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As I sit on our patio overlooking the Caribbean Sea, listening to the waves lapping in the distance, I watch the dolphins as they put on a show for the cheering crowd. Seven girls singing and playing a game, simply enjoying life, one sleeping, and the guys relaxing. I sit here and attempt to gather all of the emotions and overwhelming feelings that this place brings me. There is some sort of connection between me and the water. Keeping this all inside is a challenge that waits for a release. I want so much to share this incredible experience with all those I love back home, but since I can only share it through words, I am going to live it and take the most of it that I can.
So often I feel that there are too many things that I want to do in the limited amount of time that I have. Having the entire week free of other commitments has helped me to focus on what really matters, without the outside distractions and stresses. Opening up so many emotions and feelings that never get the chance to surface when I am caught up in the daily business that life brings me. I really like taking the time to think, feel, and just be. I am allowed to reflect on my life and all of the many blessings I have. If there was one thing left in my life that I would do, at this point I am not sure what that would be. I so badly want to make connections and friendships wherever I go, in whatever I do. I believe that relationships are the most important part of life; they are the foundation of all necessities, joy, and pure survival.
Now that I’ve talked about where this trip has brought my emotional state, I’ll tell about the fun times we had here on the island. I’ll start at the beginning. Getting here was a long and very warm bus ride. We rented a private bus and it took about 14 hours to get to La Ceiba, Honduras. We left Xela at 2 am hoping to make it to La Ceiba in time for the last fairy at 4:30, but unfortunately we didn’t make it in time. So, we stopped by the airport and it must have been meant to be because there was a group of 4 families travelling together who were looking for more people so that they could make a flight to the island. It was a little more spendy than taking the fairy, but this way we didn’t have to find another place to stay for the night. So we went ahead and bought our tickets then had to wait about 1 ½ hours for our flight to leave. We rode in a jet that was from WWII. It was pretty exciting. We even got to go into the cockpit, talk to the pilot, and take pictures up there while we were on our 20 minute trip to Roaton!
Getting to our beach house once we got to the island was pretty uneventful. We were so happy to be here, everyone was exhausted, and our place was gorgeous! We had a huge open-air patio overlooking our private beach, a spacious living area, nice kitchen, and a few bedrooms. We lived surprisingly well with 14 people in a 6 person house – but we are used to it, as college students. We are placed in a perfect part of the bay, where we can sit on our patio and watch the daily dolphin shows right across from us at Anthony’s Key Resort. There was a nice private dock for our enjoyment as well, which was a perfect place to watch the sunset.
Our food for the week consisted of cheap, college kid food. Lots of peanut butter, pasta, tuna, and that sort. But I’m not going to complain, being surrounded by this gorgeous atmosphere, I could care less what I eat for dinner. The first night we did splurge, and order in a pizza from a nearby pizza place – we were just lucky to find any place that was open at 10 pm at night! We did treat ourselves to a nice dinner out in West End on the last night. I was on a deck above the water at a place called the Lighthouse, enjoying some ceviche (a really good seafood dish).
The first day there we went for a nice boat ride and went snorkeling at a few different places. Then we checked out West Bay, which is the really beautiful public beach where everyone hangs out. There are so many families and kids here! Roaton is more of a family vacation spot, almost a developing Cancun before it became everyone’s spring break spot. The racial mixture of people here is really neat to see, much different the life in Guatemala.
A few nights we went out to West End, which is where the night life is at. There a street along the water that has a bunch of restaurants and open-air bars, even a few floating bars! Every night there is live music somewhere. The rest of our time there was spent relaxing on the beach, swimming, reading, playing guitar, loving life. I went for a few nice runs on the beach and some water aerobics. We also had a campfire on the beach, of course with some live music on the guitars.
The trip home was a very long one. The little airport in Roaton was packed with people waiting to get on planes. We arrived at 6:30 am for our 8 am flight and didn’t end up leaving until 10:30 for our 20 minute flight. We had to split up in two airplanes since each one only holds 9 passengers. It was a gorgeous flight, but a little nerve-wracking since the Low Fuel light was flashing before we even took off. But we made it there safe and sound! Then on the road again for our 14 plus our journey. The highlight was at exactly midnight the whole van sang happy birthday to me – great start to a great day. When we finally arrived to Xela at 2:30 my bed felt so wonderful – though it was a bit strange to be sleeping by myself again since for the past week I shared a queen bed with two other girls (haha, that’s what we get for cramming so many people in one place!).
My 21st birthday in Xela was a good day. Classes all day, with some yummy strawberry cake from Xelapan during break, a free amaretto coffee, and lots of feliz cumpleaños wishes. After dinner most of our group went out to one of our favorite hangouts, Smoothies Rum, where we sat on the floor in our favorite living-room style Buddah room, smoked some hookah, got some drinks, talked, and the best part – I got a free flaming tequila shot that I drank out of a straw! It was a good time, perfect because everyone was so tired from the long trip, and we had a great time reminiscing about all of our funny stories and adventures over the past week.
And now to continue with the business of classes and job searching, in hopes that I can land something in the job field very soon so I can stop thinking about that for now. Especially now, I only want to concentrate on enjoying my last month here because in less than 4 weeks I will be in the States!
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