Yesterday was our last day of work and we had one more free day left in the country, so we headed north to Tela, on the northern coast. We decided to pay to use resort facilities since they often have nicer beaches, and chose Telamar (Barrio Independencia, Tela Nueva), one of the nice resorts in town. We paid $15 to get into the resort, which in retrospect was money we should have spent on food and drinks. At the resort, we all ate the underwhelming buffet lunch ($16.50), and I'd suggest using it at a smaller café or the beach-side bar instead.

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We’ve had some pretty fun celebrations the past few days. Yesterday night, Emma invited us to a birthday party in the neighborhood, so our group headed over to see what a real Honduran fiesta looks like. It was a pretty relaxed time, and most people just sat talking over a few drinks. We asked if there were any special national drinks and were subsequently direct to Flor de Caña, a brand of rum that’s pretty popular in Honduras. It was great talking to people closer to us in age and getting their sense of what it meant to grow up in Honduras.

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Today was probably one of the roughest days we’ve had yet. Someone in our group had to stay home today due to some intestinal problems. However, she was well-cared for by the ladies in the cafeteria and by Emma, one of the hostesses at Techos Verdes. At the worksite, a few of us had to rest for a while after we spent the whole morning moving dirt in the hot, strong Honduran sun and were starting to feel a little bit dehydrated. No one needed a doctor, but it really reminded us to keep drinking water and to realize that our stomachs could be sensitive to our new diet.

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On one of our off-days for Habitat for Humanity, our tour guide and Habitat liaison picked us up and took us to the Museum of Anthropology and History (3a Av. and 4a Calle NO). The museum was built from an old school house in 1994, and it chronicles the history of Honduras and its peoples from pre-Columbian times to the present. It has a number of both authentic artifacts and replicas—the exhibits of skull and bone mutilation and the replicas of Mayan houses are especially interesting. The museum takes about an hour to go through and is well worth the $2 admission fee.

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Today was a pretty great day. After all the rain this weekend, we weren’t sure if the foundation had set, but we arrived to the work site to find that it had, and we were able to start laying the first row of bricks!

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Today was our Habitat for Humanity group's first rest day, and we woke up early to leave for the Mayan ruins at Copán, about three hours southwest of San Pedro Sula. Our tour was scheduled for tomorrow though, so we had the day free to explore a little bit of Copán Ruinas, one of the small towns near the ruins. We had a nice lunch at La Casa de Todo, a cozy complex with a small gift shop, restaurant, internet access, and laundry services.

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Many houses in Honduras, including those built by Habitat, are mainly made of cinder blocks. The building process begins with digging a trench about two feet deep, and then filling it with sand, cement, and rebar, which reinforces the foundation and rest of the house. The setting of the cement is key because it’s the foundation on which all the blocks are laid. Today’s massive amounts of rain seriously hampered the cement’s ability to dry. The rainy season is typically from August to December, but apparently it’s lasting a little longer this year. We were able to get the cement into the foundation today during breaks in the rain, but we're not going to be able to do anything else until the foundation sets.

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