Honduran Education Project: Sunday Excursion

Keeping a blog/diary of one's life is a wee bit challenging. Much of my life is spent doing the regular mundane things that are necessary for living and for keeping an office running. Fortunately, for me, I get to do many of these ordinary activities in a setting which lends itself to colour and adventure. Consequently, the ordinary is often interwoven with the extraordinary.

The electrician - from the last blog - the green rope hanging from his belt is his safety belt.

My family is here in Honduras for a few weeks. In an effort to make sure that they experienced Honduras, the staff organized an excursion yesterday. What a wonderful gesture and so much appreciated.

We met everyone near the town centre and loaded the truck with staff, a cooler full of water, juice and a watermelon (an excursion without abundant food is not really an excursion - even Winnie the Pooh knows that). A quick stop to pump up an inner tube and pick up a watermelon from a huge pile being sold at the last intersection out of town (they kindly cut out a small triangle so that the girls could see it was ready for eating) and we were on our way.

We headed out of town, past the road construction (since it was Sunday they had taken down the signs and so forth so ... only those who knew that it was taking place were slowed down ahead of time - we were) and then down the road to Pino Lapa.

All the 'swimmers' at the falls

Alyssa, myself, Yeni, Edel, Maricella and Ardythe

Really now ... can't you take turns?

In Pino Lapa, we met the Principal for Santa Cruz (think Superintendent) schools. She took us to her father's property where we unloaded our gear and started hiking to the swimming hole.

We went through the corral and were at a small stream within metres. I felt a wee bit like Naaman looking at the Jordan. It seemed a big stretch to look at the barely oozing trickle of water and think swimming. Fortunately, this was not the destination.

Past a herd of cows enjoying a snack of sugar canes (their herders also holding a stalk each for themselves), up over a hill, a stop to look at scenery (the Madriado trees are in full, pink bloom right now), down a steep stretch and we were looking at a waterfall with a super swimming hole at the bottom. Towering trees with long vines guarded the hole and kept it well shaded. Just enough sunshine peaked through to make the falls sparkle and checker parts of the pool with long lines of light.

We changed and got into the pool. It was a bit of a worry to have a couple of people who really didn't know how to swim. But, we made it over that hurdle. The swimming time was interspersed every thirty minutes for food or drink ... lest we fall faint by the poolside. We had some swimming lessons, enjoyed the pounding massage of the sitting under the falls and the sweet eating of watermelon without worry of getting sticky.

Near the end of the morning, four boys came to swim. They showed us how to use the cliffs on one side to good advantage. It was a great chance for them to show off to an audience and a great spectator opportunity for us. They would climb back up the cliff and watch us for awhile (reality TV at its best) and then take another plunge. One of the little boys made four jumps without losing his baseball cap.

The morning over, we headed back to the home of the principal where she had a wonderful lunch of fried tilapia, cabbage salad and fresh pickled onions (with pickled jalepeños to give it a kick). Delightful.

We took Yeni to her home and got to see the baby for a few minutes as well. All this in sixteen kilometres - and still time for a Sunday afternoon nap.