May 29, 2009
Howdy All,
Like the title so cleverly suggests, Nathan and I made a nice weekend trip to Honduras. Travling out-of-country wasn´t something that really occurred to me last summer, but since we are so close it was like why not?
So! First we went up to Ocotal - where we always use the internet – and then from there went to la frontera, or the border, which is called Las Manos. Nathan went over this part in pretty good detail in his blog, so the only thing I´ll say is that it was a hassle and somewhat confusing. I think the strangest part was simply that we were going into unfamiliar territory and just had no idea what to do.
From Las Manos we hopped on a direct bus to Tegucigalpa. Now, when I say ¨direct¨, I mean that the bus may stop for half-an-hour here or there somewhat on the way to it´s destination. This is pretty different from the ¨express¨ buses in Nicaragua, which are more or less actually express. On this route, I was planning to sleep (we had woken up quite early and traveled a good distance), but I was not able to because the scenery was so striking. It is a good deal different than Nicaragua. I can´t believe I´m saying this, but it actually reminded me of Switzerland (for those who don´t know, I did a cycling through the Alps trip several years ago). It was mountainous and green, but not exactly jungl-y. The south was a pine-tree region, whereas north of the capital city was a bit more lush.
Tegicugalpa. Definitely a large, central american city which encompasses everything that a central american city by definition encompasses. It was large, full of traffic, dirty and free-spirited. It was also a lot larger, cleaner and mour mountainous than Managua in Nicaragua though. I actually liked Tegucigalpa a good bit, it´s certainly very interesting. It is also more Americanized such that it had Pizza Hut, Burger King, Dunkin´ Donuts, and so on.
From there we took a bus to Comayagua, which is about 2 hours north of Tegucigalpa. Comayagua is an old Spanish Colonial town that used to be the capital of Honduras. The conservatives wanted Comayagua as the capital, while the liberals wanted Tegucigalpa, so they switched back and forth for a while. In the end they stuck with Teguc. However, Comayagua is gorgeous, and I was shocked that there were not more tourist. We couldn´t even find a hostel to stay in, so we stayed in a hotel (which was still relatively inexpensive, yet really nice. We had A/C!). We spent the days touring around, treating ourselves to some Honduran and American food, and then tried a few bars in the evenings. The atmosphere was definitely friendly and tropical, as all the bars were essentially open-aired.
There is a US military base close to Comayagua, so up to 500 US military personnel take to Comayagua in the weekends and evenings, so we crossed paths with a few. We also talked to a few other tourists in town, one of whom was biking down from Mexico to Panama. He expects to stop by the Solar Center in a few days time, so we shall see each other again! Small world.
Early Monday morning we made the trek back to Nicaragua. The bus ride from Comayagua was… fun. We had a driver who seemed like he had just taken 14 energy shots. He layed on the horn and yelled at passerbys at the top of his voice, in a genial way. It was like experiencing the game Crazy Taxi in real life.
On the way back we met yet another adventurer, Katherine from Canada. She had just graduated and was backpacking by herself. She was grateful she had us to get her through the complexity and strangeness of the border. The Solar Center is on a main road, so we get a lot of travelers there as well. David always gets emails from people asking if they can stay at his place. Just the other week we met a Swiss man who biked up from Buenos Aires, Argentian, South America. It took him two-and-a-half years to get here, and he casually explained that he was working his way up to Alaska, and ¨then I might go into Asia and down into Oceania.¨ Wow! My first thought is: where do you get the time and money to do this?? It was inspiring because I want to do bike trips, althought they probably would not be nearly that long haha.
This past week has been a successful work week at the Solar Center. I have achieved the temperatures I need for the autoclave on more than one occassion, which is great news. I am now testing the complete system, with water and pressure.
Wednesday was the mother´s day fiesta, which I remembered from last year as being a lot of fun. All the children prepared dances, skits and games to put on for their mothers in the solar center. Afterwards there was food and dancing, which was a lot of fun.
Now it is Friday and we are in Ocotal for a work fair. Basically, the Solar Center workers are here marketing their products, such as the panels and solar box cookers. Maybe next year we will be ready to market the solar autoclave here as well!
That being said, I am off to the fair. I have no idea what is going on this weekend, but I´m sure it will be something great. Until next time!
-Daniel
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I so enjoy your updates and i”m envious of your travels and experiences. We look forward to each and every update.
14 energy shots.. haha! Good description!