We volunteers have spending a good amount of time making lesson plans, grading papers and doing the things required of a teacher. We thought it would be a healthy idea to get away from it all and so we asked one of the administrators here at Olancho Aid, Francisco, if there was anything we could get out and do. So Francisco came up with an idea...hiking the caves in the nearby town of Talgua.
Here is Francisco with his girlfriend, Roxanna...
and this is Francisco's family's front porch...I could get used to that.
Arriving the at park where the caves were.
A nice trail...
next to a beautiful river...
surrounded by a beautiful forest
Into the depths...
the ceiling was not very tall...
although it was great to look at...
really cool to look at.
There were even little caves within the cave...
and intricate stalagmites (estalagmitas)...
The guide (guia) led us to "The Cathedral" which earned its name because of the high ceiling and and numerous stalactites (estalactitas). It was quite impressive...
as were the walls further along on our exploration.
Danielle.
Those must have taken a long time to form...
in fact, at the farthest point into the caves we came to a place where the guide told us that just a little farther up the path was an ancient grave yard for the people who used to live here 900 B.C.
It was kind of eerie...especially when the bats flew by us, which I couldn't get a picture of. But the scariest thing of all was
just kidding.
We then followed the river back to the entrance of the cave.
We made it!
This was the visitor center...check out the growth on the roof.
There was coffee growing outside.
That about wrapped up our trip to the caves, although we took a minute to dip our feet in the river.
The girls being silly on the card ride home.
The morning began with a few of us going for a run.
That's right...Juticalpa Turky Trot 2K9 
Then we cooked all day. It was a potluck. My house brought roles and veggies. Carlos, one of the Olancho Aid staff had to go the capital, Tegucigalpa, three hours away to get the turkey (pavo). In this picture is Annie, our principal, Sarah, the pre-school and kindergarten volunteer and me. The turkey cut like butter!
Carlos pointing out his personal touch to the food table to Kate, the 4th grade volunteer.
It was quite a feast!
Cheque (the common term used in Honduras to mean just about anything you agree with).
We sat around, talked, ate and later played some Apples to Apples.
Here we all are...happy and thankful.
