Tegucigalpa, Honduras

More than just a mouthful to say Tegucigalpa, or Teguc for short, is hard to chew all around. It certainly isn't he prettiest city, but it is the capitol and an interesting place in it's own way. Geographically it is set in the middle of the country and surrounded by a ring of mountains. Sounds pretty until you are on the Teguc side of the mountains where dilapidated shacks are running up the slopes and the streets are littered with trash.

On this trip I spent plenty of time coming into and out of Teguc to get around the country and to take care of errands. I didn't do anything touristy in Tuguc to give it much gloss, after spending two years living not that far away I had already seen plenty. For that matter there unfortunately won't be much about Honduras since I have seen most of it already. It's a shame really, since the best parts of Honduras are hard to get to and usually skipped by most tourists. Anyway, the part of Teguc that I did capture is the gritty everyday side of the city. I had come in and out a lot so there is no logical chronology to the photos, just a random collection.






























Bananas for sale

Rainy Roatan

From Talanga I went to the Bay Islands of Honduras for almost a week. To get there I made it to Tegucigalpa, then traveled 6 hours north to city of La Ceiba on the Carribean coast of Honduras. From La Ceiba I took a boat to Roatan which has both good beaches and scuba diving. The trip was somewhat of a bust considering it was costly, raining almost everyday, and I was sick most of my time there.

The highlight of the trip was the scuba diving. The Bay Islands offer some of cheapest diving in the world, and it is beautiful. The rain cut down on the visibility, but it was still gorgeous. I took some pictures with a disposable underwater camera, but not enough to justify developing the roll, so they won't be on the blog for awhile. I expected to dive more than I did, but the constant rain and sickness got in the way of that.

I stayed at West End in Roatan, which is usually a fun place – I had been there a couple of times when I lived in Honduras. This time the place was pretty dead since it was their low season. I was hoping for a different experience on Roatan, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I had to laugh when I woke up on my last morning on the island and the was the sunniest day of my trip. The only photos I took of Roatan were when I was leaving with my back on, Ha. Next time.




























Kobs ice cream sign

The Talanga Countryside

One afternoon in Talanga I met up with Don Muncho who runs the cooperative (local credit union) in Talanga. He invited me out to the countryside to see his property with two boys that were helping him to plant different crops and take care of the property. It was a fun trip in the rain down a dirt road that lead to a couple of small communities around Talanga and finally to his place. Along the way we passed a rural soccer game a local school. Hondurans don't tend to get excited about a whole lot, but soccer is an exception. In this small town they were playing on a soaked field in the rain with official jersies and even an announcer with a large sound system. There was a good turnout despite the miserable weather.

After a short stop to check out the rain we made it the rest of the way to the property. By this point the rain was really coming down and we ran up to the shelter and then to the small house. It was a beautiful part of the countryside with large pine trees mixed with sugar cane, corn, pineapples, and bananas planted on the property. Once the rain settled down again we hiked back down the hill to Don Muncho's truck, and drove back to Talanga.