Semana Santa

Tela 1

Unfortunately it was rainy and cloudy our first day in Tela. We were all pretty bummed, but got to sleep in, have breakfast and then the girls decided to go shopping while the guys stayed back and played cards. So the girls (Mandi, Amy, Laura Beth, and I) went shopping around Tela in the drizzle rain. Amy and Mandi both wanted to find hammocks and we all had fun looking at all the little trinkets and souvenirs we could buy. They had some really nice stuff and I wish I could’ve bought more: picture frames, candle holders, paintings, jewelry. After shopping we had a snack and came back to the hotel to play cards for a little while before we had lunch. The guys left and did their look around town. We had a chill afternoon and then got ready to go to dinner. We had a few options; one was on the other side of town and we didn’t know exactly where it was. We started wandering and asked for directions, but still couldn’t find it; plus we were getting into a shady part of town.

We turned back and headed back to one of the first places we saw called Casa Azul. It had a great atmosphere; while we were there they had to turn the power off for a bit, so we even got some candlelight dinner for a bit! The owner was very hospitable; he gave us a free appetizer and made sure we had everything we needed. We heard about places to kayak and visiting Garifuna villages around Tela and decided to set it up that night to do the next day. I was really excited because I had wanted to see a Garifuna village for a while, as well as kayak in the mangroves. The Garifuna people here in Honduras are black; their ancestors were slaves who were brought to the Caribbean during colonial times. They’ve developed their own culture and language, but can also speak Spanish as well. After dinner, we wandered along the beach front by the restaurants, had some dessert and then bed.