Happy Birthday Sally!

Given our difficulty finding internet last month we have posted this in advance, so it was written in Honduras and posted from an island on our way out of the bay! We are somewhere off the coast of Nicaragua as you read this and on our way to San Juan del Sur where we hope to find internet again!

Happy Birthday Sally from a couple of feathered friends! We all hope you have a great birthday! 

We have left Honduras and are en route to San Juan del Sur Nicaragua, hoping to do some surfing along the way, should be there in a couple of weeks or so. What a wonderful part of the world we are in -  it’s full of good food, volcanoes and some of the friendliest people in the world. Our one week stay in Honduras turned into a 3+ weeks. We just couldn’t pull ourselves away.

Jodi with Diselma and her daughter Clodia

We are anchored off a cute little island with many very cool old buildings. It’s very colorful and feels like we are in the Caribbean…maybe Cuba?  

As we walk around the Calle de Marina we never know what we will see. Colorful pangas,  shell covered sidewalks or maybe even an old canoe (carved from trees on the island and still used daily).

 

There is great architecture, festive colors and even an old Casino (now a home) from 1933.

There is a tiny little pharmacy... 

The delicious street food is even colorful like the town! 

Commandante Meza of the Naval Base here came by the boat for a visit and invited us to visit the officer’s club at the base. We took him up on his offer and while we were there he said if we stayed another 3 weeks or so we could use the internet that he is getting installed at the officer’s club! He’s a really great man who speaks excellent English and has a passion for trying to help the locals. 

They are fighting to keep their cute little island a haven and create income through tourism rather than the foreign owned (and run) factory that the government wants to put in here. There was a peaceful protest about it while we were here.  It reminds us of our community back in Hood River - working to keep it local!

Halloween came and went and even though they don’t celebrate it here the way we do in the states, a few spooky (and biodegradable!) ghosts came by our boat. 

We celebrated by going out for supper at the restaurant of our new friend Carlos. We got to meet his wife and one of his sons and had a wonderful evening visiting with them and our friend Denis.

They do celebrate All Saints Day and so the weekend saw many boats from the mainland carrying people back to tend to the gravesites of their ancestors and spend time with family members who are still living on the island. 

Jodi got to take cooking lessons with our friend Julia and her family. She is the local baliada expert. A baliada is one of Jodi’s favorite street foods and is a homemade flour tortilla stuffed with beans, cheese and other yummy ingredients. 

All is not just fun fun fun here in our tropical paradise. Life and its many chores continue on, however we lucked out and found out that there is a public laundry mat complete with a well of mountain spring  water to wash with. It may not seem like much but, when you are normally washing your clothes in a bucket on deck when it rains, you really learn to appreciate the little things even more. 

Darren started working on the mosquito screens for the hatches that he had a brilliant design idea for and a repair for the dinghy transom. He started by getting some wood milled at one of the carpenterias in town. Here he is with another one of our new friends, Carlos the carpenter.

Not to worry though, we always remember to stop and smell the hibiscus flowers!   

Amapala has made itself a special place in our hearts. Yes, the scenery is beautiful and the old colonial style architecture is cute but what really stole our hearts were the people. Everyone was sooo friendly and though many of them did not speak English they were always patient and helpful as we continue to expand our Spanish skills!

It reminded us very much of home in Hood River as it too, is the kind of place where you allow at least an hour to go to the market even if you only need a couple of things because you know you will run into friends and stop and chat. We will miss our little home away from home.

Happy Birthday Sally!

Love,

Darren and Jodi