Days 598-604! Woohoo! 600+ days of traveling! Let me tell you, it’s a hectic week to celebrate… unfortunately lots of changes to my plans. But I’m okay and thriving as I last minute made new plans. You’ll have to read to find out what happened and find out where I’m off to next. But I think this change is going to be very very good for me! I also had a very serendipitous encounter along the way… I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this weeks adventures!

I’m down to my final couple of days in Antigua Guatemala! On Thursday, August 21st, I woke up bright and early for my second to last morning of class with my teacher Tulio!

We had a nice and productive class discussing more verb tenses, chatting, and the regular banter throughout the class.

Since today was Thursday, the school put on an activity in the afternoon. So after working on most of my homework, I met up with my friends Isabella and Ruby and we went to go learn about maize.

Maize, or corn, is very important to Guatemalan culture. We learned all about the different colors, their uses, different foods that maize is used, etc. We even had a bit of a hands on portion where we tried to make tortillas. It was a lot harder than it looked!

We tried a few different snacks that were made with maize. We had a tostada with some beans and salsa, mini tamales, and a Guatemalan corn bread. They all were very delicious!

The activity was a good chance to practice my comprehension skills, as the entire activity was done in Spanish.

After the activity, Isabella, Ruby, Emily, Gabriella, and I (all from the US and learning Spanish at the same school) headed to the Antigua Mercado, the local market.

Thursdays are one of the busier days at the local market. There were tons of fruit and vegetable vendors on the outside and on the inside there was pretty much everything you could think of. From meats to cleaning supplies to clothing.

The main thing I was looking for was a bandana, I wanted to spice up my options of hat wearing when I wake up and have bad hair days. It took a while, the market was a maze, but I ended up finding one.

The market has a more touristy area too, with all the regular traveling knickknacks, brackets, art pieces, and clothing. There also was a second hand clothing market that was a part of the mercado as well! There were some cool pieces of clothing but I didn’t really need anything. It did feel a bit like a goodwill though with lots of goodies to find, for very cheap.

I saw a pair of oversized hiking pants… which I did lose mine in Vietnam. But I decided not to get them… I did think about them the rest of the day and how I could’ve gotten them tailored for cheap once I got to Honduras…

I finished up my homework after dinner and decided to head out into town for a sweet treat. As I made my way to the city center, I noticed the street was blocked off to cars… a lot of fireworks were starting to go off too.

It turned out there was a procession heading to the yellow church near the center of town. My teacher told me the following day they were celebrating Maria’s birthday. It of course required lots and lots and lots of loud fireworks.

It was loud, but I didn’t mind the show that went along with my chocolate and banana crepe!

I couldn’t have picked a more perfect time to head out into town. Pretty much as quickly as it began, it was over! I headed back home to call it a night and prepare for my last day of Spanish class!

Friday, August 22nd marked my last day in Antigua, Guatemala! I was in for a long day today…

It was a gorgeous and clear morning as I set out on my last walk to the school (for now). Acatenango and Fuego were on full display and you can even see a recent eruption from Fuego in the picture above!

Tulio and I wrapped up the verb work we had been working on, did a fair amount of random side chatter to practice my conversational skills, and also did a bit of a review of all the information we had covered. I’ve had a lot of coming and going while on the road, so I wouldn’t say I was sad this part of the journey was ending, but I really enjoyed my classes with Tulio!

He really helped take my Spanish from 0 to close to conversational in just 3 weeks. I need to work more on memorizing verbs and more vocabulary, but I’ve got the basic gist of the language so far. We chatted about doing online classes once I’m settled in Honduras, so hopefully that will happen! I look forward to seeing him in person in the future though!

I spent the afternoon packing and once I finished… I decided to go back to the mercado and try my luck at finding the hiking pants I didn’t buy the day before. I was able to find them fairly quickly and this time I asked how much they cost. They were 80 quetzales and I tried negotiating, but they weren’t having it. So I bought them at a very cheap price still and hopefully I’ll be able to get them properly sized to me in Cofradia!

On my walk back, it started torrentially down pouring. I was hoping that would be a good sign that it wouldn’t rain on me to kick start my van journey later in the night.

