Honduras - Day 8

Thanks to Linshuang for blogging for me when I was incapable of it. We've had a good time at our bench, chatting and getting to know each other. Sort of our physical common ground.

My stomach is much better today. Still hurts a bit, but no bad BM or really bad nausea. If the nausea was a result of the antibiotics, I'm not really feeling it anymore.

I didn't get much sleep last night. There was a dog outside in tremendous pain. It kept wailing and crying all night long. It woke me up on four seperate occasions. At first, I felt bad for it. But after awhile, I just wanted it to die so I could sleep.

Breakfast was simple, one pancake with nothing on it, toast, and hot water. The hurting man's diet. It's a good day. Feeling sort of refreshed, the stomach's keeping the food down, and we're headed off to Copan to see the Mayan temple. I'm not looking forward to the five hour drive, but I have my trusty iPod with me, which should make it bearable.

We all piled in to this rickety van that we were using to be shuttled to the schools everyday. It wasn't too bad because we weren't packed to capacity. Linshuang left me stranded in the middle seat to sit up front with the driver. With no real companion, I had no choice but to turn to my iPod. It was good, it gave me a chance to catch up on some trance that I had downloaded.

The drive was beautiful. I kept on trying to take pictures of the rolling hills and mountains, but trees kept on getting in the way. I eventually got a pretty good shot of the hills with a nice lake in front of it. Most of the other shots weren't worth keeping.

Two hours into our trip, we stopped for lunch. Since we had been driving with 260 AC, as Jimmy would call it, we hadn't really noticed that the temperature had changed so dramatically. Sequadepeque is really mild and temperate, not too hot nor humid. Up here, it was the complete opposite. Just standing outside for a few minutes and I had begun sweating.

We packed lunchmeats for the ride because there weren't a lot of good places to stop and eat. I wasn't sure if it would be good on my stomach, considering the oils from the ham and all, but I ended up eating two sandwiches. Not raelly eating for a day makes one mighty hungry.

One of the things that we had noticed on the way up was the mass assortment of shanty houses and street vendors. Small farmers with fruits ready to sell to any trucker or driver by. There were also a few kids that were sent out to sell tortillas and other goods. There was one stand in particular that was different than all the others. It was a small bundle of fish, just kind of hanging there. Of course, I had to take a picture.

There was also a lot of construction on the way up that slowed down the drive. The construction workers would wait for a whole mess of cars to pile up before letting any one of them by.

We continued on after lunch and entered a fairly large city. I would say it's probably half the size of Tegucigalpa. Not very interesting, but it was surprising how suddenly it appeared out of the lush landscape.

It wasn't long until we were back in the mountains winding our way to our destination. Along the way, we hit at least two rain systems. It's intersting how the rain just kind of wanders across the country. This is supposed to be the dry season and it's rained at least everyday.

On the way up, we passed a place called "Formosa". I know of two Formosas. The island of Taiwan and the company started and named after it. I knew my dad had come out to Honduras ages ago. Whether it was part of his stint at Formosa or before, I didn't know. It's something I'm going to have to ask him when I get to heaven. Either that or ask my mom when I get home.

Finally, we arrived in Copan, just as well too because my iPod batts were running on empty. This is a beautiful little town. The kind of place that you see in movies and that is advertised to tourists. It's obviously a tourist trap because of all the various venders selling pretty much the same shoddy wears trying to pass them off as authentic. The few things that really caught my eye, rather, my nose, was the smell of burning flesh. These two old ladies had stations of meat on a stick. Most likely chicken or pork or other various meat products. This is the kind of stuff that I love. Local authentic fair.

We arrived at our Bed & Breakfast after a harrowing ride over steep cobblestone hills. Just seeing the sign and the cast iron gate wrapped by adobe was breathtaking. There were these lush bushes of red flowers hanging over the wall that just made the place so inviting. The view from the street was spectacular and Linshuang and I just started snapping away like turtles.

