30.11
Kõik algas siis niimoodi: reedel läksime Lisanne'ga ja Irisega San Pedrosse aga kuna jõudsime 7 ajal sinna, jäin ka Irise õe juurde, kes oli väga sõbralik. Hommikul saime kodutehtud baleadasid. Takso San Pedro Sulas on nii kallis, siin riigis ei tundu olevat nii et taksomeeter sisse pannakse kui sõitma hakatakse, vaid kõigil on suht sama hind, nagu La Ceibas on 25 lempiirat, seal oli 90. Aga see linn on mulle väga vastukarva. Esiteks, Honduras on üks ohtlikumaid riike üldse kuna kuritegevus on väga suur, ning eriti hull on see suurtes linnades nagu San Pedro ja Tegucigalpa (pealinn). Isegi päeval võidakse röövida sind. Ma ei tahaks kunagi nendesse linnadesse minna ning pole millesti seal huvitatud, midagi ilusat seal küll pole, kole linn pigem ja õhk on lihtsalt jubedalt reostunud niiet olin vähesel hingamisrežimiil. Muide, bussijaam on lihtsalt ÜLISUUR seal. Aga leidsin sealt oma lemmik smoothie milleks on arbuusi-papaya-piima (soja) smoothie. <3
Igatahes, sealt võtsin bussi Copani, mis on Guatemala piiri lähedal, 3.5 h. Ja seal on ka maajade varemed. Mis on lahe siin riigis et kui näiteks buss peatub, tulevad tihti igasugused müüjad peale tajadasid, puuvilju vms müüma, ning 10 lempiira eest sain lahti lõigatud papaya viilud tee peale :) Bussis kohtasin ühte kolumblast kes 6 kuud Hondurases töötab, ta hispaania keel oli palju puhtam, ilmselt ka sellepärast et ta pole vaesest perest. Muide vahepeal tuli bussi üks kloun ka kes oli väga valju niiet ära tüütas, ja kindlasti mitte naljakas :D
Tee Copani oli väga käänuline. Kuna see koht on mägedes rohkem, iga 2 sek tagant oli kas järsk paremale või vasakule pööre. Vaade oli bussist super!
Copanis viisin asjad hotelli ära kus Nikki ja Rich (UK, kes siin vabatahtlikud olid natuke aega tagasi) olid ning kuna nad olid ära tol hetkel, läksin väikest linna avastama. Tänaval kõndides nägin neid juhuslikult :D Tol päeval midagi ei jõudnud teha sest pimedaks hakkas minema, niiet võtsime ühed üliodavad õlud (alla dollari) sest kõndisime kesklinnast kaugele kus odavamaid kohti on. Copan oli üldse palju teistsugusem ülejäänud Hondurasest, sest kuna see on mägedes on õhtul väga jahe. Öösel juba tundsin kui külm on, niiet värisesin oma teki all. Loodus on väga Euroopalik. Mõnes kohas oli päris paju mände ning ka palju teisi Euroopa lehtpuid.
Järgmine hommik läksime varemeid vaatama. Suht huvitav oli esimest korda elus midagi sellist näha. Copan on üldse lahe ka selles mõttes et vahepeal tundus nagu oleksid Mehhiko linnakeses. Kõik mehed kandsid seal neid cowboy kaabusid :D
Kell 12 võtsime bussi Antiguasse, Guatemalasse, mis oli 20 dollarit, reis 6h. Õnneks palju rahvast me väiksel bussil polnud niiet sain 3 istme peal pool-magada. Hondurasest lahkumiseks pidime maksma 3 dollarit ja 1 dollar Guatemalasse sisenemisel. Hiljem pidin 1 dollar Guatemalast lahkumiseks maksma ja 3 dollarit Hondurasesse sisenemisel. Reis jätkus mägisel teel, vaade jällegi imeilus. Üks erinevus mis kohe Guatemalas märkasin- poodidele on 'tienda' peale kirjutatud 'pulperia' asemel mida siin kasutatakse. (teine erinevus on see et kilomeetreid kasutatakse miilide asemel) Tienda on siis pood hispaania keeles, aga Hondurases kasutatakse 'pulperia' alati. Antiguasse jõudsime peale 6, pimedas. See matkajate hotell kuhu plaanisime minna oli täis niiet läksime ühte lähedasse. Polnud väga kallis, 6 dollarid vb, aga meile see koht ei meeldinud, sest kuna meil olid ainult kaks õhukest tekikest mõlemal voodil ja kui juurde küsisime, see mees ütles et neil pole. Seal on niii külm õhtul ju, kuidas pole rohkem tekke!?? Aga ainult ühe öö eest maksime ning järgmine päev läksime vastas hotelli kus nii kena ja palju hubasem, omanik oli ülisõbralik ning hommikusöök oli ka hinnas kuigi natuke kallim, 9 dollari ringis. Õhtul käisime veel Antiguat avastamas mis on üliilus pimedas oma tuledega. Leidsime ka restorani hotelli lähedal kus 1 liiter õlut maksis üle 2 dollari ainult, ning ka tasuta nacho taldriku sai kaasa!
