Telamar

We had Monday off to give us a much anticipated three-day weekend. For our long weekend/short vacation we decided to go to the coastal town of Tela. They have a deal right now that if you stay one night you get the second night free. This meant that one room cost $160 for two nights, and you could fit up to four people in a room, which would bring the total price to $40 per person for the whole weekend… do you really need more convincing to go?

We left at our usual early-morning hour on Saturday for a long day of bus rides to get there. We had to take a bus to Santa Barbara, another to San Pedro Sula, and yet another to Tela. The total travel time is about 7 hours if you can transfer buses quickly, and if those buses don’t go too slowly or stop a lot. The trip seemed to take forever because we were just so eager to get to the beach and relax. Unfortunately, once we finally got there we had to wait an hour in the check-in line before we could actually run free and enjoy the hotel. But! it ended up being worth it because our plans were to meet some Gracias teachers there and share rooms with them this weekend (they were a group of 7 and we were a group of 9 which meant our group was a perfect fit for 4 rooms) but they got there before us and checked in then. Since our group was bigger, when we checked in we split the cost of 2 rooms evenly amongst the 9 of us, which meant… (if you have been doing your calculations you already know the answer)… we only paid $35 each for two nights at this beautiful hotel! Score!

The hotel: I’m not sure how many stars this hotel, Telamar, has but I would certainly give it a lot. Our room was luxurious with two big and super comfy queen beds, a hot and beautiful pressurized shower, cable tv, and refreshing air conditioning. There were three little pools connected together to make one giant one, which was well equipped with crazy slides and a swim-up bar. There was a gorgeous white-sand beach front with little cabanas to sit under in the shade and volleyball courts. The hotel also offered these things that we did not really use: a golf course, tennis courts, three restaurants, tour guides, a smaller and more private pool, a gym, and a game room. Every night they put on a show with karaoke, music, dancing, and something a little fancier like a fire juggler. We had intentions to go into town and explore the city of Tela a little, but we wanted to soak in as much of our hotel as we could so we never actually left, and I am not at all upset about it.

As soon as we were released from the hotel lobby we basically ran all the way to our hotel rooms and speed changed into our swimsuits. We waited for no one. We headed directly to the pool and jumped in quicker than the blink of an eye. We spent the whole evening swimming, playing in the water, rocketing down the slides, and drinking our tropical cocktails while floating merrily in the pool. There are two key details about that night: 1. Getting to swim in our bathing suits without wearing clothes over them like a shirt and shorts. 2. Getting to have drinks without being condemned by every Honduran in sight. We felt at home in this pool. That night we all fell asleep with big grins on our faces :)

Saturday we woke up quite early since we are exhausted teachers and went to bed early (yes, even on vacation we call it an early night), but we also wanted to get the most out of the day instead of sleeping until the afternoon. Cassidy, Lori, Heather, and I found the breakfast buffet. There weren’t a lot of eating options at the hotel besides the restaurants, and we didn’t want to have to venture into town to find something. We were a little hesitant at first because since it is a nice hotel the prices are higher, but we quickly figured that we could pay for the buffet and sit and eat as long as we could fill ourselves up so much that we wouldn’t need lunch. I have never eaten so much food in my entire existence. We ate for a solid two hours – from 7:30-9:30 – without stopping! I promise you that we each had at least 5 full plates of food and we ate every crumb. I was well past the state of stuffed and I was sure my stomach was going to physically explode. Although we were in pain for about a half an hour, it worked! We were not even remotely hungry until dinner time so I would say that we definitely got our money’s worth of food at that breakfast buffet.

We spent the rest of the day soaking up the Caribbean sun any way we could. We swam in the ocean and read in beach chairs along the beach. We went for a wild banana boat ride – the driver loved us and had us trained to cheer whenever he blew his whistle, he let us swim in the middle of the ocean far from the beach, and our trip was not without a little thrill as we almost got t-boned by another boat. We played and chatted in the pool whenever we needed a break from all that salt. We caught relief from the heat and rays underneath the poolside umbrellas by reading, taking naps, or browsing the internet. We played beach volleyball with all the teachers and some curious Hondurans. It was a top runner for the best day of my life. Giant smiles never left our faces and we kept reminding each other that we were truly on this beautiful vacation in the Caribbean.

We ended our perfect day with a marvelous dinner. We ate at the restaurant on the beach and each ordered some delicious seafood dish. I got grilled shrimp with sautéed veggies and mashed potatoes. Of course my meal was accompanied with a classic piña colada! Our day left us all very very tired but we did not mind since our exhaustion was from playing too hard (if such a thing exists). Sadly we had to wake up early again the next morning to start the trek back to La Union (which is disappointingly not on the coast nor with any body of water in sight). It may have been the quickest vacation but it was certainly the best decision we could have made. There were many times that we discussed cancelling school on Tuesday and Wednesday just to stay a few extra days in paradise! (Too bad Jake wasn’t going for it.) 

Please be praying for all of us teachers this week. This past weekend was exactly the medicine we needed to rejuvenate ourselves. Some of us are beginning to feel burnt out as the first quarter is coming to an end and our students are pushing our patience to whole new levels. We have another 3-day weekend coming up (with more vacation plans) so pray that with this past trip and our next one we are completely re-energized and find new motivation to keep teaching these students. We are all working very, in fact maybe a little too hard! But we absolutely cannot (and will not) give up.