Honduras has been wonderful. it is different from El Salvador - no volcanos, so the architecture in the towns is older because they have not been destroyed by eruptions. There are some problems with earthquakes, and Hurricane Mitch did a tremendous amount of damage in the late ninties and a lot of people got killed. It is very rural, and there is a lot of agriculture which has led to a lot of deforestation. In fact, El Salvador is the only country in Central American that plants more trees than they cut down. But they do have awesome jungles here - we will be spending three days at a jungle lodge in about a week or so.
We also went to the Mayan ruins at Copan, which is close to the border with Guatemala. The ruins are not the tall, imposing structures one sees at Chichen Itza or Palenque in Mexico, but the quality of the carvings are superb. Here is an example.
There were many of these all over the grounds. The detail is phenominal. We have been to so many of these ruins that we are starting to recognize the different deities, even though they are a little different at every site. Tlaloc is the rain god, and he always has big teeth. He is our favorite - we always offer up a thought or two for more rain. (Rain cools things down considerably, and for a small but wonderful amount of time after the rain, the humidity is down as well.)
Honduras, being on the Caribbean instead of the Pacific ocean, is more humid than where we are living in El Salvador. And the water is so warm and nice! We took a tour of a national park here yesterday, and got to swim and snorkle in the warm water. Because it had rained recently and we were near an estuary, the visbility was not great. but it was great anyway.
Our driver, however, needs practice swimming! When Mike and I jumped off the boat (we brought Ernesto on many of our tours and stuff) Ernesto followed along. He immediately started a strong, fast crawl and was very soon exausted. Mike and I had to pretty much babysit him all the way to the shore.
Having a driver has its ups and downs. We have spent way too much money on him, mostly because we are weak and unable to draw proper boundaries. I am going to have to learn that there needs to be a distance between service providers and us - I know this sounds terrible and snobbish, but without strict boundaries, things get too blurry. He was beginning to act as though this was a vacation for the three of us, rather than him being our driver, for which he is getting paid quite well. But because we like him, well, it is hard at times. While we are certanily not rich by US standards, we are rich by Central American standards and even by cruising standards, since many people are living off a kitty and periodically return to the US to work and rebuild the kitty. We have an income stream that is more than adequate for this part of the world - we can pretty much afford the best of everything. That sort of makes people think they can take advantage of that, knowing that we can technically afford to do what it is that they want us to do. I am not used to that - not used to being thought of as a cash cow. I don't really like that and am not comfortable with it. I don't want to have to think about whether people actually like me or are just interested in the money they think I have. Mike is the king of the tippers, so that doesn't help us keep a low profile. But so be it. This is something new and I will learn how to handle it. I never thought that actually having money could be as big a hassle as not having it - but as the saying goes, I have been rich and I have been poor and rich is better. I have no idea who said that - maybe Groucho Marx.
Anyway, the national park was also amazing. We saw howler monkeys in the wild. I have never seen monkeys outside of zoos. These guys are bigger than I thought they would be, and the howling noise they make is pretty intimidating. The tourists were urged not to smile at them, because when you smile you show your teeth, and showing your teeth is what monkeys do with each other when they are getting ready to fight.
Honduras has more different ethnicities that I have seen in El Salvador. There is a group of people known as Garifunas, who are descended from African slaves and Arawak Indians. These people escaped from slave ships and settled here in Honduras and Belize. They have their own music and dances and customs. The mixture of European, Garifuna, Indian, and Mestizo makes for really attractive looking people. Hondurans are a bit more reserved (except for the Garifuna who are quite outgoing) than Salvadorans, but once they warm up, they are wonderful people who are interested in everything we have to say. I have used my Spanish with excellent results. They really like it when I speak Spanish, and have paid me many compliments on how well and clearly I speak Spanish. Mike is getting better too - he does not speak much but his comprehension is soaring the longer we are here. In fact, he is better than I am at understanding when people are giving us directions. Which makes sense because navigation in all its forms is one of his strengths.
The big cities here in Central America are (so far) noisy and crowded with blaring traffic and loud music. They can be dirty and smelly at times, with wires crisscrossing the streets from power pole to power pole. The curbs are high, there are lots of holes to avoid stepping in, and hawkers are calling for you to buy everything from live chickens to strange herbs to clothing and watches. You can find a kiosk doing almost anything. A friend got his watch fixed while he waited. I found towels for a fraction of the price Wal-Mart wanted. There are food stands cooking up everything you could want to eat. I immediately forgot the warnings not to eat from the street vendors way back in Mexico and have not been sick yet. You can buy sliced mango and pineapple in a bag, tamales, sliced cucumbers with chili powder, roasted corn on the cob, and on and on. I love it, even with the noise and the confusion. Like El Salvador, there is a heavy secuirty presence here, with armed guards everywhere and all the buildings protected by concertina wire over cement fences. But I am getting used to that, and those armed guards are good sources of directions. We aren't stupid though - I keep a close grip on my purse, and we don't wander around at night at all, choosing cabs if we want to go somewhere.
They do have all the American fast food places - McDonalds, Wendys, KFC, and Burger King leading the charge. The food is the same except they have local foods too, like fried plantains and refried red beans. We were surprized, however, to find Popeye's Chicken here in Honduras. of all things! But fried chicken is big here - there is a chain we have seen everywhere called Pollo Campero. I have tried it and it is pretty good. But then I love chicken. I had chicken last night with a crreamy garlic sauce that was to die for.
Here are a few more pictures of what we have been seeing on this trip. This is a tunnel in the ruins at Copan that had bats in it. You can see them if you look closely.
Here are some of the ruins that have been only partially excavated. Depending on the materials, letting the air get to the ruins could damage them.
Actually, I just discovered the internet is starting to act up, so I will end this now. Tomorrw we leave for Roatan and seven days of scuba diving. So we are seeing the above ground jungles and will see the underwater ones as well. I love it here.
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” (Lao Tzu)
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