Less than Spirited...

It is muggy and raining in thick wet sheets. The sirens and traffic can barely be heard over the sounds of thunder and pelting rain. We are slipping out of our sandals, walking as fast as we can under cover of our rain jackets plastered to our damp skin. The heat of the ground radiates upwards. It is a tropical storm, right here in,

Somerville, Massachusetts.

Si, no estamos en Honduras ahora.

Sadly, we are delayed in this mess until Friday. After an epic journey to arrive at the airport, we stood in line for 45 minutes at the minuscule Spirit Airlines desk only to be told that our first leg was delayed 'due to weather' (the number of times they said this phrase to us bordered on the absurd!) and that we would not make our connecting flight to Honduras este noche. Thursday's flight to Honduras was also overbooked, and so our only guaranteed option was to go on Friday. Though we could have flown to Fort Lauderdale today and waited on standby for the chance of getting on the Honduras flight tonight, if we didn't make it we would not be guaranteed for the following day and thus, stuck in Fort Lauderdale, which is neither my nor Julie's idea of a vacation. Muy mal.

We are both extremely disappointed, and celebrated that disappointment by taking ourselves out for dinner and drinks. We slept in, got coffee and bagels and now are merely putzing about aimlessly.

Sort of like the night before Christmas...

I'm Back!

I am most inspired to write on the brink of something exciting. Not all that unusual, that the day to day mundane complaints and enjoyments are not especially of interest to the majority of the blog reading world. Still, many of us will continue to find amusement in rambling about the minor injustices of our daily lives, and embracing the insignificant, or majorly beautiful moments.

This, however, is more exciting than all of that. I am leaving tomorrow for Honduras with my dearest Julie. We have never traveled by air together before, which I have recently realized a important mark of friendship to me. As much as travel is important to me, I find it essential to share these moments with the ones I love most. And Julie is certainly at the upper edges of the list.

Why Honduras, you ask? Why not? I wanted to continue my recent years tradition of traveling to Central America. Since my first trip to Costa Rica in 2005 I have been hooked on the culture, attitude, environment and people of Latin America. We were deciding between Nicaragua and Honduras, and the latter won at a savings of forty two dollars.

Book First, Plan later:

So we booked our flight after I did hours of flight searches using FareCompare, Kayak, Intratours and various other travel search engines. Neither of us knew much about Honduras, the landscape, or cultural offerings, but also neither of us were looking for a specific destination. The price was right ($343 RT pp on Spirit!) and the opportunity for adventure was great.

I bought a Lonely Planet guide, and have attempted to do as much research as possible on line. Honduras seems to have as much or more to offer than some of its more developed neighbors, though there is still less of a focus on tourism. Since we have an extremely limited number of days, we have narrowed our trip down to 3ish areas. We head first to Copan Ruinas to see the Mayan ruins, then to Tela/La Ceiba for some beaches, botanical gardens, white water rafting and waterfalls, then ferry to Roatan in the Bay Islands for scuba diving and/or snorkling in one of the largest reefs in the western hemisphere.

I have an idea what to expect, but know this trip and this country will be different from each of the other places I have visited. At the least I know I will learn a thing or two. At the most I will fall in love with another destination.

And as I've mentioned before and will undoubtedly mention again, this is the feeling I yearn for most. I am in my happiest state, on the eve of another exciting voyage.

Hasta luego!