Järgmine päev, esmaspäeval, mu kõht ei tundnud ennast kõige paremini, ning kahjuks jõin ka 3 tassi kohvi selle peale sest tassi täitmine uuesti oli tasuta kui hommikusöögi tellid. Käisime ka ühel ülisuurel turul kus müüdi kõike, alguses ostsin papaya mis on niii odav seal, ainult üle dollari ühe eest, ning karp põldmarju on vähem kui 50 US senti!! Palju müüdi ka Guatemala suveniire, asju, niiet palju ostmist, vaatamist oli. Mis mulle üldse nii meeldib Guatemalas on see et nii palju rohkem näeb inimesi oma mustriga rahvariideid kandmas, muidugi Antiguas rohkem sest see on vana linn ning ka turiste täis, aga sõites sinna nägi seda tänaval ka, ning ma pole kunagi midagi sellist Hondurases näinud, ma isegi ei tea kuidas Hondurase rahvariided välja näevad. Kohe oli märgatavalt palju rohkem kultuuri Guatemalas mis mulle nii meeldib. Peale jalutuskäiku linnas hakas mul veel halvem ning tundus et ka palavik oli niiet kõndisin tagasi. Üritasin 4h magada aga ei suutnud, valu läks kõhus aina hullemaks ning palavik tõusis. Mõtlesin et ootan kuni Nikki ja Rich tagasi tulevad, aga varsti ei suutnud ma enam kõndidagi ja muutusin hüsteeriliseks ning lasin endale kiirabi kutsuda erahaiglasse. Terve tee sinna oli munakivide peal mis tervet linna katavad, piinarikas! Öeldi et arst räägib inglise keelt seal haiglas... muidugi räägib, paari sõna :D Aga võeti proove mult ja tuli välja et infektsioon. Pandi kanüül ning pumbati mingit ravimit 30 min ning olen nüüd antibiootikumide peal, anti ka kõhuvalu ja palaviku tablette. Kõik läks haiglas kokku 100 dollari kanti umbes, niiet hea et mul kindlustus on.
Teisipäeval oli juba parem aga kõht oli ikka hell, siiani olen väga ettevaatlik toiduga. Läksime ühte hotell/muuseumisse mis kunagi oli nunnade klooster vms vist. Mitu tundi veetsime seal. Pärast läksin turule tagasi et Guatemala kohvi osta. Kolmapäeval olime juba nii palju Antiguast avastanud niiet ei teadnud mida enam teha, käisime ikka natuke ringi, sain Nikkilt uue raamatu, 'The Help' millest olen juba varem filmi ka näinud. Väga soovitan! Ülejäänud õhtu istusime hotellis ning lõpuks läksime õhtusöögile. Hommikul pidin kell 3 ärkama sest väikebuss Copani oli kell 4. Nikki ja Rich läksid teistesse kohtadesse Guatemalas niiet pidin üksi reisima. Hommikul olid seal hotelli köögis mingid suured nälkjad põrandal kui ma söömas käisin, eww :D Aga kõik ööd olid niiii külmad, koguaeg värisesin oma 3 teki all. Õhtul välja minnes oli mul 4 kihti pluuse seljas :D
Igatahes, buss oli täiesti täis seekord, enamus ekstreemsed hipid, sellised näevad paljud matkajad välja kes riigist riiki reisivad :D 4h möödus suht kiiresti, ilmselt sellepärast et pool-unes olin. Siis ütles juht et pool tundi veel piirini. Rohkem nagu 2h :D Copan'is sain teada et järgmine otse buss San Pedrosse on kell 2, ma olin arvestanud 11-30ga. Suur pettumus sest ma ei tahtnud La Ceibasse väga hilja jõuda, sest äkki ei jõua viimasele bussile. Eks ma siis ootasin, läksin tagasi hotelli kus me esimene öö olime sest mul oli Wifi parool sealt niiet olin oma katkise iPhonega Internetis seal. 3.5 h bussis jälle, San Pedro Sulas sain 6sele bussile La Ceibasse, ülipiinav sest kui reis on sama pikk nagu Londonist- Hondurasesse, on see väga väsitav. La Ceibasse jõudsin kell pool 10 ning olin takso tellinud. Taksojuht helistas kas mulle enne, väga raske on telefonis hispaania keelest aru saada, aga hakkama sain. Kõige lühem reis, La Ceiba- El Porvenir oli kõige kallim, 200 lempiirat, sest taksohinnad on kõik sellised õhtul. Tagasi jõuda oli päris mõnus. Jennifer ütles et lapsed küsisid minu kohta tihti ning igatsesid mind :P Täna kui neid nägin tulid kohe kallistama :) Olin 2 aastast Allisoni nähes ka rõõmus. Käisime rannas mängimas lastega. Seal oli ka üks mees varsa ja hobusega, Hobune oli nii kõhn et ribid olid näha ning seljakont oli nii väljas. Aga ta pakkus et kas tahame korra ratsutada, mul väga hea tunne polnud selle selga hüpata aga ma polnud ikka väga kaua ratsutanud niiet hüppasin minutiks peale ja jalutasin korra :D Et siis nii. Nüüd just värvis Jennifer mu juukse juured ka ära!! Ning 2 h pärast on mul siinpool maailma kera sünnipäev! wooo!!! :D Enam ei olegi teismeline.
