Marcala - encuentro de voluntarios

My first weekend in Honduras I stayed in Marcala, a small town in the mountains. I went there for a meeting of the volunteers of the YMCA Honduras. So it was a great opportunity to meet a lot of friends. On saturday we went to very nice place near the town...so that's were this pictures are from and on the last one you can see me with Carmen, the secretary of YMCA head office in Tegucigalpa.

San Lorenzo

To be honest, there is not that much to see in San Lorenzo. It's a rather small and uninteresting town, and altough it is situated on the pacific coast there are no real beaches. Anyway, even if the pacific beaches are not that bad, in Honduras, the caribbean ones are much nicer.
But still, San Lorenzo has a wonderful mangrove forest...that is really beautyful to see...and on the street along the bay in several restaurants you can eat very tasty seafood...sopa the mariscos for example. That's what I tried on this evening, when we went out for eating with Karina and some friends of her.

Honduras' Pacific Coast by motocycle

Yes, that's how I spent my first day in Honduras. Sitting on the back of Harrissons, he was my hostfather when I stayed in Honduras in 2005, Motorcycle and driving across the Southern Departments of Honduras. As my dear Mami Karina, changed her work and is no longer working for the YMCA in Guatemala, but for "Save the Children" in San Lorenzo, a small town on the pacific coast I spent my first day in the very South of Honduras. There, in a little village, called Langue, are living Don Fausto and Dona Martha, Karinas parents in law. I met them allready three years ago and was really glad to see them again. Don Fausto picked me up right at border between El Salvador and Honduras and after 2o minutes drive we arrived at their house. In the later evening came Karina and Harrison, as they are both now working in the South. All together we spent a really nice and relaxed evening. It was so nice to finally meet them again.

On the next day Harrisson took me with him for his work. He is a supervisor of several group of women, belonging to a national microcredit-programme and had by this reason to visit different places closed to the pacific coast on this day. I sat behind on his moto and really enjoyed this drive trough Mangroves, a long the coast and over stony, dirty ways to a small village where there was going to be a meeting of one of this groups that day. During the meeting I started to play with the children of the village, which told me a lot of stories and taught me some little songs. :-)
I also got the chance to take my first bath in the ocean...
before we drove back in the evening to San Lorenza, where I was going to spent the night with Karina.

just two pics more

That's in te mineral springs of Mita in Guatemala once more...and me, like allways.... :-P
you know...

My visit in Guatemala

"No solo soy loco, tambien soy chapin". "Not only I'm crazy, I'm also from Guatemala". That's what is written on a t-shirt I once sent to my friend Eddy, inspired by all the t-shirts saying: " No solo soy perfecto, tambien soy chapin", (not only I'm perfect, I'm from Guatemala as well) selled on the tourist markets in Guatemala City. And he, Eddy, is: loco and chapin. I'm just loca, crazy. At least sometimes I do some crazy things.
So in November I finally did something I wanted to do for allmost 4 years now: I finally went back to HONDURAS and Guatemala to meet again all my friends!!
I had a KLM-flight (very nice airline, surprisingly tasty food and interesting video-and game programm on personal screens) from Geneva to Guatemala City with stop-overs in Amsterdam and Panama the 7th of November and a flight back the 2nd of December. So, it wasn't that much time, but as I don't have any idea when I could get an other opportunity to travel their I did it.

And it was definitely worth it! I first stayed 3 days in Guatemala with the mentioned above Eddy (you can see him on the picture below together with a dog, who looks just exactly the same like him :-)). And then travelled further by Bus to Honduras. In Guatemala City we just strolled around the center, visited the Presidents Palace and went out in the "100 puertas" a slightly alternative Bar in the old town. As I since my last visit in Guatemala in 2005 I read Miguel Asturias famous book "El Senor Presidente", lot of places in the center, for instance the Presidents Palace and the Central Square rememberd me episodes of this story.
On Sunday afternoon I travelled with Eddy to a small town called Asuncion de Mita, next to the border with El Salvador, where he is working and stayed over at his place until Tuesday, when early in the morning we left for San Salvador from where I could catch I direct bus to the Honduranian border "El Amatillo", where my former hostmothers father in law, Don Fausto, picked me up.

In Mita there are some mineral springs in midden of the most beautiful tropical landscapes...So monday morning we went to take a swim there. It was just so wunderfully relaxing...