All rights reserved by Designi1

2010 has been a tough year for me – mentally and emotionally. I know I haven’t been cranking out as many original posts as I would have like to lately. I’ve been working really hard and I can’t wait to fill you in on what’s to come in the near future. But first, I’d like to give a heartfelt thank you to  all my readers for visiting my travel blog, my guest bloggers who help keep my blog running and all the friends I’ve made since I starting writing about my travels. I hope you know that every time you leave a comment, send me an email or tweet at me, it makes my day a little brighter because it reminds me that there’s more to life than my 9-7 grind.

2011 is going to be another crazy and busy year. I can’t wait to share my travels around the world and my travels through life with you. So wrap up this year, here are the top 10 posts on A Pair of Panties & Boxers in 2010. I hope you enjoy these posts. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays wanderlusters!

15 Ways To Volunteer In Africa

Guest post by @BorderJumping

Our Journey began in October 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — when we left to visit nearly every country in Africa. At every stop we are meeting with farmers, community organizers, labor activists/leaders, unions, non-governmental organization (NGOs), the funding and donor communities, and local press. Read more

One Week Itinerary For Honduras

It’s two months away but I still have the urge to take out my backpack and starting packing. I’m eager to leave, eager to see and eager to live.  I can’t wait till I get on that plane to Honduras. I booked it for only $280! I’ve got my plate full working 50 hours a week, volunteering, studying for GMAT, researching grad schools and running random errands I don’t have time to do during the work week.

I haven’t had a chance to do much planning for Honduras. Although, experiences have taught me that things never…Read more

Temples From Europe To Asia

Temples. Temples. Temples. What can I say about temples?

Let’s just look at pretty pictures of temples instead.

Here is a collection of images submitted by travel writers around the world of temples from places like Uluwatu, Madrid, Greece, Cambodia, Italy, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Japan and Indonesia. Read more

I’ll be calling for photo submissions in the future for an upcoming photo collection post. If you’d like to contribute, please feel free to email me at monica@apairofpantiesandboxers.com.

7 Essential Items For Light Travelers

Sometimes I forget to eat when I travel. I get full off of life and everything else around me. That is until my stomach starts growling like a dinosaur and I realize that I’m half way up the mountain already.

Afterward, I started packing crackers. It was cheap and it was good enough to hold me down for the time being. Then I realized that granola bars, although slightly more expensive, are much better and healthier alternative.

Read more

Jaw-Dropping Sunrises Around The World

Today’s Photo Friday Special is inspired by my previous blog post, Sunsets From Around The World. It was such a big hit that I decided to feature sunrises in this edition. I thought I’d be receiving a lot less sunrise submissions than sunset editions. I mean, unless you’re jet-lagged or an insomniac, who gets up at the crack of down to catch the sun rise?

Read more

Traveling Latin America Safely – It’s the little things

Guest blog post by @Brendanvanson.

I remember the first time I left home on my own to travel the Central America I was 20 years old.  Everyone around me warned of the thousands of dangers – real and make believe – that would exist in this strange part of the world of which I knew little about.  I remember clearly my mom telling a friend of hers that I was going to Central America, where “the favourite pastime of people is kidnapping foreigners.”  The truth of the matter is that the media always has a way of accentuating the negative aspects about different parts of the world. Read more

新年快乐！ Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is on Valentine’s Day this year. It’s different every year because the holiday is based on the lunar calendar. Learning about my own traditions has always been a hands-on, and sometimes painful, experience. When I was 5, I stuck my chopsticks upright in my bowl of white rice and got whacked. I later learned you only do that when making offerings to the deceased. Oops!

Chinese New Year celebrations began with the legend of a wild beast called Nian. “Nian” in Chinese means year. Read more

Hangzhou, China: A Stunning Sunset On The West Lake

The travel bug bit somewhere between Wuzhen and Suzhou. We returned from Suzhou Saturday night. But by Sunday morning, JC and I already had our bags packed and a one-way ticket in our hand. We took the next departing train fr0m Shanghai to Hangzhou. It was an hour and a half of smooth sailing.

