Day er... mothers ruin

Well, where to start.

2 weeks ago, our cohort of volunteers agreed that we'd all meet up in Copan on Friday 23rd May.

So, Friday 23rd May came round and we set off at 7 in the morning to hitch the 150km to Copan. You have to realise that most roads in Honduras have never even heard of the words tarmac, smooth, flat or straight. They wind up and down the mountains, are covered in holes and occasionally with stones from rockslides.

Add to this the fact that most people here drive 10 year old pickups that have never been serviced and probably have their original tyres on and you're starting to get the gist of what travelling in this country is like.

so, Richard, Stuart and I set off, all bright eyed and bushy-tailed. We got our first lift from a gentleman in a pickup. Who was obviously the devil in disguise. We were at our destination in half the usual time, faces pulled back by the wind and lashed by the dust.

Staggering along the side of the road, we were approached by a man with a bus, 20 lemps (about 80p) to take us to the next stop on our journey, it was about an hours drive so we agreed and went to the bus.... which seemed to have been made by dinky. it was the smallest bus in the world. when I was sitting up straight I couldn't see out of the window! the engine was equally downscaled too and we crawled along for an hour and forty minutes - it didn't even speed up going downhill!

the next bit of the journey was in another pickup, and another demon driver, I'm not sure that he knows what a brake is for. And he definitely didn't take account of the passengers being thrown around in the back! he overtook on blind corners, accelerated down steep mountainsides towards hairpin bends and seemed to aim for every crater in the road!

Having barely survived this we opted for a bus again. this one was full-sized and quite fast but it had about ten thousand people on it, some carrying chickens and sacks of pineapples.

the last stretch of the journey was the best, a brand new SUV style truck with actual suspension! again the journey took half as long as it was supposed to - there doesn't seem to be any such thing as speed limits, or road markings for that matter. But this guy took us right into town. We climbed out of the back and bumped into all the other volunteers! they were on their way to the pub so we joined them and got some lunch.

and thus began our weekend!

we found the hostel everyone was staying at and Rich sorted out the rooms, or room. It was cheaper to share 3 to a room so he asked for that... the amount of money saved? two pounds a night. so for the sake of 2 pounds I had to share a room with them both. Perhaps I should tell you something of my travelling companions...

Stuart is a sweetheart, just 18 years old he arrived in Honduras with a small rucksack of clothes and a coupla hundred dollars to last 3 months. He can speak 3 words of Spanish but mimes very well. Stuart came to Copan with no money, I had to lend him it and his mum's wiring him some dollars, he counted every single lempira he spent over the whole weekend and kept telling me the running total! I like Stuart, he reminds me of my cousins.

Richard, well, I work with Richard and it has come to my attention over the past week that he is a bit of an arse. he annoys me totally, he doesn't understand Spanish but pretends he does, he drinks constantly and sneers at me when I prefer fruit juice to vodka at 8 in the morning. I'm not a big fan of Richard.

where was I? Oh yes, we arrived in Copan and got a room. Richard immediately headed for the bar and started drinking, and drinking, and drinking. Stu and I went for a wander and met some of the others.

Copan is amazing, really clean compared to the rest of Honduras and with a beautiful town square with palm trees and tropical flowers. It's probably the most touristy part of Honduras and there were loads of shops selling pretty things. I went shopping, there is absolutely nothing to buy in La Esperanza so I went a bit mad and bought loads of stuff. For some reason I thought it would be sensible to buy my mum a breakable present, I've just got to get it home safely and she'll really like it.

Friday night was cool, we all went for a few drinks and got back to the hostel at 12:30 - the doors shut at 11 but the little old lady was very nice. Richard decided to stay out drinking and didn't get back until 7am because he got lost!

on saturday we all went out for breakfast then off to see the ruins. they are amazing, you can climb to the top of the Mayan pyramid and look out over the layout of their city, the carvings are beautiful and spooky and there were loads of lizards and stuff.

In the afternoon we decided to book a visit to the natural hot springs. Unfortunately once again we listened to the cheap option, instead of a bus to take us there and back we agreed to go in the back of a truck, thinking it was a big truck. but no, 18 people were crammed into the back of a pickup with 'safety' bars to hold onto. For an hours drive over some winding mountain roads, it was an experience.

The hot springs were hot, and springy. They smelt of Sulphur and we all had a bit of a lounge around in the river where they mix with the cold water. we played frisbee, watched the sun go down and realised that there were a million mosquitoes flying roun}d. then the return journey in the dark! I got a place at the front holding onto the cab, it was just like one of those simulator rides at the fair.

I don't really want to talk about Sunday, suffice it to say that we hitched for 9 hours to get home. I still have the bruises. Gaz came with us with the intention of finding a project to join here, he is in San Salvador at the moment and doesn't really like the city - one day of working making mud bricks by hand and carrying bags of cement up a mountain and he's decided to go back to his easy life where they have such luxuries as electricity and wheelbarrows!

since then, not much has happened, school is going well, we've had a 10 hour powercut because of the lightening storms and today on the way home from school I saw 10 dead frogs. Tomorrow they will be dried frogs, suitable for making pills out of.

Friday is national tree day and the school has invited us on a picnic. should be fun!