¡Queremos Pastel!

As most of you probably already know last weekend saw me celebrating my birthday here in Honduras. I had decided I wanted to spend my birthday weekend in Candelaria and then go to Santa Rosa this weekend to celebrate with some of the other volunteers (though has been postponed until next weekend now). Unfortunately Jesse and Lucy, our buds from Tomala, had said they couldn't afford to go to Santa Rosa which was disappointing but after three months on the road understandable.

So what a surprise it was when, on the Friday before my birthday, who got off the bus from La Esperanza to Candelaria but Jesse and Lucy! Apparently they had been planning a surprise visit since Christmas! I thought Amy had been acting a bit suspicious... We showed them around, to the schools and our favourite spots, introduced them to some of our friends and then took them home for some baleadas! They were tired as they had come quite a long way that day so we had an early night, all curled up with two single beds between us.

The next day, Amy and I had plans to climb Cerro Cerique with our friend Alex so we took Jesse and Lucy along with us. We had thought it would be an easy wee climb but it was several hours of scrambling up and then down treacherous slopes covered in dust and loose gravel that caused a few cuts and scrapes, one tumble and almost concussion and worst of all a ripped pair of leggings. It was very hard but satisfying to have done considering you can see it from basically anywhere in Candelaria.

We thought this was the top...

Oh, how wrong we were!

The view back to Candelaria

The view from the VERY top

Because our morning was filled with more physical exertion than any of the four of us are used to we were pretty dead for the rest of the day but did manage to rouse ourselves to go and get dinner and then pick up a cake! Seeing as Jesse and Lucy had to leave very early the next morning so they unfortunately wouldn't be able to be here for much of my actual birthday but that doesn't mean we couldn't still eat cake!

A smile as big as the cake on my lap

Even after our draining morning we all managed to make it to midnight and see the 19th of February come in. Only a few hours later we were dropping Jesse and Lucy off at the bus and waving goodbye. Because we'd spent yesterday doing nothing it did mean that I had some work to do on my birthday but it wasn't so bad. We did get free fried chicken and tajadas in the market and of course there was plenty of cake to eat.

To end the day we went to mass at the Catholic church, which we had never been to before. Some girls from my sixth grade class had invited me and even had it announced that it was my birthday during the service. It was a very different experience to when we've been to the Evangelical church but nice to see the other side of religion in Candelaria.

A Honduran birthday tradition (I'm just glad I avoided the eggs in my hair!)

Overall, it was a very different birthday to my previous 18, not least because it was spent in Honduras! It was also the first time I've spent my birthday away from Amy (that would be twin Amy) and I think that was weird for me and her but also for my mum. We all managed though and hopefully next year we'll all be back together eating more cake!