The "Rose Coloured Glasses" view of La Ceiba

WARNING: I wrote this for a realtor site! Yeah, promotional writing is right next door to the "world's oldest profession" and this is definately NOT the whole reality of La Ceiba. I will write another one, with some of the harsh truths (photos included) to give a better balance, so please don't immediately "slam" me..... Enjoy the photos included here, these are real!

La Ceiba is a town for those with a zest for living each moment to the fullest, indulging in all the modern day conveniences yet wrapped in an Old World charm that brings you back to simpler times.

La Ceiba is a photographer’s ultimate destination; nestled between the Caribbean Sea and the Nombre de Dios mountain range, surrounded by banana and coconut plantations and ranging from white sand beaches through to red volcanic soiled hillsides. With its lush vegetation, riotous floral colours and myriad species of local and migratory birds taking their own southern sojourn from northern winters and breathtaking sunsets, it is a visual feast!

Stroll through the various "colonias” (neighbourhoods) each with their descriptive names, featuring pastel coloured homes with walled yards of stonework. Wander through El Centro with it’s indoor market and street stall vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables, the daily catch of huge shrimp, brilliantly coloured fish and live crabs and cruise the sidewalk tables and their collections of house wares, music CD’s, DVD’s, clothing and souvenirs. Discover for yourself the tiny, tucked away shops, cafes and bars that you’ll be hard pressed to find again in your travels.

Photograph of yard wall on

Avenida Victor Hugo

Photograph of El Estero, left side.

Drift down, simply a few blocks, and take in the beaches with their upscale restaurants, hotels and the infamous El Bacalao, where the “gringos” meet on a casual basis. Slip off your sandals and walk barefoot along the white sands, collect sea shells and conch shells and then reward yourself with an inexpensive cold drink while listening to the waves and welcoming that million dollar sea breeze to cool your sun kissed face.

Photograph of Dee Jay's Champa, Miramar, La Ceiba

Wave down one of the innumerable taxis and take a drive through town to visit the Butterfly Museum, the Mega Plaza Mall or catch a round of golf at the D’Antoni course. Take a moment to stroll through the Central Park, with its impressive church on one side, and take photos of the various statues before slipping into the courtyard of the Hotel Paris. Discover Swinford Park, the botanical garden and outdoor train museum which is an oasis of calm in the busy center of town.

Photograph in Swinford Park, still maintained by Standard Fruit Co.

Photographs of street market in La Ceiba.

La Ceiba is becoming known as the “Eco Tourism” centre of Central America, with tours available in national parks and marine reserves or the outlying islands of Cayo Cochinos. You can indulge in hot springs; white water rafting or canopy zip lines if you are more inclined to real adventure or amuse yourself with the pseudo trolley train tour of the city, complete with expressive guides.

La Ceiba is known throughout the country as the “novia of Honduras”, (the sweetheart) and maintains a reputation of being both a gregariously welcoming city and a nightlife hot spot with its Zona Viva located along the eastern beach neighbourhoods. Learn your Spanish greetings, use them with a smile and you will feel that you are a new member of an affectionate and respectful family.

Is La Ceiba the place for you? You won’t know until you come for a visit and discover her many secrets for yourself. Admittedly, it has its own problems with poverty and crime but for the serious adventurer, who wants to have a winter home, a retirement investment or to satisfy their zest for living life to the fullest it is most definitely an option worth exploring!

When things go BOOM in the night...

The clouds had moved in late afternoon yesterday, forced up against the “Nombre de Dios” mountain range and layered, deep and black, over the city of La Ceiba until you felt you couldn’t stand upright for the sheer weight of them above you. The waves on the beach surged and salt spray coated your skin and lenses almost immediately, blocking the view of the nearby park and the traffic on the main road.

The winds howled and roared and whipped laundry from the lines, buckets and brooms off of patios and threatened to tear your clothing from your body as everyone hustled to get indoors before the storm broke.

And then we waited as the wind blew harder, the clouds lowered, the pressure built and still no rain fell. The storm waves smashing the beach raised their decibel levels to the point where they echoed through my apartment, almost two blocks away from shore.

Surprising, the electricity stayed on! This is a small miracle in its own right, here in La Ceiba, and a massive improvement over the past five years of service (or the lack thereof!).

My day starts early, so sleep comes shortly after 10pm and thus I was curled up in bed when the skies opened. Imagine the force of a flushing toilet’s water churning down the pipes and then expand that power to cover a whole city.

Streams and sheets of water smashing straight down while the sky blurred from the almost horizontal waves of rain cascading by; dozens of rhythms crashing, ricocheting and dancing to triple time. The sound of this onslaught on the tin roofs was akin to a steel drum band run amok!

I’m accustomed to the fury of a tropical torrential rain storm now, so simply went back to sleep, grateful that I was warm and dry in my wee abode.

Hours later there was this horrific BOOM that woke me from a sound sleep! I laid there orienting myself, wondering if it had been a bomb or something similar. Car alarms in the next street had been set off and finally were stopped; I heard no one stirring in the house or people in the street, so simply listened to the rain until I slept again. Shortly thereafter, there was a second explosive sound seemingly not as close by and the ensuing car alarms were finally silenced yet again.

