Honduras 🇭🇳

From Guatemala, a bumpy road led us to Honduras. We started in Antigua, had to go all the way to Guatemala City, and then further east to reach the small town of Copan just behind the border. The bus rides were once again super exciting, as local traffic naturally has no fixed schedule, bus stops are not signposted, the buses are old and rickety, and the roads are of course the worst you can imagine. The only advantage: the buses are cheap! A shuttle directly from Antigua to Copan would have cost $20 per person, we paid about $8 per person. So it's worth it!

Welcome to Honduras!

Here's an overview of where we've been.

Copan

Copan was a small town on the border with Guatemala. We only made a brief stop there and explored the beautiful city. Here are a few pictures:

Bienvenidos!

This is what my current "work" looks like. Sitting in cozy cafes and writing my blog for all the curious people. What a life!

Utila

Of course, we had a goal in mind, and that was the Caribbean Island of Utila in northern Honduras! It's supposed to be a cheap place for diving and experiencing the Caribbean at its purest. And as beautiful as it sounds, it was!

Bienvenidos!

We stayed with a Couchsurfing host named Saba. He works for the American government and tries to avoid plastic waste on the island and educate the people there. He was really cool, and we often cooked together and tried to bear the heat on his balcony. It was a scorching 38 degrees! You would even sweat if you did nothing. It's unbelievable how people can endure that. It was even uncomfortable for me to wear a bra or tie my hair.

Saba's apartment had a beautiful balcony where I often sat and watched the little hummingbirds sip the sweet nectar from the hibiscus flowers. Oh, it was a dreamlike scene that I won't forget so quickly!

Here's my towel hanging in front of the beautiful scenery. Do you see the inscription? "We love you!" My mom gave it to me before I started! I love you all too!

So, who can find the little gecko? Hint: It's sitting on the trunk.

Of course, we also inquired about the diving schools and found a great and cheap one called Altons. The next day, we were already on our way and had two great dives in the morning!

This photo was taken just before the dives when we were getting all the equipment ready.

Such a beautiful view! The Caribbean is truly incredibly beautiful, everyone should travel there at least once. It just makes you dream and feels super surreal.

Unfortunately, Clemens got sick the following day, and we had to go to the doctor. He received an IV and was prescribed more antibiotics. It's unbelievable how much money they made off him, it was quite cheeky. Usually, prescribing one antibiotic should be enough, right? Anyway, Clemens was flat on his back for the next few days, and I had to entertain myself.

That was even Instagram-worthy!

Of course, he also had lunch: spaghetti without cutlery. The doctor knew how to help, haha.

There was a beautiful beach at the end of the island where I wanted to go snorkeling. I did and ended up losing the rented snorkel immediately. Luckily, help was on the way, as 3 men from New York immediately offered to help me. We started talking, and all 3 were really excited about my trip. Time flew in the water until we all had sunburned noses, and then one of them actually invited me to join them for a night dive! I was immediately thrilled, but I had my doubts about accepting the offer because it was quite expensive. But he insisted, and after several inquiries to make sure it was really okay, I agreed. And it was the best decision I could have made!

This is what the beach looked like. And that breathtaking sunset. It couldn't be any more beautiful! Oh, when I see such pictures, I can hardly believe that I really experienced all this..

There were also beautiful seashells! That has become one of my favorite activities.

The Night Dive

I went to the hotel with the guys, and we first had something to eat. It was a real culinary delight, as we had only had rice and beans in the previous days. Then everything happened very quickly. My certification was checked, we packed the equipment, and then we were already on the boat heading out to sea. The sunset was simply breathtaking!

Equipment is ready. Let's go!

Listo!! (Spanish for "ready!")

Afterward, I realized that a short wetsuit might not have been the best idea, haha. (Because the next day, I went on two more dives with the New Yorkers)

And then we went into the water after strapping the heavy tanks to our backs. Being underwater in the dark is both frightening because you turn around and there's a dark wall behind you, but also cool because you only focus on the small point illuminated by your flashlight. We saw two small octopuses (in different colors), a starfish, seahorses, and more. In daylight, the red color of the corals is absorbed, so they don't appear particularly colorful. But at night, they shine completely due to the flashlight. It was really amazing to see. But my personal highlight was when we got out of the water and had a beautiful, clear starry sky right in the middle of the open sea. I even saw a few shooting stars! Oh, I was speechless and incredibly happy in that moment. Once again, I was so lucky!

