Two Little Gutt Girls: Feeling South of the Border

Last week, Loran and I dropped the girls off at my parent’s house on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, we caught a flight to Houston. In itself, Houston is not really that exciting. Houston was our layover for our bigger adventure…Honduras. We had an entire day in Houston, but stayed near the airport at a great hotel. However, finding the hotel was half the adventure. Loran had inadvertently set the GPS to drive to our “current location” which was the car rental lot. So there we were, in our hot, fire engine red Mercedes, circling the airport for a half hour trying to find this hotel that was fabled to be five minutes from the airport. Once our mistake was corrected, we arrived at the hotel, approximately five minutes later. We were then greeted by the nicest staff ever. So nice, I wanted to bring them home with me. I was sure to whoop up my first day away by taking a nap. But, Loran and I did not just lay around. We got all dressed up and stopped to see the Menil Collection – which is really a private art collection turned museum. However, even though I’ve studied art, I would call myself a creative person, some of that was a very loose definition of art. Really, painting a canvas white and hanging it on a wall does not make it art. Neither does drawing a single line across it. If I could recreate said “art” in 20 minutes after a stop to Michael’s with $10…not art. However, the fact that it was December 1st and I was wearing a dress, bare legs and sandals was not lost on me. However, seeing Christmas lights made me feel as though I was surrounded by many slackers who hadn’t taken down their lights yet. We then celebrated the 8th anniversary of Loran’s proposal to me by going out to dinner at Mark’s 1658 . The building was once a church, now turned exquisite restaurant. After dinner, we attempted to see the William’s Water Wall. It’s a 64 foot wall of cascading water, all lit up – beautiful to see. Apparently, it also “closes” at 9. So, although it is located in a very public area, at nine o’clock sharp, the lights turn off as does the water. We found this out as we approached it at 8:59:47. But, it was pretty from the car!

Early the next morning, we were Honduras bound. And, thanks to Loran’s work travel, we were bumped up to first class. Which also meant we could use the first class lounge in the airport. Perks! Our flight was uneventful, the Honduras airport was very nice and looked to be fairly new. Immigration was easy and we met our driver, Miguel right away.

Miguel whisked us off on our first adventures in San Pedro Sula – to a museum of course! Then we ventured over to their market where we perused goods and even had some lunch before meeting up with Miguel again. I make it sound as if we’re these smooth international travelers, when in reality, I had an emotional breakdown in the museum because I couldn’t understand anything that was going on around me, couldn’t understand the language past my two years of high school Spanish class and was terribly worried about eating food and drinking water. But, once we moved past that, I was fine…

Miguel drove us through the country-side to the city of Tela on the Caribbean coast. We stayed at the Hotel Maya Vista which wasn’t on the beach, but was up on a hill overlooking the entire city and the water. It was great! We were in a large room on the top floor. Lots of stairs, but the view was worth it. Loran and I went out to explore the town and buy some groceries. I’ll admit, I was overwhelmed again, but not quite as much as San Pedro Sula. We found a great restaurant, on the beach, for dinner. We were one of the only people there eating, despite it being one of their fancier places. It was not tourist season and was actually the tail end of rainy season, so…it started raining while we were having dinner. Our walk home was less raucous around town and more peaceful. We spent some time on the patio overlooking the city nights, fireworks started up and we learned it was in conjunction with the Santa Claus parade in town earlier. I was able to talk to my mom and get a report on my girls who were watching Santa drive down the street in a fire truck – through sub-zero temps. I fell asleep that night feeling much better about Honduras, listening to the waves crash and the rain fall. I was feeling pretty good about this trip.

It poured all night, but we both slept great. We actually both awoke to a start the next morning when the rain sounded…different. It sounded different because our ceiling was leaking and the water wasn’t just dripping in, it was streaming…right next to our ceiling fan. Small pieces of the ceiling were starting to calve off, so we got ready for the day, moved furniture around, found a trash can to catch the water and used Loran’s phone to figure out how to tell the staff our ceiling was leaking.