When I woke at 5:30 am my neighbourhood was surprisingly silent and it took time for me to realize that though the rain was persisting and people were stirring in the pulperia (corner store) downstairs, there were no radios, stereos or TV’s blaring.

Then the light went on… The power was out, the explosions I’d heard during the night were transformers and the only electrical activity there was going to be was with my braincells!

I’m so impressed that we were re-supplied with power by noon today. Many times in years past it would be considered normal to go 18 – 24 hours with nary a complaint!

It’s now after 6pm and the rain has yet to stop. Generally we’ll get a break of a couple hours between storms where you can taxi downtown for groceries or walk to a friends for a visit but not today! So it’s been a “home” day, with a fresh pot of homemade lentil stew, a good story book, some postcards written for Northern friends and family and a heartfelt wish that I’ll be able to leave the apartment tomorrow without fear of drowning!

Fishing in Utila

One of the adventures we had over in Utila was to hire a local fisherman, Alan (the son of Captain Hal) and have him take us out at 6am one morning. We ventured out in a 25 foot dory, open and not five feet wide, diesel motor and a small tarp roof over the “captain”, two benches, two rod and reels and one ice chest. Off we went, through open seas riding 6 – 8 foot swells to the Pumpkin Hill end of the island and joined up with half a dozen other local fishermen in their dories. Literally the “benitos” (a small member of the tuna family, running about 1 ½ to 2 lbs each) were flying out of the water and roiling up like liquid popcorn!

The locals tend to “hand line” which is simply a heavy test line, a large hook and a plastic “inky fish” (Islander for squid or our Canadian “hoochie”) attached and then proceed to haul the line back in by hand, no matter the size of what they have caught! I saw them using ropes attached to the wooden rudders which allowed them to sweep through and circle back into the schools of fish. These are tough men!

The “benitos” are also used as bait for larger fish – simply tie one onto a float ball, attach your line and let it go behind the dory. My husband was like a kid in a candy shop, and after the first hour we’d lost track of just how many he’d brought in. The finale of his fishing fever morning was being able to land an 8 to 10 lb tuna, like the ones you would be served in local restaurants and that made the whole adventure more than worthwhile.

After about 4 hours of trolling and watching the rain clouds gather, Alan decided it was time for us to make for shore. En route back to the townsite we spotted a water spout just east of Pumpkin Hill and tried to get photos of it; and though he tried to beat the storm we got caught about 10 minutes out from the dock. Wow, what a wild rain that was! I gave up immediately and put my glasses away and had to keep a hand cupped over my eyes to protect them from the stinging slap of rain drops pounding down on us like hail. By the time we made it to shore, we were sopping wet, grinning like banshees and thoroughly pleased with the mornings adventures! My husband has frequently called me his little “Storm Queen” given my passion for the sea and a rollicking good storm and yet again I revelled in the passion of Mother Earth.

The “benitos” are sold locally for bait at about 10 LP a pound so our captain made a tidy little profit between our fare and the spoils of the “hunt”, hopefully enough to cover the exorbitant cost of the fuel. Alan also skinned and filleted the larger tuna for us to share with friends at Alton’s Dive Shop, so quite a number of folks benefited from our “tourista” indulgence.

Hmmm.....

My very first posting has been offered up to the cyber gremlins!

I was so excited that I’d been able to create my own blog and had stated that I was hoping that the rest of this technological adventure wouldn’t be as complicated or scary for me and then something happened. I have no idea just what though….

When in doubt I simply blame it on the “cyber gremlins” (which is more fun than admitting to operator failure) and they have received their share of unintended offerings in the past. Thank goodness for writing to a flash drive and using the copy/paste “thingy” so I’ve got a record of what I was babbling about.

The question “Who else is a Luddite?” is a polite form of asking who else is completely useless when faced with computers, software programs, the internet and other electronically operated things. I am the woman who refers to the television remote control as the “idiot stick” because I’m the one who can’t make it work; note I said nothing about programming it!

The only reason I’ve learned the minimum about using a laptop and the internet is simply because I love to write, scribble, keep a journal, wonder about various moments in life, stay in touch with friends and family via long distance and type writer ribbons are getting hard to find.

One purpose of this blog is to post some of the many photos I’ve taken over the past few years, both in Honduras and in Canada and to share the stories from those times and other ones that I’ve written as communal newsletters. Other than that, I’m not sure just what else I want to do here – maybe swap recipes, garden adventures, travel stories or ideas about writing with other folks; maybe provide a space for folks who are as curious and sometimes as confused, about the world we live in as I am. Who knows, I’ll just see how this evolves.

This is going to be a ridiculously complicated learning curve for me, so if folks who stumble on this blog have tips for me, please share. Information is power and I’m the first one to admit it when I need help.

Okay, let’s see if this gets posted or if the cyber gremlins are still hungry……

Wow!

I just can't believe I managed to do this....

Yep, this little luddite has managed to create her own "blog" and here's hoping the rest of the learning curve isn't quite as complicated, or scary! I have an overall concept of how I want to use this blog -- as you can tell from the title, I've got lots of stories about living as a Canadian woman in Honduras (without the benefit of speaking Spanish!) but I thought it could originally serve as a site to display the many photos I've taken of this beautiful place and wonderfully complex people.

Be patient with me while I work out the kinks and if you've got suggestions, please let me know. Information is power!