Trek to Teguc

I went and picked up my internet modem last week and so now I have the internet consistently and  I felt you deserved rapid fire blogs this week.

Last week I was released into the wild, and allowed to travel to Tegucigalpa for the first time since arriving in my site because of a meeting at the office. I first had to take a 6am bus for 10 hours to get back to the capital. This was not as awful as it might sound because after my first 5 hours I met up with my friend and fellow H16er Kyla. The next 5 hours passed much quicker because I actually had someone to talk to, it was great to catch up on everything that has happened in her site.

Since we both live so far away we came in the day before and had a free night. We decided to try and find the cultural hotspots in Tegucigalpa- quite the challenge. For dinner we found a great café called Café Paradiso that was only about a 10 minute walk from the office. There was this great beatnik feel when you walked in. With eccentrically painted walls, bistro tables, jazz music, and portraits of literary masterminds- I felt like I was in some small European town. We ate their version of baguettes with cheese and some sort of cake (we never could quite figure out the flavor). Full of conversation and non-tortilla carbs we turned in for a very early night... I am talking 8:30pm.

On the day of the meeting we had the morning to explore, so we set off to unknown destinations. I felt that the mall would have been a great place to walk around and get some creature comforts from home. But Kyla was a bit more motivated and convinced me to do a bit of wandering in our host country's capital. At first I was a little nervous about just walking wherever in a city our Security Officer had just spent 3 months scaring us about, but she is a very convincing lady. 

We walked towards the city center and stumbled upon a great bookstore. At first we thought that it was a Catholic store but soon found books on evolution, philosophy, poetry, and art. I have been in search of a map of Honduras and was able to find a great detailed map at this gem of a bookstore. After my purchase we decided to walk towards the peach colored church spires we saw in the distance.  We found St. Michael Archangel, a gorgeous and well kept colonial church right near the central square. Our time inside was spent sitting in the pews, looking at the alters and paintings. 

Down in this part of town there are beautiful old buildings that house parliament and the Art Museum.  Kyla and I were super excited about the latter and had to go inside. We paid the L. 30 entrance fee (equivalent to about $1.66) to experience the Honduran artistic voice. The museum held about 10 rooms, filled with modern paintings, sculptures, and artifacts. It took about 45 minutes to tour the whole museum and a definite must see in the city.

As our afternoon was winding down the Brazil v. North Korea game was about to start, so we were searching for a comfortable place to watch. As we got closer and closer to the PC office we spotted a lujo (luxurious) hotel and thought that their bar would definitely be playing the game. After sitting in leather lounge chairs for a few hours and watching Brazil’s first World Cup win, we set off for the meeting.

The meeting was uneventful but interesting to get insight into other project groups current dilemmas. It also let us meet up with experienced Teguc travelers and make plans for our evening. Kyla and I were both craving anything but frijoles and queso, and made sure to find volunteers going to an exotic restaurant. Kat and Liz fit the bill with their plans to go to sushi (!!!). I know what you are thinking- sushi in Central America??- but it was actually a very delicious un-Honduran dinner. I was in heaven sipping saki, eating some tuna and having great conversation. We had a few more drinks and a late night baleada mission, and finally went back to our hotel.

The next morning Kyla, Kat, and I woke up at 5am to watch Honduras play in their first game and to pack for the trip home. At 7:40am we made it to our bus station for our 8am bus, but stilled needed to procure some baleadas for breakfast. We checked in with our bus driver and went with the attendant to buy food a half block away. Feeling very content about getting food before our bus ride, we started walking back to the bus stop. As I was looking up the street I realized there was no longer a bus parked there, but it was driving up the hill and away from us. We immediately set-off running to try and get onto our bus (which had left 15 minutes early) but couldn’t catch it. So we jumped in a cab, with the attendant still with us, and told the driver to catch up to the bus. Because of traffic, construction, and awful Honduran driving we were pushed further and further away from our ride home. At this point I am trying to stay calm, Kyla is nervously laughing, and Kat is more than a little upset with the attendant who is no help. Kat called every office she could trying to get a hold of the driver, but no one seemed to care that we are not on the bus. About 15 minutes outside of Teguc we were 3 cars back from the bus, waving our arms and honking to get the bus to pull over, but were invisible to the driver. Eventually other drivers help us to pull the bus over. We ran up to the bus and finally got on.  Just then the bus the driver turns and says, “So you got your baleadas?” I almost lost it.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful but ended up taking 12 hours. The only good thing about that final ordeal is that it left me pretty content to stay in and/or close to my site for the time being.