“you’re 24! and in Honduras! i <3 this!”

We had an incredible day today for Dana’s birthday; one of those days that makes you love life and people and traveling and your heart swells with happiness….and its still going!! We’ve paused to browse the internet for the moment because Natasha and I are checking into a volunteer opportunity, but we have more in store for the rest of the evening before our five am wake up call to catch the early morning ferry back to the mainland.

Last nights amazing cook out blew our collective minds, using all the limited hostel kitchen appliances and dishes to cook a delish three course meal of Mexican food, with fresh guacamole and tacos and pineapple for dessert. We ate ourselves sick, and then skipped down to some Pirate themed pub and demanded they play Mariah Carey music because it was Dana’s birthday and doesnt everyone know how important that is?! Then we stayed up as long as we could at the hostel, praying sunrise would come early so we could sleep, swinging in the hammocks and braving bug bites on the docks, counting shooting stars and watching the lightening storms. I had borrowed a guitar earlier in the evening and we sang every song we could remember as loud as we could, some more than once just to keep the tunes rolling along.

the door to our dorm

This morning Natasha and I decorated our hostel room for Dana’s birthday with all the spontaneous creativity we could muster, blowing up balloons, tying them to the door and balcony with dental floss and taping “Happy Birthday” signs to the door with athletic tape. We walked to the market to buy “presents,” returning triumphantly to the hostel with bug spray, cold medicine, a Hello Kitty pen that smells like pears, a deep conditioner packet, the only bottle of champagne to be found on the entire island, and a Snickers bar, which we wrapped in scrap paper from my Spanish language school notebook and taped with the athletic tape. Dana opened them and was delighted with everything.

For our afternoon activities, we walked to the market to buy Cheetos and rented bikes with huge baskets and rusty brakes from some lady’s basement. We biked around the island, finding tiny island islets we planned on swimming to and never did, teasing

bicicletas!!! it felt very von trapp family

nine year old boys and asking them to take pictures of us. We claimed secluded beaches for California and escaped the mosquitoes in the crystal clear waters, tiny fish nibbling at our feet. We met a Spaniard on the beach that plays rumba and salsa on the guitar and he invited us to his performance tonight, so we biked home into the sunset, and we will wash off the sea salt that is covering our bodies and buy just one more freshly made banana liquado and hit the dance floor in honor of this special day.

I love this life!
Love you miss you wish you were here
Raquel

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