Hello from Honduras! Here's a quick snapshot of us packing with Murphy and Buster in Guelph:

We've been here since Monday - sorry for the late post! Our first 3 flights over here went well - first one was delayed by an hour and a half, so we got into Miami around 1am, and our flight to the Cayman Islands wasn't until 10:30am. Needless to say, that lay-over was a little harsh, I think we got about 30 minutes of sleep each. I did manage to finish my book chapter in that time though! We only had 40 minutes after landing in the Cayman Islands before our next flight left, but everything worked out okay. The last 2 flights were short, and came with complementary drinks.

When we got into Honduras, I think we were both blown away immediately. We cabbed through La Ceiba - huge contrast to Montreal, obviously. La Ceiba and San Pedro Sula are a bit rough, so we are avoiding them, but the plants, mountains and weather here make up for any lack of infrastructure. We met up with Perryn, Ally and Charlie at the ferry, which set out for Utila at 4pm on Monday (at this point Jeff and I were rather under-slept and under-fed). The ferry was like going over the first hill on a roller coaster every 10 seconds for an hour. Hahaha. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures - wasn't feeling well enough. Jeff turned a nice shade of green, but we all held our stomachs, and our colour returned soon after we got to Utila and met up with Amanda (the girl who owns the treehouse). Apparently there is a much worse ferry, which is hard to imagine.

Amanda has been extremely helpful - right away she showed us the treehouse and told us everything we need to know. She even gave us a cellphone and complementary (incredibly delicious) bananas and wine. She had to write down the new police cellphone number for us, because earlier that day, the police had accidentally dropped their only cellphone into the ocean. That should give you a good idea of how small the island is.

The treehouse is great. There are 3 floors, 2 bedrooms, fully-equipped kitchen, 2 decks with hammocks. The bathroom is on the main floor, so it has quite a few bugs unfortunately, including 2 tarantulas that we feel should pay some of the rent. It's still very nice showering in there though, and there's a refreshing bucket shower on one of the decks (you should be able to see a glimpse of it in one of the pictures). As you go higher, there are less bugs. I haven't seen a single mosquito, but there are LOTS of sand flies. They don't bug Jeff, Perryn, or Charlie, but Ally and I are suffering immensely from those (insect repellent does nothing, and you can hardly see them - apparently they aren't biting you, they are peeing on you, and it itches like crazy. I have at least 85 bites on my feet alone.) There are also geckos everywhere, but they're cute.

Here's some shots of the bedroom Jeff, Perryn and I have been staying in. The rooms also have air conditioning, which is nice at night.

 Our first night here we ate at a great asian restaurant (not very exotic because Utila is not known for its food), but Jeff and I were exhausted so we packed it in pretty early. The next day we ate out for breakfast at Munchies, where we ate in front of a "lizard garden" and Perryn fed the nextdoor neighbour's cat. For the rest of the day, we spent some time on the beach/in the ocean, except for Jeff who spent it watching soccer in a bar with some old men. It's about the same cost to eat out vs. in here, but we wanted some vegetables, so we picked up some groceries for dinner, and Charlie made us a delicious veggie stir fry.

It's about a 15 minute walk from the treehouse into town, and the only thing you need to look out for are banana spider webs, which would not be fun to walk into (although they are not dangerous).

Unfortunately, Jeff and I got hit by some food poisoning after dinner, which meant one sleepless night for us and one feverish day. We felt better Thursday, although a little weak still, so we all went to snorkel and get some sun! Jeff and Charlie snorkeled first, and saw a sea turtle, a string ray, many colourful fish, and a baracuda. Charlie got a little hurt by the coral, but was okay. Ally and Perryn went next, but didn't go very far, and I (Jen) went with Jeff after. I found the waves in combination with the coral everywhere a little tough, and Jeff had to save me from the coral when I wasn't paying attention, so his foot got cut from the coral as well! He is okay now though (thaaaanks Jeff). Still, we saw a few fish and some cool plants (there's a picture of some sort of sea sponge there, since our camera is actually waterproof!). The place we were snorkeling from had a nice sun deck, so we hung out there and lent our snorkel gear to a German couple who were struggling with their rented gear. Because Jeff and Charlie snorkeled during the hottest part of the day, Jeff got quite burnt.

 

- - - Update: It is now Sunday, we have left the treehouse, and Charlie and Ally have taken off. We've had some great days since Thursday, but I will blog about them later when I have more time. We hope you're all doing well!!

Love Jen and Jeff