Afterward, I had a fun evening with the guys at a club. Of course, it wasn't easy to understand English with all the noise. The New Yorkers' accent is particularly difficult for me! I already had that problem with my host dad in Hawaii. But the evening was still funny, albeit a bit crazy. Many clichés were confirmed: the black guys were lined up behind us, smoking joint after joint, the English guys came in dresses because if you wear a dress, you get free drinks, the Americans were throwing money around (which had the advantage that I didn't have to pay for a single drink), and the Latin Americans were all about flirting. While waiting in line for the toilet, a young man and a woman suddenly stumbled out of the door. I was already sure what was going on... until... one of the staff members said to the guy, "Do the fucking coke where everyone else is doing it! Behind the bar! How do you just look at it!? You still have powder on your nose." Yes, my dear, I couldn't believe my eyes. Hallelujah! But what can I say, yet another experience!

La Ceiba

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay on Utila for too long, which I found really disappointing. But the next highlight was already waiting for us: Carnival in La Ceiba! It's supposedly the biggest carnival in all of Central America, and since we were already there, we had to check it out! It was really cool! Many things were similar to what we know from Germany, but there were also many horses that the caballeros proudly presented.

Oh yes, this is how Latin American men show off! Real machos indeed! Of course, I was a bit anxious because they were all halfway drunk and the horses were only about half a meter away from us. I know very well what can happen. But well... maybe it's just my German sense of safety, haha.

The most embarrassing situation: I was interviewed in Spanish and could hardly say a word. It was somehow clear that this would happen since we were almost the only white people there and stood out a lot.

There was also a big military performance and, of course, the fancy dancing women, like the ones you see in Rio.

Frankly, I didn't feel really safe, but oh well.

I have even more beautiful videos of that.

And there was also a rainbow float. In such a conservative country like Honduras, that really surprised me, but it's even better! I liked it a lot! :)

The biggest, craziest coincidence: I met my Mexican friend Caesar on the street without having planned it! It was so crazy! Once again, I was speechless.

A nice picture of the three of us. I look so tiny between them.

We slept on a boat in the shipyard in La Ceiba at that time. On our way to Utila, we met a typical older German expat named Robert, and he offered us to stay at his place for a few days. That was a very kind offer, but unfortunately, we soon realized that he was quite exhausting. And then there was the heat! Oh, we had enough of it and wanted to move on.

The shipyard in La Ceiba. Robert showed us his boats that he's currently working on.

Another final picture that we couldn't resist.

We also went to a small village with Robert where only Afro-American people live. They were brought to Honduras as slaves in the past and have formed their own community. Of course, poverty was clearly visible in this village as well. It was super surreal though. In the middle of the Caribbean, I felt like I was in Africa.

There were pigs everywhere in the village, running around. I thought that was funny.

This beautiful picture was taken there :)

But first, I had to go to the doctor and finally get my stomach problems checked after 7 weeks! That was once again super curious, as the doctor examined me in a weird and old-fashioned way and also mistrusted the lab, so he prescribed me a broad-spectrum antibiotic that basically bombs the entire digestive tract. I felt as bad as I hadn't in a long time after taking the pill! I had sweats but still got chills. Stomach cramps, headaches, and terrible diarrhea. It all seemed so strange to me that I asked Josi about it after doing some research, and she told me that the antibiotic is not even approved in Germany due to its strong side effects! I still suffered through the following days and swallowed the handful of pills like a grandma. But it took quite some time until I felt a bit better again.

Tegucigalpa

After finally leaving La Ceiba, we made a quick stop in the capital of the country on our way to Nicaragua. At first, we were happy that the temperatures became a bit more pleasant, around 30 degrees. The city itself wasn't interesting at all, but our Couchsurfing accommodation was! We found a man who had almost 200 recommendations, which made us curious. We went to his house, which was somewhat remote in the countryside. It was like a half castle! It was quite cute, rusticly furnished, but looked pretty gloomy due to all the church crosses. The fact that he lived alone in a 3-story house with almost 100 rooms also scared me a bit. Plus, we got the room all the way up at the end of the hallway. To top it all off, on one evening, there was a really intense thunderstorm, and the lights in the house started flickering. I hardly slept that night because I had the worst scenarios in my head, just like in bad horror movies. So, there we go again: get out of here quickly!

On the way there. In the middle of nowhere, we suddenly encountered these cows.

The kitchen. Everything was very interestingly furnished. I didn't know where to look first.

Empty, deserted, dark corridors with thousands of crosses on the walls. Let's be honest: that's super creepy!

And so we were more or less already in Nicaragua!