A Friend, the Capital City, and the Jungle

Shannon Arrives
Sat. May 10 my friend, Shannon, came for a week visit. I picked her up from the airport where we discovered the airline had lost her suitcase. All she had was her backpack with a few items. They had to no idea where her suitcase was or when it would arrive. Nice way to start a vacation... luckily we wear the same size so she could borrow my clothes and use my toiletries.Once we got to Tela we walked around downtown, ate some baleadas, bought her some underwear and a towel, strolled down the pier, ate pupusas for dinner, and went home to "shower" and sleep. Christina let us in on all the gossip at our school. There is a lot of soap opera crazy sleaziness going on right now and Christina and I want nothing to do with it. Tegucigalpa - The Capital City
On Sunday we took a bus to the capital city, Tegucigalpa, for 204L each ($11). I had been there twice before (see Nov. blog post for more) and I was excited to go back for an escape to big city life. The bus ride was 6 hours across the country through tropical jungles, agricultural plantations, and pine forests. Shannon felt a little motion sick in the windy mountain roads but she was able to sleep through it. Just outside the city, it started raining and the bus broke. Happily another bus came in 5 minutes for us to board and it stopped raining.

Departing from the bus we shared a taxi to the center of downtown with two girls from Canada. One has been living in Olancho (a farming city in Honduras) for 6 years as a missionary. Shannon and I walked to Hotel Iberia and got a room with two beds and private bath for 220L each night ($12 total). Then we explore the town a little, ate dinner (desayuna tipica: the typical breakfast with refried beans, fried sweet plantains, tortillas, avocado, scrambled eggs, "sour cream", and a chunk of the nasty Honduran cheese) for 25L ($1), and then had a few refreshments at various dives around the city. At one establishment there was a group of 5 young off-duty policemen. They were very entertaining and all readily confessed to being corrupt... just what Honduras needs. The church (Iglesia Dolores) next to our hotel was all lit up that night giving it a beautiful but eerie glow. On Monday, we woke up at 7:00am, showered, ate breakfast (next to a table of Mennonites - first I've seen in Honduras), and tried to call the airport from an internet cafe to check on the missing suitcase... no luck. Then we took a long stroll exploring the city. Many of the buildings here are pretty old and in disrepair but it is all part of the charm of Teguc. We stopped at The Galeria Nacional de Arte (out front a protest was going on to fight corruption. The protesters had built a tent community and were fasting. Some hadn't eaten for 24 days! There was a news crew there also. We donated some money, signed the petition to support their cause, and were pinned with yellow ribbons). The museum was 25L ($1) and had many great paintings and statues. Then we peeked inside the Teatro Nacional Manuel Bonilla. It was a beautiful theater built in 1912 with a balcony and stained glass windows. Standing inside it was hard to believe we were still in Honduras. A piano concert was scheduled for the next day and in the lobby we ran into one of the pianists. Afterward we headed up a tiny twisty road to La Leona park. The park has an amazing expansive view of the whole capital, although it was a bit overcast. While there, a man was cat calling us. We thought he had left but discovered him on a bench trying to attract our attention with extremely inappropriate exhibitionism. It was vulgar and shocking.At an internet cafe down the road, we spent about two hours trying to track down Shannon's suitcase with no luck. Just beyond that was the Museo del Hombre Hondureno. It was fairly small, only 5L ($0.25), and we seemed to be their only patrons in a long time. There were 4 different rooms and in each one a teenage docent led us from painting to painting explaining each with a well memorized script, all in Spanish of course. Mostly it was just paintings of famous Honduran people and events.

We walked across a bridge over a really stinky polluted river next to which young men were playing soccer. I don't know how they could breathe. The bridge led to a huge indoor swap meet and then back outside over another bridge to a large chaotic street market. There were some kids flying a kite on the bridge and other kids below trying to knock it down with rocks. We watched cars and buses maneuver around an insane pothole. I love the gritty hectic city life... at least for awhile. We ended the day with some dinner (at a surprisingly good Chinese restaurant) and some drinks. Each place we went that evening was a dive with widely varied music selection (Roy Orbison, reggaton, ranchera, Chicago, The Police, ...) and a few cockroaches scattered about. The cockroaches seemed to be everywhere we went, even outside randomly cruising the sidewalks and streets. Happily we found none in our hotel. They creeped Shannon out so I tired to smash them before she noticed them. Aren't I a great friend?

At one watering hole, an adorable, 20 year old, working girl joined us at our table. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt but there was no doubt she was a member of the oldest profession. She was quite hilarious and entertaining but seemed sad. We were sorry to leave her but... what could we do. She was trying to hustle us into buying her drinks and tried to sell us her watch and bracelets and kept eyeing our purses.