7.12
Sorry et ma pole midagi postitanud veel aga ma pean oma blogspoti ära muutma vist sest mu piltide laadimise limiit on täis :( Niiet ma lisan pildid kunagi hiljem kuhugi mujale, kuigi mul on Facebook'is ka mõned üleval.
Mu sünnipäev laupäeval oli väga lahe ;) Alguses oli natuke kurb hommikul et kodus või Inglismaal ei saa olla aga siis läksin La Ceibasse. Muide, öösel kell 12 kui 1 detsember saabus, kõik kes Beach House's elavad tulid mulle happy birthday'd laulma kui ma juba pool-magasin :D
La Ceiba'st sain endale sünnipäeva kleidi ja siis läksime Pizza Hut'i, mis pole see mis kaubamaja kõrval on, niiet mitte nii meeldiv. Tellisin mingi 3 dollari eest endale puuvilja mahla, mõtlesin et midagi smoothie sarnast sest see oli üsna kallis võrreldes teisega. Mingi üüülimagus vastik jook tuli. Ma olen kindel nad lisasid pool klaasi suhkrut sisse. See on lihtsalt jube palju suhkrut neil jookides ja mujal on siin. Nad pole kunagi vist kuulnud tervislikust toitumisest. Isegi Fanta siin on 10x korda magusam kui Euroopas :S
Igatahes, õhtul kell 8 läksime siin restorani kus ka pidu oli õhtul. Tellisin ka baleada mis toodi välja sünnipäeva küünlaga aww :D Ja DJ pani sünnipäeva laulu ka peale :D Alguses polnud üldse inimesi seal aga hiljem oli tantsupõrand täiesti täis. :D Väga lõbus pidu oli :D
See nädal jälle VAP-ga busy olnud. Nädala teemaks oli 'keskkond', ehk siis ühel päeval koristasime ümbrust natuke prügist. Eile tegime nendega roboteid vanadest kelloggsi karpidest ja pudelitest jms, ja nad pidid välja mõtlema kuidas nende robotid keskkonda koristavad, väga lahe tegevus oli :D
Eile sain veel ühe unconditional pakkumise Astoni ülikoolist ning lõpuks on mul ka unconditional East- Anglia'st ka :) Ehk nüüd on siis vaja vastust oodata kahest šoti ülikoolist.
Muide, minu ja Diana plaan El Salvadori minna jõuludeks võib ära jääda sest El Salvador pidi väga karm olema reeglitega. Põhimõtteliselt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras ja Nicaragua kuuluvad C4 gruppi mis tähendab et peale 90 päeva peaks tegelikult sellest rajoonist välja reisima et uut viisat saada, näiteks Belize'i. Aga kuna Guatemala pole karm sellega, saime ka sealt uue viisa, kuid El Salvador ei aktsepteeriks meie uut viisat. Teised saavad minna sest neil kehtib ikka veel nende algne 90 päeva, aga kuna meie Dianaga tulime palju varem siia, lõpeb meie algne viisa detsembri keskel. Ning nagu ma ütlesin, El Salvador ei laseks meid sisse sest me pole 90 päeva jooksil C4 tsoonist lahkunud, muidugi võib alati maksta palju et sisse saada kuna kõik on siin korrumpeerunud, aga ma ei taha maksta. Niiet võibolla lähme Belize'i siis jõuludeks ja uueks aastaks, mis pole ka paha muidugi, kuigi tahtsin Vaikset Ookeani näha :( Aga Belizeis on jällegi the Great Blue Hole mis on väga kuulus ning tahaks seda ära näha. Ning kuna see koht on Mehhikole ka väga lähedal, võibolla saaks Mehhiko piiri taga ka ära käidud, aga veel pole miski kindel.
See pühapäev lähme La Ceibasse jalgpalli vaatama kõigiga muidu.
Vahepeal kui kõigi vabatahtlikega mängime igasuguseid mänge, nagu nimede arvamis või kaardi mänge, niii naljakas on vaadata kui võistlushimuliseks kõik muutuvad :D Nagu elu peale mängiks :D
Guatemalas kui piiri poole sõitsime, nägin tee ääres niii jubedalt palju prügi, enamasti kilekotte, ja ühel puul polnud mitte ühtegi lehte peal, vaid palju väikesi valgeid kilekotte puu otsas, jube vaatepilt. Minu jaoks ongi TOP3 probleemid siin kohas reostatus, bürokraatia ja korruptsioon.
