Oh what a Sunday!

Where can you visit the Caribbean, a castle, and a mall all in the same day? Honduras of course! And this past Sunday, we did just that. We were lucky enough to get a ride with a friend who had a 15 passenger van which made the whole trip possible. We visited Castillo de Omoa. A castle right on the Caribbean coast in a little town called Omoa. The entrance fee to the castle was 10 Lempiras for Central Americans (50 cents) and 38 Lempiras for foreigners($2).... Puchica! The castle was beautiful of course with amazing views, and falling apart as well which made it all the more rustic :)
We encountered many close calls on the bus ride. Changing lanes onto oncoming traffic and stopping in the middle of the road dodging large canyons in the road ;) There were so many pot holes I don't understand how on earth the wheels stayed on. Some of girls came away with bruised knees and sore heads from such a bumpy ride. But the thought of the beach just made it all better :) We had been waiting 3 months to see the Caribbean and alas we finally made it! Although we couldn't swim and the sun wasn't out, it was well worth the wait.


It is so amazing how different every part of this country is. One minute we were driving through the jungle, the next we were driving through complete poverty, then we suddenly ended up in the middle of San Pedro Sula (the biggest city in Honduras) where there were huge buildings, Mcdonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's, Burger King, Subway, Quiznos....ok you get it. I felt like I was in the U.S....despite the fact that next to fast food joints there were banana vendors, outdoor meat shops, and falling apart buildings. It went from one extreme to another. We drove from raw jungle to a big city within minutes. We went to the city mall and I was blown away by how Americanized it was. They had a food court selection that was very comparable to the Mall of America. Leaving the mall and our amazing day, I had to laugh and wave goodbye to Versailles Coffee; the Honduras version of Starbucks