ROMANIA: Iasi. Days 4 and 5. April 14 and 15, 2005
Well as you can see, I am up and running again with the Internet… When I first got to Iasi they said they had Internet connection in the room, but that was not exactly the case. But now after the “IT” guy showed up early this morning, it’s working fine. Only problem is that the computer has to be hooked up to an outlet that doesn’t reach the desk area, so I have to either sit on the floor or on a little backless stool.. so this note may not be as long as I had hoped.
Hi fom Iasi–
Day 4 (from Bucharest to Iasi)
Started out quite early in the morning..(Adrienne and I now have a routine in Bucharest) — so it was off to the market to get stuff for breakfast, eat in the little park (we’re the only ones there, except for the guys who supposedly clean the park –but we haven’t seen them work yet, and the “guard”)..Then we walked for a bit in some other neighborhoods and picked up food for the train journey (which was a good idea since the trains don’t have any services).. Caught a taxi to the train station and nearly missed the train. (Driver went in circles a bit, until we showed him the map and explained as best we could that we “knew the way”… He tried to charge us about 20 times the fare.. but we paid what we thought it should be and got out of the taxi at the station—quickly…) As you can see, I am up and running again with the Internet… When I first got to Iasi they said they had Internet connection in the room, but that was not exactly the case. But now after the “IT” guy showed up early this morning, it’s working fine. Only problem is that the computer has to be hooked up to an outlet that doesn’t reach the desk area, so I have to either sit on the floor or on a little backless stool.. so this note may not be as long as I had hoped.
Train was an experience — quite packed.. not much assistance in finding your car or seat, but we managed to locate where we needed to go.. Seats are very tight and we were obviously the only non-Romanians on the train… 6 hours… managed to eat most of what we brought with us and gave the rest to a nice couple sitting near us who seemed very grateful… Train goes through countryside which is very depressed, but also picturesque…and eventually we arrived at Iasi.
We are staying at a 125 year old hotel, which was apparently designed by Eiffel… It’s only a two or three star hotel, but it’s quite lovely.. My room over looks a main street.
After settling in, we walked to a restaurant about 3/4 mile away.. not too far from the university and miracle of miracles, we managed to not get lost, although we had to navigate some pretty small streets. People were very helpful when we asked for directions. No one speaks English, so the directions need to be short and then we need to ask again and again.
The restaurant was charming, although the food was extremely heavy — laden with cream sauces. Navigating the menu was interesting (In Bucharest many restaurants had some translations on the menu either in English or in French or Italian and we could figure things out ok..not perfect, but ok..) Here, there is absolutely no English..and the menu was one of those very long multi-page things ..I wound up doing little drawings of a chicken, a pig, etc…and for dessert.. drawings of fruit, etc. Seemed to work well and we basically got what we drew — just didn’t know how to deal with the sauce part (how to tell them to omit it!). Walked back and called it a night about midnight.
This morning we got up pretty early.. I dealt with the computer guy, who at first seemed quite perplexed by the problem, but later just plugged it into another DSL connection in the room and here I am…
We walked to the city hall where supposedly I could look for records of my family..but after some complex discussions (without real language) we learned that records before 1904 are not at City Hall and you have to go to the national archives.. so we started to walk — thinking it was pretty close, but then kept stopping people and showing the little piece of paper with the address info on it… and learned it was quite a trek away (definitely, not walkable). So some woman on the street took us by the arm and got us tram tickets and then put us on the tram (also warning me to hold my camera very tight and to zip up my purse –a warning we get all the time)..
The tram ride was actually longer than we anticipated and we were quite the attraction on the tram (also in Bucharest)… Finally one young woman on the tram heard us speaking English and asked somewhat haltingly if she could be of help… So she got us to the right stop, but she didn’t know the building.. Anyway, we arrived at the Archives only to learn that an individual cannot request this information.. only an “institution” can request it… So if I wanted any information about my family I needed to go back to City Hall and have them make the request, and then it would be sent to City Hall — in about 30 days if approved… I decided whatever information might exist was probably not worth it and it was unlikely to get from the Iasi City Hall to me in California.. so we left..
We then decided to take a taxi slightly out of town to an old Jewish cemetery…(maybe some relatives there?) We got there and saw thousands of graves — most with markers.. It would have been impossible to find anything without a lot more information than I had.. but it was interesting. I will say this…the cemetery location was spectacular — up on a hill overlooking the whole city…(And just outside the cemetery they are growing grapes). The woman who “runs” the cemetery was totally enamored with our coming… insisted on kissing us before we left and taking pictures with us… That was a bit creepy.
Then we left with the intention of returning to town, seeing some museums, walking, etc…But the taxi driver (who had waited for us — realizing that we’d be somewhat stranded out there on that hill) had waited for us without being asked.. I think he thought we might be religious or something so he just drove us to some building in the city that is some kind of Jewish senior citizen center.. We didn’t know what it was at first.. but he suggested we go in.. and he left.. So in we went…There were a few old men — probably 70 or 80 years old– who initially thought we must be from Israel (probably disappointed to learn we were from the US..) They talked to us in Yiddish (which we could understand more than we could speak).. and mostly we learned that these guys gather in this house regularly… When Adrienne told them she was from Chicago, they got very excited and kept pointing with their fingers making gun-like shooting sounds and saying “Al Capone-e, Al Capon-e”… I said I was from California and that seemed much less interesting to them. They invited us to come to Friday night services, but we said we would be back in Bucharest on Friday.
