Anything purple is mine ...

There is a sign in my hostel that says 'Anything Purple is mine, and anything that isn't can be dyed or painted' and as its a nice bit of humour I thought I would share it.

I woke this morning to the sound of heavy rain and sadly the sound and the rain continued all through the day and throughout the night, being the longest that I have ever experienced rain before.

The hostel is called the Purple House International and the place would make even one of my sisters jealous of the colour after awhile, as there is the colour purple just about everywhere and in everything. Walls, table, chairs, desks, bed sheets, knives, forks, dresses, plates, cups and everything in between.

It is also the first hostel that I have visited that is obsessed with travel to the level that they dont just have a few fliers form nearby hostels, but entire folders full of information from all the surrounding countries complete with tours, guides, places to stay, palces to eat, things to do and general tips and advice.

The place is a haven for travellers and travel information and everyone here has their own story to tell, be it the owner ( a former member of the peace corps ) to the french / suisse group ( who got stuck up a mountain due to heavy rain ), the pair of Californian surfer dudes ( who slowly drove down all the way from the USA and are now selling the car that they used ) or the solo Dutch lass ( who is meeting her boyfriend in Costa Rica and has just spent the last few days surfing on the pacific coast after visiting the Galapagos Islands and seing sealions and turtles come right up the beach beside her).

Because of the rain half of the guests who were her last night made plans to leave early to pastures new ( and hopefully drier ) or just resigned themselves to a boring day stuck in because of the rain and instead order pizza and watch movies all day.

For me it was a chance to talk English to fellow Europeans who really and truly understood me, to catch up on unanswered emails, to plan a trip to the Mayan ruins in Copan near San Pedro Sula and contact my friends in Mexico and ask for their help in visiting some of the various Aztec and Tultec's citadels that are numerous throughout their country.

It did not help that it was a Sunday ( with a bank holiday Monday coming up ) and my wifi adapter has died on me for perhaps the last time so I had plenty of time in the dry to type up and store emails only in order to go to the nearby internet cafe and send them all off in one go.

What did surprise me is that apart from me heading off in the wrong direction, I blame the constant driving rain as I had my eyes down for so long that I got all turned around, was that even though the rain was flowing constantly from 2am this morning and that the army was even out to keep the traffic going and not bottle necking up anywhere, that the local cyclists decided that the rain was not hard enough to prevent them from racing through the streets around 1pm ... and I thought us British were crazy.

Aday stuck in a house watching movies with the windows open ( because of the heat and condensation ) has given me quite a lot of time to think, not to mention a blinding headache, so I am off to an early night in order to catch the bus tomorrow morning along with the Dutch lass and one or two others.