I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing in my room at my homestay. I repeatedly thanked my host family for everything. Odilia, Adolfo, and Hector really took care of me! Even though I was the only one in the homestay for the majority of my time in Antigua, it was such a great experience! They treated me like family and always sat with me at every meal to chat and keep me company.

I’ve been a big fan of leaving Google reviews while traveling and I made sure to leave a glowing review for the language school, Tulio, and my host family.

My van wasn’t until 1am so I waited until midnight to head to where the bus was going to pick me up. I had a long 10 hour van ride journey ahead of me, allegedly only 2 stops along the way, and I was hoping I’d sleep for the majority of the ride.

Around midnight, I found out my van was delayed! So early morning on Saturday, August 23rd, I sat in my bed waiting and waiting for updates on when my van was going to come. The bus just kept getting delayed and delayed… apparently there was a huge car accident near Guatemala City, so I couldn’t be too upset my bus was late.

Eventually I was told the van would arrive at 3am! Around 2:45 I set out into the very quiet streets of Antigua.

It started drizzling and the owner of the hostel I was standing outside of let me come inside and wait. The van arrived closer to 3:30am and I was off on, what I thought was, my next main adventure!

Interestingly enough, it was just a traveler from France and I on the van ride. This gave us plenty of room to spread out and try to sleep… but not much sleep was going to happen. The ride was insanely bumpy and windy, and presumably because we were behind schedule, the driver was driving FAST.

The ride did offer some stunning views of the mountain ranges that run along the north east of Guatemala. The French traveler got off in a town called Rio Dulce… not really sure what her plans were but I guess it’s a spot some travelers stop to check out.

I, on the other hand, kept on moving along to the border of Guatemala and Honduras.

It was just me and the driver the rest of the way. We chatted a bit in Spanish, but mainly just sat in silence for the remainder of the ride.

Immigration was HOT. Getting stamped out of the country took no time at all. But it took over an hour to get stamped into Honduras. There was a 25 Quetzales fee (around $3) to cross the border by land, but Honduras is just a continuation of the current Central America tourist visa I was on. So I had approximately 72 days left on the visa (before I needed to leave Central America).

My driver got stamped in and we continued driving along our bumpy ride. Around noon we pulled over at a Texaco gas station for lunch (I’ve noticed there’s a lot of US gas station chains in Central America). There was a small hot Honduran food selection at the counter, where sandwiches or other hot gas station food would normally be. I paid 185 Lempiras for my meal ($7) which felt a bit steep for what I got. But I guess that’s the cons of eating at a gas station.

We kept moving along and just after 2pm, I finally arrived at the San Pedro Sula airport!

Now the goal was finding the volunteer coordinator to get a ride to my final destination, Cofradia, Honduras.

I walked into the airport to try and find a WiFi connection… I hadn’t had service since entering Honduras. The WiFi had a password on it, which was frustrating, but I had faith that it was still a free to use WiFi. I did hear two guys selling SIM cards, but they were way overpriced. When I asked them to help with the WiFi they said there wasn’t any… but I didn’t believe them.

I wandered around the airport for a couple minutes, stressing about what I was going to do. But just before I was about to cave and pay way too much for a SIM card, I found the WiFi information! It was on regular 9.5 x 11 sheet of paper stuck to a random pole in the waiting area.

I’m glad I kept looking! I was able to get in contact with the volunteer coordinator and after a few more minutes of wandering around, we found each other!

The last leg was about 45 minutes from the airport to Cofradia. We chatted the entire way in English and Spanish and when we arrived in Cofradia, the first stop was the volunteer coordinator helping me get a SIM card.

The next stop was to the volunteer house! The volunteer house had a huge wall and gate, it seemed most houses had some sort of protection from unwanted guests.

I got settled in and moved into a room that had two beds. From what I was told, I wouldn’t be sharing a room until more volunteers showed up… but that wasn’t actually the case (we’ll get to this soon).

After I got settled in, I chatted with my housemate, one of the other volunteers. The guy was a bit odd and awkward, but that was okay… I could deal with that especially when other volunteers showed up. But I knew we weren’t going to be besties, he didn’t really show any interest in wanting to continue the conversation, grab a meal or beer together, or anything of that sort.