The first thing we did was go island hopping. In Xihu (West Lake), the most famous lake in Hangzhou, there are three smaller man-made islands. Nearby are three small pagodas erected from the water. Read more

Things I Can’t Stand When Traveling

I use to think that I was the most level-minded person on the face of this earth. I always heard two sides of the story before passing judgment and I’ve been told countless times before that I’m an extremely understanding person. I use to think I’d make the world’s coolest girlfriend. That was before I got  a boyfriend and that was before I started traveling.

I guess certain things never use to bother me because I controlled everything. I planned for everything. I let no surprises hit me with a curve ball. That wasn’t always successful but most of the time it worked. But after I started traveling, I realized that I can’t stand it when…Read more

Make Your Bucket List Less Daunting With A F***-It List

Guest post by @Jetpacker

Bucket lists are cultishly popular right now.  It seems like everyone is making a list full of life goals so lofty they make The Most Interesting Man In The World look like an incompetent jackass.  Conquering fears.  Gaining independence.  Finding enlightenment.  It all sounds so… overwhelming.

I needed something that would make my bucket list seem less daunting and more realistic. Read more

Which one is your favorite?

Copan Ruins' Hieroglyphic Stairway

Colorful Teal Homes In Copan Valley

Colonial Town Hall In Comayagua

Flickr image by mogdig

I thought that being held at the La Guama police station the night before my flight would be the last hurdle I had to over come before landing on American soil. I was wrong. I woke up bright and early the following morning to catch the chicken bus into San Pedro Sula. It was cramped, crowded and fly infested. It was extremely hard to keep my mouth shut while the bus bounced and swerved on the highway. I’m pretty sure I had a few flies for breakfast.

When my friend and I arrived at the San Pedro Sula bus depot one and a half hour later, my behind was still vibrating. We took a cab to the airport and I was so glad that we arrived ahead of schedule. Wanting to get rid of some lempiras and to pass the time, I browsed through the only gift shop and magazine stand in the airport about eight times but came out empty handed.

It had been a long and eventful week in Honduras and I was exhausted. I was anxious to get back to NYC. But you know the more you eager you wait for something to come; the longer it takes to get there. As it turned out, our 2PM flight was delayed for two hours. During that time, the airport had about four blackouts, which left me a little uneasy. I wondered what would happen if the control tower blacked out during take off. I’d have a conniption.

When my plane arrived at 4PM, I was so relieved to be on board. By the time we landed in Miami, it was 8:30PM. Even after we left Honduras, there was another hurdle keeping us from home. Our connecting flight to JFK was at 9PM. My friend and I were contemplating the worse case scenario. If we missed our flight to NYC, we’d have to crash at the airport for the night. Thought it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, I longed for my own bed and a clean shower.

As soon as we stepped off the plane, we jetted through customs, which was conveniently located a mile away from our gate. I went from a full speed spring to jogging to speed walking to limping. I felt the same burning sensation I had when I was running down Taishan Mountain in China trying to catch the very last bus into town. After my Charlie horse subsided, I picked up speed and zoomed past eager family and friends who were waiting by the arrival gate to greet their loved ones. In the corner of my eyes, I saw the look of bewilderment on their faces. Can you image seeing two little Asian girls carry backpacks twice as big as they were running by like chickens with their heads cut off?

We managed to avoid the long line at customs as the people ahead of us saw that we were out of breath and in dire need of catching our connecting flight. They let us skip them and as we threw our backpacks through the screener we waved and said thank you. I wonder if they even heard us. By that time, we were half way down the hall. Luckily, our gate was the first one at the end of the hall and we boarded the plane with 5 minutes to spare. All eyes were on us as we arrived breathless, disheveled and grinning from ear to ear. Success!

Ok, so I wasn’t technically held at the police station in La Guama. I went there voluntarily. See I’m honest. Right off the bat. My friend and I were a tad late catching a bus back from Comayagua and by the time we reached La Guama, we discovered that buses stop running at 6PM. This was just perfect. It was our last night in Honduras and we had no clue as to how we were going to find transportation back to our hotel by Lago de Yajoa.

