11th August - 12th August

Over the next 2 days we did the following: seahorse hunting and not finding the seahorse (although we did spot an eel), floating around coral reefs, snorkling at the reef's drop-off, swimming, being too hot, reading in bed, blog writing and more swimming. Ooh and I forgot to mention we are staying in a nice little wooden hut on legs right next to the sea. Utila has a strange assortment of vehicles including: tuk-tuk taxis, golfcarts, quad-bikes, a few cars, motorbikes and of course plenty of bicycles.

Aaarrrggghhh I nearly didn't tell you the funniest part of the 11th! Once we got back from the seahorse searching we discovered that my dad's pants had fallen off the washing line. I shall pause the story now and say that the crabs on Utila live in self-dug holes in the ground. Back to the story. Incidently his pants fell by a crab hole. Apparently this crab did not have any underwear of its own. The crab decided Dad's navy-blue pants were a good idea: so he tried to steal them. Luckily dad noticed and grabbed his pants but the pant-less crab wouldn't let go. The two enemies had an angry game of tug of war. The crab wanted Dad's pants but Dad wanted them more! With a last yank the pants came out off the crabs pincers. When Dad took a look at his pants he got a surprise the naughty crab had made some - Oh no - holes! Now my dad only has one pair of pants without holes. :-(

THE END

13th - August

Left Utila today. Caught the 6 O'clock boat to the mainland. When we arrived we hopped in a taxi, then on a bus to San Pedro Sula.

14th - August

An award winning early morning this morning. Woke up at 3.30am! Got a taxi to the bus station. Climbed sleepily onto the bus, then fell asleep. Today to match the award winning morning we were on an award winning 12 hour bus journey! Actually I don't think anything won an award but so what? In the middle of the the bus journey we crossed the border: Honduras to Nicaragua. Finally, the bus arrived and we got off. Then we got on another bus. However on this bus there were no spare seats and lots and lots of people standing up. Our rucksacks ended up on the dashboard and under the driver's seat! The bus was very full but a man insisted on having more people on! As the bus got more and more crowded everyone had to move back. A nice lady on a seat let me sit on her knee. We traveled on the bus for an hour until we got to Granada, where we walked to the house where we were staying.

15th - August

This afternoon we went on a boat trip around Lago Nicaragua. Apparently there are fresh water sharks here, but we didn't see any. However there was a monkey island (with monkeys). Off to school tomorrow.

16th - 20th August

School today. Our teacher is called Fatima and she is teaching us Spanish. My parents have a different teacher called Marta. They are sisters! Fatima only speaks to us in Spanish, she is very nice. We play games, learn fruits, colours, the months, the days of the week, animals, numbers and some verbs. Mum and Dad's lessons looked quite serious, I think we had more fun. However they must have had a laugh when Marta asked Mum what she liked to cook, Mum wanted to say cake but didn't know what it was in Spanish so she used the French word: Gateaux. Unfortunately 'Gato' is Spanish for cat so Mum had said that she likes to cook cat!!! On the week days after school we went on little trips. Viernes (Friday) we went to look around a market, Lunes (Monday) we went to a lake to go swimming (I'll say more about the lake later) and on Martes (you can guess this yourself) we went kayaking. The kayaking was great. Sadly a man said we were too little to have paddles so he broke one in half (not literally). I was with Mum and Jack was with Dad. Near the end Mum let me borrow her paddle. So she only had to sit there. She was having a nice chat with another man about tea when Dad asked me if he could have a look at the paddle to see if it was any different to his. I said yes. But it was all a trick so he could get our paddle! So we only had half a a paddle! We were a bit stuck. Also Jack was obviously being very annoying by trying to secretly sink the kayak by filling it with water. Unfortunately for Jack, Dad noticed that he was being pesky and decided to abandon him on a small only-just-stand-on-able rock covered in bird poo. We decided to call it: Slippy bird poo island. It was all very funny. Oh no I forgot the boys also went to a barber's: they had their hair and beards cut. The barber did the beards and the backs of their necks with a cut throat razor! All in all Granada was great.

The Legends of Lake Apoyo

According to one legend, an enormous serpent laid an egg, when the egg cracked the lake came out.

Another legend with nothing to do with the first one says that an enormous serpent lives in the middle of the lake so if you swim in too far the serpent will suck you in and eat you.

A different theory for that is that since the lake is in a volcano's crater, the water drains down into the volcano, creating a whirlpool in the middle.

Which story do you believe - the giant serpent or the volcano?

Nicola, Lee and bump I believe the Serpent story where the egg cracked and the water that came out became the lake :) Wow sounds like you are having an amazing time and what a lot of funny stories too, I especially like the crab tug of war and that your mum likes to cook cat, hahaha! Good luck with your Spanish lessons, you'll be fluent in no time! Lots of love Nicola, Lee and bump xxxxx

Aug 21, 2013

Gracie and Otis you said that your dad had one pair of pants with no holes but how does he put them on ??? so you didnt get six months off school then but almost 6 months . HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! spanish?now i will never understand you ! I wonder what a cat would taste like mmm maybe i could try them in a stew and tell you ... is Jack still on little slippery bird pooooooooooooooooo island ? i think that it is the serpent too. the crab must be strong to fight aginst your dad . cheerio xxx

Aug 21, 2013

evie + otis where did the wooden hut take you on its leg's I hope it didn't run off in the night!!!!

Aug 21, 2013

Brendan Wow, more great blogging! Pants about the pants though .. Saludos!

Aug 21, 2013

Grandad , Well I am writing this from the UK, Simon,Becky, Ella and Matilda's house. That gang are currently in sunny Spain (the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain!) At the risk of sounding a bore I have to add that your trip around your neck of the woods sounds a lot more interesting that mine did in 1965! I did not come across a pant theiving crab and reckon it is a new species! (crabiest pantismeller). Can confirm as others have that lake due to overgrown glutonous serpent but not broken egg. I was told that the Serpent swolled a bottle of Teqiula got rather drunk and could not get to the Gents in time!

Aug 21, 2013

Tammy & Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Did daddy only take one pair of pants?!! All sounds amazing and shall expect you to be fluent in spanish by Christmas. Mucho amor xxx

Aug 21, 2013

jo birds There must be something very interesting about your pants Chris as I recall Anya telling me another story about pants falling from a washing line.... It sounds like you are all good. Only 2 more weeks and school resumes booooooo!! Harry is really looking forward to jack coming home at Christmas and has many many plans xxxxx

Aug 21, 2013

Lln Hurt Lin-graaaaaaaaaaaa's mum. Wow cannot wait to read your blogs the trip just sounds so amazing. Even Gra takes more than one pair of pants!

Aug 23, 2013

harry Hey jack! Guess what!!! I fell off the monkey bars yesterday and broke my wrist! Mum has let me watch 2 pirates of the Caribbean and I cant write yipeee! Mum has other ideas on the writing bit..... Booooooo.

Aug 23, 2013

grandma Well of course it was the serpent egg but I still wouldnt risk swimming too close to the middle of the lake you can never be sure about these serpents.... Poor crab i expect it thought it had a nice warm lining for its nest..do they have nests? I think we will all have to keep a close watch on the cats when you get home. tell mummy she can eat guinea pig in peru. grandpa had some it was whole complete with teeth and claws but no fur. it didnt taste very nice so he said. hope dad has some more pants now. glad you are having fun. looking forward to the next instalment.

Aug 26, 2013