On Tuesday we showered, went to an internet cafe to check the suitcase situation (they still had no idea where the bag is), and went to a little outdoor merendero for a desayuna tipica. The restaurant had no sign and was just a wooden shack with plastic chairs and a TV showing novelas (a typical merendero) and Shannon was convinced I had just taken her to someone's house and demanded food.

Before checking out of our hotel, we had just enough time to tour the Museo para la Identidad Nacional (50L - $3). They had a large exhibit of photographs of Frida Kahlo all taken by Leo Matiz and another large exhibit, La Encantadora Taiwan, featuring the most gorgeous photographs of Taiwan's nature and culture.Then we took a taxi to catch the bus heading back to Tela, six hours away. Along the way we saw donkeys, vultures (I have seen vultures numerous different places while here. Each time is always exciting as they are really creepy looking birds.), wooden stands with the sun streaming through various glass jars and bottles filled with honey sold by the people there, clay pots and hammocks being sold along the road, and of course the natural surroundings endlessly green.Back in Tela, we showered, walked around the barrio introducing Shannon to people we ran into, ate dinner at the house, and slept.

Pico Bonito
Wed. morning we got up about 7:00am and took a taxi into downtown. We stopped at the ATM. The students from all the local schools were having a peace protest in the central park. We stopped at an "internet cafe" which was actually some person's living room with couches and family photos and all. The missing suitcase was still in limbo but the airport assured her she would be reimbursed.

Our plan was to take a bus to La Ceiba but we were informed that the buses were on strike due to high gas prices (the price for gas is equivalent to that in California but they obviously have much less money here) and wages. We got a taxi to the highway and waited in the sun hoping a bus would come. After about 30 minutes of melting (the weather was more humid that week than it had ever been here all year), we debated just heading to the beach but 10 minutes later a bus for La Ceiba pulled up (36L - $2).

After the 2 hour ride, we arrived at the outskirts of Ceiba and our bus stopped. There were about 200 semi trucks and buses parked along the highway blocking it off. All the passengers had to exit the bus and walk past the protesters and into town. This was now our third protest in less than a week (Maybe more Americans should follow their lead).Once past the protest, we got a bus to Rio Mario and hiked 45 minutes up to the waterfall. There were chickens, a pig, dogs, and lots of insects along the hike (the mosquitoes left us alone (I still haven't been stung once and Christina, my roommate, is still always covered) but Shannon got bit by a few mean little black ants). We had the waterfall all to ourselves and swam and relaxed for a few hours. It is really a lovely secluded little spot. We hiked back down to the highway and waited for a bus but none came. Instead, we took a taxi to the Jungle River Lodge in Pico Bonito (40 minutes for 105L - $6). We got a nice cabin with private bath and a fan. Shannon found it interesting that the bathroom did not have a door. (Christina and I have found this to be true in many Honduran hotels. We just had to indiscreetly ask each other to step outside for a bit.) They also don't offer towels.

Serendipitously Christina (my roommate) and her friend that was visiting had just arrived at the lodge also so we had dinner and drinks together. The owner, Oscar, and the staff are very friendly and remember Christina and I when we go there so it has a really warm big family feeling. I love it there and we all stayed up late talking. Oscar encourage us to come back before we leave Honduras for a going away party. He promised to give us free rooms for 3 nights for us and our friends (because we have so many here, ha, ha. But if any of you are interested...). There is something a little creepy about Oscar but usually he is fine and everyone else there is great. We even ran into the German girl we had met there in October who had also just returned with her adorable 3 month old baby boy.On Thursday we woke up late, had breakfast, and then the four of us (Shannon, Christina, her friend, and I) went on the zip line canopy tour. It still amazes me how the guides hike through the jungle barefoot. Everyone really enjoyed it but the weather was oppressively humid that day and we were all drenched in sweat. When the canopy was finished, we all jumped in the pool to cool off. Then we walked up the road to the suspension bridge to enjoy the view. Shannon and I headed back to the hotel, paid our tab (1750L each - $92), and took a taxi to La Ceiba proper. At the bus depot, we ate lunch (some delicious baleadas with beans, avocado and tomatoes), and took the 2 hour bus back to Tela.

On Friday we went to the beach for an hour and then I took Shannon to the Telamar to get on the Hedman Alas bus headed directly to the airport (256L - $13). After saying goodbyes, I went to the school to teach. I was exhausted but I try not take off much time from work as there are no subs here. When a teacher is absent, they just have the other teachers cover that class during their free periods.