My chicken bus buddy, who appeared to be an architecture, kindly offered to take us to the police station to ask for help. He slipped the guy at the front of the bus a few lempiras and asked them to drop us off at the station. He walked us over to the policeman and explained to him that we were trying to get back to our hotel. Then he left and disappeared into the darkness and my friend and I were left sitting unknowingly underneath a swarm of mosquitoes hoovering near the light bulb above us.

As my friend did most of the communicating with the police officers I was trying to prepare myself for the worst case scenario: crash at the police station till the morning and catch the first bus back to the lake. As we stood by the side of the road, the two police officers tried to flag down a car or a van for us. No luck.

None of the cars seem to be going towards the direction of our hotel. Suddenly, my chicken bus buddy appeared again. I think he came back to make sure we were okay. We were finally able to flag down an awfully nice car – leather seats, air conditioning, surround sound stereo. It was way above the average standard of living standard in Honduras. He officer asked the driver to drop us off at our hotel. Luckily for us, the driver spoke pretty decent English. My friend and I hopped into the back seat of the car and my chicken bus buddy rode in the back.

It was a really quick ride as we almost missed the sign to our hotel if it wasn’t my chicken bus buddy who pounded the back of the truck to let the driver know that we’ve arrived. I’ve never been so excited to be back at a place swarming with mud, mildew and mosquitoes. We were extremely grateful for their help and I will always remember their faces for their sincerest generosity. We waved good-bye and I, literally, skipped to the front of the gate only to discovered that it was locked.

That was just great. Just when I thought I had survived my last and final adventure in Honduras, we had another challenge to face. Determine to get back into our hotel room, I suggested that we squeeze ourselves through the gate. As my friend carefully stuck her left leg in, the gate shifted a little. I pushed and to my surprise, it swung open. We laughed at our idiocy and cheered that we didn’t have another challenge to overcome.

Until we realized that the trail to the hotel was pitch dark and I left my flashlight in the hotel room not expecting to come back this late. One thing I learned racing down Taishan in China the dark is that at night your cellphone is your best friend. My friend whipped out her cell phone and we used it as a flash light to make our way back to the hotel. Adventure complete. Wee!

The tower at Comayagua’s Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion overlooks the entire town. This view, by far, is my favorite mainly because of the colors and texture of the highest dome. It adds a little Arabic feel to this old Spanish colonial capital.

Chicken buses zoom by the front gate of our hotel every 10-15 minutes, sometimes 20 but that only seems to happen on extra hot days. We hopped on a bus towards La Guama and about 45 minutes later, we stopped at Siguatepeque for a restroom run. Other than that there really isn’t a reason to stop here. We hopped back on the bus and half an hour later, we were dropped off on the side of the dirt road in La Guama.

Fried fishes were sold in brown paper bags and served on a dirty bucket attached on top of a broom stick. It was a clever way to reach passengers sitting on the bus. They were served on both sides of the roads, along with ripe mangoes. Every time a bus stopped, everyone who run over in hopes that someone would buy their goods.

We finally arrived in this charming colonial town two hours after we left our hotel. We took a cab to the Parque Central to visit the Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion. The cathedral was built between the late 1600′s and early 1700′s. It has a beautiful pastel yellow and white facade with an incredible three-paneled altar.

As soon as my friend and I approached the entrance to the church, we were spotted by a “guide” who followed us into the church and tried to convince us to take a private tour up to the church’s tower for 20 lempiras. I’m almost certain that he was not official tour guide and these “private tours” were offered to any random tourist who was willing to fork over the money. I considered the 20 lempiras only as an entrance fee. Everything the guide told us was already in the Lonely Planet guide book.