Tee ääres võib vahepeal lapsi jalgpalli mängimas, ja nii huvitav on tegelikult vaadata sest nad on kõik sellised jalgpalli ja Messi hullud :D Nad on alati ise ka värava leiutanud puu okstest.
Need pildid on ainukesed mis hetkel lisada saan, otsin koha kuhu saaks teised ka üles laadida.
***
30.11
Such positive memories from there.
So everything started like that: on Friday me, Lis and Iris (from Honduras) went to San Pedro but as we got there after 7 pm I stayed that Iris' sister's place who is really friendly. For breakfast she made us homemade baleadas. Taxi in this city is so expensive. Like I've said, nothing has a certain price in this country, so the taxi prices are set (although you can get cheaper when you act uninterested or just bargain), and in San Pedro it's 90 lempiras, in La Ceiba it's 25. But that city is really not for me. First of all, Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries anyway like they say, and it's the worst in big cities like Tegucigalpa (capital) and San Pedro Sula. You could be even robbed during the day. I'd never want to go to those cities, cos there is nothing nice to see anyway. As much as I've seen San Pedro, it's really ugly and the air is just so contaminated so I tried to be on low breathing regime. Btw, the bus station is so huge there. But I found my favourite smoothie from there which is watermelon-papaya-milk smoothie <3
Anyway, from there I took a bus on Saturday to Copan which is close to Guatemalan border, 3.5 h. That's the place where the Mayan ruins are. What is cool here is that when the bus stops, sellers come on with all sorts of stuff like fruits, tajadas etc. So for 10 lempiras I got myself cut papaya slices for the road. On the bus I met a Columbian who's been working in Honduras for 6 months. Her Spanish was so much clearer, but maybe cos she came from a wealthier family as well. Btw, at one point, a really bad clown came on the bus and he was so loud and surely not funny :D
The road to Copan was very curvy. As this place is up high, after every 2 sec there was either sudden left or right turn. The view was superb though!
In Copan I put my stuff in the hotel where Nikki and Rich were staying (from the UK who were volunteering here a while back), as they weren't there I went out to discover the town and then I just randomly saw them on the street. It got quite late so we couldn't do much, so we walked away from the center to find smaller placer and took beers for less than a dollar for a bottle! Cheapest I've ever seen in Honduras. Copan is really different from the rest of Honduras. As it's high up, it's cold there and I was literally shivering under my blanket. The nature is quite European there as well. It's really cool in Copan that all the men were wearing cowboy or those Mexican hats, really felt like I was in another country :D
The next morning we went to see the Mayan ruins. Really interesting to see something like that for the first time.
At 12 we took a bus to Antigua, Guatemala, which was 20 dollars, and 6h ride. To get out of Honduras we had to pay 3 dollars and entering Guatemala was 1 dollar, same when we came back as well. The road was really curvy the whole way again, and the view was just stunning. One difference I noticed was that in Guatemala they say 'Tienda' for a shop not like here were all the little shops are called 'Pulperia'. (another difference is that they use kilometers instead of miles) Tienda sounds so much better! We arrived after 6pm in Antigua and as the backpackers' hotel was full we had to go to another one which was around 6 dollars per night, but we didn't like that place as they didn't ''have'' any more blankets to give us and it gets reaaly cold there in the evening, 16 degrees or below. So we went to another one in the morning where the owner was really sweet and kind, and the breakfast was included as well, around 9 dollars per night this time. We went to discover Antigua in the dark when it looks the best I think, especially in the lights. Found a restaurant as well there a liter of beer was only over 2 dollars a bit and a free nacho plate was included!!
The next day, on Monday, my tummy didn't feel the best and unfortunately I drank 3 cups of beer as well as refills were free with breakfast. We went to a really big market as well where they sold basically everything and lots of Guatemalan national crafty stuff. The fruits were so cheap there! I got a huge papaya for less than 2 dollars and big box of blackberries for 50 US cents :) Bought lots of Guatemalan souvenirs, coffee beans, sent some postcards, yeah, lot's of looking around. I really like Guatemala because you see people in their national clothes with Guatemalan patterns everywhere. Of course in Antigua more as it's really touristy there but still, so much more culture. I've never seen anybody wear Honduran national clothes here, I don't even know what they look like, and not even usual Honduran souvenirs. After a walk in town I felt worse and then made my way back to the hotel. I couldn't sleep for 4 hours although I tried as the pain was so sharp and untolerable and I had a high fever as well. So I let the hotel owner to call me an ambulance. The whole way to the private hospital was on cobble stones, so reaaaly bumpy and definitely didn't feel good :D They said that the doctor there speaks English... of course he did! So had to cope in Spanish. They took a blood test and turned out that I have some kind of a stomach infection. So they put a needle in my vein to pump in some medicine for half an hour. And now I'm on antibiotics. Everything together was around 100 dollars so good I have an insurance!
