Triunfo de la Cruz & La Ensenada

On Saturday morning we hopped on the bus to Triunfo de la Cruz. We had heard it was a small Garifuna beach town. By the way, on the public buses (all of which are old US school buses) you do not pay when you get on. As the ride proceeds, a man will come by and collect your fare (the amount varies depending on how far you are traveling). There are also no designated stops. Anywhere along the bus's route, you just flag it down to get on and when you want to get off, just let them know. Triunfo was about a 20 min. bus ride away.It turned out to be a fairly small town with about 50 houses (some concrete block and some thatched wood huts), a few pulperias (convenience stores), a church, a cemetery (once again right next to the beach), 5 restaurants, and 2 small hotels. We got a room with one double bed to share and a private bath for 200 lemps (100 lemps each: $5.25). I inquired as to whether the shower had hot or cold water and the reply was "normal" (translation: cold). The shower didn't even have a shower head, it was just a pipe, but they had towels.We walked around the town which was inhabited solely by Garifunas. We were the only tourists. As almost everywhere in Honduras, no one spoke English so we got to practice our Spanish a lot. The beach was okay but nothing spectacular. We did get to witness 4 men making a palm tree roof for a beach hut. If you look close you can see the ever-present machete. We walked all the way down the beach (about 30 min.) to Punta Triunfo (Triumph point). It was an immense jungle-covered hill (Cerro El Triunfo de la Cruz) ending at the shore in a rocky point (which the locals referred to as piedras negras: black rocks) around which is another beach, Ensenada, (but you can't get there that way).On the way back to our hotel, we stopped off for a refreshment and to scope out dinner options. None of the restaurants we passed had anything vegetarian, not even rice or beans or tortillas. I was getting a little worried. When we finally reached the hotel, the owner was very gracious and said the restaurant down the beach, Merendero Don Pocho's, could make me something.

The whole situation was very strange. 2 young girls were put in charge of us and led us (holding our hands and hugging their arms around our waists) to Don Pocho's. I ordered my meal and our escorts explained it was to be delivered to the restaurant at our hotel which caused the "waitress" there to roll her eyes. We were then led to a pulperia, owned by one of the girl's aunts, to pick out our beverage of choice. When we got back to our hotel, the girls entertained us while we waited for our food. They even spotted a water tornado over the ocean to show us (even though it looks cold, it was still about 73 degrees F). Christina had ordered fried fish and the whole fish, head and all, were delivered on her plate with fried plantains and a tiny salad (100 lemps - $5.25). I had rice and beans and tortillas (40 lemps - $2.10).

After dinner, we returned to our room to "shower". I am not sure which is preferable, our bucket shower at home or this shower's pipe that pours out water like a hose. That night we both had a miserable time trying to sleep. At one point it was suffocatingly hot so I opened the windows. Then it began pouring rain which beat down, echoing off the tin roof (this happens at our house too). Then at about 4:00am a rooster began obnoxiously crowing for about 45 min. It was all very maddening and by the time we "woke up" we were exhausted.

Time for breakfast... except our hotel only had coffee. We walked down to Don Pocho's and we were met by the same exasperated look in the "waitresses" eyes as the previous night. Oh, great, she actually has to work. Sorry that we want to eat at your restaurant. I asked if she had pancakes and she said no and told us our limited choices. I ordered eggs, refried beans, and tortillas and Christina ordered eggs, fried plantains (we've found the Garifuna do not make the sweet kind but cook them like potato chips), and tortillas. We sat down and witnessed the girl leave to go to the pulperia to get supplies. If she was going to buy stuff, why couldn't we have pancakes? Whatever. When she brought our food, the plates were identical: two fried eggs and tortillas. At this point we just said "gracias" and ate it. It was 25 lemps each ($1.30).We wanted to see the next town over, Ensenada, so we decided to walk. It was only about a 30 minute walk. Since it had been raining the last few nights, most of the streets were muddy. Many we could get around on the side but we finally came to one we couldn't. We had 2 choices: go back, take a taxi, and miss the sights, or walk through the mud. We chose the latter. At times, our feet we submerged in the muck all the way to our ankles. I actually found it rather enjoyable.Along the way we stumbled upon a huge lake. I barely spotted it between a small space in the trees. It was gorgeous and completely still. I was shocked that no one was there and we had never heard of this before. I very much wanted to rent a boat and paddle around a bit.When we reached Ensenada, we both realized this was the beach village we should have come to instead of the mediocre Triunfo. Ensenada is also a Garifuna village but it is smaller, more authentic (re: less concrete block houses), and the beach is gorgeous. They even had public restrooms (which many beaches even in the states lack). We were still the only foreign tourists which was nice. Everyone we have spoken to said the tourists only come to the north coast during Semana Santa (spring break/Easter week) and for the feria (or carnival) week in May/June. We swam in the warm, clear water, read, and relaxed the day away soaking in the sun. When it was time to leave, we were informed there are no buses on Sundays so we had to take a taxi back to Tela. Luckily it is only about 20 min. It should have only been 20-30 lemps but the driver decided he could get more from us foreigners and demanded 50 lemps ($2.60). When protesting that we are poor volunteers didn't work, we had to accept... he was the only taxi driver there. Then he proceeded to pick up 2 more passengers, both Honduran, and had the nerve to only charge them 20 lemps ($1.00) right in front of us. (In Honduras when taking a taxi, instead of mileage meters, you negotiate the price ahead of time. Oh, and the taxis here are easy to spot because they are all identical: 4-door sedan, at least 3 doors must be broken, painted white with one orange stripe, and the driver signs some contract that states he must honk his horn constantly. Yes, a bit sarcastic but no less accurate. Stranger still, the drivers often have a friend in the front seat just riding along for companionship. Who gets to bring their friends to work?)

When we got home we were salty and covered in greasy sunblock and the first thing we wanted to do was "shower". I bet you can already guess... yup, the water was shut off yet again. Well, at least we had enough water left in our bucket for both of us to take brief showers. One of our co-teachers, Mr. Marlon, is supposedly bringing by a large water storage container but we have yet to see it.

We are both so glad we discovered this little gem so close to Tela. I am certain we will end up spending many weekends in lovely Ensenada. Wish you were here! (Sorry it is sideways but it won't rotate, maybe she is tired and wants to lie down.)