Frisbee.

  Omoa, Honduras
Sunday, May 13, 2007

Happy Mothers Day! Sunday May 13, 2007 was a busy day of errands. The town of Omoa is fairly small and there is no real grocery store or decent market to get fruits and vegetables. We have walked around and now realize it is possible to find everything you need, it just means shopping at a few different stores. We have a place to get milk and eggs, another to get fruits and vegetables and yet another for pre-prepared food and sweets. It is a bit more of an effort, but we find it entertaining to race around the little village and fill up our backpack. At one store, we had picked out some nice fruit including a watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, pears and apples. When the cashier added up the total we dug through our wallet and found that we did not have enough money. Oops. The novelty of the free use of bicycles at Roli's has still not worn off and we use them every chance we get. We rode back to the hostel, grabbed some cash and then Michael rode all the way back to the shop to get our fruit. It was such a humid day that Michael returned with a soaking wet shirt that we had to peel off his body. Ewww...gross!
 
We found a laundry service in the village as well. Bubbles was a nice small shop run right in the home of a local woman. The sign on the door said closed, but as we stood on the sidewalk staring at her house, she opened the door to greet us and agreed to do the laundry. We were pleased. There was not a ton of laundry and it was expected to be done by mid-afternoon. Great!
 
After making a few more stops we rode back to Roli's around noon. We made some lunch and cleaned up around camp a little. We were both sweating buckets and decided to take a beach day. Amanda joined us and once everyone was changed and ready, we made a run for the sand. The beach in Omoa leaves a lot to be desired. Omoa is a site for LP gas extraction and storage and one of the gas companies built a jetty that has changed the ocean current, resulting in the disappearance of nearly 20 meters of beach. The declining beach is rather obvious as there are street lights actually standing 5 meters into the ocean. It is a strange sight to see. The three of us lounged around all day and chatted about this and that, but nothing substantial really. Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon another traveler joined us. Enter Jörg. Jörg is originally from Germany, however has been living in Honduras for the past 9 years. We are not exactly sure about what he does to sustain a living here, but he was friendly and we enjoyed his company. After three hours at the water, we all decided to pack up from the beach and head back to Roli's. Funny thing, Jörg was staying there as well. We all sat around through the latter part of the day swapping stories and chatting away. We made dinner at camp as usual, and the other two ventured into town to a restaurant. After dinner, we raced back to the pier to try and catch the sunset. We arrived back at the perfect time, however it was only a matter of minutes before the sun set behind some clouds and left us with a dull grey sky highlighted with a pink hue. It was not as spectacular as we had expected, but at least we got some exercise walking around after dinner. Jö rg showed up near the end of our time on the pier and the three of sat staring out over the calm water for a long while before the bugs decided to swarm and chase us back to camp. The rest of the night was quiet and we went to bed early.
 
We have been getting back in the groove of waking up early again. In the past few weeks, our wake up hour of 6:00am had slowly been getting later and later and before long we were getting up at 8:00am. The main problem with this is that it is generally hot and humid by 8:00am, however the earlier hours are cooler and allow us to do things that require physical exertion. The storage bunk above the front seats had become so messy that it needed to be unpacked and reorganized. The bunk contains a mish-mash of souvenirs, camping gear, and sporting goods. When everything was out of the bunk, it became obvious that we had tons of room and a rather small amount of stuff. We spent our time putting everything back in and as we expected, there was ample room for everything. The extra room makes it easier to get our backpacks in and out with ease as we need them.
 
With one major cleaning task completed, we spent the rest of the day lounging around camp listening to the birds and smelling the flowers. We only took breaks from resting to prepare food and eat. It was a day to remember.
 
In the afternoon we updated the website at the internet café and then returned to camp to make dinner and spend the evening sipping on wine and talking. The campground at the hostel is filled with greenery, and by 7:00pm the bugs are so atrocious that we have to hide out in the van to avoid being picked up by mosquitoes and taken to their leader. We have been able to do a little reading and watch a few movies to pass the time.
 