On Tuesday I felt better but my tummy was still really sensitive, and I'm still really careful about what I eat. We went to some kind of museum/hotel where we spent couple of hours, really interesting I gotta say. By Wednesday we had seen quite a lot of Antigua already and didn't know what to do. Just went on a walk in town and I got a new book from Nikki, 'The Help', really recommend it! So the rest of the time we just sat in the hotel and then went out for dinner. Next morning I had to wake up at 3am as the bus back to Copan was at 4am. Nikki and Rich continued their way to other places in Guatemala so I had to go alone. When I went to the kitchen there were lots of big slugs on the floor, I guess they like that kind of humid cold in the morning :D But all the night were really freezing in Antigua. Even under my 3 blankets I was cold. When we went out for dinner I wore 4 layers of blouses :D
Anyway the bus this time was really full, mainly really extreme hippies on there :D Lots of backpackers here look like that like I've noticed. 4h went by quickly, mainly cos I was half- asleep, but then the driver said that 30 more min until the border, more like 2h :D In Copan I found out that the next bus to San Pedro is at 2pm, I was counting on the 11.30 so kind of disappointed as I didn't want to get to La Ceiba too late which now was inevitable. So I waited, went back to that hotel I spent my first night in Copan, and was on Wifi with my broken-screen iPhone. 3.5 h on the bus again. I cought a bus to La Ceiba at 6pm, and finally had to take a taxi to El Porvenir around 10 pm. That 20 min taxi drive was the most expensive out of all those bus rides. 200 lempiras, although he wanted to charge me 250. It was quite nice to be back. Jennifer said that the kids missed me and asked for me often :P Today when I saw them I was so excited :D Also to see the 2 year old Allison. We went to the beach with the kids and played there. When we walked along the shore, we saw a little baby horse and it's mother. The guy there said that we can get on the horse if we wanted to (the big one of course). I would be really excited if this kind of opportunity would arise at any time but that horse was so dirty, and it looked so skinny, the backbone was really visible. So I only jumped on for 1 min :D
Jennifer just dyed my hair as well :D And in 2h it's my birthday on the side of the world wooo!! Not a teenager anymore!! How strange..
7.12
Sorry that I haven't posted anything for a while. I gotta change my blog soon as I've reached my photo uploading limit which is really annoying -_- So I'm gonna upload photos later.
My birthday was really cool on Saturday. It was a bit sad in the morning that I wasn't at home or in England but oh well. Went to La Ceiba with others, to Pizza Hut in the centre, which is NOT as nice as the one next to the mall. I didn't like the service at all and when I ordered a drink which was quite expensive compared to other stuff, and which I thought was a proper fruit juice, it was only a cheap juice drink which had at least half a glass of sugar in it. It's crazy how much sugar everything contains here. They have never heard of healthy eating I assume. Even Fanta here contains 10x more sugar than in Europe.
Anyway, at 8 o clock we went to a restaurant. I got a baleada and when they served it they brought me a birthday candle as well awww :D There was a party at that place, so the DJ put on a birthday song for me haha :D In the beginning there was nobody there almost, later it was full of people. Such a great night.
This week I've been busy with VAP again. The topic the whole week was 'the environment', so we made a rubbish cleaning game one day outside to clean this dirty place for once. Yesterday they made robots out of old cartons, bottles etc, and had to think how their robots clean the environment which was such a cool activity. :)
Yesterday I got another unconditional offer from Aston University in Birmingham. I've also got unconditional from East Anglia finally :) Now gotta wait for 2 Scottish universities.
Btw, mine and Diana's El Salvador plan might be off as that country is really strict with rules. Basically, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua belong under C4 group which means that if you want to renew your visa after 90 days you'd have to leave this area, e.g. to Belize. But as Guatemala isn't really strict with it, we had an opportunity to renew our visa by going there and back, but El Salvador wouldn't accept that visa. The others can go because their initial 90 days here isn't up yet, bus as me and Diana arrived to Honduras much earlier, our initial 90 days would end before Christmas, and like I said, El Salvador wouldn't accept our new visa as we haven't left the C4 zone in 90 days. Ofc you can pay big money or it depends on a person who looks at our visas as everything here is corrupted, but I don't wanna pay or risk it. So we might go to Belize which of course would be nice as well, although I really wanted to see the Pacific Ocean :D But in Belize there's a Great Blue Hole which is really famous so I'd really like to see it. And that place is really close to Mexican border so maybe we can cross that as well :) But nothing's certain yet.
On Sunday we're gonna go to La Ceiba to watch a football match.
Sometimes when we play games with the other volunteers, like name ones or card games, it's so funny to watch how competitive everybody gets, really cracks me up :D
In Guatemala when we were driving towards the border I saw crazy amounts of garbage next to the road, mostly plastic bags. One tree didnt have any leaves on, but only tons of white little plastic bags. So sad :( TOP 3 worst problems in this part of the world for me are rubbish, bureaucracy and corruption.