I then wandered through the town by myself to find a place to eat an early dinner. I had some Honduran food at a cafe and then made my way back to the home for the rest of the night.

This was much different to Antigua already, not only was it SUPER hot, I was getting stared at by every local I was walking by. I was definitely fully in the deep-end on this experience. But I was trying to keep a positive attitude and remind myself that it was only 3 months! That’s pretty short in the grand scheme of things.

I was a bit nervous about teaching, so I called my friend Jason (who suggested this volunteer position to me) and we chatted for about an hour and a half! It definitely eased my nerves and got me excited for class on Monday.

I then FaceTimed my parents for a bit and had a lovely chat with them! I told them my thoughts and concerns and they of course supported my decisions and agreed with my thoughts.

I tried to sleep in on Sunday, August 24th… I was gonna need all the sleep I could get.

After I finally rolled out of bed, I went to go use the bathroom. The door was wide open and I went to walk in and pushed the door a bit further open… out of no where my house mate just walks out from behind the door that I had just pushed into him. It startled the heck out of me and I was very confused why he had been just standing behind the door…

After that odd start to the day, I made my way to a nearby pulpería (convenience store) that stocked a fair amount of groceries too. On my way, a local who I saw the day before stopped me to chat. Turns out he was just looking for money so I ended the conversation after that.

The pulpería was an experience as I went at a fairly busy time. But I was able to use my Spanish to get eggs, beans, bread, and a few other food essentials. The kids working the store were very helpful even if they didn’t fully understand what I was saying. I made my way back home with my haul and then set right back out to a local house that was selling fruits and vegetables. I bought two avocados for very cheap and went home to make my breakfast of avocado toast and eggs.

It had been an interesting experience so far in Cofradia… and honestly it wasn’t all sitting super great in my gut. But, again, I was trying to keep an upbeat attitude.

I started a load of laundry and hung outside on one of the house’s hammocks. I hung it up to dry and then went to take a nap.

A bit into my nap I heard a knock on my room’s door and I opened it to find the school’s volunteer coordinator and another volunteer… that surprise, was my roommate. I stayed open minded to the idea but I was very confused why we were sharing rooms since there were multiple other rooms available.

This volunteer seemed much easier to get along with, 38 years old from Philadelphia, and I even said to him “I’m sure we’re gonna get along just fine.” Well… spoiler alert that wasn’t going to be the case.

This volunteer coordinator was different than the one that picked me up from San Pedro Sula. He actually taught at the school too. He was a really nice guy, but at one point in the conversation said “since all three of you here already are teaching for the full school year…” To which I immediately was like, hold on, who told you that? I never once said I was committing to the full year, so I clarified that I was going to start with the minimum 3 months and then see from there.

Throughout the day I got different updates about my class schedules and more and more classes kept getting added on. I also received information about the classes and their curriculums and was starting to dive into it, but the power went out. It actually went out multiple times during the day. Not the end of the world, but annoying! Happened from time to time in Thailand when I was living on Koh Tao.

I went to get dinner at a house down the road. In Honduras a lot of the houses sell cheap meals as well, a neat little piece of local knowledge. Also the food, so far, had been very tasty and relatively similar to Guatemala.

The power came back on long enough for me to go through all the material for class I wanted to tonight. I closed up shop and got ready for bed… and thennnn a huge thunderstorm came rolling in and knocked the power out again.

I tried to fall asleep the best I could and eventually I did. My new roommate was out late, his girlfriend from San Pedro Sula had come down to have dinner, I didn’t really mind but it was a bit annoying when he eventually did show back up and woke me up a few times.

I was sleeping fine for the rest of the night until about 4am on Monday, August 25th. While I was sleeping, I heard this oh so familiar noise… the sound of a stream of water. But it wasn’t from the rain outside… it was in the room.

I shot awake and immediately turned on my phones flashlight to find my roommate peeing full steam onto the end of his bed and the floor (which was only a couple feet from me). I said, “yo, dude, what the f*ck!?!?” He then looked at me, obviously shocked, and then he ran out of the room. He came back and made a poor attempt of cleaning it up, but by this point, I was not well…

I’m not sure if any of you remember, but back in Vietnam a similar thing happened in a hostel in Dalat… and this triggered whatever fight or flight from that event immediately.

