Living on the Edge

I love a lot of things but 3 things that I really love about living in Honduras are: living on the edge, carefree timelessness, and flexibility/spontaneity. This past Sunday I got the perfect mix of all three.

My Sunday began as a pretty ordinary one. Catie and I walked down to the Cathedral for mass and picked up some groceries on the way home. As we were walking along the highway, we saw our neighbor's car. They proceeded to pull over and Mari got out of the car, crossed the street and came to talk to us. she informed us that she had been searching for us all day. She wanted to see if we would like to join them on a family outing. See, her 2 children, Harrison and Bradley, go to another bilingual school in town and sometimes they come over for tutoring help. On one such occasion, Marilinda, their mother, asked us what we do on Sundays. After explaining to her that we're often free and willing to explore/adventure on Sundays, she said that she would invite us to go soon. Well I guess this was the weekend. So she asks us if we still want to go this Sunday or if we should go a next. After a brief pow-wow with Catie, we agreed to go. Why not? Who wants to go home and lesson plan when you could join in on a mysterious, spontaneous outing. Vamanos!

So we hopped in the back of the pickup truck, it's the only way to travel in Honduras after all, and set out on our adventure. The ride out was fun. We sat with Rosa and Ana, who were both about our age. The ride was my longest yet in the back of a pickup truck, but so worth it, because we soon arrived at a National Forest.

It was so pretty. We started with a light hike with the whole fam bam. The grandmother did the whole hike in heels might I add. But, anyways, our very pretty, but rainy hike followed a river through some mountains. At certain points we crossed over bridges or stopped to peer in caves to see bats. I just love bats!

Then we reached the Cave de Talgua. We got a guide and entered the cave. I love hikes and I love caves. It was great because we had a lot of experienced company and a guide to point things out to us. The cave was so cool. Rock is so fascinating. It just moves, forms based on water after years and years. We saw some good ole' stalactites and stalagmites. The cave also had neat-o phosphorescent lights in random areas that gave off sweet patterns on other rocks. For example, we found the Virgen Mary and Jesus' face hidden in some rock areas. My favorite parts though were the calcium deposits. The way rock changes and forms is so cool. The calcium deposits are a pretty white and glittery color. There was one section of the cave called the grave yard because the calcium deposits formed what looked like a series of bones. It was so fun to be in a cave and hike around. I love bats, caves, and adventure.

After the caves, we hiked back. We stopped to jump rocks in the river and take a few pictures too. It was kind of chilly and rainy though, so we headed back to the truck for our next adventure.

Our next stop was a swimming pool. Unfortunately the day turned slightly overcast, so it wasn't the normal sweltering heat, but it was still fun. The boys really wanted us to go swimming so we obliged. They only wanted to swim in the kiddie pool and play shark attack. This meant that we stood out even more because no we were not only the only gringas at the pool but we were the only adults chilling in the kiddie pool. Oh well, it's more fun to be with the kids. After swimming for a bit we had dinner. They ordered the most amazing food! we got 2 huge platters of like every food you could imagine eating in Honduras. We had tajadas, rice, refried beans, cheese, tomato salsa, fish, carne asada, fried chicken, beef, chorizo, and more. It was so yummy.

After eating, the boys wanted to go back swimming. I was done though, it was chilly and I didn't want to get wet all over again. So Catie and I just hung out at the table talking with our neighbor Marilinda and her husband's mom. The conversation was great! We talked for at least an hour in Spanish. The best part was she kept praising our Spanish, yay for improving! But, it was all such wonderful conversation too. We discussed school and educational styles. We talked about life in the US. We discussed living in Honduras and Juticalpa. We talked food and cooking, boys, marriage, and life. It was some pretty great conversation. It was so nice to talk with a Honduran and really get to know the strength, beauty, joy, and beliefs of one such person's life.

After our chit chat we had this delicious honey bread for dessert and headed back into the truck to go home. The ride home was the coldest I've been in Honduras since it was pitch black out, we were travelling like 60, and I was wet, but it was also awesome because it was so quiet, peaceful, and the sky was full of stars. It provided a great atmosphere for reflection on the day, because honestly it was the perfect Sunday: a little spontaneity, living on the edge, and quality time.