Sometimes you will see kids playing football next to the road as all of them (boys mostly) are crazy about footie or Messi :D And they have always invented the goals out of branches as well.
These are the only ones I can add atm, will upload more soon somewhere.
7.12
Sorry et ma pole midagi postitanud veel aga ma pean oma blogspoti ära muutma vist sest mu piltide laadimise limiit on täis :( Niiet ma lisan pildid kunagi hiljem kuhugi mujale, kuigi mul on Facebook'is ka mõned üleval.
Mu sünnipäev laupäeval oli väga lahe ;) Alguses oli natuke kurb hommikul et kodus või Inglismaal ei saa olla aga siis läksin La Ceibasse. Muide, öösel kell 12 kui 1 detsember saabus, kõik kes Beach House's elavad tulid mulle happy birthday'd laulma kui ma juba pool-magasin :D
La Ceiba'st sain endale sünnipäeva kleidi ja siis läksime Pizza Hut'i, mis pole see mis kaubamaja kõrval on, niiet mitte nii meeldiv. Tellisin mingi 3 dollari eest endale puuvilja mahla, mõtlesin et midagi smoothie sarnast sest see oli üsna kallis võrreldes teisega. Mingi üüülimagus vastik jook tuli. Ma olen kindel nad lisasid pool klaasi suhkrut sisse. See on lihtsalt jube palju suhkrut neil jookides ja mujal on siin. Nad pole kunagi vist kuulnud tervislikust toitumisest. Isegi Fanta siin on 10x korda magusam kui Euroopas :S
Igatahes, õhtul kell 8 läksime siin restorani kus ka pidu oli õhtul. Tellisin ka baleada mis toodi välja sünnipäeva küünlaga aww :D Ja DJ pani sünnipäeva laulu ka peale :D Alguses polnud üldse inimesi seal aga hiljem oli tantsupõrand täiesti täis. :D Väga lõbus pidu oli :D
See nädal jälle VAP-ga busy olnud. Nädala teemaks oli 'keskkond', ehk siis ühel päeval koristasime ümbrust natuke prügist. Eile tegime nendega roboteid vanadest kelloggsi karpidest ja pudelitest jms, ja nad pidid välja mõtlema kuidas nende robotid keskkonda koristavad, väga lahe tegevus oli :D
Eile sain veel ühe unconditional pakkumise Astoni ülikoolist ning lõpuks on mul ka unconditional East- Anglia'st ka :) Ehk nüüd on siis vaja vastust oodata kahest šoti ülikoolist.
Muide, minu ja Diana plaan El Salvadori minna jõuludeks võib ära jääda sest El Salvador pidi väga karm olema reeglitega. Põhimõtteliselt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras ja Nicaragua kuuluvad C4 gruppi mis tähendab et peale 90 päeva peaks tegelikult sellest rajoonist välja reisima et uut viisat saada, näiteks Belize'i. Aga kuna Guatemala pole karm sellega, saime ka sealt uue viisa, kuid El Salvador ei aktsepteeriks meie uut viisat. Teised saavad minna sest neil kehtib ikka veel nende algne 90 päeva, aga kuna meie Dianaga tulime palju varem siia, lõpeb meie algne viisa detsembri keskel. Ning nagu ma ütlesin, El Salvador ei laseks meid sisse sest me pole 90 päeva jooksil C4 tsoonist lahkunud, muidugi võib alati maksta palju et sisse saada kuna kõik on siin korrumpeerunud, aga ma ei taha maksta. Niiet võibolla lähme Belize'i siis jõuludeks ja uueks aastaks, mis pole ka paha muidugi, kuigi tahtsin Vaikset Ookeani näha :( Aga Belizeis on jällegi the Great Blue Hole mis on väga kuulus ning tahaks seda ära näha. Ning kuna see koht on Mehhikole ka väga lähedal, võibolla saaks Mehhiko piiri taga ka ära käidud, aga veel pole miski kindel.
See pühapäev lähme La Ceibasse jalgpalli vaatama kõigiga muidu.
Vahepeal kui kõigi vabatahtlikega mängime igasuguseid mänge, nagu nimede arvamis või kaardi mänge, niii naljakas on vaadata kui võistlushimuliseks kõik muutuvad :D Nagu elu peale mängiks :D
Guatemalas kui piiri poole sõitsime, nägin tee ääres niii jubedalt palju prügi, enamasti kilekotte, ja ühel puul polnud mitte ühtegi lehte peal, vaid palju väikesi valgeid kilekotte puu otsas, jube vaatepilt. Minu jaoks ongi TOP3 probleemid siin kohas reostatus, bürokraatia ja korruptsioon.
Tee ääres võib vahepeal lapsi jalgpalli mängimas, ja nii huvitav on tegelikult vaadata sest nad on kõik sellised jalgpalli ja Messi hullud :D Nad on alati ise ka värava leiutanud puu okstest.
Need pildid on ainukesed mis hetkel lisada saan, otsin koha kuhu saaks teised ka üles laadida.