I didn’t go into much detail in that blog post… I guess I’ve gotten more and more transparent as I’ve been traveling but here’s a link to the post to refresh your memory: Day 21 (crazy how early on this was)!

I of course thought about leaving the room but there was nowhere else to sleep since all the other rooms were locked. And my roommate just went back to bed with very little care as to what he was sleeping in.

I tried and tried and tried to sleep, but I honestly was so wound up and nervous about what could happen throughout the rest of the night… I didn’t feel very comfortable or safe, which isn’t a good feeling to have at all. I pretty much immediately texted the volunteer coordinator that I had met today but it took a while for him to respond since it was so early.

With staying up the rest of the night, I had a lot of time to think. I came to the conclusion that too many weird and negative things had happened on my journey to and while being in Cofradia so far and my gut was saying to get the heck out before it was “too late.”

I’m a big believer in listening to my gut, especially while I’ve been traveling, and it really hasn’t led me astray yet… I had also been trying to ignore it the past couple of days about my initial feelings towards the volunteering position. But this tipped the scales.

I texted the volunteer coordinator a very apologetic and sincere explanation as to my thoughts and feelings, and said that I didn’t feel comfortable and would like to head back to San Pedro Sula. I felt awful that I was putting them in a position of a volunteer leaving last minute, but I needed to make sure I was okay first. I wasn’t in any headspace to be teaching and I definitely did not feel comfortable, at all, sharing a space or the same house as this other volunteer.

Their initial response was “no, you can’t leave,” which was the biggest red flag I could’ve received. I responded “you cannot make me stay in a place I don’t feel comfortable” and that if it was about the stipend they had already gave me I was more than happy and willing to give it back. They changed tunes quickly after these two messages and became very helpful with assisting my leave.

I FaceTimed my mother during all of this and she helped me think through a lot of the situation as well… it was just a really unfortunate and messy situation and I was in a place in Honduras with not a lot of easy options in terms of a ride out of the town.

The volunteer coordinator eventually showed up to take my roommate to work (he was planning on taking both of us but not any more), who was not up yet. I had already moved my stuff out and packed up long before that. They left and the coordinator said that someone would come pick me up at some point this morning… not amazing but it was something.

My smile from the night before had quickly shifted to a look of distress as I waited for the driver from the school to come and get me. He arrived at 8am and we had a fairly awkward ride to the city.

But, I was glad the school was willing to give me a ride still.

The whole situation was just bizarre and uncomfortable… I’m not sure why they put us in the same room and how a grown man pees in a place other than a bathroom… but the deed was done and I was sufficiently rattled and needed to distance myself from the situation.

I was dropped off at my homestay in San Pedro Sula and thankfully the room was ready. I needed sleep desperately and I needed a space where I could sit and think… my plans for the next 3 months had been completely changed.

The host family immediately offered to drive me to the bus station tomorrow, I was planning on heading back towards Guatemala and check out some Mayan ruins on the way to break up the long trip. It was very kind of them to offer! The first bus was going to be at 8am so that meant out the door at 7:15am.

When I woke up from my nap, I went on a walk to a nearby restaurant that sold Baleadas, the national dish of Honduras. The area of the city I was in was definitely the auto parts sector as I ate across the street from a bunch of tire shops and mechanics.

I went back to the homestay to cool off and I started researching and emailing a bunch of new volunteer opportunities. Most of them were in surf towns in different Central American countries, which is definitely more my speed.

I eventually decided to set back out into the heat and wander the city. San Pedro Sula isn’t the safest city. But during the day, it was just fine. I popped by a nearby ATM and then set off on a 30 minute walk to a smoothie shop which happened to be next to a cathedral.

The walk to the shop wasn’t the best. The sidewalks were blocked off by trash or tree branches at points and did I mention it was hot? Eventually I made it to the shop, but it turned out it was inside a small mall. Thankfully that meant AC and I enjoyed a banana smoothie and relaxed.

The walk really did help clear my mind, which I really needed.

There was a small market around the mall full of clothes, electronics, a phone cases, and a bunch of other random nicknacks. I walked around that for a little and then started on my walk back to the homestay.