We climbed up the narrow stone staircases wobbling on the uneven steps as we tried not to scrape the side of our arms along the jagged walls. The clock in the tower of the Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion was donated to Comayagua by King Phillip II of Spain. What’s amazing about this clock is that it was originally built by the Moors around 1100 for the palace of Alhambra in Granada. It’s the oldest clock in the Americas and one of the oldest in the world. I don’t quite understand the mechanics of it but all I know is that people use to tell time by the number of times the bell goes off.

Across the street is the Colonial Museum of Religious Art (Museo Colonial de Arte Religioso). It was renovated in 2005 but it’s under construction again after a fire destroyed it last year. This isn’t in the guide book so if you’re planning to visit, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The other museum in town is the Museo Regional de Arqueologia that displays artifacts from the ancient Lenca communities.

All of Comayagua can be seen in a day or two. What I really wish I had time for was the Parque Nacional Montana de Comayagua. The park is extremely eco-friendly. There are two main trails. One of them leads to the Cascada de los Ensuenos, a waterfall about an hour’s hike. The second trail also leads to another waterfall, El Gavilan. These waters is where drinking water is sourced from for many communities in the area so swimming is not allowed. The guide told us that the accomodations there are pretty basic. All the furniture are wooden and there is no electricity.

At El Cortijo Del Lago in Lago de Yajoa, I woke up every morning to this peaceful panoramic view but don’t be deceived. With all the lush greenery, there is bound to be plenty of mildew, mud and mosquitoes.

Lago de Yojoa is the largest lake in Honduras. It sits on the highway that connects Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, and San Pedro Sula. Even though the lake is off the beaten path, it is still very much easily accessible. Lago de Yojoa is surrounded by a lush green forest of trees where mud and mosquitoes creep up on your like ninjas and rolling mountains from the Santa Bárbara National Park on the west and the Cerro Azul Meambar National Park on the east.

From Copan Valley my friend and I caught a 5:30AM bus to San Pedro Sula and a one-hour taxi ride to our hotel, El Cortijo del Lago, located right by the lake. The hotel offers a panoramic view of the Lago de Yojoa, private cabins, a variety of water sports activities and a restaurant. There are no other restaurants and no markets to buy food or water. The closest town is about 10 kilometers away.

There was a 15 minute thunderstorm right before we arrived, which contributed to a few mud slides and plenty of mud. My friend and I originally reserved a simple cabin by the lake. When I saw where we were staying for the next few days, I said to myself, “Just suck it up. Suck it up. Suck it up!” There were no windows and no fan.

There was only a window screen and a dingy cloth that hung over it. The two small twin beds took up three-fourths of the room. The bathroom was dirty, broken & rusty with mildew crawling everywhere. There was no door. Just a rag with a gaping hole about 4 feet high and 2 feet wide. It was pretty much pointless.

Image from Yojoa.org

We immediately asked for an upgrade. For 100L more we got a room with a panoramic view of the lake and a room the size of a $2,000 Manhattan studio . We had an extremely comfortable king-size bed and additional bed to lay our laundry on toe dry. There was a tiny TV with no channels but a decent selection of DVDs. The lake is pretty isolated, which has it’s ups and downs.

A little concerned that our hotel was so far from civilization, we decided to take the chicken bus to the closest town, Pena Blanca. Although there was definitely more life in this little town than the area by the lake it wasn’t that much more of a convenience for us to stay there so we decided to stick with El Cortijo del Lago. Our hotel room at least had three huge windows overlooking the lake, rolling mountains in shades of blue and gray from left to right, an air conditioner and decent size bathroom that was less mildew-y than the tiny cabin.

Our next mission was to exchange more cash. There were 2 or 3 banks in town but none of them offered ATM service. Luckily, I brought extra cash so my friend and I was able to survive for the duration of the trip. Had I not, we would have had to take another 3 hour bus ride back to San Pedro Sula for the closest bank with ATM service.

As we waited for a bus to take us back to the lake from town, the sky decided to pour. We waited a while to catch the bus back to our lodge. Driving in heavy rain, twisty-curvy roads and with a driver who had a problem keeping his eyes on the road and not on us was probably the most dangerous thing I did in Honduras.