As we left they pointed to another building which had a sign that it was a restaurant.. so we decided to go in since we were hungry. It didn’t really look like a restaurant; more like a house. Well we stumbled on what must be the “meals on wheels for Jewish seniors in Iasi”…and were served a meal –heavy on the grease…heavy on the starch.. overcooked meat….good sour tomatoes… and really good honey cake! But we professed that it was excellent and smiled a lot… Everyone there was at least 25 years older than us… The interesting thing was that the walls were filled with hand made lists (poster size) that noted all of the Jews who had won Nobel prizes (in all categories)..and then a list of all Jews who won (or were nominated for) Academy Awards –Bette Middler, Woody Allen, Rob Reiner, etc., etc.. It was something else…
We got a tour of the kitchen so my photo archives are pretty interesting.
We left there and went to see a few monasteries which are in great supply here.. lots of Eastern Orthodox churches and priests walking around..Then we just walked for several hours ..including making a pitstop at an ATM which is definitely not ADA-compliant! Now I’m back and getting ready for dinner…We leave Iasi tomorrow morning…either at 6am on the ‘rapid train’ or at noon with the not-so-rapid train…Depends on how early we decide to wake up…
We’ve had pretty good weather until now (it cooled off a lot since that first day). It’s raining which makes the town look more depressing than it really is… Actually it’s a really nice town with lots of hills and greenery (but no real “landscaping”), that is just beginning to show with the beginning of spring. You get the sense that there is a lot more optimism here in Iasi than in Bucharest..but these comments are coming from no real understanding or discussion..just a sense.
Hope all is well — I’ll try to write again tomorrow….
Fern
ROMANIA: Day 3. April 12, 2005
Hi–
Well Day 3 is coming to a close (it’s a little after midnight.). Romania (Bucharest) remains fascinating…We began today with a very circuitous effort to find a place for breakfast — after deciding that the hotel was not just expensive, but boring. We walked several blocks and it became clear that other than getting an espresso, breakfast just doesn’t happen here. So we dashed to the market and a “supermarket,” got pastries and waters and bananas and yogurt, and set off to a little park (called a park, but really just a dirt area with swings and a security guard!) We gobbled the pasty and banana and swallowed the water…but didn’t have any spoons, so the yogurt is now out on the windowsill of the hotel room…This actually made us late for our first “meeting” — with a woman (American) who runs an NGO both in Bucharest and rural Romania…that helps gypsy children and moms to get an education and work skills and housing, etc.
Well it turns out that her name is Leslie Hawke and she was in the Peace Corps in Romania in 2000 and decided to stay in Bucharest, and continue the work she began as a volunteer… and it so happens that she is Ethan Hawke’s mother (Ethan Hawke — actor from “Dead Poets Society” and other films… and who had that little fling with Julia Roberts…and who starred with River Phoenix and Uma Thurman, et. al… and who has a child with Uma) We didn’t quite know this when we were meeting with her, and frankly the woman who connected us to her didn’t know who Ethan Hawke was so it never got mentioned.
Anyway, Leslie’s the kind of person who would probably be our client if the organization was in the US. and I hope she visits when she’s next in the States…It was an interesting meeting and we got to hear a lot about the plight of the gypsies who represent about 15% of the population in Romania.
Following that, we took a long walk and wound up in the Ethnographic Museum..which was interesting, but could use some graphic help setting up the exhibits! Then we strolled to meet a friend of my scientist friend (who is a chemist and senior VP at Bayer) for lunch. They grew up together in Bucharest and went to University of Bucharest together after the war,. Moshe graduated in the early 50s and finished his PhD around 1960, after which he left communist Romania for Israel and then headed to the states—first to Indiana and then to Berkeley. The friend that we met was a retired biochemist.
His friend was quite interesting, having lived in Bucharest both during and after WWII. So she had lots of tales about living under Ceaușescu…A very fascinating conversation which lingered until about 5 pm…after which we walked through town and eventually wound up at a hip dinner place called La Mama…
Today was the first day we had some sun and the city looks a lot better, though still pretty grim and rundown.
I’m now trying to get some work done..Tomorrow we’ll be taking the train to Iasi –6 hours…
All is well — hope all is going well there..
By the way, I haven’t seen or noticed and relatives yet! But walking through the markets I could easily picture my grandfather selling his wares on the street.
Fern
ROMANIA: 4/11/2005
Well it’s nearly midnight and I’m going to call it a day. It’s been another hectic day in Romania, but filled with interesting experiences and people. Started off at the market fairly early to get stuff for breakfast, which we then ate at our friend’s apartment — a fairly typical tiny unit, Romanian style — about one power source in each room, max –two rooms only…very teeny kitchen — just enough room to stand and cook with everything in arm’s reach; no closets at all. But efficient, and most important for her, she was able to negotiate an Internet line. The building, like most, is in a state of semi disrepair, but she brought duct tape with her from the states and she’s managed to make everything work!
We set off for the Jewish Museum — once again (remember it was closed yesterday) which is an old synagogue that has been converted to a small museum. It was interesting as it did tell the story of Jews migrating to Romania from the 15th century until the 19th century and then told the story of the loss of Jews in the 20th century. Didn’t find any relatives names in the mix of photos…no lost cousins…
We then walked for several hours in many different neighborhoods and on one of the main thoroughfares… just looking and trying to understand the city.. Guess I should have said in the previous travel note that my grandfather grew up in Bucharest (the capitol) and my grandmother (whom I never met as she died before I was born… and I am named for her; her name was Fanny) grew up in Iași (pronounced, I believe as “Yashi” or at least that’s how my mother pronounced it). My grandfather was very proud to have come from the big city and said that Iași was the country! But my grandmother apparently always said that Iași was very cultured and not the countryside. Adrienne and I plan to take the train to Iași in a few days. By the way, my grandfather spoke Romanian and Yiddish. His English was pretty elementary.
