Our trek to Orphanage Emmanuel (in Honduras) this year began with traveling up to Green Bay to pick up our rental car yesterday afternoon. Usually we rent locally in Appleton, however with EAA beginning as well...car rental prices were very high. Luckily we found a good deal coming from Avis in Green Bay. Bob dropped Noah and me off at the airport and we were told that they didn't have the size vehicle we had originally requested...FREE UPGRADE to a 2018 Subaru Forester, which would definitely fit the luggage for Alina, Noah and me.
We headed home to finish packing and Bob made us an awesome supper: steak, corn on the cob, beets and carrots. I was so nervous about forgetting to pack something and that our suitcases would meet the weight limit of 50 pounds, that I wasn't able to take a nap prior to us leaving home just after midnight. Alina stayed awake with me most of the way to Chicago (with a few very short naps inbetween tolls). We returned our one-way rental to the Avis center and took the shuttle to the airport. Our trip to Honduras was on American Airlines this year and consists of 2 flights which connected in Miami.
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| A very tired Noah on the shuttle bus to O'Hare |
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| And even more tired Alina on the shuttle bus to O'Hare |
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| Noah horsing around with Alina at Miami |
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| We tricked Noah into thinking the flight was only 22 minutes long, 1:05pm until 1:27pm. The time zone difference put the actual flight time at 2 hours 22 minutes. |
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| Not enough sleep? |
When we got to Tegucigalpa, we went through customs and picked up our bags and then found Norman waiting for us. He told us that it would probably take quite a bit of time to get to the orphanage due to roadblocks all throughout the country. Taxis and buses are on strike and protesting fuel prices and demanding the government lower the price of gas. We got our chips for our phone and our modem, exchanged our money and then decided to head straight for Orphanage Emmanuel rather than stop at the grocery store, knowing it would be a long ride and we could go to the grocery store in town on Wednesday.
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| Road block |
What is generally an hour and a half ride turned into a seven and half hour ride. Our driver, Norman, had the news on and was trying to avoid all roadblocks in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. However, when we were about 1/2 hour from the orphanage, we got stuck in a roadblock. FOUR semi trailers had parked perpendicular in the highway side-by-side, blocking all traffic going both ways. The ditches on both ends were so steep that they were impassable. We were stuck from 3:30pm until about 8pm. Alina slept most of the time, being so tired from having stayed awake all of Sunday, through the night and into Monday. Noah decided to help himself to 5 ice cream treats as a vendor walked up and down the rows of cars who were blocked...not all at once, of course. Food vendors obviously made out really well on these roadblocks.
At 8pm, there was an announcement on the news which required all roadblocks to be lifted. Of course by this time the traffic jam was so tremendous that it took until about 9:30 to get to Emmanuel (what should have only taken 1/2 hour given no traffic). We stopped at a restaurant just outside of Guaimaca (where the orphanage is located) and ordered some take-out food. When we got all of our luggage in our room, we ate and then went to bed immediately. We are very thankful to be here!
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