My Birthday, Carnival Commences, and La Ensenada

My Birthday (June 5th)
Christina, my roommate, is so sweet. When I woke up on my birthday, there was a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a birthday card on the kitchen table. (She knows I am not a big fan of cake, except chocolate, but I love chocolate chip cookies.) She even thoughtfully left a bowl of extra raw cookie dough in the fridge for me.

Apparently she got up at about 5:30am to make them. They don't even sell chocolate chips here so she had to chop up Hershey bars. I will really miss her when I leave. (She will be living in a suburb of L.A. so we won't see each other much.) She has been a good friend, traveling companion, and the perfect roommate.To celebrate my birthday, we got a few friends together for dinner. A new baleada/pizza/barbecue restaurant just opened across the street from our house (right when we are leaving, of course) so we decided to gather there. The food was great and we all had a lot of fun. Of course I talked to my sister too, as it was her birthday also. Even though I didn't get to share the day with her it was comforting knowing I would see her in about 2 weeks.

Tela's Carnival (a.k.a. La Feria) Commences
From June 6- 15, Tela celebrates it's carnival or feria – “Fiesta de San Antonio”. As noted in a local online English newspaper, Honduras This Week, "The week-long, riotous party begins at four in the morning, with people setting off firecrackers and shouting to ensure that it begins with a bang. Later, [in the week] the celebration turns to a solemn mass led by the firemen’s corps and the newly-crowned Queen of the Festival. The main carnival [in the center of town] is on [Saturday,] June 14." Throughout the week each barrio has it's own small carnival.

As tradition dictated, on Thursday June 5th, at 4:27am, the initiation began. Some citizens gathered in their vehicles to form a convoy and cruise all over town honking, shouting, and shooting off firecrackers. It was even led by a siren screaming police car. This was at 4:27am in the middle of the night! They clearly didn't want anyone to sleep through the opening ceremony. Click on the link to hear (you need speakers) the celebration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXv31jKN9b0
I was a little disappointed that I didn't get an invitation to join in the revelry.

La Ensenada
I decided to spend my last Saturday enjoying the beach (surprise, surprise). In Jan. (see that post for more details and photos), Christina and I visited La Ensenada and discovered it is the prettiest beach on the coast so I wanted to return. The cloudy sky was not going to stop me.

The 20 minute bus ride from Tela first passes through the puddle-filled dirt streets of the Garifuna village of Triunfo where I witnessed a girls soccer match. This is the first time I have seen girls playing soccer in Honduras. I haven't even seen girls playing casually before. The teams even had real uniforms and it seemed the whole village was standing around watching. Go girls!

I disembarked in the Garifuna village of Ensenada and chose a shady spot under a champa (aka palapa). The water was completely clear and almost flat with only small rolling ripples. Some leftover water from high tide had formed a pool just behind my champa. Looking left down the shore towards Tela were white sand beaches with more champas, palm trees, and families enjoying the sea. Towards the right was the large, jungle covered, rocky point around which leads to Triunfo de la Cruz. While strolling down the shore, I even ran into one of my students and her family. I was happy to see that my kids get to enjoy the beach occasionally also. At about 3:00pm I walked up the dirt path to wait for the bus back to Tela. The last one comes around 3:30pm but the bus sometimes doesn't make the trek all the way to Ensenada if no passengers are going there.

At about 3:50pm, with still no sign of the bus, a taxi drove past and I took my opportunity. It is hard to get a taxi from here so I was happy to see one. Unfortunately, it was only going to Trinufo. I took the ride there anyway as it is much easier to get a taxi to Tela from there. We rode through the bumpy muddy roads and just my luck, as soon as I stepped out of the taxi in Triunfo another drove past within a minute to take me to Tela.

On Sunday, Christina and I are scheduled to go on a day trip to Cayos Cochinos (hog cays) where we will enjoy snorkeling, swimming, and hiking around the tiny islands (hopefully anyway... because you never know with the weather; We just had a 10 min. torrential downpour.).