The B&B was just as nice as the exterior had indicated. Everything was impecably clean, very different from all the other places we had been. It was very quaint and almost stereotypically mexican. Again, the type of thing you see in movies and paintings. The location is just breathtaking. When you come out of the room, you overlook the countryside and its rolling hills. You see vast fields of open tracks of land and you're just amazed by the sure beauty of it.

The place itself is a wonder too. Everything's so quiet and inviting. There's a hamoch out in front of every room that you can just kind of lounge around in and do nothing. There's small tables and chairs that you can sit and have coffee or tea or maybe a margarita. It's no wonder considering this place is called "Casa de Cafe" or the House of Coffee. There's a small sheet in the room that advertises this place as having the best and cheapest coffee in town. Something I definately can't miss.

Just taking in the surroundings, I knew that I could stay here for a whole week. I already knew what my plan would be too. To just sit back and do nothing. That sounds like paradise. I'm definately going to come back here sometime and just enjoy being.

We weren't at the B&B for long before we were all eager to hit the streets and take in all that the city had to offer. Not two blocks from the B&B was an internet cafe. Down another block was an internet cafe and laundry. Out by the town square there was an internet cafe and market. Now this was living.

The thing that struck us immediately was how touristy this place was. The venders on the street to the venders in the stores, all schlocking the same crappy wares. But we were already trapped. We were inthralled by the beauty of the land and the quiet pace of the city. People aren't rushing around needing to be places. People are just enjoying themselves and life. Everything is just so well kept. If you didn't know better, you would think you were in a reproduction somewhere in the states.

Everywhere I walk, I see hamochs and hamoch chairs. I'm so tempted to buy one, but I know that there would be no real way for me to get it home. The hamoch would easily take up my whole luggage.

Looking at the other wares, none of it really inspires me to drop down coin for it. If I'm here and I'm going to spend money, I want to purchase something authentic. Everything had either velcro, zippers, or some sort of lining attached to it. All telltale signs that it was either manufactured in China or some other factory. What I'm looking for is something off the street. I want to buy and authentic sombrero from some guy. I want to buy a guy's poncho or murse right off his shoulders. I want something made in the back of someone's house with blood and sweat over them.

In one of the shops, Linshuang and I were eyeing the cigars. We wanted something authentic and what more so than hand rolled Honduran cigars? We also ventured in to a liquor shop and I eyed the various bottles of wine and hard liquer. If we weren't on missions, which prohibits drinking of this sort, I would have been more than glad to pick up a bottle and just enjoy.

The town square is just beautiful. It's impecably mancured and kept clean. I imagine during the day people just kind of hang out here and do nothing. I imagine people napping or laughing or meeting old friends.

It was getting late, so we ventured out to feed ourselves. The innkeeper (I can't get used to saying that, makes me feel so LOTR) suggested a place. Not to disregard our host, we gave it a shot. Initially, we were all shocked by how much the food cost. We were so used to dining for 1$-2$ USD a meal that 5$ USD seams outrageous. Granted, It's still comparable to US prices, but still, it was more than we were used to.

The first things that popped out at me were Guacomole and seafood. The town that we were in has a fish hatchery nearby that offers fresh servings of talapia. Unfortunately, the entree was fried and both Linshuang and I were on our hurting man's diet. We decided to go for the shrimp pasta. Even though it was offered in two different varieties, white and red, both were creamy. The shrimp were small, but very tasty.

Joy was kind enough to offer her fishhead to us for consumption. Linshuang had never had fisheyes before, so I thought that this was a good opportunity for her to fenture forth. A little disgusted by the extraction of the eye, she was good to her word and sucked on that eye.

It wasn't until I got back to the B&B that my stomach started bothering me. I don't know if it was from the fried foods that I had, but it wasn't terrribly painful. Tomorrow, more fish. Very tasty.

I am loving it out here. As nice as Sequadepeque was, this is just gorgeous.

So afterwards, we sat out by the lawn under the overhang and had some cigars. Some trusty handrolled in Honduras cigars. It was actually quite pleasant. Not something I would want to do all the time, but every once in awhile would be nice.

I guess this is more of our vacation time than missions time, so no prayer requests tonight.