Eventually we met up with a woman from the Swedish Embassy who completed her PhD dissertation on Romania –focusing on property rights related to the takeover of land and housing during Ceaușescu’s long regime, and the impact of the 1991 revolution on ownership issues. She was quite knowledgeable about Romania in general, so it was an interesting dinner.. then walked back to the hotel, stopping for dessert and coffee along the way…Somehow it was nearly midnight by the time we got back to the hotel. Another long day.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we’re meeting another faculty member from the university for breakfast and then we’re going to try to visit the Peasant Museum (ethnographic center) and possibly some of the city parks… We’re also going to have lunch with a biophysicist who is a friend of a Romanian scientist friend who lives in the Bay Area ..then the goal is to check out a few neighborhoods, do some work and then late dinner with some other people.
On Wednesday we’ll take a train to Iasi..so I’ll hopefully have some quiet time to get more of the work that I promised would be done… while on the six-hours train ride. Hopefully I will be productive…Thus far, the phone is working fine and so is email, although the Internet at the hotel is a bit intermittent…but eventually works.
People are friendly, somewhat curious..surprised to see us here as they don’t get many tourists (and definitely not Americans). And of course this is not the time of year that is conducive to tourism here (overcast, grey, cold). The effects and repercussions of Ceaușescu’s regime remain strong….But people are very excited about the European Union and Romania’s entry into the alliance.
Food has been pretty good (nothing to really write home about and lots of smetna! (heavy sour cream with very high fat content) Things are cheap; salaries are incredibly low. Book stores are everywhere and there are a lot of cultural activities (which are also very inexpensive.) Oh we’re also meeting a woman tomorrow who just completed a documentary film called “Hidden Sorrows” about Romania’s role in WWII (I think)…Haven’t seen the film yet.
That’s it for the moment.. I’m going to try to get some sleep, but if you need me, –email or call.. I’ll probably be connected for at least another hour or so.
Fern
Happy New Year..
We’re back — arrived at midnight last night. It’s Sunday now. In fact I’m already in the office.. .
Trying to sort out mail and messages, and generally just get back in swing! Yesterday (gosh it was less than 24 hours ago, now), our departure was complicated, but successful. The drive from Copan Ruinas to San Pedro Sula Airport (really just about 110 miles) is supposed to take about 3.5 hours. However due to a few recent mud slides and rocks on the road, we knew it would take longer. It took us about 5 hours door to door.. with just a few interesting incidents.
First, we managed to take the wrong road out of Copan; not sure how that happened, but we lost about 30 minutes on that one. Second, there are NO signs anywhere on the road to indicate that you’re really heading to San Pedro Sula or to anywhere else. Signage (wayfinding) is a real need in Honduras, except for the fact that I suppose most people on the road know where they are going, and there really aren’t too many tourists, and those that are there are usually with hired drivers or on buses… (Speaking of tourists, we never ran into another American in two weeks; we did meet Canadians, Brits, and we heard German once or twice.)
So, without signs, we were at a bit of a loss, somehow more than on other days… not sure why. We knew from our map that there was one town we needed to watch out for – Entrada – where there is a fork in the road and we needed to head left for San Pedro.. if we went to the right we’d be headed to Santa Rosa and Gracias where we had been a few days before. For nearly 100 kilometers (60 miles) we looked for a sign to Entrada, without luck.. But about 40 kilometers before Entrada (although we didn’t know it at the time), we panicked… There on the road was the very first sign we saw all day.. and it was for Santa Rosa and Gracias (the opposite direction from what we needed).. and there was no turn-off, so the sign was saying to go straight ahead for Santa Rosa and Gracias… We really didn’t know where we were… But– Trusty iPhone.. I had that compass app.. and we could see that the road was headed NE which was what we wanted…
Secure in the knowledge that the iPhone App must be correct we barreled on. Eventually we got to Entrada (still without any sign) and we headed left (no sign telling us that was the direction to San Pedro, the second largest city in Honduras)… We did fine after that, until we tried to locate the airport.. again no signs. We stopped a few people and they all said to go straight and then turn right.. which we did.. We then hit a “T” and had to decide which way to go. We opted right.. and should have realized when in doubt.. go left! Then Mike decided he was starving and airport food is so bad.. Everything was closed on the roadside, (it was New Years Day) so we thought maybe we’d spot a hotel with a restaurant, after all, we were headed to the Airport!. We finally saw a motel-style place (that actually looked pretty nice) with a big sign that said it was a hotel, so we turned into the driveway. We were met by about four guys with what appeared to be sub-machine guns, or some kind of rapid fire weapons. We asked if there was a restaurant… (in retrospect, can’t believe we asked).. Anyway they signaled for us to go straight toward the main building (after all, we had become used to hotels having guards — but generally only one rather friendly looking one.) We proceeded and were greeted by two more guards, who then said they had no restaurant. At that moment we surveyed the situation.. every room had an attached garage (all the garage doors were open, and there were no cars at that moment).. And then we spotted a guard tower with sandbags and two other guards “on the lookout”… We quickly and quietly took the turnabout and headed out… really glad they DIDN’T have a restaurant. What would we have done then? I’m pretty certain this place was probably either a hangout for narco gang leaders or some other seedy group.
OK.. we decided eating at the airport now made a lot of sense.. .. when we came upon a “toll road”.. costing about 20 cents.. paid up and asked again about the airport, since no signs yet. We were told at the toll booth.. we were almost there.. and to go straight… We did that, but then realized we had gone too far.. asked again and had to retrace steps.. again no signs. Eventually after asking several more people we made our way, and lo and behold about 1 kilometer before the airport.. after having made several turns (based on what people told us to do) we made it…
Boarded at about 4:30 Honduras time and arrived in SF at midnight. All is well.
Fern
P.S. Thank you for your comments and notes regarding this little travelogue. It’s great to get feedback.
