A Day in the Mountains

I had planned to put up an interesting post about Honduran economics and exchange rates; however, I had such an adventure yesterday I couldn’t resist sharing with you all.

7:15  Get up as usual, get ready, and eat breakfast – hot milk with stale cornflakes.

8:15  Arrive at the cooperative. I’m told there’s a meeting today at 9:00 with some of the organizations that support us and I’ll be the one giving the presentation.

10:00  Meeting starts: introductions, prayer, and presentation.

11:45  We jump into trucks to visit the beneficio (processing plant) where we’ll be installing the solar panels.

12:40  We arrive back at the cooperative and the visitors take off. We realize that our 12:00 meeting with the socios (cooperative’s members) in the mountains will be delayed (on time?). The president suggests we just go and grab some avocados for lunch on the way.

12:43  Truck pulls up to the cooperative. It’s some of our financiers for an unscheduled meeting and they want to visit the beneficio, too!

12:45  I sneak home to eat lunch

1:45  Jump into the back of a truck for our trip to visit the socios.

2:15  Arrive in Buena Vista (tiny town in the mountains). The president tells me there are only a few people at this meeting and I should head with the rest of the group to the next town, Bella Vista (different tiny town in the mountains). “¡Está cerquita!” “It’s close!” Never believe a campesino(farmer) when they tell you something is close. I think the definition is if they’ve been able to walk there in a day, it’s considered ‘close’. And nothing is close when you’re on a spine-wrenching uphill-downhill ride through the worst dirt roads imaginable in the back of a truck with no shocks.

3:00  Arrive in Bella Vista

3:01  Starts raining.

3:02  Full-on rainstorm, presumably washing away at least half of the road we came in on.

3:05  We start our meeting at near-yelling volume to overpower the sound of the rainstorm on the tin roof.  The meeting is to remind the socios of their responsibilities in maintaining our certifications and to obtain information about each of their fincas (farms). The rain lets up and starts again a few times during our meeting.

5:30  We finish the meeting and rush out to leave before the rain starts again.

5:35  Truck doesn’t start. I offer to give it a try. The main problem isn’t so much that the truck won’t start, but that the key won’t turn. I attempt to straighten the key slightly and give it another go, using increasingly more leverage.

5:36  Key breaks off in the ignition. Blank stares are exchanged.

5:38  Everyone climbs out of the truck and we start walking towards the entrance to the town to find a jalón (ride).

5:50  We hop into the back of another truck, which actually has some shocks, and head back to Subirana.

6:35  Arrive in Buena Vista to pick up the rest of our team. We, in good humor, recount the tale of me breaking the key in the ignition to explain why we’re in a different truck. The president then tells me the key I broke was for the gas tank, and we should have used the other key on the keyring! Whatever, I just want to go home!

7:05  We arrive in Subirana. Thank God it hadn’t rained since we left!

7:30  I get back to the house wet, sore, and tired.

8:00  Eat dinner and head to bed.

Plenty of jokes were made about me breaking the key. I just told them it was too boring otherwise and that I wanted a little more adventure, so I broke the key off in the ignition. My other workmate acknowledged this, and said that’s why he gave me the chance to break it. This all took place with 9 of us in the back of a truck, on a dirt road, in the dark. We were all kind of afraid we might have to stay the night in the mountains, so we were relieved to be returning to our beds. It’s amazing the things that don’t matter when you’re tired. As long as you know your bed is waiting, you can just relax and have fun!

And I still have the broken key to remember it all...