Mission: Possible

Leave-taking

It's not easy leaving such beautiful faces behind.

It’s our last morning waking up in Lepaera and it’s an early one. We want to get on the road really early (7 a.m.) to make it to Copan Ruinas with plenty of time to take in the sights. This morning, there is definitely a feeling of sadness washing over the entire group, and the Carias household too, because it’s the last time several of us will see Carias, and for others, it will be about a year before their return.

We all lined up for our traditional group photo with the family. Once the pictures were taken, we all gave our final hugs and kisses to the family and then piled into the two vehicles. Just before Brad Wilkin, our club president, took his place in the driver’s seat, he discretely handed Carias a few thousand lempira to cover the costs of feeding and housing our group for the better part of a week. Brad quickly made a run for the car and we all took off. He had to hand over the money in a “hit and run” fashion or otherwise Carias would have never accepted it.

The ride to Copan Ruinas, a veritable tourist hot spot, is approximately four hours or so. We arrived just after 11:30 in the morning and went directly to the hostel to check in. We always stay at the same hostel in Copan, and it is definitely one of the nicer ones most of us have seen. After paying our fees and claiming our beds, the group divided into two smaller groups: those going to the Mayan ruins and those who had already seen the ruins (once or twice) searching for a nice quiet place to hang out.

Pizza!

The group who opted out of the ruins went to a local pizza parlor and indulged in some of the best pizzas in all of Honduras. After lunch, we asked around for a public pool. We were in luck because there was one just at the end of the street! We went back to the hostel, grabbed some sun block, and caught a small taxi (more like a covered four-wheeler) to the pool. When we arrived, we were the only ones there, so we got to fully enjoy the sun and the pool. After the ruins group returned to the hostel, they found our note referring them to the pool. The pool was a welcome reprieve from the super-hot and unrelenting sun.

Later in the afternoon, we all returned to the hostel and took turns showering. It was amazing because this was our first official shower in seven days. Refreshing doesn’t even begin to cover it. We went to dinner as group for our last time together in Honduras before traveling home. We made reservations at our favorite steak house and we all overdosed on some of the best meats we could’ve imagined. After dinner, we stayed out a little bit to explore Copan and really enjoy our last night in Honduras. Most of us called it an early night because our wake-up call was for 5:15 a.m.