By the way, I should clarify my comments regarding whether or not Zelaya was successful in his efforts when president. As I said, I think he had a lot of good ideas and tried to implement many progressive programs, but his time was short and it is not clear how many actually got implemented before the coup. It is now about 18 months since his departure and I think people are frustrated so they mostly talk of the current situation, not what might have been. I think people we spoke with were pretty straight with us, as we never brought up politics until we had talked with them several times about other things. And after we talked about what we did and our travels.
OK.. that’s it, I promise. I’m back and grateful for hot showers and electricity. When we walked in the house last night and turned on lights everything seemed so bright! .. after three days with candlelight in Copan!
HONDURAS 12/31/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 12: Birds and Politics
Ola en el dia ultima de 2010
31 Diciembre 2010
After a leisurely breakfast out on the patio of the Hacienda, we set out for the Macaw Mountain Park — a bird sanctuary and large park with trails, a little cafe, and a river running through. I should note that mornings and afternoons when daylight streams into our room here at the Hacienda, it’s totally delightful. We’ve also been able to connect wirelessly, for a change, so bye bye ATT (at least for this last day of our travels.)
So, for the bird sanctuary… Toucans, macaws, parrots (many different species).. many many just flying around … some are rescue birds.. There’s one spot where a guy with a long pole can get each of about 30 birds to come on the pole and then he places the bird(s) on your shoulder or head … naturally, so that visitors can have their picture taken… OK, OK.. I had one on my shoulder! Mike too… Photos to prove it.
Last night at dinner, we engaged in a conversation about Honduran politics and it can be simply summed up (and re-affirming everything others here have said)… It doesn’t really matter who is in power, the country is very corrupt and run by the narco-gangs. Everything is based on bribery and corruption.
Some feel Zelaya made a difference; others seem to feel that there is truly no difference. The main issue seems to be that once there is an election, the president is supposedly in power for four years.. but that they really only function for two of the four at best. The first year is total chaos. And the fourth year nothing happens .. so at best the two middle years hold promise, but not much. When a new administration takes power every government worker loses their job and is either re-hired or not… everyone even street sweepers (if such a position exists). This is what was explained to us.
So, the sense — to some people here — is that whether or not the US was involved in the coup.. and whether or not Zelaya found himself caught in a struggle between Chavez and the US… for the people of Honduras there isn’t much difference in their lives… not until the narco gangs can be dealt with, and Honduras is way too poor to do anything about this.
But, alas, places like Copan and the Hacienda continue on — peacefully and apparently without problems.
We did hear a few horror stories about Columbian and Mexican professionals traveling through the country en route to Copan being detained (although not for very long) and questioned. And we are now quite certain that the police stopping us yesterday definitely wanted money.
Anyway, we head to San Pedro Sula Airport in the morning. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive and we are keeping our fingers crossed that our little Hyundai makes it for this one last trip. Our flight is at 5, with check in at 3.. but we are leaving here at 9am… just in case.. and also because we need to return the rental car and have no idea how the process works. If we are there with a few hours to spare.. no problem. I brought lots of work with me.. and only did a small portion of it.
Tonight, for new years we are headed out of the Hacienda into town. The Hacienda doesn’t serve dinner on either New Years Eve or Christmas Eve so that its 25 staff members can be with their families. On Christmas Day and New Years Day they open the place for the families of the staff.. with a big lunch and other activities. Too bad we won’t be around for that. Should be fun. Hacienda San Lucas’ staff are all locals.. and many are related. Some of the younger staff have gone off to school to learn to be guides or to run hotels. Actually, they are a fairly large employer… and staff is well treated.
So we head to a restaurant named Taty Zaty or something like that. We are not driving, since getting to and from here or even just driving anywhere in the dark is really treacherous, and we’ve avoided it whenever possible. Pilo, from the Hacienda, will take us and then pick us up. Not sure how the town celebrates.. but driving the other day … all along the roadside there were stands selling fireworks of various kinds … Each stand had enough stuff.. that if ignited would be like an IED in Iraq.. And we counted more than 30 stands within a stretch of about 1/4 mile… Scary… Not sure who’s buying them, but hopefully they are not near the restaurant.
Oh.. one last comment, overall.. If ever you’ve seen some contradictory iconic images.. it’s everyone — cowboys, kids, farmers riding donkeys with hay piled high, the drivers of little three wheel motor scooter “taxis”… everyone is on a cell phone. Not sure who’s really studied this phenomenon.. how this device is changing cultures around the world… especially developing countries.
Signing off.. See you in the states in 2011
Feliz Ano Nuevo y gracias por leer (leando?? ) mis letras de Honduras (????)
Fern
HONDURAS 12/30/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 11
La Cena de Dia Diez y mas en Dia Once
Hola en la dia antes de ano nuevo
Hacienda San Lucas
Copan Ruinas
Hola –
Here I sit in the office area of Hacienda San Lucas, high above the river that runs through the town and about 6 kilometers from the “bustle” of the town of Copan (which is a more touristy town than any we’ve been to so far, but cute with many tiny shops, restaurants, cafes, and a very nice parque central).
Last night was quite an experience. With our one electrical outlet in the bathroom and the very large amount of electrical wire wrapped around a wooden cable that is about 2.5 feet in diameter in the center of our room, we set out to get connected to the outside world. And of course our 15 candles and two solar powered lamps that provide about 15 watts of light each.. It all worked fine, especially with all the light the computers gave off. So, feeling quite secure, we went to dinner at the hacienda at about 8. The dining “room” is really outside the main farm house (the entire place had been a farm — more on that later). Hundreds of candles light the area, so it was totally charming and the night air was perfect.
