Amapala

I had an amazing weekend on the island of Amapala. Lots of swimming, loads of sun. The highlight was our (free) day-long tour of the islands in a long, wooden motorboat. There was another North American, a Belgian, and a Guatemalan with us. Our best stop was at a sandbar in the Pacific, where the water was so warm, and soft sand, with sand dollars. I haven´t felt that good running in the sand and messing around in the water since I was maybe six years old. Sometimes the driver, Roger, would just stop the boat and we jumped out to swim. I love salty water! We ate fish at night on the beach. One of the neatest parts was on our 4-hour bussride back. We got on the bus late, so we had to stand, and it was really crowded and hot. There is an unspoken rule that at the rest stop, everyone gets off, but that seats are ¨saved.¨ I sat down to rest for a few minutes at the halfway point, and when the elderly man seated there before returned, I started to get up and he just smiled and ¨sit down.¨ He refused to let me give him his seat back. How special, and how undeserving I felt as a young vacationer to get recieve such a favor from an old man. The kind things that people go out of their way to do to help make us feel comfortable as visitors is really touching. North American hospitality pales in comparison. Most of the time we don´t even let these people cross our borders! Now we are in Cofradia for a week, with new host families. Yesterday we toured a maquila (sweatshop/U.S-owned factory) that makes t-shirt cloth. It was sooo fascinating. Tomorrow we go to Copan to see Mayan Ruins. Then it´s Spring Break!