HONDURAS December 25, 2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 6: Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad de Las Cascadas, circa de La Ceiba, Honduras
Dia Seis

First, a bit about getting yesterday’s and today’s email to you. There is absolutely no service within about six kilometers of the lodge. Actually, there is some kind of wifi in the dining area, but we have yet to be able to connect, and decided that 36 hours of no cell and no blackberry is actually a good test of our ability to make it for short periods without communication tools. Mmmmmmmmm…….

Anyway, to send the December 24th email which you should have gotten on Christmas Day.. I drove out of the lodge up a dirt road for about 6 kilometers.. where lo and behold—in the middle of nowhere—a connection popped up. I actually realized this morning when we drove around the area (more on that in a minute)… when my blackberry started buzzing.. So when we returned to the lodge, I transferred the daily report from yesterday to my Blackberry, and then drove up the hill and pushed “send” from the Blackberry… pretty clever.. ??

OK.. so we began Christmas morning (actually you’d never know it was Christmas here.. ) waking up pretty early to little howling monkeys that roam the trees that surround the lodge (Not to worry, we are well protected in our incredible cabin, totally screened and glazed appropriately)… and then some amazing bird sounds.. and of course the constant white noise of the waterfalls that surround the whole lodge. By the way, there are only four rooms in this place (I think I said previously that there were 9… I erred.)

Las Cascadas is owned by a very entrepreneurial American architect/developer who hails from Michigan and apparently spends a lot of time developing condos for wealthy foreigners in Roatan, one of the Bay Islands north of here.

Must say, he’s got great taste and is sensitive to the surroundings and sustainability (albeit a bit on the cushy side—for which I am grateful).. the lodge seems to be a hobby and a way to enable him to come and spend time in this amazing part of the world.. or maybe it’s a giant tax loophole, in that it is not possible to make any money with only four rooms.. at best 8-10 guests??

Right now there are only four of us.. We haven’t met the other two, but will meet them tonight when we all head up the road for a Christmas turkey with the expats who live in this region. The turkey was grown right here .. and I guess all of these foreigners decided to make Christmas dinner. We are invited, but need to chip in some money which seems quite fair. I think most of these people work as guides for rafting and other activities in the region, and some work with NGOs — one of which we visited briefly today.

After breakfast, we followed Bruce’s truck up the hill (Bruce is the on-site manager– an interesting guy, probably mid- to late-30s who hails from Montana, but has lived in many places, including Brooklyn! where he was living on a boat in a canal that is between Queens and Brooklyn… We Brooklyn folks are everywhere (well, he’s not really a Brooklynite, having lived there only 2 years)… He’s traveled a lot, lived in Roatan (Honduras) for a year or two.. before Brooklyn. He’s been the manager for about 9 months, and really loves and knows a lot about the area. He seems well connected well with the locals, using both consumables and adornments made locally (ok.. he also gets things from Guatemala, and in order to keep the place at such a high end, it’s obvious that many things come from elsewhere, but he tries to be as sustainable as possible).

Followed Bruce’s truck so he could stop and introduce us to numerous folks, and then he could take off to pick up the other couple staying here, who had gone rafting (guess they don’t have a car). This was a good idea, because we could then take our time at each of the places – en route down the hill. So Bruce took off as we got to the last introduction, and then we could linger and make our way slowly back, stopping at all the places he had connected us with.

The first stop was probably the most amazing.. and to be added to the once-in- a lifetime experiences list.

We went to meet Rosaria, who founded, with some other women, a women’s sewing collective. If I understood the story correctly (since it was all in Spanish)… Rosaria and her family worked hard and saved money and 16 years ago she realized that she and the other women sewed well and perhaps they could make money sewing various things like aprons and tablecloths. They saved for one sewing machine.. and then another, and now they have about 8 sewing machines (all rather old) and they have a small cooperative and sell their goods to a few shops that cater to fair trade. Somewhere along the way, an American woman from New Hampshire lived close by and helped them get more established (or so I think) and later a woman from Japan came also. As the cooperative got known, I think someone from the World Bank came and loaned some money for them to grow larger (a micro loan, perhaps?)…. maybe. You can take all of this background information with a grain of salt, since my conversation was all in Spanish, but I think I got it right.

Anyway, getting to Rosaria’s place is something else.. she is across the river from the road.. with no access by car or paths. Twenty-five years ago, the men in the village constructed a cable that holds a basket that traverses the river.. which is deep in a canyon… so the cable is about 15 or 20 stories above the river… You guessed it.. Mike and I crossed the river and back in the little rickety wooden basket that rides along the cable with little wheels that sit on the cable.. Rosaria’s son stands in (and sometimes is sort of hugging the basket while standing at its edge outside) the basket, We sat on little facing benches inside the basket. He maneuvered a pipe-like apparatus that provided the momentum for the basket to glide on the cable.

OK.. we made it across the Caribbean on that little boat with swells and being airborne several times, so we crossed our fingers and figured it would be ok.. After all, the children in this little village across the river do this several times a day.. to go to school, etc.

We spent time with Rosaria and got her story (as best we could with my rather limited Spanish)… and then got back into the basket (a “canasta” I believe) and went back to the other side of the river where our car was parked. The family is quite entrepreneurial. They are building another house next to their house, with four guest rooms that they hope will become a small bed and breakfast, with Spanish classes. ?? It will be ready in about 6 months and they will be sending me all the information so that I can recommend it to Americans.. I’ll be taking sign-ups soon! Contact me. You’ll have to take the basket back and forth—with luggage?

By the way, did I mention the other day that the children in the little Garufina Village (the one we went to via the boat ride) – Miami- bike 18 miles to get to school.. 36 miles a day.. even in the rain.. It takes them 90 minutes each way.. Makes going across the river in the canasta to get to school pretty tame.

All the equipment and materials to build the new house have to come across in the basket with the guy pulling on the pipe in the basket laden with the goods. Must make you think twice about any purchase. We clearly lead very easy lives.

From Rosaria’s we headed to a wood carver who had been in a bad car accident (he was a “pedestrian”) which totally smashed his leg… We bought a few wood serving dishes.. very simple.. no adornment.. quite nice.

Now that’s it for today; we’ll be heading to the turkey dinner soon.. back up that road.. Hopefully no basket travel in the dark!

Merry Merry… Feliz Navidad
Fern