I relaxed in the AC for a bit before setting back out one more time for dinner. I had walked past a restaurant looking place a few times now but I didn’t see it on Google maps. I decided to check it out and it was open!

They only had one thing they were cooking up and it was the standard Honduran dinner. Meat, eggs, beans, avocado, cheese, and tortillas. Delicious! I decided to try a Honduran beer as well and went with Salva Vida. A local at one point came over and just gave me a fist bump… presumably because I was the only foreigner there but I’m not too sure.

The walk back to the homestay was quick but in the dark, which wasn’t the best feeling. I made it back safe and sound and had no new run ins to add to my weird week I was having.

After a nice long day in the city, I was feeling much better. I still had a lot to think about, but I was ready for some sleep. I called it an early night since I had another early morning ahead of me.

I woke up nice and early on Tuesday, August 26th. I needed to keep my head up and move on to my next adventure.

I had already heard back from one of the hostels and set up a call with them for Wednesday. It’s a surf and yoga hostel in El Tránsito, Nicaragua that needs help with their social media and events! A job definitely up my alley! We’ll see how the call goes!

But today, I had a bus to catch. The host family was up and ready and the mom and grandma took me to the bus station. It was very very sweet of them to do so and added to the friendly locals that I had met in Honduras. Not all my experiences were negative here, I just needed to reset somewhere else and try this country again sometime in the future… just not right now.

They dropped me off at the bus station, told me which company to book through, and where it was located in the station. Booking was a breeze and the bus was only 160 Lempiras ($6). The bus was fashionably late and I was inundated with vendors trying to sell chargers, headphones, and other nicknacks.

The bus eventually showed up almost 40 minutes late. But I got my bag strapped on top and hopped in for a nice and long adventure.

The bus started out fine, there wasn’t any AC but the open windows took care of that. This ended up being a very local bus, because after the station, we were picking up and dropping people off randomly throughout the ride. Some of the new riders were on for the long haul and the others were just on and off.

Every stop though, a flourish of vendors would hop on and try to sell bags of coconut water or Coca-Cola, food, candy, fruits, etc. It made for good people watching!

There were some pretty stunning views along the way and I was thinking about my times winding through the mountains in Vietnam. Eventually the roads went from nice and paved to roads like in Laos, pot hole filled and dirt. It became very bumpy as we made our way towards the finish line.

The ride ended up taking just under 5 hours, but we finally arrived at Copán Ruinas.

I went on a nice long walk across the town to my hostel. The town was fairly hilly and it was another hot day. But I declined all the taxi rides and made it to my hostel.

The front desk was very kind and helpful. There was an American expat working the desk who had been living in Central America since 1987. He was a nice and odd fella.

Funnily enough, when I showed up the man immediately apologized. Apparently he assumed I was a girl based off my name and had slotted me for the all girls dorm to be nice. Beats Thailand two years ago when they actually put me into the all girls dorm and didn’t tell me until the morning!

They gave me the name of a cheap baleada restaurant a couple blocks away and after getting settled, I set out for a late lunch. It unfortunately was closed when I arrived at 1:45pm but they said they reopened at 2pm so I found a shady curbside and sat and waited for the next 15 minutes.

While I waited and ate, I did some research into the Mayan ruins in this town. I found out they were pretty much where I had been dropped off by the bus… so it was another hot walk through the entire town. I was at least getting the lay of the land.

I had read online that the walk was nice and pretty… but so far I was just walking on the side of the road. I saw a sidewalk form and decided to walk there instead and it indeed was a beautiful walk through a forested area. It also passed a couple teaser Mayan ruins.

When I arrived to the park, I couldn’t find anywhere to pay (I saw a $15 entrance fee online)… so I tested my luck and started wandering around. I walked towards the ruins and went to enter to then be told I needed to go back to another building to purchase the entry ticket. Welp, I tried!

The entrance fee was actually $20! At first I was a bit peeved to be paying that much… but then I was blown out of the water by what I was about to experience!

It’s probably been about 15-20 years since I last saw Mayan ruins outside of Cancun, Mexico on a family vacation. So this was a real treat. But the true treat was that there was pretty much no one else at the park. There were two families, one larger friend group, and a couple, and me… that was it.

