Kevin´s Visit

Thursday, October 29th 2009 10:45am

Kevin is staying in Honduras for the week, and I have been fortunate enough to spend the last couple of days with him.


Tuesday October 27th

Tuesday I got up and went to work as normal, but to my surprise Kevin was there. He hadn´t told me on Monday that he was planning on coming into the office, but his visit was very welcomed. I was happy to atlk with him and share with him some of the work that I was doing. He had a few helpful suggestions, and I was happy to talk with him during breaks and lunch.

In the afternoon, Kevin and I walked to a local food stand and got some snacks. We climbed onto the roof of a nearby tower and looked at the city while discussing Honduran culture and eating cookies. It was nice to listen to a different perspective, and also nice to hear about Kevin´s experiences with the CCD.

Around 3:00pm, a delegation from Chicago came to inspect the facilities, meet with Noemy, and discuss plans for the future. They stayed until close to 6:30, so it was a long day at work. Adding traffic into the equation, Kevin and I didn´t get back to my apartment until close to 7:30. We turned around quickly and grabbed some Chinese food for dinner, before heading over to Cente´s house to play some poker.

Everyone knew Kevin, and was excited to see him again. They also knew me and were excited to take my money again. We don´t play for very much, only about $5, so its no big deal when I lose. Kevin and I were both out fairly quickly, due to some poor luck, and we went back to my apartment for the night.


Friday October 28th

I apparently didn´t need to go to work on Tuesday as Monday was a holiday, and everyone else already had work off. So instead, I took Wednesday off, and went around the city with Kevin.

First we went to a market in Comayaguela (the twin city to Tegucigalpa, across a river). The market is dangerous to go to at night or on the weekends, but was fun to visit in the middle of the day. We got there around 9:00am, and walked around the streets for about an hour and a half. This market was the place to buy anything you could possibly want, including food, clothes, furniture, and animals.

It was a blast walking around and exploring all the different areas in the market. As a pair of white men, Kevin and I got whistled at and cat-called a fair amount by some of the female vendors. Thinking that we wouldn´t understand them, some of the more aggressive ladies had some suggestive words for us too. When Kevin responded with "no thanks, we´re just visiting" they were very embarassed, and I couldn´t help laughing very loudly at the situation.

After the market, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to La Tigra National Park. It is about 7km north of the city, but on the winding dirt roads, 7km equated to roughly 45 minutes of driving time. When we got to the dirt road, and there were no other cars around. Kevin stopped the car we had borrowed from the CCD, and told me that it was my turn to drive. I told him that I didn´t really know how to drive stick shift, and he let me know that it was a good time to learn.

The vehicle that we were driving is a very large toyota land rover. It is very old, and has a litany of aspects that Kevin likes to call "character". First and foremost, the beat up machine is called "la batalla" or "the battle", and it is thus called due to the lack of power stearing at any speed under 15 or so km per hour. This is good, because most 90º turns are made while going under 15km per hour, so the driver gets a really good workout turning the wheel. Also, La Batalla´s gears are a little different, and the driver typically starts in 2nd gear to get things going.

Within a few minutes, I was driving the rest of the way to La Tigra, and I didn´t even stall out on our way up the mountain. I was very surprised. We got to La Tigra around 1:15, and went into the visitor center right away. We got a trail map, paid a minimal fee, and told the employee there that we wanted to make it out on the trail to the waterfall. He shook his head, and told us that we had to hurry because the park was closing at 4:30.

The trail was a 6km trek round trip into the Honduran cloud forest. A cloud forest is very similar to a rain forest. Both are very damp and wet due to the immense amount of moisture that they recieve. Cloud forests, however, are typically at a higher elevation and their moisture comes from the constant cloud cover throughout the night and good parts of the day. The flora and fauna are similar, though not the same as a rainforest, and the temperatures are much cooler.

Marked down as the highest difficulty, the trail was a challenging walk through the cloud forest, but was very rewarding and absolutely beautiful. It was like going through some exhibit at the zoo, only the animal sounds, the mist, the trees, and the vines you could swing on were all real. It was incredible. Parts of the trail were so deep into the forest, that it became as dark as dusk. In the shadow of the mountains, and the cover of the trees, there wasn´t hardly any sunlight in the depths of the trail. We reached the waterfall, which was very different from what I was expecting. It wasn´t the cascading water over a cliff, like the waterfall in Chile, but rather it was the fast flow of water down a steep slope at least 100 feet high. I didn´t bring my camera, due to the earlier trip to the more dangerous market, but I´m sure I´ll go back.

Kevin told me that after a good rain, the water fall seems to defy gravity, with water creeping around the edges of the rocks and falling not straight down, but along the walls of the valley where the waterfall was located. I look forward to visiting again.

We got back to la batalla around 4:00, and Kevin explained that normally the trip would take four hours in total, with two hours spent on each way. Typically, the trail would be taken much slower, and there would have been a better chance to observe the wildlife and the beauty of nature.

I drove back into the city, and took La Batalla all the way back to my apartment. It was 6:00 before we got back, and after Kevin left to visit some of his other friends, I passed out to go to sleep. Around 7:00, I got a phone call from Dario and Cente asking if I wanted to play basketball with them at 7:30. It was the first opportunity that I had to play, and I had been asking them to play for a while. And so, despite my fatigue, I walked to the nearby courts to play a couple of games.

I haven´t played in a little while, and I haven´t played against people who aren´t Bethany College professors in even longer. I did pretty well, and after a couple of blocks, had earned the respect of the rest of the guys playing. We played three games, and they were all very fun. Around 9:00, we finished up, and I walked back to my apartment to watch the end of the Phillies triumph over the Yankees. I don´t really care for the Phillies, but I dislike the Yankees even more.

I fell asleep soon after the game ended. This morning, I woke up with sore legs, and drove La Batalla to work.