Yes, another trip.......

I know it may appear as if all we are doing these days is travelling, but I promise we are definitely still working hard here in Comayagua! (Harder than ever actually, trying to wrap things up before we leave in mid April.) The thing is we had a few vacation days left that peace corps was going to take away from us (no vacation allowed the last two months) and we can't be having that! A goal of ours was to see every country that borders Honduras, so we had just one country left.....El Salvador.

With limited time and budget, we kept this trip simple....just two destinations in the whole country.

First stop was the beach, a tiny little dot on the map called "Playa El Cuco:"



Its largely a surfing town, but with waves small this time of year and not much else to bring tourists around, it wasn't exactly a big destination on the gringo trail. We actually ended up staying right next to the only other gringos around. Here is a pic of our friendly neighbors at the place we stayed:

This guy Lloyd was BIG TIME into making this drum for his female companion, something he had recently learned how to do during a trip to Guinea in West Africa. He basically worked on it the entire time we were there....3 days. Here he is after attaching the goat hide:

Hmmm....

Here is where we stayed:

I was on the phone with my dad a few nights ago telling him about this trip. I was explaining that the room cost $15 night and he was amazed! Here is what we got for our $15 a night.

Shower facilities:

(Hard to get sand out of the swim suit.)

Luxury accommodations:

And beautiful sunrises/sunsets right out your front door:

Our other stop was to a town called Perquin, a former stronghold of the FMLN revolutionary army during the 80's and 90's. The main attraction was an interesting museum describing the salvadorian revolution from a very leftist point of view:

Unfortunately (but not entirely surprising) the exhibits were a bit hard to follow as they were disorganized and cluttered. We left the museum still confused as to what exactly happened, but the sentiment stuck with us and the pictures were very powerful.

This is probably hard to read, but here is a poster from the "solidarity" room filled with foreign country posters expressing support for the salvadorian's situation and denouncing U.S. foreign policy of aiding "contras" in Central America during that time period.

The secret radio headquarters of the FMLN's "Radio Venceremos" was located where the museum currently stands.

Sign says: "Hole from a Bomb of 500 lbs - made in the United States"

Interesting perspective on what happened there, isn't it?

Guate!

If anyone is interested, here are a few pics from our trip to Guatemala over Christmas.

Lago Atitlan:

Christmas dinner at our hotel on the lake:

A very full belly after christmas dinner:

Volcano hike (near Antigua):

No regulations on these sorts of things so the turistas just walked straight up the lava flow...

"LAVA!!!"

Antigua:

Market day in Chichicastenango:

My mom's visit

My mom came for one last visit before we are finished with our service here in just a few months. She decided that she hadn't gotten enough of Honduras last time during my family's visit last Christmas. Well, this time she definitely got a feel for it, Honduras "cooperated" you could say. Lights went out while cooking (with headlamp cooking ensuing), she stood in bus aisles when no seats were available, she got to experience the horribleness of when you already have motion sickness from the windy roads on the bus and you get a good whiff of someone's breakfast they have just vomited in the aisle next to you, she hitch hiked on a country road (that's right!) and even got to go to a friend's house and have them make a lunch for her, a meal of the 4 Honduran food groups - meat, coca cola, starch and more starch.

We picked her up from the airport on our way back to Comayagua from our vacation in Guatemala. (Pictures to follow on some later post.) The three of us hung out in Comayagua for a few days, and then to break up the exciting time that is hanging out at our house, we went to the lake (Lago de Yajoa) where we could do a few "touristy" things. This trip was where we took the majority of photos (or Javi took them, as you will see he isn't actually in any of them) so they form the story that follows.

Our first stop was the "fish shacks" that line the highway on a certain stretch beside the lake. (This was the leg of the trip where she stood on the bus because all seats were taken. She stood the whole way - 2 hours. At first she was laughing and telling stories, enjoying the adventure, and then motion sickness kicked in and she was glad to get off the bus when she did!)


She dug into that plate of fried fish and fried bananas (called tajadas). Yum! She even ate the cabbage and onion that are in those suspicious looking jars of colored liquids.

The next day we went on a bird tour with a British man living at the lake, eking out a humble existence doing what he loves best. He was an excellent guide! Here we are climbing into the row boat for our tour on the lake.

Our guide, Malcolm, was a very interesting character. He'd swing his binoculars around suddenly if another bird flew by and say all kinds of funny British sayings. He could rattle off tons of interesting things about the birds and lake.

After that, we dragged my mom down a hot and dusty road so she could see this:

(the famous waterfall!)

This was the only picture we took where she didn't look like she'd been hit by a truck from the heat and walking!

After the falls we were waiting on the side of the road for a ride...bus or whatever came our way, since transportation is spotty out there.

The first mode of transport willing to take us somewhere was a nice Honduran family. Javi waived them down and we climbed in the back. It was my mom's first time to hitchhike!

They took us to the nearest town where we caught a bus to get to the main highway. From there, we were lucky to get a passing bus to take us to Comayagua that had seats available. Mom never thought she'd be so grateful for a simple seat on a bus!

What a fun trip!