This trip was an absolute trip of a life time. The learning and exploring we did is really hard to put into words. The people we met were beautiful inside and out. The passion and inspiration we took away from the beautiful country of Honduras is something that will influence each and every person that had this experience. Below are photos that describe the trip better than anything written ever could….
Sunday – Move To The Mountain
Well, it was day. We had a few battles with Montezuma’s Revenge to contend with so it was a “take it easy sort of day”. Moving 17 people (6 of whom were NOT feeling well) and all of their belongings up the mountain 3 miles turned out to be a 3 hour project. It was well worth it though. Everyone bounced back quickly and easily fell in love with the beautiful surrounding and people. By the afternoon many of our group were ready for the hike up toward the waterfall. Little did we know what a grueling hike this would be (Okay….so it was mostly the adults that had a tough time making it to the halfway point!)! We quickly decided that it was not necessarily the destination, but rather the journey itself that was worth experiencing. Trenton, Ben, Brie, Morgan, Tessa, Mr. Tyler and Mr. Budd pressed on with the second part of the journey and made it to the second lookout that was closer to the waterfall. Yay Team!!! Wow!!!
The girls house
Beginning the hike together!
Our gracious hosts managed to squeeze 17 new people in an area usually reserved for 6. We are learning on this trip that we are up for any challenge that comes our way!!! After a great night sleep… we were ready to start our first day at Abundant Life.
Wow is this school beautiful! The school was originally an environmental school but now is an English immersion school. Because of its agricultural back ground the school grounds are breath taking. With the back drop of the mountains it is like looking at movie set picture! We were all assigned to our tutoring classrooms that ranged from nursery school kids (age 2 and 3) to the English Immersion program (10th grade). We all immediately fell in love with staff and students! What a fantastic place to work and learn! This was intended to be the highlight of the trip and boy, did it hold true! We even stayed 2 hours after school to participate in Honduran soccer practice called futbolito and chat time.
IN the courtyard
Tuesday! The Innocademy group and 10 of Abundant Life’s 8th graders boarded a bus at 6 a.m. to the Copan ruins. We had a 3 hour bus ride to Copan altogether and it flew by. We had a guided tour of each of the statues and pyramids that made up of Copan. After learning about the awesome Mayan culture we were able to go and explore the city of Copan. We had such a fun day on our adventure together with Innocademy and Abundant Life.
On top of the ruins
Ms. Leisa at the ruins
A long day of traveling 
HOLA!
We are so sorry for the late update. We have been so busy and whenever we find time to update, we seem to not have internet capabilities! We have so much to recap for you so here we go!
Guancoscos: This little restaurant/ hotel is where we have been eating all of our meals. The view and the coffee is spectacular. I believe that Mel used the similie “It’s like a sledgehammer to my throat” the first time she drank it. After pouring in about half of her water bottle, she pronounced it ‘perfect’. The women who owns this hotel is a dutch women who has English as her 3rd language, after Dutch and Spanish. We have found out that many doctors who visit Gracias from West Michigan stay at Froni’s hotel! What a small world!
The view of the front of Guancascos
The view from the top of Guancascos
The Tour Of Gracias: On Saturday morning we were able to go out and explore the city of Gracias. Man, was it busy on a Saturday morning! We were able to split up into groups and do what ever we felt excited about! And then Mel ditched us…on PURPOSE!!! Okay, so it was in a one block radius and we were perfectly safe. It was actually a brilliant idea as it forced us a bit out of our comfort zone and required us to use a little of our spanish. Well done, Ms. Mel! Some of us went to the city’s museum, some in search for soccer balls, some in search for iced coffee… we all were successful in our searches. The city of Gracias is beautiful, colorful buildings and colorful people. We were all able to meet in central park and enjoy a snack and the beautiful church in the center of town.
The road that our hotel was on was under a little construction
The church
Enjoying some cool treats in Central Park
Youth Group: After our city tour we were ready to hike to the castle (the oldest thing in Gracias) to enjoy some time with the youth group. Exciting, challenging, fun and energetic are all words that our 8th graders say summarize our time with the youth group. After ultimate frisbee, centipede and capture the flag we got our fair share of play time in! Did we mention that capture the flag was with water balloons! And did we mention that we offered up Ms. Leisa and Ms. Marcy to hold the flags? “Don’t worry, you probably won’t get wet”. The youth group leaders were so excited because there were over 20 students who showed up to hang out with the youth group. We were so excited to hang out and make new friends along side a castle!
In the castle waiting for youth group to start!
Making new friends!
Hot Springs: After a STEEEEEEEEEEP ride down to the hot springs in a bus we finally arrived to one of the coolest things we have ever seen! Oh-My-Goodness. San Fransisco has NOTHING on this hill! We were actually wondering how we would make it up again. Especially after eating the enormous dinner! Then again, we had Mr. Drew, Mr. Budd and Mr. JR to push if we needed them. The hot springs were pools that were filled with naturally hot water that was fed from a VERY hot natural spring. The water was coming from a crack in the earth where the heat was the most intense and then it trickled down to fill the large pool. There was an intense game of water polo that ended with a tie, of course. After a fantastic Honduran meal, cena tipica (typical dinner), we headed back to our new “home” and crashed. It was a busy and fantastic day.
