Day 2: Hippie Camp

 Even though American Airlines had planned for us to fly to La Ceiba this morning, my dad (typically) changed the plans and hired a bus driver to transport us to La Ceiba. The ride up here was gorgeous, yet long. Along the way, we bought some type of fruit, called lichas, from some vendors selling the red, spikey sphere. The process to obtain the edible part was interesting. First, you would bite into the fruit, breaking open the tough outer core. Doing this, you would pop out the grape-like seed nestled inside the core. Then, you throw your remains of the outer shell outside the window and pop the prize into your mouth. Either sucking on it or biting the pulp off, you eventually come to a hard seed in the middle, which you, again, throw out the window.  In La Ceiba, we are staying at a lodge. This ‘lodge’ is a hippie camp for couple’s retreats. We reallyyy fit in... Yesterday, we were able to retrieve only 17 of the 20 bags, the missing ones including August's only bag and the bag with all our schoolbooks. Thankfully, we found the three missing pieces of luggage and the airline flew them to the correct location two days later.

Spill Count: 2 GLASS cups, and the glass shattered everywhere, including Janie's finger!

Day 1: 19 hours and counting...

Off to Honduras! All 10 of us. Slowly, and kinda surely we made it there. We got up at 4am for our 7am flight out of RDU which didn't leave until 2pm because of a loose fuel screw... and we were delayed another 5 hours in Miami because of a computer system down, but finally the group arrived to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Because of the delay in Miami, we missed the flight to La Ceiba, but spent the night in San Pedro Sula. Rewind to the 8 hours in Raleigh. The delay obviously messed up all of our other flights, so in compensation, we successfully won 10 lunch vouchers, 10 dinner vouchers, 4 taxi vouchers, 5 hotel room vouchers, and business class from Miami to San Pedro Sula (we deserved it, after 19 hours of waiting and more waiting)!!! Despite the meal eaten in Miami, everyone enjoyed the three course meal filled with salad, pork tenderloin, asparagus, corn potatoes, and toffee sundae. Add in first class service and 8 weary kids are suddenly transformed into happy travelers. Back to San Pedro, on the way to the hotel, in one of the taxis, just August and Janie were riding together. The taxi driver was playing 'Dancing Queen' and Nugget leans over and whispers “All I can think about is the movie Taken.”

Spill Count: 1 cup of water in RDU