After a couple of days of lots of rain, the plancha had filled up with water and become uncrossable. We were in Balfate at the time and needed to get home! So we ended up leaving our stuff behind and started out down the road. Marvin and I hopped in a car with some Canadians that live at the Project. Ms. Elsa was sending her husband, Dr. Tom, with us to try to get a flight he had scheduled to Roatan, and she drove us as far as LisLis where our first obstacle awaited us. There the LisLis river had come out of it's banks and flooded the road in front of the bridge. There were cars lining the road and people waiting to see if this flooding was crossable or not. We bumped into Mr. Iain Mckenzie while we were there and decided to go in his Landcruiser instead of continuing on with Ms. Elsa(I felt a little safer in the Landcruiser!). Ms. Elsa headed back home, and we continued our journey with more people. Mr. Iain was actually on his way to drop off two doctors who had been serving at the hospital. Their flight was scheduled to leave early the next morning, and they needed to get across! Mr. Iain had no problem getting across the LisLis crossing, and we continued on our way until reaching the plancha!! As we arrived at the plancha, it was EVIDENT that there would be no crossing at that point. What usually is a dry bed during the summer had turned into a raging river. The current was obviously very strong and the river stood very tall. No one could cross at that point, but we were told that if the river dropped, there were some guides who would eventually start crossing people on horses. Many men stood at the edge of the river and made landmarks with rocks to be able to tell if the river was rising or lowering. Marvin was part of this group. Covered with his rain coat, he talked to the men at the river and waited and observed to see if the river went down. Pretty soon we were told that the river was going down rapidly. We would be there a full two hours before actually crossing. We started to see people arriving at the other side of the water, and soon we saw my brother-in-law, Marvin's brother, Luis, arrive in his car to pick us up were we to get across. We started to determine whether the crowd waiting in the Landcruiser would all fit in that car if the Landcruiser couldn't get across. Little did we know that not only had Luis brought along his wife, Melissa, but his two kids, Alejandra and Brian as well. Soon we were told that the river had dropped 6-8 inches already, and we saw a young man decide to cross the river on foot carrying his bicycle high above his head, high in the air. As we watched this young man cross, the river came up to his chest! It was still pretty high, but he crossed just fine, despite being sopping wet! Mr. Iain decided to wait a while more and then try to cross in the Landcruiser. When the time came to do so, he warned us that the car would most likely fill up with water if we were to stop in the river, soooo....we put everything we had in the car as high up as possible, and I actually decided to stand on the seat as we got ready to cross. The Landcruiser, ready with its snorkle and four-wheel-drive, raced into the still-partly-raging river and, what do you know, drove right into a big hole! We saw the water come up over the car's hood, and we held on for dear life as we felt the car move back and forth a little with the current. I must admit, I was a little frightened and started to feel a little claustrophobic. I stuck my head as close to the small opened window as possible. The Landcruiser immediately started to fill up with water, but Mr. Iain refused to get stuck. He never let the car stop completely. He used the four-wheel-drive to his advantage and started to go forward and backwards as fast as he could until he was able to back out in reverse out of the river back to the safety of dry land. The car doors were opened immediately, and the water was quickly drained. We had had our fill of car adventure for the day, so we decided to wait a while longer and find another way to cross. A horse guide appeared who said that in fifteen minutes, he would be willing to start taking people across. So soon, I was mounted on a small brown horse, with my guide pulling the horse from the front, and I was the first to cross the river. I did feel a little nervous. The horse stopped several times in the river and the guide had to prod him to continue on. I really didn't want to slide off the saddle and into the cold river water! Thankfully, I didn't. I smiled the biggest smile I could as I arrived safely onto dry land and got off the horse as quickly as possible. I had never been so happy to see my brother-in-law there waiting for us! He was smiling big and video-taping me as I crossed and received me with a big hug. Marvin followed closely behind me, and closely behind him, Dr. Tom. The other two doctors decided to cross on foot with their luggage instead. They were joking that the one, more heavy-set doctor, should give the horse a ride instead. (-; We all were able to stuff ourselves into Luis's car even more comfortable than I would have imagined. Melissa, Alejandra and Brian were happy to see us safely across, and Alejandra, feeling the spirit of adventure in the air, started wanting to cross the river on horse too! Maybe next time....we were so happy to, again, be on our way home, and finally make it to La Ceiba after 4 1/2 hours of travel and adventure! (-;
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