For the foodies, dinner was wonderful. Started with fresh fruits and some local cheese, and a few marinated vegetables. Next came a carrot ginger soup. Then chicken with rice and vegetables, salsas, frijoles, tortillas.. and a great Argentinian Pinot. For dessert a papaya cake soaked in rum with fresh banana ice cream.
Feeling stuffed, but satisfied, we set out back to our room and then… my computer just went totally bonkers. The power here is a bit sketchy; and I think the irregularity of the electricity set something off. I couldn’t turn the computer on; I couldn’t shut it down. I got messages I never saw before.. I was a bit freaked. At about midnight after literally scores of tries, I decided to just go to sleep, turn the machine off.. and let it sleep too. (Yes, I had turned it on and off many times.. without luck)..
This morning I woke up.. and lo and behold; there it was.. just fine. So here I am … now able to tell the tales of December 30.
We drove to the ruins late this morning.. after a leisurely breakfast and walk around the grounds. Once again we drove down the very very rocky road along the river, up and down hills; having to move aside for any other vehicle or vice versa… and then through the town and to the Parque Arceologico. The Mayan “city” is interesting and fairly sprawling, but nothing compared to the likes of Tikal or Palenque or Tehuacan, and other sites we’ve seen over the years. We walked and climbed the site for about two hours. The Mayans’ quest may have been for language and mathematical and astronomical systems to explain life and the world; my quest was for shade! It was hot.. in the mid 80s and very humid (just think — this is the coldest time of year). It’s very pleasant in the shade when there is a breeze, but the walk through the ruins is in the hot sun. This is not my strength. But we walked the site — slowly and with two water bottles we bought at the entry.
Then we took off for the town. Honduran crafts are really not on the same level as Mexican or Guatemalan stuff, so our purchases have been few.. except for bringing back several bags of coffee beans (and we don’t even drink coffee).. They are packaged (at least the kind we got) in organic cotton sacks with embroidered birds and hand sewn shut.
As we approached the Hacienda at about 4:30, we were introduced to Flavia .. the owner. She is generally at the place all the time. But she had a bad fall at Christmas and was laid up yesterday when we arrived. Her story is very interesting.
This century-old farmhouse and all the property belonged to her family, although neither she nor her family ever really lived here. Her father was a doctor who practiced in Tegucigalpa. He married a “city girl,” but always loved this land and the ruins nearby (which were virtually unknown outside of the very local area at that time)… So, though he practiced medicine, he traveled as much as possible to tell people of the importance of Copan. And he forced the family to come to the farm yearly, although the children hated coming.
He was influential I suppose, and over the years would talk about Copan to anyone who’d listen. He loved the area.
Meanwhile Flavia was sent to boarding schools in the states and eventually married an American and settled in western Kentucky!! She had two children, and described herself to us as a real “soccer mom.” When she turned 50 (she’s 64 now) she got divorced; her kids were in college or at least somewhat independent; and she returned to Copan for the celebration of the opening of the park (I think it was the park, or maybe the archaeological museum in Copan, which honored her father). She decided to visit the farm. There were hundred of cows and the house was uninhabitable. She made a decision then and there to move back to Honduras and start a new life, rebuild the farmhouse, and restore the property. Because she didn’t have the funds to do this, she sold off the cows – one at a time.. and with the money, she bought the equipment and the supplies and hired locals to work with her… And eventually she had the two original rooms restored (she said when they took off the roof some of the walls fell). She built the road (the one with all the rocks).. and little by little she expanded to 8 guest rooms.
There was no electricity and no water when she started. As she ran out of money, she improvised. So, the story of the Hacienda and Flavia is interesting..
Back to our room…It’s hard to describe our “closet”… it’s a rod that is actually a heavy branch of a tree hanging (actually swinging) from two “nails” which are bent to enable the “branch” (rod) to sit between them.. the nails would be about 2 feet if they were not bent. All of this hangs on two cords from the ceiling.. and the closet is doorless. Thus – the ash from the burning candles gets over all the clothes. But the closet is an example of Flavia’s ingenuity.
And moving to contemporary times… Flavia’s children live in the states. One is about to begin graduate work (in photojournalism) at the J School at Berkeley! He and his wife and child will be living in the married student housing in Albany! Her daughter lives in San Francisco. She finished law school and just passed the Bar; her husband is an engineer with the city of SF..
As we were talking, an old friend of Flavia’s came by to say hello (she lives in Tega) and heard us mention “Oakland”.. turns out she graduated from Holy Names College in Oakland as a foreign student. So, the world continues to get smaller and smaller.
Hope you are well and that those of you on the east coast have shoveled out of the snow, and that those of you on the west coast are drying off from the rains. We suffer neither of those problems here.
Our days in Honduras are coming to a close. Tomorrow our plan is to go to some amazing bird sanctuary in the mountains (where I hear it is nice and cool)… and then come back here to pack before it gets too dark to see anything in our room..
Final daily thoughts tomorrow, or maybe another from the San Pedro Sula Airport on Saturday before we take off.
Best —
Fern
HONDURAS 12/29/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 10
Hola from Copan Ruinas
29 Diciembre a las siete de la noche
It’s about 7 pm. We arrived in Copan Ruinas about 90 minutes ago. It was a much longer day than we had anticipated, but perhaps among the most interesting. Is that possible that something could be more interesting than the death-defying boat trip from Tela to Miami or the basket ride to the sewing co-op?
