HONDURAS December 23, 2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 4: Driving the Honduran Economy and more

Hola —
Dos Americanos en Honduras – Dia Cuatro (Comayagua a Tela)

We made our way (actually quite easily) out of Comayagua, and except for missing one sign (the only sign on the road for the connection to Tela, so we needed to take an alternative route on much smaller roads which actually proved more interesting), made it to Tela quite easily (about 5 hours, including a stop for rather dull chicken — again — on the roadside, gassing up, and stopping to buy bananas from a kid on the road).

The countryside is pretty and very rural. Beginning about an hour south of Tela (which is on the north coast), the road is flanked by lush palm groves. Along the roadside are teeny stalls — each selling just one item: bananas (the very small ones) or coconuts or a fruit whose name I forgot that is red on the outside with thorns.

I’ve figured out that the economy is driven by four things:
1. Barbed wire (or concertina wire, as Mike calls it) which is everywhere — on buildings, fences, roof tops — although there seems to be less of it here in Tela;
2. Coca Cola which appears to have paid for the sign that greets you in every town (adorned with the logo in a size mostly larger than the town name) and at every roadside shack and painted on the sides of many roadside buildings;
3. Digicel, the cell phone company here, which seems to be taking its instructions from CocaCola and is whose logo is also appearing everywhere (though not as prolific as Coke); and
4. Flat screen televisions which are everywhere — in every hotel room, no matter how cheap, in every restaurant, no matter how fancy, in every bar, in every shop, in every shack!

The Coke phenomena is unfortunate and a result, I assume, of having poor water and thus being taken advantage of by the American-owned, iconic sweet drink company. Today, despite the availability of bottled and purified water, the Hondurans appear totally addicted to Coke (Pepsi and 7-Up are running a close race), and whenever we asked for bottled water, people thought it was strange. Indeed it’s pretty common to see young children holding and drinking from giant “family-size” bottles of Coke.

We arrived in Tela a few hours ago and despite rain, decided to take a walk through the town which is laid out in a simple grid. Tela has a definite Caribbean feel and the Garifuna people trace back to Carib Indians. The story is that the Spanish began looting the riches of South America in the 1600s sending ships up the Central American coast on the way back to Spain. French and English pirates used the Bay Islands (off the Tela coast) as the base for expeditions to attack the Spanish ships… At times the Brits controlled the islands and then they went back to Spain.. Anyway, in the late 18th Century, African slaves from the Cayman Islands and the descendants of Carib Indians were “dumped” in Roatan. These Garifuna people set up permanent settlements on the islands and the north coast of the mainland of Honduras.

The influence is apparent in the building styles (thatched roof wooden shacks on stilts), the music, and the food — which we hear is really good (grilled fish in garlic sauce and stews made with coconut milk and seafood stews that include sweet potatoes, yucca, and malanga (a root vegetable similar to yams).

Wherever you walk, kids hawk pan de coco (coconut bread); we haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure by tomorrow we will have lost all self-control.

We are staying at Hotel Cesar Mariscos — yes, the “shrimp” hotel, which is really just a few rooms above the Cesar Mariscos Restaurant, where we will eat tonight. Cesar (if there is such a person) is quite an entrepreneur — with hotel, supposed best restaurant in town, bar that stays open late, guide tour operations, and somehow linked with the kids who sell the pan de coco. It’s pretty basic, although naturally we have a flat screen tv, and we do have air conditioning.. and a little balcony facing the beach. So what could possibly be wrong with that?

More tomorrow (when I’ll fill you in on the dinner) after we attempt to visit a Garifuna village called Miami and drive to Ceiba (our next spot – we think a fairly luxurious eco resort in the rain forest — for two days — complete with private yoga teachers). We’re also hoping to find a small church to see what midnight mass is like in Honduras (we’ve observed it in Mexico, Ecuador, Vietnam, Guatemala, and some other countries and it’s always interesting.)

Hasta Luego.
Fern

P.S. Mike is getting really good at driving here (admittedly defensively) and since he seems happy driving I’m content to be the passenger. Probably won’t last, but for now, it’s fine. Still a bit frightening to see huge trucks coming at you in your lane, but somehow it works. Didn’t see any accidents all day. Tomorrow we head to Ceiba, where there were 9 murders yesterday (apparently narco-gang related). The hotel operator in Ceiba got in touch and said not to worry.. I said, “no problem, we’re from the states — lots of murders every day.”