the sojourn: Day 2, Many changes in our plans

Hello everyone,
Well, there have been quite a few changes to our itinerary over the last 24 hrs. After the last post we just went to our room and tried to go to bed. It was pretty warm at first and there were alot of bugs on our beds but we managed to go to sleep nonetheless. At about 2am we started hearing very loud bangs right outside our window. We couldnt figure out what it was but it sounded an awful lot like a gun. I hesitantly peered over the window sill to look down into the street where the noise was coming from and standing in the middle of the street was a local with a gun in his hand pointing to the sky. He was not upset and there were a few other guys with him and it seemed like they were just having a good time, so it did not warant too much fear from us. So after the shooting died down we got back to sleep and rested heavily until about 6am when we got up and took showers. Now let me tell you that we all take warm showers for granted in the states. When the water heater isnt working, the water is still cold but its manageable. The water coming out of the single steel pipe was so cold that Erika didnt even take a full shower. My dad used to tell us that getting in cold water was the initiation to the Polar Bear Club, but this would have been too cold even for him. After we got cleaned up we decided that after we got to Gracias, we would not climb the entire volcano because it would take too much time and make the rest of our trip very rushed. We decided instead, to only climb to a waterfall that was on the map that would only take about 6 or 7 hrs, that way we would only spend one day on the mountain. With this decision in hand, we started walking the mile from our hostel to the bus station. We got on a bus to Gracias with little trouble and with in a few minutes we were on our way. The trip was really beautiful, winding through the tall rugged mountains on a fairly newly paved road. The mountain side was peppered with small houses and sometimes even plastic roofed lean-to´s. There were children playing with wheels and even a soccer field that over looked the valley. After about 1.5hrs on the bus we arrived in Gracias, we headed to a hostel that our guide book said had good food and someone who could point us in the right direction to the volcano which we were planning to start climbing since it was only about 9am. On our way up to the restaurant we ran into a girl named Tarin who said that she was going to climb to the waterfall tomorrow. So as we sat and ate our meal, we slowly changed our minds from hiking today, to hiking tomorrow in hopes that she would let us join her in the morning. We also remembered her telling us about the place that she was staying called Hotel Erick for about $7 a night for a two person room and private bath, so we headed straight down to try to get a room. On the way down, we ran into Tarin and Nick, who are traveling together from Canada and they told us that they were heading down to some hot springs. Since our hike was being put on hold until tomorrow, and they asked us if we wanted to go with them, we got our room and all headed out to the hot springs. It was supposed to be about a 90min walk but about 10min out of town we flagged down a truck who was going the same way and jumped into the back and they took us the rest of the way. Once we got there we realized that we actually had to pay to get into the hot springs, and we were already there so there was not much else to do but cough up the $5 entry fee. The springs were really more ¨luke warm¨than actually hot but it was still nice to soak our bodies. At first we werent sure how going from being hot and sweaty outside the water, to getting in even hotter temperature would feel but once we got used to it the water felt quite nice. We sat and talked for about 2hrs and learned all about each other before we started walking back to town. We were not fortunate enough to catch a ride back to town so we walked the whole way, which actually only took about 45 min. Once we got back into town Erika and I started planning our money to see how much more we had before we would need to withdraw more from the ATM, and it turns out that we only have about $30 left which we realized that it would cost more than that for the entrance fee into the park, food for the next day, another night at the hostel and bus fare to Copan. So there seemed to be a simple explanation to our dilema, go to the ATM and take out more money. Well, unlike america, there is not an ATM in every podunk town and subsequently there is not one here. So we had to make the painstaking decision not to hike Celaque (which we were very much looking forward to), and go straight to Copan in the morning where there is an ATM. About five minutes after we made our final decision, Tarin and Nick knocked on our door to see if we wanted to get something to eat, and as always I was very hungry and Erika was moderately hungry, so we accepted. After walking around town for a few minutes and looking for the place that cought our eye the most, we ended up going back to the place that Erika and I met Tarin earlier in the day. We ate, talked and made new friends. Now we are sitting in ¨Ciber Cafe¨spending money to use the internet so no one gets worried that we are not in contact. We feel a bit let down because the entire reason that we traveled halfway across the country, was to climb Celaque and now it seems to be in vain. But on the flipside, we made two new friends and got to go to the hot (luke warm) springs so I guess it was not a total waste. I saw God today in two small boys playing in the water at the springs who were more satisfied with their life by simply playing in a pool of water than any single person I know who has so much more material things than those two boys put together. It is a humbling experience to see so much joy in an area that there is so much poverty. So now we are going to go back to our room and try to get some rest before we have another day of traveling tomorrow. We will go to Copan for a day or two and then head to Antigua Guatemala a little early, which may be nice becuase it will give us a chance to rest a little before the mission trip group arrives on thursday. Thank you all for reading and I know that alot of you are relieved that we will not be on that mountain by ourselves, but your prayers are always appreciated and we will try to post pictures during the second week of our stay because we cannot download anything on the computers here. Thank you all and Shabat Shalom from Honduras.

Love you guys,
Cody and Erika

OUR LITTLE CAFE WITH THE VIEW