Roadtrippin' Honduras

I was going to title this entry My First Hot Shower, but as you can see it’s not. Once again, my hopes for a hot shower were in vain, but this isn’t just a tale about dashed dreams for warm water, nor is it about anything particularly spectacular. It’s just another day in Honduras filled with memorable moments. However, this tale happens to hold a few more of those moments than others. Allow me to recount to you the story...

The first sign it was going to be a long day was when I received a wakeup call at 6:30 am asking where I was…

Wait, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. First of all, the Gold Cup for soccer is happening right now (mostly in Houston, I believe). The U.S.A. lost to Panama a couple weeks ago, but had another chance Wednesday night in the semi-finals to play them again. With about 15 minutes left on the clock, the U.S. team scored the first and only goal with an assist from Donovan, one of our well-known World Cup players. Final score: USA – 1; Panama – 0. The U.S.A. team will move on to the finals against Mexico this Saturday. Unfortunately, Honduras lost to Mexico in overtime during the following game, which means it’s going to be hard to find a crowd to watch the U.S. v. Mexico game with me.

So, while watching this game with my coworkers, we were discussing our travel plans for the following day. We were headed out to investigate some coffee processing plants in the department of Comayagua. Now, it’s not exactly close, but we were planning a day trip. We weren’t sure if we were going to go by bus or car; and if by car, which car. I left after the first game to head to another friend’s house and they said they would message me with the details so I would know when to wake up. This leads me to my wakeup call where I left off.

You know when someone calls you and wakes you up and you try to sound like you’ve been awake all morning and you’re trying to pretend like you know what’s going on? Yeah, it’s like that – in Spanish. I run in to take a quick shower. Of course, there’s no water, but luckily I remembered to fill the bucket last time. So I take my quick bucket bath (I don’t think anyone takes particularly long bucket baths, so it seems redundant to say quick, but nonetheless), I throw on some clothes and rush out the door to meet my counterpart at the cooperative. We get into the farm truck and head for San Pedro Sula to meet up with our guide to the fincas. How to describe the truck… well, it’s great if you want to drive 10 mph to your farm that’s 20 minutes away and it’s a dirt road with lots of pot holes and no traffic. However, if you want to drive to Honduras’ economic capital and biggest city, you’re probably better off taking something more suitable for traffic and parallel parking. It’s a rather large vehicle, there’s two-and-a-half seats for three grown men, the windows don’t roll up, 5^th gear doesn’t work, the engine doesn’t heat up and the brakes overheat. Plus, there’s no emergency brake, and did I mention it’s a manual? Onward and upward! Note to self: need to give a charla on investment, maintenance, and depreciation of assets.

Long story shorter, we get to San Pedro and meet up with a guy from the coffee machine fabrication center. He’s going to take us (in his much newer SUV w/ AC) to look at some coffee processing equipment they’ve installed so we can see the machines in action. We just bought one of these machines for the cooperative and it’s in the process of being installed along with a solar-powered (solar panel) coffee dryer, the first of its kind in Honduras! We’re just one step away from having the machine that turns coffee directly into 500-Lempira bills. But I think we’re close. I’ll try to get an entry up that explains the entire coffee process for those of you who are interested. You’ve heard coffee companies saying “from the tree to the cup”? I’ll even tell you how it gets on the tree!

So now we’re five grown men in four-and-a-half seats, but we have AC, and our driver is now a guy from the city who knows how to use 5^th gear. (I can now check off my list driving over 100mph in Honduras). We head out to the biggest lake in Honduras, Lago de Yojoa (no translation), which lies at the intersection between 3 departments: Cortés, Comayagua, and Santa Barbara. Lots of driving is involved, and now we’re mostly navigating mountainous dirt roads through beautiful coffee fincas and forest. We drove through the protected area around the lake and the road ended right at the water. And on the other side, you can see the road continuing. Fortunately, there were ferries waiting to take us across. We took ‘Miss Pamela’ for a 15-minute ride to the other side where we continued our driving, but not before snapping some gorgeous shots of the lake. And honestly, after zipping through traffic on the freeway, driving across the lake on a ferry, and climbing these pot-hole-filled dirt road switchbacks, I feel like I was in an SUV commercial.

We drive around to look at roughly the same machine at three or four different fincas, and all the coffee farmers seem to love their investment. It does what it’s supposed to do and it does it well. So we’re feeling good about our recent investment, and the guy were with from the fabrication plant is a standup guy who really knows these farmers and knows the other kinds of equipment people are trying to sell them. Some of the companies are from Costa Rica or Colombia, or wherever. And what makes this an even better investment for the cooperative is that these guys are in Honduras, so not only is the assistance always there for us, but we’ve also made an investment in the Honduran economy.

OK, this basically takes all day and it’s raining and dark by the time we start our 3-hour trip back to San Pedro Sula. I didn’t mention all the bouncing that took place in the mountain due to the pot-holes, fallen tree limbs, and whatever else was lying in the middle of the road because it seems normal now, but there was a particular bounce that really slammed the chassis down. It left a slight dent in the tire at the time, which turned out to be a fatal event for that tire. We lost said tire about 8:00 pm on the side of the highway. Luckily nothing terrible happened, it just went flat and we pulled over. And now I can check off changing a flat tire at night on the side of the highway in the middle of Honduras… in the rain.

We get back to San Pedro safe and sound and at the last minute decide we’re too tired to make the other 3-hour drive back to Subirana, so we stay the night in a hotel. This is where I was lured in to thinking I would get my first hot shower here. I went straight to bed dreaming about what that shower would feel like in the morning. One of the other guys got up before me and took the first shower – a good 20 minutes. I was in the bathroom as soon as he got out and went for the shower. There were 2 handles, this was a good sign; one for hot, one for cold. I turned the hot-looking handle and water came out. Hmm… it’s not that hot, room temperature at best. Maybe they mixed ‘em up. I try the other. OK, that water is definitely colder. I cranked the other one back on and was just thankful for the nice pressure I had. I thought about asking the other guy if he had hot water for his shower, but then decided I didn’t really want to know. Breakfast and several hours later, I finally made it back home and now I’m taking the rest of the day sitting on a comfortable bed, not sharing with anyone, and it’s not being driven up a pot-hole-ridden incline!

And in other news, I’ll be starting the World Map project soon with the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th graders; a 3m x 6m mural on the front of the elementary school. Should be great.

Meanwhile, I hope you all enjoy the pictures. And don’t forget, I always love hearing from you through comments, emails, letters, packages, whatever. Enjoy your paved roads, and be sure to check your tires.