A trip to El Progreso

Our trip to El Progreso for the assembly was exciting. We are glad to be back on the island though. Our trip started last Saturday at 6am. We met at the port to catch the ferry over to the mainland. It is about 1 1/2 ride. I was worried about being a little seasick, but it was fine. Actually the bus ride after that was worse! We caught our bus right outside the ferry port. Then we started our journey of about 3 1/2 hours to El Progreso . And our bus driver was crazy! He drove very fast, the bus was swaying all over and he would pass like 3 cars at a time when there was oncoming traffic. I think we had Jehovah's spirit with us. The road we traveled was mostly county looking, the houses were more spread out than here in Roatan. There were just little stores and local restaurants scattered along the road. Our crazy bus driver would slam on his brakes and stop about every half hour at one of these places and have his helper run out and get him things. One time it was for a local juice slushie. We sat there and watched the guy make them for him. Another time for food, and so on. Then one of the times he slammed on the brakes, he got up and ran off the bus. We thought, ok this time he's probably running behind a tree or something. But then we looked out the window, and he was laying on the road under the bus apparently trying to fix something. Yikes! And worse yet, he fixed whatever it was with some dirty rags! Then the rest of the trip he drove a bit slower, thankfully. (gee, I wonder why?) We finally arrived at our hotel unharmed. It was called Hotel Casa blanca. It was actually a pretty decent place, looked like an old tuscan villa on the outside.

Some kids in the congregation

 

This is inside the ferry.  Sorry I didn't get an outside photo of it.

 

Justin snoozing on the ferry ride

The scary bus

 

Our capable bus driver

Our assembly was the next morning. The building that it was held in was actually right across from our hotel, so we could just walk there in the morning which was great. It was at a college, and the room we rented was the auditorium they use for graduations and so forth. It was very nice and worked perfectly for an assembly hall. The program was very good. We had a guest speaker from the Mexico Branch. He was a great speaker. We met him after the program and he knew the couple that we had went to see in Belize (they are at the Mexico Branch now), in fact he works with April. Small world. After the program almost all of our group went to a mall nearby to eat and watch movies at the theater. The mall had a food court with BK and Pizza Hut and some others. Yay. We were really at the mercy of everyone else the whole time we were on the trip and just trailed along with anyone who would take us. Because we didn't want to go anywhere ourselves, seeing as we barely know enough Spanish to order ourselves food at a restaurant (we even needed help with that the one time). So, even though it was a fun experience and the assembly program was good, we didn't like being on the mainland. Just felt to uncomfortable. Some of the scenery was very pretty though... Big sharp pointed mountains. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of them.

At our hotel

Where the assembly was.  We met on the top floor, right hand side.

 

Inside the assembly hall

Justin helped with the stage duties

outside Hotel Casa Blanca

On the way home, they say the ferry ride is always worse because you are going against the waves. Well, it was definitely true! That boat was getting tossed all over the place. And I was horribly sick! I don't want to ever get on another boat again at this point. It was that bad. I was hoping that once I got back on solid ground, I would feel better after a few hours. But I didn't. I stayed sick for days! And then it turned into a head cold. So I am still not feeling well yet, a week later. Well, I'm sure many of you have heard by now, that we are planning on coming home sooner than we originally planned.  Actually, we are leaving Roatan a week from today. We are sad to go, but excited to come home for awhile and rest up and regroup. We're not sure what our next adventure will be. I am planning on making 1 final post before we leave, so check back. Adios!