A few years ago my family went on a cruise through Norwegian Cruise Line. We went to four different ports including Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Cozumel. When we went to Honduras and Guatemala, we realized how fortunate we are in the United States. Both countries were very poor and all the people were living on basically nothing. Tourism is these countries is their main source of income.

Roatan is the largest of the eight islands of Honduras with a population of thirty thousand. When we arrived on the island, we went on an excursion through a business called Bodden Tours where a man named Victor gave us a tour of the island. He brought us to his house where he has a small petting zoo in his backyard. There we played with the spider monkeysl; and he also had deer and anteaters. Victor told us how he had tried many times to get a passport to come visit the United States, but it is very hard to leave Roatan. The government is afraid that they will like the United States too much and not want to return. Victor then took us to a beach, and on the way we saw many poor areas. At the beach there were very young children selling jewelry to support their families. All the people we met in Honduras were very friendly and thankful for the little they had.

Another port we went to was Santo Tomas, Guatemala. Rosita, our tour guide took us on a tour of the village on the island. The village was very poor; people were just sitting on the front porches of their house doing absolutely nothing. Their houses were old and ran down. There were even malnourished dogs running the streets. She then took us to Fundaeco’s Tropical Rainforest Trail where we swam in fresh water waterfalls. For lunch she took us to a local restaurant called, Los Delfines. They served Mexican and seafood. We were not able to drink the water there because they do not clean their water like we do in the United States. Rosita even tried helping us learn Spanish better since she spoke both Spanish and English.

Being able to visit those two countries made me realize how fortunate I am here in the United States. Even though many of the people we met in both of those countries had very little, they were so happy and thankful for the little they had. They were some of the friendliest people I have ever met, and they