August 9, 2008
… That do not seem to be met. I am discovering that whenever an event or something out of the ordinary comes up, I create high expectations for what the trip, training, or activity will be. And yet rarely are those expectations met. Yesterday was a case in point. It was a frustrating day but there was definitely good in it. You know a day in Honduras must be exciting if one considers turning on the heat in the car.
At 6:50AM yesterday morning, I headed from San Pedro Sula to a nearby small town from which I was going with a friend and her group of students from a technical school to visit a National Park. I arrived on time and discovered that the friend and her mom were making lunch for the group of about 40 persons. Where as in the States we would probably take packed lunches, this was a full course meal. The preparations were a little behind so we left a bit late. All of us loaded into the back of two pick-ups and one other SUV and began the two hour ascent to the park. For over a year I had wanted to visit this park which is mostly cloud forest and boasts sightings of the beautiful quetzal. We arrived at the park around 10:30AM and the next 2 ½ hours were spent in presentations of games (they were part of a tourism class) and a few stations of activities. All of the activities were good and have their time and place but in my opinion this park was not the place for them. Even when we had left the town it looked as if it would rain sometime that day. By 1:00PM when we sat down to eat, the thunder was beginning to rumble and the sky was darkening. At 1:30 we divided in two groups and headed into the woods which was my desire all along. My guide did not speak very loud so being at the back, I could not really hear any of the explanations. About 10 minutes into the hike I pulled out my rain pants and put them on because it looked like it would rain very soon. Maybe 15 minutes later the sky blackened and the clouds let loose a torrential downpour that turned our train into a river.
I was the only one of the group to have raingear so while I stayed relatively dry, everyone huddled under banana leaves and other trees. We stood in the rain for a little while waiting for the other group to meet up with us. When they joined up, we headed back to the pavilion. I soon discovered that my boots need another coating of water protection because I could feel the water sloshing around at my toes. My jacket did not prove capable of withstanding the downpour either but I could not complain since I was better off than everyone else. As we walked back to the vehicles I debated where I preferred to be – in the forest with lightning flashing all around or in the back of a pick-up, going downhill on muddy roads, still with lightning surrounding me.
We arrived back at the pavilion and packed up to begin the descent back to the town. After maybe 30-40 minutes on the trail, we had had to leave. I had seen nothing of the park except the pavilion and parking lot. There in lay the great disappointment. The return trip took two hours as well because of getting stuck in mud, bathroom stops, and battery trouble. Four hours for a half an hour to explore the park. I wished that we had done the hike first and all of the other activities second sinc
e they could have been done anywhere in the world. Sitting on the hard, spare tire for 4 hours is a rather high price to pay for such a short walk. I was thankful when I was able to walk down the road for almost half an hour while my truck went back to help the vehicle with a battery problem. By this point in the trip I was very cold from the wet clothes and cool breeze as we drove. The feeling returned to my fingers and toes and I stopped dreaming of turning the heat on when I got to my own car. (You know you are in danger of hypothermia if you are thinking of turning on the heat in a tropical country).
In spite of my frustrations, I enjoyed the trip. What I saw of the park and surrounding mountains was beautiful. I met some neat people and several of the students made me laugh with their antics as we descended the mountain. I am just realizing that maybe I need to change my expectations before I head off for some activity. And I need to figure out how to best give ideas and suggestions in a way that will not offend people but will help them to see that there is more than one way to prepare an outing and sometimes changes need to be made last minute in case of bad weather or other insinuating circumstances.
Currently I have expectations that I will finally finish my changes to the ropes course over the next two days, but I know that things could happen to change that. My plan though is to be at camp until Wednesday working on that and other projects. We will see how it goes.
… That do not seem to be met. I am discovering that whenever an event or something out of the ordinary comes up, I create high expectations for what the trip, training, or activity will be. And yet rarely are those expectations met. Yesterday was a case in point. It was a frustrating day but there was definitely good in it. You know a day in Honduras must be exciting if one considers turning on the heat in the car.
At 6:50AM yesterday morning, I headed from San Pedro Sula to a nearby small town from which I was going with a friend and her group of students from a technical school to visit a National Park. I arrived on time and discovered that the friend and her mom were making lunch for the group of about 40 persons. Where as in the States we would probably take packed lunches, this was a full course meal. The preparations were a little behind so we left a bit late. All of us loaded into the back of two pick-ups and one other SUV and began the two hour ascent to the park. For over a year I had wanted to visit this park which is mostly cloud forest and boasts sightings of the beautiful quetzal. We arrived at the park around 10:30AM and the next 2 ½ hours were spent in presentations of games (they were part of a tourism class) and a few stations of activities. All of the activities were good and have their time and place but in my opinion this park was not the place for them. Even when we had left the town it looked as if it would rain sometime that day. By 1:00PM when we sat down to eat, the thunder was beginning to rumble and the sky was darkening. At 1:30 we divided in two groups and headed into the woods which was my desire all along. My guide did not speak very loud so being at the back, I could not really hear any of the explanations. About 10 minutes into the hike I pulled out my rain pants and put them on because it looked like it would rain very soon. Maybe 15 minutes later the sky blackened and the clouds let loose a torrential downpour that turned our train into a river.
I was the only one of the group to have raingear so while I stayed relatively dry, everyone huddled under banana leaves and other trees. We stood in the rain for a little while waiting for the other group to meet up with us. When they joined up, we headed back to the pavilion. I soon discovered that my boots need another coating of water protection because I could feel the water sloshing around at my toes. My jacket did not prove capable of withstanding the downpour either but I could not complain since I was better off than everyone else. As we walked back to the vehicles I debated where I preferred to be – in the forest with lightning flashing all around or in the back of a pick-up, going downhill on muddy roads, still with lightning surrounding me.
We arrived back at the pavilion and packed up to begin the descent back to the town. After maybe 30-40 minutes on the trail, we had had to leave. I had seen nothing of the park except the pavilion and parking lot. There in lay the great disappointment. The return trip took two hours as well because of getting stuck in mud, bathroom stops, and battery trouble. Four hours for a half an hour to explore the park. I wished that we had done the hike first and all of the other activities second sinc
e they could have been done anywhere in the world. Sitting on the hard, spare tire for 4 hours is a rather high price to pay for such a short walk. I was thankful when I was able to walk down the road for almost half an hour while my truck went back to help the vehicle with a battery problem. By this point in the trip I was very cold from the wet clothes and cool breeze as we drove. The feeling returned to my fingers and toes and I stopped dreaming of turning the heat on when I got to my own car. (You know you are in danger of hypothermia if you are thinking of turning on the heat in a tropical country).In spite of my frustrations, I enjoyed the trip. What I saw of the park and surrounding mountains was beautiful. I met some neat people and several of the students made me laugh with their antics as we descended the mountain. I am just realizing that maybe I need to change my expectations before I head off for some activity. And I need to figure out how to best give ideas and suggestions in a way that will not offend people but will help them to see that there is more than one way to prepare an outing and sometimes changes need to be made last minute in case of bad weather or other insinuating circumstances.
Currently I have expectations that I will finally finish my changes to the ropes course over the next two days, but I know that things could happen to change that. My plan though is to be at camp until Wednesday working on that and other projects. We will see how it goes.
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