On May 15, 2007, we were able to wake up closer to 6:00am. Michael spent the morning typing away on the computer, while Geraldine prepared breakfast and a nice snack of cantaloupe. The cantaloupe in Honduras is some of the sweetest we have ever tasted. Mmmmm....good. The time passed quickly and before long it was nearing the lunch hour. We still cannot figure out where the time goes when we are simply sitting around and not doing very much. Oh well, there are still more days in the week. Today, we jumped on some bicycles and headed back to the village to hit the internet café and to pick up some more fresh fruit. In only two days we nearly devoured all the fruit we had just purchased. It is not too distressing as eating fruit is better than filling up on chips and cheese puffs, which has been Michael's routine for many years.
 
The plan for the afternoon was going to check out this old Spanish Fort in the village, however it was way too hot by the time we finished at the markets. Again, we found ourselves gravitating to the beach, but this time we decided to take along a Frisbee. Locals from the bars and restaurants along the beach front slowly wandered our way to check out the action. We took the opportunity to show off a little bit and make a few curved throws and behind the back catches. The crowd was impressed. After a half hour of playing on the beach we had worked up quite a sweat and needed to move the game to the ocean. The water makes it a bit more difficult to run down a stray toss, but it does come with the added benefit of being able to dive and layout for a picture perfect catch. Our laughter started to attract local kids and before long the Frisbee circle had expanded to a group of five. We had so much fun watching the kids try to catch and throw the Frisbee as it was slightly obvious that they had rarely if ever played before. Hours passed as we repetitively threw the Frisbee around in a circle. We tired of the game first and then the others decided to call an end to it as well. The smiles on everyone's faces said it all.
 
Oh, we almost forgot to tell the story of the crazy dog. Somewhere in the middle of the Frisbee game we were distracted by a dog barking in odd pitches and running at full speed toward the dock. He ran to the end of the dock where he proceeded to drop his rear end in cowering form, all the while still barking frantically. Finally, the dog lunged himself off the dock into the water. The dog starting swimming out into the open ocean all the while barking and yelping. He did not swim out too far before turning around and heading back to land. Once he reached a sandbar, he was able to stand on solid ground he stopped swimming. The dog stood there stared in our direction for roughly 10 minutes. We continued playing with the Frisbee, however kept an eye on the dog we were convinced was either possessed, crazy or both. After his stint of standing and staring, he started barking again and ran onto the beach where he continued to run circles around a couple of palm trees. The ring around the trees stopped and he started to walk back towards the water. For what appeared to be no reason, the dogs legs suddenly gave out from underneath him and he slumped to the ground. The barking had now subsided to whimpering and after several unsuccessful attempts to get back up, the dog laid his head down on the sand. Within seconds his legs were stiffly extended and the dog became silent. Several people now had the nerve to approach the dog and made efforts to rouse the mangy animal. Realizing that the dog was non-responsive we all assumed we had just witnessed its death. In the past couple of days we have seen some of the worst looking dogs since we left Canada, however the locals all seem to be super tolerant of them and we have not witnessed any physical abuse. So as far as we knew, this unlucky beast was someone's dog and they would somehow take care of the situation. Meanwhile, we kept on playing Frisbee with the kids. Then without notice or reason, the dog sat up. He remained in the seated position for several minutes before jumping up and resuming his previous antics of moving weirdly and barking wildly. Yet again he ran into ocean. He swam out and around the bend and before long he was out of sight completely. We have no idea what happened to the poor animal, however we hope he found either some form of sanity during his swim or a peaceful end in the water.
 
We returned to camp, exhausted, and mustered up just enough strength to jump into an ice cold shower to wash of the salt water. The benefit of the cold shower is that they sure are rejuvenating. Both of us were thoroughly refreshed afterward. We planned on hitting the road in the next few days, so we took note of our food supply and made sure to prepare enough for at least three or four days of meals. We find it easier to reheat than cook up an actual meal when dealing with travel and the heat. We cracked another bottle of wine with dinner as we sat peacefully at Roli's surrounded by the sounds and sights of his beautiful garden. As usual, it was not long before the bugs were buzzing around and we had to pack up and hide out in the van once again.