Notes from Honduras 7

After our tour of the ruins, we took a little nature walk through the jungle. It was steamy hot, but there was plenty of cover to block out that beastly sun.

A highlight of the weekend was spotting macaws in the wild. Sure, I've seen macaws in captivity a million times. But there was something so amazing about seeing them free in their natural habitat.

It was breathtaking to see those two swoop over our heads in the forest. (Macaws are monogamous, and they can live up to 75 years. A couple may spend many, many years together!)
Besides macaws, we saw plenty of tapirs scurrying about and heard a chorus of bugs and birds.

Also, remember how I saw a beautiful specimen of a blue morpho butterfly at the butterfly garden? Well, guess what should happen to flutter across our path? A glittering, gorgeous blue morpho! It was amazing! In fact, we saw two! They were so BLUE and SHIMMERY--especially in contrast to the green growth of the jungle. There is no way I could have gotten a picture, but it looked something like the one in this picture I shamelessly stole from the Internet:

Seeing those butterflies flitter across our path was almost magical. A good omen of sorts.

All throughout the jungle there were mounds--and we knew we were walking among ancient Mayan ruins that had been reclaimed by the jungle.

Then we stumbled upon this...

a small ball court, probably used for practice or the "minor leagues." Oh wait--I promised no more Mayan ruins. Oops.

After our little hike, we sought out some cool refreshment, and then crawled into the car. I think the sun had sucked everything out of us. We had thought about stopping at another Mayan site on the way back to San Pedro Sula, but the thought of wandering around under the afternoon sun didn't seem so appealing. I was looking forward a cool shower and those over sized fluffy towels at the InterContinental. So after a quick trip back to the village for some lunch (the best quesadilla I've ever had!), T-shirts for the kids, and snacks for the road, we headed straight back to the big city.

Careful! Don't run over those cows!

Any day now...

We passed some coffee plantations. (Notice the thinly forested hills in the background.)

The boss never rests from work. (Especially when it's HIS boss on the other line!)

Some people travel the world sampling local delicacies. Others also make an effort to try the authentic street food. Me? I always make it a point to try the local junk food. (It's interesting to see what flavors make it into the processed-packaged food. Junk food is comfort food in any land--so you know that whatever is on the potato chips is a comforting flavor.)

This was my snack. Pretty good! Who doesn't love lime, chili, and salt? (So these beat out the plain salted platanitos we munched on in the DR.)

I also tried banana soda--which was more common than orange fanta! I gave it one thumb up. Not bad--but I don't really like banana-flavored stuff. And I tried coconut flavored soda. Blech!! It tasted like fizzy sun tan lotion.

When we passed this pretty little Catholic church, I made Greg stop so I could take a picture. Isn't it lovely?

This was the view from my side of the car on the way back. Living in Dallas has left me a little starved for some scenery. I was hanging out the window trying to gulp up the beauty.

Of course, the best part of the drive was the company. I had assumed that by the time I went to Honduras, we would know where we would be moving this summer, and so we would naturally spend hours making plans for our new life in ______. But we didn't know. (We still don't!) And there was nothing to do about it. So the topic was CLOSED for discussion. Which was okay. We spent more than two days together and discussed NOTHING STRESSFUL. For conversation, we dug deep, as well as enjoyed the light topics that skim the surface.

There is an emptiness in my life here without him. An enormous emptiness.

And I will end this post before I get too depressing and depressed.