There were some points where I was legit the only person in an area and I would get this ominous feeling from being surrounded by these ancient ruins. The craftsmanship and detail on the temples, monoliths, and living quarters were amazing. They even had a ruins from the game Pelota Maya (the sports game where the Mayans would throw a ball through a hippo… if my memory serves me correctly from the first time I saw these, the loser would be executed.

Pretty cut throat if you ask me (buh dum tss)!

I spent a solid hour and a half wandering through every nook and cranny I could! I of course wish it was a bit cheaper, but it was worth the time and money especially since it was pretty much a private tour.

There were wild macaws too and I even caught them flying around the ruins, it was very majestic. I unfortunately think they feed them every now and then… but it was cool to see them out in the wild.

I also caught a glimpse of a rodent I had never seen before. I showed a worker and asked what it was and they told me a “guatusa.” My cell service ran out while I was at the park, so when I got back to the hostel I found out it was an agouti! Add that to the list of new animals I had never heard of.

I had another hot walk back to the hostel and then I relaxed in the lobby taking advantage of the fans and the internet. I also was trying to kill time before dinner.

I chatted with an older Honduran man in Spanish a bit who happened to be a bus driver. I guess he needed a place to stay the night and the hostel let him stay in our room. He was a nice man! Later in the night he asked for my help logging into the WiFi, which was cute.

I found a cheap local spot for dinner which had a similar meal as the night before at the bar. I also got a random drink for the heck of it and it ended up being tamarind juice. I’ve never had it before, but it was very tasty and apparently fairly healthy too.

I wandered back to the hostel, showered (which I desperately needed), and called it a night. I had another early and long day ahead of me and needed as much sleep as I could get!

Wednesday, August 27th was here… and boy had it been a week…

I didn’t sleep well from midnight onwards… guess who had the runs again! Central America is really testing me. I had a long day in a van today so I was a bit concerned about my circumstances. Luckily I was fine.

I waited out on the quiet streets of Copan Ruinas, Honduras waiting for the van to come pick me up to take me all the way back to Antigua, Guatemala. When the van arrived, there was a mom and her four kids and two random older travelers already in the van.

I actually recognized the family, they strangely enough were at the place I had dinner the night before! I brought up that I recognized them and the eldest child said, “I knew he was the one from last night!” After that we all became best friends.

The kids wanted to know my name and for me to know their names (and their secret code names for the day). And throughout the ride they were asking me questions about Antigua, random questions about volcanos, life, etc. it was adorable.

Not so adorable was they all had motion sickness the entire car ride. And a few of them had the same stomach problem as me… so I guess it was the restaurant last night

The mom, who was from Texas, and I chatted for a bit along the way. Her husband was busy with work and she was heading to Antigua with her kids to hike acatenango and meet up with some of her family to hike with them. I was shocked to hear the young kids were going to attempt the hike… but more power to them! She said it was going to go really well or it would be a life lesson for them that mom is sometimes right.

Her and her family live in Copan Ruinas and she told me about how the Honduran government doesn’t allow for her to leave the country with her kids by herself. They see it as her trying to “steal the kids.” So there’s some hoops they have to jump through with her Honduran husband to do it.

We also got on the subject of 2020 at one point and she told me about how 3 hurricanes hit Honduras in quick succession. It completely cut off the roads to Copan Ruinas and knocked out their power for a long time. Apparently the town only had gotten power within the last handful of years, so the town still knew how to deal with power outages and food shortages like this.

Outside of the puking children, the ride was gorgeous! We stopped for a quick breakfast at a cafe early on in the ride. They didn’t understand what smoothies were, but still attempted to make me on with platenos. It ends up being just puréed plátanos… but it did the digestive trick!

At another point we switch drivers into a van with less seats. I was now riding shotgun the rest of the trip! When we pulled out of the gas station after the swap, our driver signed a hail marry. I chuckled because I thought it was funny with how hectic the roads are. But the driver was being dead serious. Whoops!

His prayer worked, because after 6-7 hours of driving and lots of traffic, we made it back to Antigua safe and sound! I pointed out one of the volcanos to the family and the kids freaked out with how big it was.