Enjoying the hot springs!
Dinner yum yum!
HOLA!
We are so sorry for the late update. We have been so busy and whenever we find time to update, we seem to not have internet capabilities! We have so much to recap for you so here we go!
Guancoscos: This little resturant/ hotel is where we have been eating all of our meals. The view and the coffee is spectacular. The women who owns this hotel is a dutch women who has English as her 3rd language, after Dutch and Spanish. We have found out that many doctors who visit Gracias from West Michigan stay at Froni’s hotel! What a small world!
The Tour Of Gracias: On Saturday morning we were able to go out an explore the city of Gracias. Man, was it busy on a Saturday morning! We were able to split up into groups and do what ever we felt excited about! Some of us went to the city’s museum, some in search for soccer balls, some in search for iced coffee… we all were successful in our searches. The city of Gracias is beautiful, colorful buildings and colorful people. We were all able to meet in central park and enjoy a snack and the beautiful church in the center of town.
Youth Group: After our city tour we were ready to hike to the castle (the oldest thing in Gracias) to enjoy some time with the youth group. Exciting, challenging, fun and energetic are all words that our 8th graders say summarize our time with the youth group. After frisbee golf, centipede and capture the flag we got our fair share of play time in! Did we mention that capture the flag was with water balloons! The youth group leaders were so excited because there were over 20 students who showed up to hang out with the youth group. We were so excited to hang out and make new friends along side a castle!
Hot Springs: After a STEEEEEEEEEEP ride down to the hot springs in a bus we finally arrived to one of the coolest things we have ever seen! The hot springs were pools that were filled with naturally hot water that was fed from a VERY hot natural spring. The water was coming from a crack in the earth where the heat was the most intense and then it trickled down to fill the large pool. There was an intense game of water polo that ended with a tie, of course. After a fantastic Honduran meal, cena tipica (typical dinner), we headed back to our new “home” and crashed. It was a busy and fantastic day.
We finally made it to Gracias yesterday at about 3 in the afternoon. It was a very long day of traveling but once we made it to our hotel, we forgot all about the long hot hours of traveling. After unpacking and relaxing a bit through the first thunderstorm of the night, we got ready for our exciting evening! We split up into groups of two and 8 students from Abundent Life came to our hotel. Each group went with one of the students back to the students famiy’s house. We were all able to eat a traditional, home made, wonderful meal with the students we are going to be spending time with all week! The Honduran students were able to use their English and Innocademy was able to use their Spanish! We are even teaching the adults a few things, (or two). Tonight we are going to upload photos from the dinners and each student will write about their experience. We are off soon to more fun, check back later tonight!!!
Hola Amigo,
The good news is we had way more fun today waiting than we did yesterday! We are currently waiting in the Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale airport where we will FINALLY catch our flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras! YAY! Our plans have changed slightly but the best part is we are still going to be able to do everything we had planned for our week in Honduras. GREAT NEWS! Maggie and Tyler are such blessing to have working with us on this trip.
For those of you who haven’t heard; Today was a rough and tough day….at the pool. He he! What a great lay over! The sun was shining! The pool was fantastic! The kids were great! AND we found an all you can eat buffet that the boys took advantage of! We are so looking forward to getting to our destination and diving into learning and exploring.
Tomorrow we will begin our travels from San Pedro about 10 a.m. Honduran time, 12 noon MI time. We are having dinner with familias from the school and we are very excited about it! Look for an update tomorrow! Here is some fun from today!
Hanging by the pool is a rough job…
What a great group of kids!
Time flies when your having fun!
Making new friends in the sunshine!
HOLA FAMILIAS!
We are still in Chicago. Yes we were supposed to leave at 6:20, but the first lesson of this trip is FLEXIBILITY my friends.
We found out that our plane had been delayed from Chicago earlier today… because of this delay… once we get into Florida, we would have missed our connecting flight to San Pedro Sula Honduras. We will be getting into FL tonight at midnight… and we will be spending the day in FL tomorrow. Our flight to San Pedro will depart from FL at 11:45 p.m. tomorrow night. So we are going to learn all about Ft. Laurderdale FL tomorrow!!!
We are safe. We are all happy. We are having a blast together! More updates to come
Still in Chicago!
Our 8th grade capstone trip sets off today from Chicago, headed to Gracias, Honduras! Here is what we are looking forward to in the next week and a half! Check back here daily for updates!
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This week we are going to be looking at the celebration of Cinco de Mayo en Mexico. Below are a few videos about the holiday!
The History of Cinco de Mayo: http://www.history.com/topics/cinco-de-mayo/videos#cinco-de-mayo
Turn and talk to a partner about these Cinco de Mayo questions:
1. Why is Cinco de Mayo an important holiday in Mexico?
2. Who did Mexico fight in the battle of Puebla? Why was Mexico fighting with this country?
2. What are some ways that Cinco de Mayo is celebrated?
If you have time… see if you can answer these questions as a group:
Check out the below blog post about the Markets in Mexico! They are filled with BEAUTIFUL fotos!
http://theurbanhippie.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/mexicos-handicrafts/
