Around Town

September 7th 2009 8:00 pm

Labor day is not a holiday here in Honduras, but I still had the day off because I worked on Saturday. I slept in a little bit, until about 9:30, and then I stayed in bed for a while watching The Mummy in Spanish. The voiceovers don't really do it justice, but it is still a good movie. After Brenden Fraser cheated death a few times and finally defeated Imhotep with the help of the good looking girl and her comic relief brother, I went up on the roof to work out for a little bit and exercised under the beautiful Honduran sky.

The shower afterwards was very refreshing, and as I got ready for my day, I watched bits and pieces of Erin Brockovich in Spanish. Maricela had told me yesterday that we would meet up around lunch time and go phone shopping, and so I was waiting for her call. Around 12:30, I headed up to Plaza Mira Flores, and on the way she called to let me know that she wouldn't be able to make it, but that we will hopefully be able to go tomorrow.

I ate a quick lunch at Wendy's, went back to my apartment, grabbed my camera, and then headed out into the city prepared with a list of tourist attractions from the book that Patty had given me. My first stop was the zoo, which apparently has a great view of the city. I flagged down a taxi, and asked him how much the trip to the zoo would be, when he said 250 lempiras, I feigned leaving, and was able to get the price down to 200, which was still a lot more than I thought it would be. But after the long car ride up into the mountains, I understood why it cost so much.

Along the way, Gustavo (my driver) and I discussed various things ranging from Hot Honduran Women to Gustavo's Hot Honduran Wife.

Gustavo: Do you have a wife?

Alan: ...No.

Gustavo: (Uproarious laughter) Well then you should get some sweet Honduran broad and take her back to the states with you, am I right?

Alan: Yea, I guess.

Gustavo: Honduran women are the sexiest! Look at that one (blatant pointing occurs here)! How about that one! (more of the same goes on most of the way up the mountain)

Alan: No, yea I get it, if I'm lucky I'll get a beautiful Honduran woman to come back to the states with me.

Gustavo: Heck yes! All the women here are good looking. For example, I have a really hot Honduran wife...

I tried to stare at the scenery and not laugh.

We wound our way up a seemingly endless mountain, and I anticipated each curve would bring us around within view of some zoo. The zoo ended up being within a national park which is at the top of the mountain. I paid the 20 lempiras for us to get in, and when we pulled up to the zoo, it was closed.

The guidebook had said it would be open between 8am and 3pm, and it was only 1:30 at that point. I was very disappointed, until Gustavo told me that if I wanted, I could walk up the road a ways to see the Christo del Picacho. I wasn't really sure what it was, but I was happy to get out of the taxi and enjoy the mountain air.

I walked around the park for a while, meandering aimlessly looking for some statue of Christ. I just when I thought I was maybe going the wrong way, I saw path that led to a lookout over the city. The view was georgous.

And when I turned to my right, I saw the statue.

I can't see it from my apartment, because there is a large hill between us, but you can see it from most places in the city. Being at the statue was very calming. I was the only person at the park today, and it was nice to have some alone time in a very busy city. I spent about an hour in the park, and after taking a few photos, I parted ways with Jesus and walked back to Gustavo who took me back down the mountain.

Instead of returning to Plaza, however, I asked him to take me to Mall Multiplaza, which was a mall that Freddy had mentioned as being a little bit more upscale than Plaza. It was! It had Tommy Hilfiger, Kenneth Cole, Abercrombie, all of the "preppy stores" as Freddy referred to them as. It was roughly comparable to the Kenwood Towne Center, and I felt very under dressed in my t-shirt and jeans.

I walked around for a while looking through some of the different stores, which were not surprisingly a bit more expensive than the stores in Plaza. I stopped in a bookstore for a while and purchased two books. The first was El Viejo y el Mar, or "The Old Man and the Sea" and the second was my first Spanish Grammar book.

I caught a cab back to my apartment and read El Viejo y el Mar on my balcony for a little bit. I have resolved to read a little bit of it every day, and to write down the words that I don't know in a notebook. When the notebook page is full, I stop reading for the day and look up the words. Today I got all the way to page 3, largely because I skipped the prologue. I am a big Hemingway fan, and I'm really hoping to just have a stellar boating vocabulary by the end of this book.

I came back inside, loaded my new pictures onto the computer, and then took a nap. When I woke up, it was time for dinner, and I cooked myself some spaghetti, which I ate on my balcony as I watched the cars drive by on the highway.

I just got done looking up some recipes for soups and other easy things to cook for one. Like a lasagna (that's for all of you Flight of the Conchords fans out there).