***
30.11
Such positive memories from there.
So everything started like that: on Friday me, Lis and Iris (from Honduras) went to San Pedro but as we got there after 7 pm I stayed that Iris' sister's place who is really friendly. For breakfast she made us homemade baleadas. Taxi in this city is so expensive. Like I've said, nothing has a certain price in this country, so the taxi prices are set (although you can get cheaper when you act uninterested or just bargain), and in San Pedro it's 90 lempiras, in La Ceiba it's 25. But that city is really not for me. First of all, Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries anyway like they say, and it's the worst in big cities like Tegucigalpa (capital) and San Pedro Sula. You could be even robbed during the day. I'd never want to go to those cities, cos there is nothing nice to see anyway. As much as I've seen San Pedro, it's really ugly and the air is just so contaminated so I tried to be on low breathing regime. Btw, the bus station is so huge there. But I found my favourite smoothie from there which is watermelon-papaya-milk smoothie <3
Anyway, from there I took a bus on Saturday to Copan which is close to Guatemalan border, 3.5 h. That's the place where the Mayan ruins are. What is cool here is that when the bus stops, sellers come on with all sorts of stuff like fruits, tajadas etc. So for 10 lempiras I got myself cut papaya slices for the road. On the bus I met a Columbian who's been working in Honduras for 6 months. Her Spanish was so much clearer, but maybe cos she came from a wealthier family as well. Btw, at one point, a really bad clown came on the bus and he was so loud and surely not funny :D
The road to Copan was very curvy. As this place is up high, after every 2 sec there was either sudden left or right turn. The view was superb though!
In Copan I put my stuff in the hotel where Nikki and Rich were staying (from the UK who were volunteering here a while back), as they weren't there I went out to discover the town and then I just randomly saw them on the street. It got quite late so we couldn't do much, so we walked away from the center to find smaller placer and took beers for less than a dollar for a bottle! Cheapest I've ever seen in Honduras. Copan is really different from the rest of Honduras. As it's high up, it's cold there and I was literally shivering under my blanket. The nature is quite European there as well. It's really cool in Copan that all the men were wearing cowboy or those Mexican hats, really felt like I was in another country :D
The next morning we went to see the Mayan ruins. Really interesting to see something like that for the first time.
At 12 we took a bus to Antigua, Guatemala, which was 20 dollars, and 6h ride. To get out of Honduras we had to pay 3 dollars and entering Guatemala was 1 dollar, same when we came back as well. The road was really curvy the whole way again, and the view was just stunning. One difference I noticed was that in Guatemala they say 'Tienda' for a shop not like here were all the little shops are called 'Pulperia'. (another difference is that they use kilometers instead of miles) Tienda sounds so much better! We arrived after 6pm in Antigua and as the backpackers' hotel was full we had to go to another one which was around 6 dollars per night, but we didn't like that place as they didn't ''have'' any more blankets to give us and it gets reaaly cold there in the evening, 16 degrees or below. So we went to another one in the morning where the owner was really sweet and kind, and the breakfast was included as well, around 9 dollars per night this time. We went to discover Antigua in the dark when it looks the best I think, especially in the lights. Found a restaurant as well there a liter of beer was only over 2 dollars a bit and a free nacho plate was included!!
The next day, on Monday, my tummy didn't feel the best and unfortunately I drank 3 cups of beer as well as refills were free with breakfast. We went to a really big market as well where they sold basically everything and lots of Guatemalan national crafty stuff. The fruits were so cheap there! I got a huge papaya for less than 2 dollars and big box of blackberries for 50 US cents :) Bought lots of Guatemalan souvenirs, coffee beans, sent some postcards, yeah, lot's of looking around. I really like Guatemala because you see people in their national clothes with Guatemalan patterns everywhere. Of course in Antigua more as it's really touristy there but still, so much more culture. I've never seen anybody wear Honduran national clothes here, I don't even know what they look like, and not even usual Honduran souvenirs. After a walk in town I felt worse and then made my way back to the hotel. I couldn't sleep for 4 hours although I tried as the pain was so sharp and untolerable and I had a high fever as well. So I let the hotel owner to call me an ambulance. The whole way to the private hospital was on cobble stones, so reaaaly bumpy and definitely didn't feel good :D They said that the doctor there speaks English... of course he did! So had to cope in Spanish. They took a blood test and turned out that I have some kind of a stomach infection. So they put a needle in my vein to pump in some medicine for half an hour. And now I'm on antibiotics. Everything together was around 100 dollars so good I have an insurance!
