when we were told before we started we may see sharks and stingrays we were very excited but what we were about to see was way beyond what we expected. After swimming around on the reef for a while, we got on the boat and went to a different site. As we pulled up, the driver pulled out some fish and a good 30 sharks and many more stingrays surrounded the boat. Then he told us to get in and swim with them! This was pretty incredible, swimming with these sharks and rays, and having them swim in to us and touch us was pretty strange but amazing fun!

       3. Volcan Concepcion. 1610m high above sea level. And we started from sea level. At 6am the hike started. We set off up a gentle slope and after an hour or so we faced a wall which we found out went on for a good 4 hours more. We were scrambling up rocks, rivers of boulders that had been blasted out of the volcano, all the while we were in the clouds because, in typical fashion, we’d chosen a day where the clouds were covering the vast majority of the volcano. But anyway we went on. The guide was extremely concerned about our pace, or supposed lack of it. We were told unless we hurried up we wouldn’t make it down before dark fall, at 6pm. So we weren’t allowed any breaks whatsoever. We got to within about 5 minutes of the top and were told to leave our bags there. We scrambled up a muddle, gravelly path to reach the crater, where we weren’t allowed to stand up because we might get blown in due to the wind, but we couldn’t really sit down either because the ground was so hot (it was an active volcano!). We also couldn’t stay at the top for long because of poisonous gases that came out of the crater! We descended down the volcano, and despite all of us falling over a few times, we got to the bottom at about 3pm, 3 hours before darkness. The guide’s worrying was completely unnecessary but funny nonetheless. Despite all the moaning I seem to have done about Concepcion, it genuinely was such a good day and an amazing achievement to reach the top, and to get down to the bottom in one piece!

       2. The best thing we did in Guatemala, and what I think is the best day we had overall, was visiting Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey is a natural bridge of water, with pools that are the most beautiful turquoise blue possible. Before we actually got the Semuc Champey itself, we went caving by candlelight; swimming in the pitch black, jumping into pools and climbing up underground waterfalls. After that we went out and went on a rope swing that threw us into the river. After a quick break for lunch we went up to Semuc Champey. After a hike up the hill, the view we got was incredible! We then went down to the pools, swam, dived, jumped and loads of stuff. We even went into a tiny little cave that my head didn’t really fit in to!

      1. My favourite experience of the whole trip has got to be the SCUBA diving we did on Utila over Christmas. It truly is unbelievable to be able to go down to 18 metres and breath more or less normally, swim around, communicate with everyone and see a huge array of incredible fish and wildlife. The course ran over 3 days, with a break for Christmas day. We started with very shallow dives just off the dock of our dive centre. We practised things like taking our masks off, running out of air and having to make emergency ascents. On Boxing Day, we did our first proper dive, down to 12 metres. We did 4 open water dives during the course in total, and then we 2 free fun dives with our course. I saw many amazing creatures: a moray eel, angel fish, spotted eagle rays and parrot fish to name a few. Completing the course was amazing, and it now means that, in theory at least, I can dive with one other qualified diver without an instructor, down to 18 metres. However I do not think that would be advisable because, as of yet, I do not trust myself that much under the water!

So that’s my top 5 of Central America. Of course there were many more amazing things that we did while travelling, I just don’t want to bore anyone too much by rabbling on about myself too much!

I can pretty much certainly say that the past 10 weeks were the best 10 of my life so far, and if anything ever wants to beat it, it’ll have to be really incredible!

I’m back in Punta Gorda now, ready to start the new school year on Monday. It’s nice to be back and see everyone again: all the little kids, Mary Lou and her amazing meals, and the teachers who’ve been in to school over the past couple of days to sort things out.

The people who I’ve travelled with over the past 10 weeks have become so close to me, and it’s weird spending even 2 days here on Roatan without them. Saying goodbye was strange because we’ve spent 2 and a half months together, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It seems strange to be back, but we’ll be meeting up again soon, probably at Easter, for another Visa run.

That’s more or less it from me for now, so I hope you’re all well wherever in the world you may be!

Hasta Luego, y un abrazo a todos,

Sam xx

El Salvador

So our travelling started with us heading with Lisa and Olivia to El Salvador. After a load of buses and amazing views, we finally arrived in San Salvador, the capital. We spent a night in an interesting hotel to say the least and woke up the next day to explore the city.  There were loads of amazing markets packed with everything from eggs and tomatoes to watches and anything else you can think of! We also visited a couple of cathedrals and the national palace which were pretty nice, and full of interesting stories. We met Ellie and Bryony at out hostel for the night, so the 6 of us were finally together. We headed out in the evening, as you do, and I left my phone in the room so I wasn't robbed while I was out - good idea right? Well...no. Our room was robbed and my phone went with a load of money, so not a great night to be honest. Anyway we got to up the next day and got a bus to Playa El Tunco, our next destination in El Salvador. 

Playa El Tunco is probably one of the most touristy places I've been this year, a surfers paradise filled with bars, tourists and English folk! I even met a guy from London whose girlfriend was form Corfe Mullen, about 5 minutes from my house ! It really is a small world. We spent a few days there just chilling out on the beach and in our hostel, which was amazing and had a nice swimming pool. We went swimming in the sea one day and the waves were true surfers waves so we got bashed around, but it really was amazing fun, even if a bit sketchy a times!

We tried surfing one day, an interesting experience to say the least! We had an hour lesson with our own instructor an I stood up a few times, which was pretty cool. But...when we tried it again later in the day without our instructors we were pretty terrible and gave up after about 20 minutes of trying, failing, crashing in to each other and just getting bashed around by enormous waves! We decided to go for a swim after which was nice though the strong current was not the best place to swim...

We ate loads of great food over the few days at the beach. Most conversations in our group seem to revolve around food - what we're going to eat for dinner, what snacks we're going to have and what we're going to eat after dinner. It's constant, but pretty fun how everything comes back to food and what we want to eat!

We left Playa El Tunco and made our way to Ruta de las Flores, which apparently we shouldn't have visited because it's boring but we found it amazing. We were only there for one day but we went on an amazing hike through the mountains and waterfalls. We climbed down a few waterfalls, walked through rivers and swam in pools which was great, even if the water was freezing cold! We went out that evening for Lisa's birthday, and it was one of the most amazing meals I've ever eaten! And it was very cheap too. We went back to the hostel and had a massive cake which was amazing.

Then we set off to Guatemala to Antigua, but that'll come later.

Adios,

Sam xx