On August 25th, Eric and I celebrated our ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!! Woohoo... we made it :) If you all remember, a while back we helped with a fundraiser for the clinic that was a carnival held at Infinity Bay. Whichever team raised the most money won a free night at the resort. Eric and I were lucky enough to win with our game, which was a relay race. So, we saved our free night and used it on our anniversary. The room they gave us was beautiful... but the best part was it had CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING. Let me pause while that sinks in. Now I will re-type it for emphasis: CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING. Eric and I ran the air the entire time we were there at full blast. When we came back from snorkeling and swimming we practically froze and it was AMAZING. It was probably the greatest anniversary gift we could have asked for... who would have guessed? A friend of ours here also had called the resort to let them know it was our anniversary, so they also brought up some complimentary cheese and wine :) For dinner, we ended up just staying around the resort because they have a great little restaurant on the beach. Overall we had a wonderful time and felt lucky to get to do something so special on our first anniversary. Below are some pictures from the night we spent there. We didn't take many due to camera battery failure (I will take the blame for that one) but at least we got a few!
I also got to go on a great trip to Blue Harbour Arboretum yesterday while Eric was at work... hehe. The clinic nutritionist and I went to learn more about the various plants, fruits, and foods that are grown and commonly used here by the locals. We ended up getting a little more than we bargained for (i.e. a 3-hour tour in the sun), but we learned a ton not only about native plants and trees, but also about others that are grown in tropical locations.
Below is a picture of an avocado tree, which is very common here in Honduras. There are two varieties that I know off: big and small (I'm very technical with my terminology). These are the big ones that are commonly sliced up and used in sandwiches and baleadas.
Below is the carombola fruit (in the U.S. known as star fruit) that is also grown in surplus here in Honduras. It's a staple food here, and there is so much of it that a lot of it goes to waste because it's not all eaten. I found this ironic because I LOVE carombola, but in the U.S. it's so expensive that I never buy it. I took some of the fruit off their hands to make sure it didn't ALL go to waste :) I'm very thoughtful, you see.
The next picture just shows you a little of the landscape (the arboretum covers over 180 acres), but more importantly you can also see the cashew trees up on the top of the hill. I think I have mentioned in previous posts how prized the cashews and cashew trees are here in Honduras. The following picture shows some of the workers cracking the shells of the cashews after they have been roasted. In the blue crate are the cashews before roasting, and past the blue crate you can see the final product - home roasted cashew nuts that are put in mason jars and sold for revenue. I decided to buy some of these and they were delicious! It was fun getting to see the whole process and then taste the end product as well.
They also have a hydroponic farm at Blue Harbour, which is similar to a greenhouse. However, they don't use any soil - the plants sit in PVC pipes that have a small amount of cold water running along the bottoms at all times. This was started by a PhD professor who wanted to help the island develop a sustainable way of farming lettuce and herbs, as the soil on the island is not good for this kind of farming. The hydroponic farm has been in production for 13 years, and provides the most fantastic lettuce I have ever eaten!
I would write more about our adventures but my computer battery is dying and I am pretty sure the waitress wants to kill me as I have been sitting at her table for 3 hours... even though in my defense I am the only person in this cafe. We are leaving tomorrow for Guatemala for one week and are looking forward to our trip, although we hear it could rain most of the time we are there. Currently I'm not sure if we'll even be able to get out of the country, as all the ATM machines on the island (we have a grand total of 4) are not working at the moment, and we have to pay the government an airport tax to be able to leave the country (don't worry, we get to pay it again when we return). So, fingers crossed that we can even get out on our flight! Hopefully I will have an update soon with pictures from our vacation :)
And on a final note... everyone give your air conditioner a good hug for me tonight. He/she deserves it.
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