We had breakfast and were moved to another room. A little smaller, but still great. And throughout the rest of our trip, the ceiling did not leak. We went to town, and I really enjoyed it during the working day. Things were still different from what I’m used to, with open air shops, people bustling everywhere and D.J.s in the grocery store, I was starting to get the hang of it. But, on our way back from town, it started to pour. We ended up back in our room soaking wet, but, it wasn’t cold out so we just rolled with it. Later in the day, when it seemed that the rain was clearing up a bit, we went out again to explore some new areas. While out and about, I started to not feel right. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong, but I knew it wasn’t right. I was also really mad at the town. Mad at the garbage, the smells, the buildings. This was a red flag since earlier I was really enjoying town. Eventually, I was near tears and just wanted to go back to the room.

The Tela Railroad company boomed at the turn on the 1900s – Chiquita Bananas was based here. But, it all came to an end and the once booming railroad company building is now a hollow shell.

Once we got back to the room, things went downhill, fast. I got sick. SICK. SICK SICK SICK. I needed to be within 10 feet of the bathroom at all times. I couldn’t even lay down flat. Finally, after several hours of agony, I threw up and felt a ton better. Still sick, but not doubled over in pain. The next 18 hours was a blur of Sprite, crackers and bathroom trips…during the worst of it, I remember watching Wedding Crashers with Spanish subtitles.

Saturday morning, we woke up to sunshine! I was feeling a little better. I managed to shower and slowly make my way down all of those stairs to drape myself over a patio table. I looked like death, but the sun felt good. After a bit out there, I wretched myself back up the stairs and took a long nap. After the nap, I woke and felt that I could rally and do something with the day. We decided to visit the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens. We’d wanted to go Punta Sal, a wildlife refuge known for its dolphins, tropical birds and monkeys. Because of the waves, the boats weren’t running. And because of my running, we weren’t going that far out. The gardens were really nice and peaceful and we enjoyed roaming through giant plants.

It’s just a leaf, until you see it in perspective next to my foot!

We spent our last night in Tela eating American style pizza on our bed, watching American television and drinking Sprite. Not quite submersing ourselves, but it was all the adventure my body could handle. We did spend quite a bit of time on our porch overlooking the city again, watching the night unfold, listening to the waves crash. Until the raindrops forced us in.

It was raining when we left…shocking, I know. Miguel brought us back to the airport. Our time with him was great. We even exchanged email addresses and we took photos with him. We learned a lot about the city and culture from him and he even showed off his 3M electrical tape that he keeps in his glove box!

We flew first class again to Houston. Then had a three hour layover in Houston where we relaxed, played Yahtzee and just enjoyed people watching. We got home late, but our girls had already been delivered to our house and were snug in their beds. It was great to see them!! We didn’t sleep the best. I still didn’t feel great and kept dreaming in Honduran. It took a couple of days to start feeling normal and get into the swing of things, but we got there.

While not my dream vacation, and certainly not how I would want to spend my time – it wasn’t a total loss. Loran and I had some great time together. And nothing helps solidify a relationship than being sick and completely vulnerable and having the other person take such amazing care of you. When I wasn’t bowing to the porcelain throne, Loran was busy translating our way through town and keeping me safe. Also, every person we encountered in Honduras was beyond nice. It was really eye-opening to see people with a median yearly income of $1,500 US giving to people who had even less than them. Always willing to help one another. Everyone was clean, well kept and friendly. Really put things in perspective for us. Even though our tour books said we could and should haggle prices, we didn’t. While it didn’t make a big difference, the couple of dollars we save on a handmade souvenir might help the family eat better. I think we can pay their up charge. I vowed to never go back immediately following the trip, but now that we’re even just a week out, I wouldn’t completely rule it out. I’m not going to jump on a plane anytime soon…but there are worse places to spend your time.

But, as two feel of snow fall and the temps drop here…having may babies in my arms and my stomach nice and strong again, I can confidently say, there is no place like home! I still don’t know what I did wrong, I was hyper vigilant about my food and water. Somewhere, there was a slip. Even though Loran and I ate many of the same things, I was the one to get sick. The one who was most worried about getting sick in the first place.