I got dropped off at Maya Papaya hostel (fun name!) and said “see you later” to the family. It’s too bad I didn’t grab the mother’s WhatsApp because it would’ve been great to hear how the adventure at Acatenango went.

This was a very nice hostel, probably one of the nicer ones I’ve stayed in over my travels. The staff were also super friendly too and started speaking fast Spanish to me after I started talking in Spanish. After I asked them to slow down they started laughing because they thought I was fluent. Not a bad sign!

I dropped my bags off in my room and tried to FaceTime one of the hostels I reached out to for a new place to volunteer. This hostel is in a surf town in Nicaragua, definitely more my speed! They didn’t pick up, our call was scheduled for later in the day, but he said to try earlier if I was able to. So I set out into town to exchange my Lempiras into Quetzales and then grabbed a bite to eat from the food vendors.

A risky move after already having stomach issues, but it was cheap, tasty, and the “smoothie” I had earlier was doing wonders.

I went back to the hostel to hang out for a bit and chatted with two other travelers from England and the US. Of course right when I started talking to them I missed the call back from the hostel (that I called earlier). But I quickly gave them a call back and had a really nice 20 minute call with one of the hostel’s managers!

This opportunity sounded right up my alley and after hearing my travel stories and who I was, the manager had already made his mind up that I’d fit right in and do a good job. The position sounded very similar to my role at Taco Shack but with the addition of doing the social media for the hostel on top of the events as well.

But as good as Taco Shack was, it was missing a very important element… surfing!

With volunteering at Free Spirit Hostel in El Tránsito, Nicaragua, I’d get 2 meals a day, a place to stay, free surf lessons and yoga classes, access to all the hostels surfboards, and to live next to a beach for the next month or two!

I got off the call very excited… and when I looked up I saw a familiar face, but I couldn’t pin point why. I went up to this traveler and said, “hey, what’s your name? I think I know you.” She responded that her name was Holly and she was just thinking the same. Turns out we met on Koh Tao while I was volunteering and starting up my divemaster training!

We got to playing pool, along with two other English guys James and Josh, and while we were all chatting Holly pulled up a video and said, “is this you?”

I had completely forgotten about this, but the video jogged my memory. The video was me driving Holly across the island to one of the islands parties because all of her friends had left her! Crazy! The serendipity of the moment was unreal. That I was supposed to be in Honduras and chose to come back and stay at this hostel and she (after going back to finish her graduate degree) decided to take a 2 week trip to Guatemala and ALSO chose this hostel…

The world is truly so small.

I FaceTimed my parents to chat through the new hostel and caught them up on the last couple of days as well. It’s very nice to have such caring, supportive, and loving parents!

But now I had planning to do! I needed to book a bus to start making my way down to Nicaragua. I told the hostel I was going to take my time and they were okay with that.

I was a bit stressed because I wasn’t sure where to go. I chatted with the person whose bed was next to mine. She hadn’t been to El Salvador yet… I went to the lobby of the hostel and no one there had been to El Salvador yet. So much for the idea of getting outside advice! So after a lot of research and deliberation I bought my first bus ticket to Concepción de Ataco, El Salvador. This is a part of the Ruta De Las Flores, a popular scenic road to travel to!

I was glad to have that out of the way, but more planning was going to need to be done later.

I went out to dinner at the street vendors again with friends I had made at the hostel and then went to the beer garden for a beer afterwards with them as well. This was when I had found out that Josh (from earlier) made music as well, so we chatted and bonded over that.

My night wasn’t over yet, as I said good night to these new friends and walked 10 minutes to El Illegal to meet up with my friends who were still in town! It was really nice to see them, catch up, and hang out one last time before my next adventure.

I called it an earlier night, as I had another long day ahead of me and they all had class in the morning.

It was another strange week here in Central America, but I think it is all working out for the better! Only time will really tell, but I’m optimistic about this new volunteer opportunity and my gut is saying I’m making the right decision. I’ll have more time to hone my Spanish speaking, travel a bit along the way, and then enjoy the comfort that being next to the ocean brings me! Oh and of course… MORE SURFING!

But now it’s time to catch my next bus! Hopefully the next week’s blog post brings good news and less chaos… or hopefully good chaos!

– Elie