We left Gracias after breakfast (weather turned gorgeous) and decided to take a bit of a side trip to Campa which is about 16 km away.. but took about an hour to get there… Muchas “bechas” muchas pozos… potholes the size of craters with no warning .. about every 50 meters.. some as deep as 6″ with sharp, abrupt side walls. .. kind of like sink holes… several washes across the road.. a few questionable single lane bridges. But, countryside was beautiful.. rolling hills, very agricultural. We arrived in Campa and visited the little church and the Lenca ceramic collective and strolled the town. Most of the Lenca pottery is made in Campa, by just a few families.. They have a small museum in an old school house that explains the history of the craft. Again, Campa (tiny as it is — maybe a few hundred people, but a town complete with a Catholic church and a Jehovahs Witness meeting hall) seems to think it will start getting tourists so we noticed a lot of road repair in the town and signs about little hotels coming soon.
We made a few purchases which we now wonder how we will pack since they’re all breakable. We hoped to continue on to two smaller (??) towns called Alta Cruz and Tonolio (??) where they make handmade paper, but as we assessed timing and the distance we had to go to reach Copan Ruinas and our guess about road conditions, and we decided we needed to turn around and head to the “highway.” Good decision.. The return drive was about as long as the first. We stopped in Gracias (now that we know the town so well) for lunch … and then headed out to Copan. It was already 2:30 and the drive was to be about 2 hours +. Between many, many more “beches” (or “pozos”) and derombles and signs warning of falling rocks (they actually need a few more of those signs) and many, many, many tumulos (speed bumps).. the drive was a bit like sitting in a roller coaster..
Oh, we also got stopped by the police and military today several times. All along the way, there are little orange cones that appear at unexpected locations on the road and you slow down.. There are usually about 6 police and some soldiers standing around these cones.. In the past they have just waved us on.. or barely looked up from their cell phones. Today, for some reason, we were stopped about three times. Though we continued to say “No hablamos espanol…; hablamos espanol muy poquito” (which I think was a good thing), they pressed with questions.. mostly asking where we were from, where we were going.. One of the cops talked a lot. I’m pretty certain he wanted cash. But we continued to act totally naive.. Eventually he asked for our passports and then the car ownership info.. and then waved us on.. He shook our hands three times.. I think we were supposed to grease the palm. (Dumb Americans)
Most locals are moving around in open trucks packed with people in the back (we counted 15 in one little pickup truck) or buses that are totally packed and with some people riding on the roof, along with mattresses. Seems as if the buses double as delivery trucks, especially for mattresses, as we see this all the time.
We arrived around 5:30pm at Hacienda San Lucas.
Hacienda San Lucas has been described as the best place to stay in Copan, so I think we envisioned something like Las Cascadas in Ceiba. The NY Times wrote an article about it; the guidebooks rave. Well.. so far we’ve only really seen our room since I decided I wanted to completely unpack, and it was already nearly dark. This is our last stop and on Friday we need to be completely organized and packed to leave early Saturday morning for the airport to fly out late afternoon on Friday.
OK.. so here’s the scene… and I think it will all be much better in the morning when daylight comes.
The drive from the “main” road to here is completely dirt and rock. (We’ve been pleasantly surprised that our rather junky rental car — had we known the driving conditions, we would have gotten 4-wheel drive — has survived.. although seeing it is laughable.. completely covered in dirt.) The Hacienda is located about 8 km outside of town perched on a hillside. It has 8 rooms and is more than a century old, and has been in the same family the whole time. The setting seems delightful although it was already getting dark when we arrived, so we couldn’t see much.
Now.. here’s the interesting part.
Our room.. about 400 sq ft has wood shutters on all the windows (no glass.. only screens, so maybe not really windows).. a little back patio.. wood trusses. The walls are stone and adobe.
But.. here’s the kicker.. no real lighting.. so we have candles everywhere. No electricity in the bedroom area. One outlet in the bathroom (definitely no hair dryer here)…
Naturally, with all our gear to charge (iPhone, 2 Blackberries, 2 Lumix cameras, 2 Nikons, 2 computers, 2 iPods, and 1 Kindle).. we were a bit shocked. I had visions of sitting in the shower writing this email connected to the single outlet. We have 14 candles glowing in the bedroom now.. and the one light bulb in bathroom..
But.. to Mike’s chagrin, I asked if they had an extension cord (actually I asked for two) thinking I could connect to the bathroom outlet and then use the computer in the bedroom… We also asked for more candles.. that’s why we have 15.,. other rooms have only 8. Well, lo and behold, they came back with a wooden spool with about 100′ of electrical line and two outlets. It’s the kind of thing you see at construction sites.
So here we both sit… with two computers connected to this giant roll of wire (which is then connected to the bathroom outlet). It’s quite a scene.
But then the biggest pleasant surprise.. No problem connecting to AT&T!!! Actually there’s also a wireless here with a strong signal but not secure.. so we’ve opted for AT&T. Maybe I’ll be daring in a while and switch to the wireless (called Iguana).
We’re headed to dinner here at the Hacienda in a little while. Food is supposed to be excellent. Tomorrow we will explore the ruins and the town. Friday, our last real day, we may make some more little side trips, and on New Years Eve we go to a restaurant in town. I think Copan will be interesting, but I fear there will be a lot of tourists, which will be new for us. We really haven’t run into any Americans yet, and only a couple of tourists (Canadians, Germans, Swiss).. in 10 days.
More tomorrow (or if the meal is spectacular, perhaps a little food update tonight).
By the way, when I said I needed some light (I said I was a writer and needed to work — in Spanish) since so far no one here has spoken any English, although the manager has sent emails in totally perfect English.. Carlos, who carried our bags to the room, said it was very romantic this way with just the 8 candles.
Viva luz! y Gracias cuando hay carreteras buenas.
Hasta Luego.
Fern
HONDURAS 12/28/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 9
Los Dos Americanos en Honduras en Dia Nueve
De San Pedro Sula a Gracias
We left San Pedro Sula for Gracias this morning and traversed very rural roads and many small towns for about 4.5 hours, stopping for lunch in Santa Rosa de Copan.
