Tela

Before we write anything else we have to tell you about our weekend in Tela. By the end of our second week in country (the first week we arrived on a Wednesday and this was our first full week) all of us PC trainees were hurting. Class is a lot of work, our accommodations are definitely not five stars, vaccinations were the order of the day, and we had been sick most of the time. We all agreed it was time for a break.

That’s when we heard about a place named Tela. It is a beach town in the north coast of Honduras, and a direct bus from Siguatepeque to Tela takes about two hours. This seemed like the perfect escape: not too far, direct bus, beach, sun, drinks. Not to mention Max and I having some privacy in a hotel room!!!!

After much deliberation, we all agreed to spend our second weekend in Tela. Max and I bought tickets for the earliest bus to get us there on Saturday morning. In total, 27 of the 31 trainees decided to go.

The weekend in Tela was filled with more highs than we’ve experienced in a long time. First of all, we found a pretty hotel with nice clean rooms. No roaches anywhere!! Most people shared rooms in groups of four, but Max and I got a single room with a king sized bed facing the pool just for ourselves. When I saw the clean shower, I almost cried of emotion. Max had the same reaction with the air conditioner unit. After we checked-in, jumped up and down with joy, and hugged and kissed in congratulations, we went with a group of friends to a pizza place. Yes, PIZZA!!! I ate the biggest, greasiest slices of pepperoni pizza I could find. Max ate 6 slices of pizza that day. After lunch, I took the longest shower, shaved my legs, and washed my hair. Saturday, June 4, 2005 is now in our books as one of the best days of our lives.

We spent the rest of the day hanging with our friends in the pool, where we discovered they had bought many bottles of “Flor de Caña” rum. Every now and then Max and I would go back to our room to enjoy the air conditioner. It was a miniature Spring Break: Tela.

Sadly, the glory didn’t last. Sunday morning, at about 8am, power went off in the whole town. Without power, our air conditioner was gone, and so was running water. I thought going for a walk on the beach would be very romantic. Bad idea. Even relatively early in the morning, the heat was impossible. The walk on the beach was torture. The sand was impossibly hot. I got blisters on my feet from the rubbing of the sandals on the hot sand. We felt we were going to have a heat stroke.

We barely made it back to our un-air conditioned room, and lay on the bed for about an hour waiting for our bodies to cool down. Since we weren’t going to be able to take showers, we jumped in the pool and waited until it was time to take the bus back home.

All said, Tela was a lot of fun. It filled us with new energy to get back to work, and it helped strengthen the bonds with our fellow PC trainees. But it also created an appreciation for Siguatepeque. There’s breeze here, and temperatures are cool. There’s always sun in the morning, but we’re blessed with refreshing showers in the afternoon. We couldn’t believe it, but we were actually glad to be back home.