Adventures in Traveling

This last weekend started with a "spur of the moment" trip to Tela, in the northern coast of Honduras. We had wanted to go before leaving Honduras, but we were not exactly sure how or when it would work on. After talking with our neighbor, Victoria, we found out that she also wanted to go to visit her family. So, I borrowed a vehicle from a friend in Tegucigalpa on Friday afternoon (after the Bible Study with some of the university students) and came back up to Valle de Angeles to load up and leave early Saturday morning.

Each of our kids took a small backpack since we were only going for a weekend (we planned to return on Monday). We spent much of the day Saturday driving and since I have not driven in Honduras much, better yet, I have not driven a car in about 4 months! We had a great trip up to La Lima where we dropped Victoria off to visit with her family in the afternoon, then we headed further East to Tela to see some more friends. During our drive we both noticed how different the surroundings seemed; we certainly we not in the mountains anymore, but even more the north coast resembled what one would expect from a place in "the tropics". Tela is a little "pueblo", or town right on the coast. After navigating through a torrential downpouring of rain and avoiding oncoming semi-trucks driving in my lane, we safely arrived in Tela, and immediately I was reminded of Galveston...or South Padre Island (basically any town right on a coast). The smell, the birds, the people! How distinct from inland places and yet how similar to each other they are.

The place that we stayed at was great! Our friends and owners of a building with several hotel-style rooms (usually reserved for invited guests) were very hospitable. While staying in Tela, our friends also had a German-Honduran family staying the the apartments. It was interesting to meet them and to listen the German-Spanish accents.

Sunday afternoon we went to the beach! For some of our kids, it was their first time at the ocean. While they were a bit timid of the waves crashing on the shore they still had a fun time. In reality, it is easier on us as parents if the kids are a bit less "adventurous"...it meant that Alesha and I could safely leave them on the shore playing and swim in the ocean...though we never did go very far. Each of the kids remembers me showing them how to "wave hop" in the deeper water. Daniel spent most of his time playing in the sand just barely beyond the reach of the waves. Nathanael slept and played quietly in his car seat in the shade; when we did take him in the water, he was not impressed at all (though the pictures that I got of him came out really nice and do not tell the true story!).

We returned from the beach exhausted and sandy. We gave the kids a quick, cold shower and put them in their beds. By the time Alesha and I did the same, I think they were all fast asleep. I woke up about 7 minutes before supper was supposed to be served...we were a bit late. ;-) After supper, we headed off to a "campo blanco" which is a new church plant that the Christians in the area were starting; the main part of the building was finished, but still needed some finishing touches (I think someone said that it was almost one year old). We got there in time for some singing. Shortly after I sat down and man started to preach and then a lady in front of me pointed toward Daniel. The next thing that happened was Alesha tossing Nathanael in my arms and she scooped up Daniel as his started vomiting (yes, during the man's message...and he kept on going...poor guy). I then looked over as Levi who was looking rather squeamish also, but after talking with him some, I found out that he just had a booger in his nose. :-p One by one though, the kids needed to leave and so we all found ourselves sitting at the open door to the building listening to the man's message and cautiously watching the children. I nice lady ran to her house nearby and brought Daniel some tea and a shirt to wear. After the meeting, when Daniel was feeling better, we all joked around about Daniel's inauguration of the building.
(Don't worry, the "fun" doesn't end there!)

The next morning, Monday, it was time for us to pick up Victoria and return to Valle. Our return trip was going swell, even though there was not much talking going on. I think that we were all very tired. Almost halfway into our return trip, Levi decided to make things a bit more interesting and follow in his brother's footsteps. Yup, he yielded up his breakfast. The rest of the trip we were all on edge about Levi and Daniel...and Glory who was sitting between the two boys...and about Nathanael who was not enjoying his car ride either. :-( We finally arrived in Tegucigalpa (almost home!), but being that it was night time and raining and well, spaghetti-road-Teguc,...we of course got off track and got lost for almost an hour. Finally, we paid a taxi to help us get back in the right direction. We got home about 8pm...not terribly late, but it was a tense adventure. Again, we all crashed immediately after getting home...oh! did I forget to mention that we forgot to eat supper! ;-D

Enjoy!
Taylor