And now we are in Gracias—a small town with a population of about 12,000 in the”urban center.” The town is in the mountains at the base of 25,000 with about half of these people living in the “urban center.” It’s known as the Lempira District.. and at the peak of Montana Celaque it’s about 2,800 feet. It was a two lane road all the way, although there are no lines at all to distinguish these lanes. Frankly, it really doesn’t matter whether there are demarcated lanes or not, since no one really adheres to them.. and over these four hours the most important thing was staying clear of the many many deep potholes, so you’re always swerving into the other lane to avoid the potholes.
I decided to “stroll” the town while Mike chose to relax after the drive (he was the primary driver). Everyone is really friendly; no one speaks any English (not even at the hotel); sidewalks are about two feet off the ground and very narrow, so walking is pretty exasperating. On the narrow “sidewalk” you’re constantly confronted with little outdoor stands extending from the shops, so it’s good exercise going up and down the two foot step..
Not much here in Gracias, although the town seems to think it’s a good tourist destination and several hotels are under construction. It is close to a very large national park, so adventure travelers might decide to use this as a jumping off point, and there are a lot of small colonial towns in the region, even one that was founded by Jews in the 1500s (whose name I do not know)! Tomorrow, en route to Copan, we’ll stop at Campa, which we hear is interesting (generally that means a parque central and a church.. maybe a market).
On my walk through Gracias, I bought a bunch of homemade jams (mango jalapeno, pear rum, and some others that are a bit unidentifiable and unlabeled but smelled great) in a tiny shop where the staff was unbelievably friendly and stuck with me as I asked many questions in my very bad Spanish and had to have them repeat the answers numerous times. Honduran Spanish is fast and clipped.. not as clear as Guatemalan Spanish (or so my feeble ear says).
The shopkeeper told me that a not-to-miss spot is the Agua Termales (hot springs). There are two: one is the municipal one; the other is private. She told me (and I think I understood correctly), that the municipal one is free, more fun, and very beautiful, but also very crowded; the other is very nice, “expensive” (which probably means about one US dollar), but also very safe. Unfortunately, all we can do is look, since we didn’t bring bathing suits.
I located what looks like a nice restaurant for tonight (we’ll see)…
Oh — In our little stop in Santa Rosa de Copan, we had lunch at a place called “Pizza Pizza”.. .where they had a real brick oven .. It was pretty good.
Dinner turned out to be good… a teeny tiny place and we were the only diners! And it turned out that a woman whom I photographed earlier in the day (with a baby — her granddaughter) was at the restaurant because it is her daughter’s place. Very small town. But dinner was good.. like having a home-cooked meal.
OK.. That’s it.. You’ll hear from me tomorrow from Copan Ruinas.
Fern
PS… Apparently the name Gracias is the town’s name because when the Spaniards arrived after being tired after having trekked through the mountains, they said something like “Gracias a Dios hemos llegado a tierra plana” (Thank God we arrived at flat land.)
HONDURAS 12/28/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 8
Americanos en Honduras Dia Ocho
San Pedro Sula –
Last night’s dinner turned out to be a fiasco. We taxied (after dark no one is on the streets, and taxi seemed way smarter than our car) to a restaurant we had read about in a guidebook and also on line. We made reservations. Got there around 8:30 and we were the only guests. We sat in the “non-smoking” section, although I doubt it would have mattered.
We were told it was a bit pricey for Honduras, but the books also raved about the food and service. Well… not for us. Other than a fairly decent flan for dessert the meal was really awful, and it was about double or triple what we’ve been paying for dinners. Service was fine, until the check came.
The waiter explained — as we looked shocked — that there were all sorts of “taxes” which seemed to pile up one on top of the other, including a liquor tax of 17% which somehow got applied to the whole tab. We were annoyed and felt really “taken,” but the issues were too complex for my vocabulary, except for me to be able to express outrage in Spanish. Then the waiter told us that the 10% tip that showed up clearly on the tab was for the chef, not for him, and so he requested a separate tip. To make things really annoying, when we took out a credit card, they professed that their machine doesn’t work and he needed cash. Not having enough lempiras, we rather sheepishly, paid in cash and left quite annoyed. When he called for the taxi, he told us it would cost $5 for the cab.. but it cost $3 coming to the restaurant. When we go in the taxi, we asked the driver the amount and he easily said the equivalent of $3! without any bargaining whatsoever.
So, should you find yourself in San Pedro Sula — avoid Chef Mariano and/or Restaurante Arte Mariano or Marino (it’s spelled differently in different books, but same address). OK.. enough complaining.
We began today in San Pedro Sula, by somehow missing the breakfast at the hotel (it ends before 9, and we really didn’t get to bed until about 1 am. So we meandered to Parque Central which is basically the center of San Pedro — which is close to the hotel (about 4 blocks away) and rather deserted. As we understand it, the core of San Pedro, the second largest city in Honduras and the industrial hub and transportation center… went the way of American cities, with sprawling suburbs for the middle class and wealthy and the abandonment of the core. So downtown is considered “dangerous” and doesn’t have much residential. On the whole the city is pretty dreary, but everyone has been friendly.
We found a little cafe and had liquados… and then walked to the bank for Mike to cash some travelers checks (big mistake to have brought them instead of cash, which I did) which requires a lot of paper work. We waited on several lines at the bank and eventually got cash.. The ATMs are pretty much all over, but Mike decided to rid himself of the checks. Like elsewhere, we passed through numerous armed guards, where the men are swiped with metal detectors (not women).
