Back to reality...

So the vacation is over.... waa waa waaaa :(

I decided to make a map of our trip, for those of you who don't know Honduras (and for me because I can't keep directions straight in Honduras).
Days 1-3: Tuesday-Thursday. We took the red route from Catacamas to Ceiba, stopping to spend the night twice (where the stars are) and reaching our final destination in Ceiba: Hoteles Palma Real!
Days 4-5: Friday, Saturday. Enjoy the beach!
Day 6: Sunday. Time to go home :( We took the green route home to Catacamas.

We left Ceiba at about 9 am this morning and took a back road shortcut to the highway, skipped downtown Ceiba AND San Pedro Sula AND Tegucigalpa! But the road was absolutely awful - plus, it took 5 hours to get to the highway and we didn't stop at all (besides, where would we have stopped?). I ate cereal at 7 am and didn't have snacks, drinks, or lunch until around 3 pm. I was not happy, needless to say. The road was so bumpy and curvy that with that and no food I got a headache and had no energy - I couldn't keep my head from drooping. All I wanted to do was fall asleep - impossible to do as much as my head was banging against the door, the window, the headrest, or the person sitting next to me. Thankfully, Fide and Bartola took care of entertaining Leyla, so at least I was relieved of that!

We ran out of diapers for Leyla, except the swimming ones, so by the time we got to the highway, she had wet it and it soaked through her pants and mine. Outfit change #1. Driving down the highway later, practically in Catacamas, Leyla needs to pee again! Mommy says, hold on Leyla you can make it! Then, busy trying to keep her entertained and distracted, I tickled her. Immediately I stopped, thinking, oh dear I'm going to make her pee! She looks up at me, and there I feel something warm and wet. No no Leyla! Wait! poor baby. We make it to the house and waiting for Maria to open the door, Leyla can't hold it anymore and proceeds to wet her pants entirely AND on top of my foot. Outfit change #2. And I had done laundry at the villa in Ceiba to avoid having dirty clothes when we got back - now I have both pairs of jeans dirty, and 3 of Leyla's outfits dirty, and laundry to do, again.

Here are a few more last pictures of our vacation!

 Our villa! It was really like a tiny house, not quite as big as our own!

 Each group of villas had a pool: ours was right in front!

 At the beach trying to build a sand castle - that wasn't working so we buried Leyla's feet!

 Run Leyla, Run!

 She's so precious!

 Walking on the beach as the sun went down. Goodbye beach! Or, as Leyla would say: Adios agua!

Fun in the Sun

Here are a few more pics of us at the beach and in the pool!

Vacaciones!

This week is Independence Week in Honduras. There are parades all week and no classes, so we took a much needed vacation! Tuesday, we left for Tegus and stayed the night in the Maya hotel. The hotel is really pretty, but the apartment we stayed in was not very impressive and certainly not baby proof. The stairs were floating stairs, and the railing was a few bars here and there but really I wouldn't even call it a railing...So, we were constantly jumping up to make sure Leyla wasn't anywhere near the stairs. Aside from that, she crawled up on the table to get some skittles and it fell almost on top of her! I was very glad to leave the hotel Wednesday....

On Wednesday, we drove to the lake and stayed at a very nice hotel in Santa Cruz de Yojoa. The next morning was Independence Day so we woke up to drums and marching and went out to watch the parades. Leyla walked everywhere with Amanda and had fun watching the little girls dancing and dancing herself. We also visited the zoo, called the Joya Grande. I really enjoyed that: they had lots of animals and it was really nicely done and landscaped and Leyla of course loves animals so we had a lot of fun. Then she was exhausted and slept as soon as we got in the car!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Late Thursday afternoon we arrived in La Ceiba at the Hotel Palma Real and settled in to our Villa. The hotel is huge; the villa is a very nice little house, basically - just a tad smaller than our actual house! We have AC, washer, dryer, internet, kitchen, nice bathrooms, and a king size bed....and a pool out front! We toured the hotel a bit and there are 3 other pools, bars, dance floors, parties, pool tables, and of course the beach. Very excited to be here, relaxing, and not working!