If I remember Ceiba for one thing it won’t be the mad dogs, the disco buses or the perverts. It will most likely be for friends. I have made some really good ones here. Again when you are travelling you meet people all the time who are just passing through, you have a good time and then they are gone and you may casually take their email but generally it’s not likely you will stay in touch.
The difference is quite special when you meet people who are doing the same thing as you at precisely the same moment in time. This way you have someone who understands the subtle little things that make it hard sometimes. I think that the most important thing is they help it feel normal whilst reminding you how special and sometimes crazy it all is. Friendship can be a struggle when you live up a mountain.
No internet or phone access means having to make plans really far in advance, which is contrary to the spirit of my generally spontaneous nature. However my weekends in the city are a great chance to catch up and bore everyone with my teaching horror stories…I am going to have them. It’s inevitable. When you think about it I am a teaching computers in a second language to kids up a mountain in Honduras. How could I not?