We then headed to Mercado Guamalito — a sprawling indoor market with hundreds of stalls selling everything from crafts to fruits and vegetable to spices to everyday necessities. We meandered for a few hours, taking it all in.. watching dozens of women at separate stalls make fresh tortillas, and just checking out the scene. In the center of the market is a “cafe” and along many of the edges are little cubicles with about four stools each where women serve specialty foods.
From there we headed to the archaeological museum, and then found our way to a little hole in the wall place for some almuerzo tipico (chicken fillet, rice, frijoles, and tortillas).. run by what looked like a Caribbean couple with a very cute kid (about 18 months) named Carlos.
Wherever you walk, you spot political graffiti (not quite rivaling the proliferation of Coca Cola messages) — mostly in support of the ousted president Zelaya (referred to as “Mel”)… He was first a conservative and then became a liberal (son of wealthy family involved in logging and timber) and forged an alliance with other Latin American countries, most notably Venezuela’s Chavez. In Parque Central there are many banners supporting equity and justice and a plaque dedicating the park to Zelaya who was ousted in a coup about 18 months ago. So now the country is run by the military. There seems to be a lot of difference of opinion as to how much Zelaya accomplished. He attempted to do major land reforms (in a country where about 90% of the land is owned by about 1% of the population and where unemployment is recorded at about 25% and poverty rate is more than 50%). Apparently he even wanted to reveal the salaries of the wealthy, etc.
Prior to the coup of 2009, Zelaya ran afoul of the press and some of his own supporters and attempted to extend his term of office, prior to a change to the constitution (or so I think)… Anyway, most of the graffiti is tied to support for the National Front for Popular Resistance (FRNP) which is a group farther left than Zelaya. We can’t get too much of a handle on the impact of the military power (other than seeing so many armed soldiers everywhere); in between Zelaya and the current regime there was an interim president, who I gather, was from the very wealthy class. His role was to hold things together for 6 months…
Under Zelaya, small farmers got government subsidies, interest rates were lowered, minimum wage was increased, schoosl served meals for children from poor families, free education was introduced, and free electricity was supplied to very poor Hondurans.
It’s difficult to get a read on what’s really going on, or on what role the US plays or Catholic church plays or has played. Our Spanish is not good enough for those coversations, and whatever small conversations we attempt on the topic don’t really go anywhere.. People are probably a bit nervous to enter these kind of discussions with foreigners and strangers.
Eventually we headed out to dinner.. to a steak restaurant. My stomach was a tiny bit queasy and the thought of the same Honduran food that we’ve had almost every day was more than I could bear. Steak was probably not the best remedy, but I’m feeling better so maybe it was just that I was tired.
Anyway, we leave San Pedro tomorrow.. head to Gracias for one night.. and then off to Copan for three nights and then head home.
More from Gracias.
OK.. This little addendum to today’s travelogue is mostly for foodies.. but perhaps everyone else will find some interest.
I had scoped out the town earlier today, and also read about a restaurant called Rinconcito Graciano. When I found it today, it was closed but the woman outside (with baby in tow) said it opened at 7. I said I’d be back around 8.
What I had read was that the owner and chef (Lizeth Perdomo) is involved in preservation — both of the town and of the traditions of Lenca cooking passed on by her grandmother and great grandmother (family recipes). When we arrived the door was locked but Lizeth (who turned out to be the woman I met in the afternoon) immediately came to the door, unlocked it, and let us in. It’s her house, and the front room (and also a tiny side yard) had been turned into the “restaurant.” You guess it– Mike and I were the only diners.. but what a treat. Lizeth (at least this is what I think, since the conversation was totally in Spanish) grows most of the food; she only uses natural ingredients grown locally. The little pillows on the chairs are stuffed coffee sacks; the menu is handwritten on recycled paper. Drinks (she didn’t have any wine or beer, although natural home made brews are on the menu; we could have walked around town to get some beer or wine and bring it in, but it seemed to complicated) are served in the scooped out shell of some kind of vegetable… and then sit on a little wooden disk for “stability.”
We started with a cucumber juice (naturally, I must have asked 10 times to confirm that she didn’t use any water in making the juice)… which was just cucumber and lemon.. It was sublime!.. We had ticucos (tamales made with loroco – a central American flower bud – and also beans and some other stuff; and chorocos (which seemed also like a tamale). Both were great.. Oh by the way, everything is served on lenca pottery (a dark brown heavy ceramic, somewhat crudely formed; she cooks with lenca pottery too)..
For the main course Mike had some vegetarian thing.. that seemed a bit like a cross between an omelet and a frittata.. but was neither, with herbs and vegetables. I had the beef. We shared a side dish of chayote.. And then we shared another different juice, whose origin we have no clue… but it was also wonderful. We ended with “chocolate” which was a hot chocolate but made with cacao, vanilla, cinnamon, and some other spices.. and didn’t really taste chocolate-y..
All in all, a fantastic meal. I just don’t quite know how Lizeth makes a go of this. So, should anyone be thinking about traveling to Gracias, Honduras… be sure to eat here. It’s totally unique… including us keeping an eye on her 16-month-old while she intermittently runs in and out of the “kitchen.”
By the way, (again if I got it straight)… Lizeth went to the University in Ceiba and studied marketing. She’s been written up in a lot in magazines, so maybe she’s got a marketing plan… but based on the sign-in book that she asked us to fill out, she hasn’t had too many customers. She said it was busy in the summer and that the restaurant is now 8 years old.
Speed is not a strong suit here in Gracias.. It took us more than two hours for the meal (and remember, we were the only diners). Lizeth’s garden is in the back of the house, and the kitchen looks like it’s still in the Lenca era… but somehow she does it. .. including making her own bread (whole wheat) and thicker-than-usual tortillas (both of which were wonderful).
Remember Rinconcito Graciano.
Fern's Travel Notes 