Street meat

After my post yesterday, I headed out to a place on the beach with Tita and some local friends she made. The electricity was out, and it gets dark early here, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Listening to the waves and a Spanish musician by lantern really made the experience. On our way home, they decided to stop and get food from a vendor on the street outside a Wendy's. I have heard to avoid eating food from street vendors unless it's fruit, but they assured me it would be fine. I don't recall the name, but it was some sort of tortilla with avocado, beans, meat, cheese, and who knows what else in it. I took the meat out, wary of uncooked beef, and enjoyed the rest. My digestive system, on the other hand, did not enjoy it. It's a good thing I brought antibiotics and Immodium because they were a saving grace this morning! I replaced breakfast with some crackers and tea and by lunchtime, I was feeling much better. 

After my morning Spanish lesson, I stayed at the school as I had another one in the afternoon. For lunch, Jimmy, one of the two brothers that runs the school, brought me to a nearby Garifuna village. The Garifuna are a group of Hondurans of African descent that settled along the Caribbean coast. They make amazing pan de coco (coconut bread) and dulce de leche (candy made from milk). We ate lunch at the home of a family Jimmy knows. The father runs a mototaxi service (see pictures below) and gave me a tour of the village and coastal area. It is a beautiful area, but the people are very poor. 

There is a little boy standing behind his father (Oscarito) who was very camera shy. The older boy is Jonathan. 

In the Garifuna village, we went to a small museum and saw a home that looked quite out of place for Honduras (more like something I'd see back home). The owner of the home lives in New York and was in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Apparently, he had to have a lot of facial reconstruction done to repair the damage from that day. He built this house in his home village as a replica of his home back in the States. 

Take a look at the bottom right corner of this last picture - I found this quite amusing to see in a Garifuna museum. 

Following my afternoon class, the taxi never showed up to bring me back home. Fortunately, a man Jimmy knows was driving by in a pickup and asked if I needed a ride. Come to find out, he lived in Boston for 10 years and had to move back down here to La Ceiba. He misses the states but due to legal issues cannot return for another 6 years. He was very kind and enjoyed chatting with me about my experiences in Honduras so far. I also met a teenager in Corozal (the Garifuna village) who has been teaching himself English for the past 4 months using YouTube. I was very impressed with his language skills, and he was eager to practice talking with me because he encounters very few people who speak the language. I connected with him on Facebook so we can continue to communicate. 

For dinner, I went to an expatriates sports bar near the beach with the American couple who recently moved to Tegucigalpa and I am taking classes with. They are struggling a bit with learning Spanish, so I was able to practice my own skills by translating some of the conversation with their host. After dinner, we explored a souvenir shop across the street that had some amazing Honduran crafts. The owner gave me a discount because the host we went with brings people there often.  

Tomorrow, the plan is to take another Spanish class in the morning and then head to some natural hot springs nearby. I am looking forward to relaxing and doing some sightseeing this weekend!

Spanish phrase of the day: "estoy enfermo" which means "I am sick." It was helpful this morning when I had to explain to Argentina and Fania why I didn't want breakfast!