HONDURAS 12/26/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 7

Ola de los dos Americanos en Honduras en el dia siete; Greetings from grimy San Pedro Sula, where we just arrived.

To finish off Christmas Day (yesterday).. there were eventually 6 of us at Las Cascadas, by last night. We met the couple that arrived before we did — Harvard grads about 35 years old; PhDs (she in neuroscience – studies memory loss PhD from Cambridge; he’s Canadian in finance – did his undergrad in sociology and PhD also at Cambridge in International Trade). They live in Toronto, where she’s on the faculty at the University of Toronto. The other couple who arrived just before dinner were Hondurans who live in San Pedro Sula and were (I think) a bit annoyed to hear all this English being spoken.

It began to pour (and rain in the jungle is loud and intense, although often it’s so dense that you don’t even feel the rain), just as we all piled into a van to head to this Christmas turkey dinner up the road. Wasn’t exactly what we imagined and it was a bit odd to have a real American meal in the jungles of Honduras, but I think Bruce really wanted a break from work, and we all accommodated. We met several of the ex-pats who are living and working in Ceiba—some are in the tourism industry (mostly guiding rafting trips and hikes, or managing small hotels) and some are working with NGOs, including an interesting young woman from Altoona, PA (very close to Penn State’s main campus at State College, where Mike and I once taught) who is running an after-school language program for 10-20 year olds, where photography is also on the curriculum, and where the goal is to encourage young people to think about sustainability for Honduras. They do a lot of training in eco sustainability, and some of the kids give guided tours through the jungle. (www.guaruma.org). Seemed like a really good organization.

We also met a bunch of expats from Saskatchewan, various parts of Canada, and the US.  Interesting folks who have either decided to live here in Central America for short periods, or for life. They all seem extremely happy.

After dinner, as the rain continued to descend, we went back to Cascadas for drinks, conversation, and Mike and Bruce played chess.

It poured all night long.. and for a while we thought we might have to stay another night at Las Cascadas, which would have been nice, but complicated because our room was already booked. So, after breakfast, we decided to brave the rain and head out down that 6 kilometer dirt (mud) road. As we loaded the car, the rain lessened, and while the drive was not exactly smooth… it was all doable. We headed into Ceiba to see the town, which might look good with sun (nothing ever looks good in the rain – except the rainforest, jungle)… but it seemed dingy. We grabbed a bite at the Expatriate Bar and Restaurant, where about 10 Americans and Canadians (who live in Ceiba) were watching the football game on the infamous flat screen TV.. and headed to San Pedro Sula – our next stop. (The Honduran couple at dinner were from San Pedro, so I asked — in Spanish, because their English was similar to my Spanish – about the best things to see in San Pedro, their response was quick and decisive: “NADA”… so we figured it would be fine to get to San Pedro by dinner.

We’re here now. It’s grimy and depressing, but then again, it’s raining! Fortunately while our little hotel is not in a very good neighborhood, it is immaculately clean (I think I’ll take clean over location)… And they have wifi!

So, we’re here — we’re off to dinner soon. We’ll take a taxi because finding things in the dark is really hard. In Honduras the street signs are infrequent, and then when there are signs – they are only printed on one side of the sign. So you never know what street you are actually driving until you are at an intersection. They really could use some signage advice in general. We drove for two hours before seeing the sign to San Pedro Sula and then it was just in time to make the turn onto that road.

We’re not expecting much in San Pedro. We hear there’s a good market that we’ll visit in the morning.. and maybe just rest up. We’re here for a second night and then we have a very long drive to Gracias.

I’ll let you know tomorrow what we find here in San Pedro Sula.

Fern

P.S.  I finally let Mike read all of these travel notes and he said I did not describe the boat trip to Miami correctly…According to him: We started out in a river and had to cross into the surf of the Caribbean and the connection between the river and the Caribbean surf was only about 20 feet wide and 2 feet deep. So they had to lift the motor out of the water, get out of the boat, and walk it through the shallows.. and then shove it into the oncoming surf, drop the motor, rev it up, and blast straight into the waves that were breaking in front of us… That’s when we started rocking and rolling across the crashing waves….
On the way back, the boat had to surf the waves until we hit the shallows of the river.. then they hop out of the boat and walk it into the river. OK.. That’s Mike’s two cents.