On Tuesday I felt better but my tummy was still really sensitive, and I'm still really careful about what I eat. We went to some kind of museum/hotel where we spent couple of hours, really interesting I gotta say. By Wednesday we had seen quite a lot of Antigua already and didn't know what to do. Just went on a walk in town and I got a new book from Nikki, 'The Help', really recommend it! So the rest of the time we just sat in the hotel and then went out for dinner. Next morning I had to wake up at 3am as the bus back to Copan was at 4am. Nikki and Rich continued their way to other places in Guatemala so I had to go alone. When I went to the kitchen there were lots of big slugs on the floor, I guess they like that kind of humid cold in the morning :D But all the night were really freezing in Antigua. Even under my 3 blankets I was cold. When we went out for dinner I wore 4 layers of blouses :D
Anyway the bus this time was really full, mainly really extreme hippies on there :D Lots of backpackers here look like that like I've noticed. 4h went by quickly, mainly cos I was half- asleep, but then the driver said that 30 more min until the border, more like 2h :D In Copan I found out that the next bus to San Pedro is at 2pm, I was counting on the 11.30 so kind of disappointed as I didn't want to get to La Ceiba too late which now was inevitable. So I waited, went back to that hotel I spent my first night in Copan, and was on Wifi with my broken-screen iPhone. 3.5 h on the bus again. I cought a bus to La Ceiba at 6pm, and finally had to take a taxi to El Porvenir around 10 pm. That 20 min taxi drive was the most expensive out of all those bus rides. 200 lempiras, although he wanted to charge me 250. It was quite nice to be back. Jennifer said that the kids missed me and asked for me often :P Today when I saw them I was so excited :D Also to see the 2 year old Allison. We went to the beach with the kids and played there. When we walked along the shore, we saw a little baby horse and it's mother. The guy there said that we can get on the horse if we wanted to (the big one of course). I would be really excited if this kind of opportunity would arise at any time but that horse was so dirty, and it looked so skinny, the backbone was really visible. So I only jumped on for 1 min :D
Jennifer just dyed my hair as well :D And in 2h it's my birthday on the side of the world wooo!! Not a teenager anymore!! How strange..
7.12
Sorry that I haven't posted anything for a while. I gotta change my blog soon as I've reached my photo uploading limit which is really annoying -_- So I'm gonna upload photos later.
My birthday was really cool on Saturday. It was a bit sad in the morning that I wasn't at home or in England but oh well. Went to La Ceiba with others, to Pizza Hut in the centre, which is NOT as nice as the one next to the mall. I didn't like the service at all and when I ordered a drink which was quite expensive compared to other stuff, and which I thought was a proper fruit juice, it was only a cheap juice drink which had at least half a glass of sugar in it. It's crazy how much sugar everything contains here. They have never heard of healthy eating I assume. Even Fanta here contains 10x more sugar than in Europe.
Anyway, at 8 o clock we went to a restaurant. I got a baleada and when they served it they brought me a birthday candle as well awww :D There was a party at that place, so the DJ put on a birthday song for me haha :D In the beginning there was nobody there almost, later it was full of people. Such a great night.
This week I've been busy with VAP again. The topic the whole week was 'the environment', so we made a rubbish cleaning game one day outside to clean this dirty place for once. Yesterday they made robots out of old cartons, bottles etc, and had to think how their robots clean the environment which was such a cool activity. :)
Yesterday I got another unconditional offer from Aston University in Birmingham. I've also got unconditional from East Anglia finally :) Now gotta wait for 2 Scottish universities.
Btw, mine and Diana's El Salvador plan might be off as that country is really strict with rules. Basically, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua belong under C4 group which means that if you want to renew your visa after 90 days you'd have to leave this area, e.g. to Belize. But as Guatemala isn't really strict with it, we had an opportunity to renew our visa by going there and back, but El Salvador wouldn't accept that visa. The others can go because their initial 90 days here isn't up yet, bus as me and Diana arrived to Honduras much earlier, our initial 90 days would end before Christmas, and like I said, El Salvador wouldn't accept our new visa as we haven't left the C4 zone in 90 days. Ofc you can pay big money or it depends on a person who looks at our visas as everything here is corrupted, but I don't wanna pay or risk it. So we might go to Belize which of course would be nice as well, although I really wanted to see the Pacific Ocean :D But in Belize there's a Great Blue Hole which is really famous so I'd really like to see it. And that place is really close to Mexican border so maybe we can cross that as well :) But nothing's certain yet.
On Sunday we're gonna go to La Ceiba to watch a football match.
Sometimes when we play games with the other volunteers, like name ones or card games, it's so funny to watch how competitive everybody gets, really cracks me up :D
In Guatemala when we were driving towards the border I saw crazy amounts of garbage next to the road, mostly plastic bags. One tree didnt have any leaves on, but only tons of white little plastic bags. So sad :( TOP 3 worst problems in this part of the world for me are rubbish, bureaucracy and corruption.
Sometimes you will see kids playing football next to the road as all of them (boys mostly) are crazy about footie or Messi :D And they have always invented the goals out of branches as well.
These are the only ones I can add atm, will upload more soon somewhere.
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| imelik pilt, aga minu sünnipäeva baleada koos küünlaga /weird photo, but my birthday baleada with a candle |
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| from the right (paremalt): USA, Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, Australia |
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