We decided to take one last trip to see the large botanical garden in the tropics (Lancetilla Botanical Gardens) and to see the Caribbean coast.
I am sneaking a little post here to mention that it was awesome and we have seen lots of cool seabirds, lizards, fruits, and tropical plants. Again, this part of the country is so different from Zamorano. What a great place!
No pictures yet....
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
The story behind the fotos
Here is the text that goes with last week's mainly fotographic posting...
On Monday afternoon, Stuart dropped off Ranae and the children in a little pueblo named San Antonio de Oriente—a little town at the end of the road as it goes up the mountain to the north of us. There, they met with Hermana Tercero, who led them through the forest on a mountain hike (complete with sweeping views of the valley below, creeks with tadpoles, wildflowers, butterflies, and lots of evidence of the cows that wander the mountains, too). They arrived after about an hour at the house of the Terceros, where Ranae and Calla stayed for a couple hours before hiking back down the mountain to meet Stuart again. The older four children stayed the rest of Monday and Monday night with the Terceros, spent Tuesday, and then hiked back down on Tuesday afternoon to meet their parents. The following are the children’s accounts of their experiences at the Terceros’ rustic mountain farm.
Henry: When we first got there, we found out that they had two new dogs, one named Black and one named Princesa. They are very soft.
Monday night we went to bed after a good dinner and having Family Home Evening. At night when they turned out the light, it was pitch black. I put my hand In front of my face and I couldn’t see my hand or my palm or my fingers or anything. We woke up about 5:30 in the morning, and we opened our door and it was so light! The sunrise was beautiful. You could see the sun’s redness through the clouds, and the grass was so green and beautiful. We figured out that the Terceros had just woken up a few minutes before us and they were still in their pajamas. When we walked out our door, and went out to the front porch, and Princesa and Black came up to me and jumped on me. It was a such a great morning.
After we had breakfast (breakfast was a hot drink called oasmeal and cookies called rosquillas), we went outside and sat in the hammock. Hermano went down and started milking the cows. We got to go watch him milk. The milk came out in two streams and hit the bottom of the bucket. When he was done, he let me help him strain the milk; I got to hold the strainer. Jack and I had to go open the gate so the cows could come in. We were a little bit scared because there was a giant cow in front of us with horns, but everything was fine, and the cows came in.
After we let the cows in, we had to go cut wood for the fire to cook with. So we went down with Hermano and his horse to go get wood. Everyone rode on the horse. I rode on the horse for the longest turn down the mountain trail. When we got there, we found that someone had been stealing his wood, so we had to cut down a new tree, chop off its branches, and haul the wood up the mountain a little ways. Jack and cxI both got to cut the branches off the fallen tree with our machetes. Hermano put the wood on the horse. The horse probably had 100 pounds of wood on its back. Hermano told the horse to go. He said, “Vaya,” and the horse started walking away. It just walked through the forest along the trails up to the house. I had to open the gate for the horse. Hermano came up and straightened the load on the back of the horse. He left his machete and his jacket out in the field of cows, so after the horse was all taken in, he asked me to go back to get them. I went up through the big herd of cows for the machete and jacket.
We had to take the calves from their moms, and I had to hold the loco calf for a little bit.
When we went home, we had to herd the cows out of the field, and so we got sticks and rocks and yelled at the cows to move out of the field. I threw some rocks at the cows to get them moving because Hermano said I could.
Machetes, horses, cows, milk, and wood. . .It was a great day.
Aspen: They had two puppies, named Princesa and Black. Princesa is a girl and Black is a boy. Their mom is just a dog, and their dad was a pit bull and something else, so the babies are a cross of that. Princesa was my favorite, but I liked Black a lot, too.
When we went to go cut wood, Abe and I rode the horse, and so did Jack and Henry. The horse was brown,` and the tail and the mane were black. They had a white calf and a brown calf. The white calf was one month old and it was as tall as Abe. The brown calf was two months old and it was taller than Abe.
I woke up at like 3:00 in the morning because my sock fell off during the night. And when I woke up, the rooster was crowing really loud, so I woke up Jack and said, “Jack, we have to wake up!” and he said, “Who said so?” and the rooster crowed again, so I said, “There’s your alarm!”
The white calf was really jumpy and scared and the brown calf wasn’t. Jack was leading the brown calf, and one time Jack was holding the calf, and it got tangled with the white calf, and then the cow started to run away, and the rope gave Jack a rope burn. He stepped on the rope that he was leading the brown calf with, but it just slipped right under his shoe and the calf ran away. Everyone laughed, and then Hermano Tercero had to go get the brown calf again. And then we went back to the Terceros’.
For Family Home Evening, we said a prayer and then we sang a song and then we each read a scripture or two, and then we had cookies and then we brushed our teeth and got ready for bed and went to bed.
They had this broom kind of thing that, when it opened, it was a big huge fan like the ones they fanned the kings with in some ancient times.
THE END
It was super fun!!!!
Jack: On the way to the Terceros’ house, some parts of the path were really muddy, and since I had big rubber working boots on, I stomped around in all the mud a lot just because I could. We got there and we looked for some cows that had escaped, and we didn’t find them. Then finally Hermano Tercero found them. We tied the two calves up to a tree, so the next morning they could have milk, and the calves wouldn’t drink it all. We ate dinner, and it was really good. Aspen stole my plate, which had more food on it than hers, so I got stuck eating hers. Then she ate all the super yummy rice, and she left all the burnt beans for me. (The beans burned because Hermana Tercero was showing us what was on TV, which was only Christian shows and Spanish soap operas. And we didn’t want to watch it, but while we were doing that, the beans burned.) Abe started crying because he missed Mom and Dad. Hermano picked up Abe and put him on his shoulder and they listened to reggueton/Honduran pop music radio station. Abe eventually felt better. We had Family Home Evening, and then we ate cookies.
Then we went to bed, and at night, it’s never really completely dark in California, but where we were, it was absolutely pitch black, and I held my hand up in front of my face, and I couldn’t see it at all. With your eyes closed or open, it didn’t make a difference. It almost hurt your eyes it was so black. Then we got up and the sunrise was really beautiful. We got up about 5:00. We ate this stuff called oasmeal, which is like warm milk with cinnamon and sugar and a little bit of oats. We dipped these little thingies called rosquitas in it, which were like a flat donut. It was really yummy.
Then Hermano Tercero went and milked the cows, and then everyone was hungry, for Hermana made a snack of baleadas, which were really just like crepes with beans and crema (very runny sour cream) inside. Henry and I were the only ones that ate our baleadas.
Then we went and chopped lena (wood), and we rode on a horse. We brought home about 100 pounds of wood, which will last them about 20—22 days. We came back and ate lunch. It was spaghetti and rice and sardines. I didn’t eat my sardines. Then we went and got the calves. We came back and just kind of sat around, and then we went home, and I splashed around in the mud again.
I took a shower after I got home and I felt a lot better. I thought it was nice to be a campesino (a guy who lives in the campo—country) for the day, but I wouldn’t want to be one for my whole life. It is nice to live in a house with electricity and a toilet that flushes.
Calla: We goed at the Terceros’ house and we hold the puppies and we goed home and I want to go to the Terceros’ and they were home and we drinked juice at the Terceros’. We eat dinner. We ate osmil!
Abe: Okay. There were these little puppies that were called Black and Princesa and it was fun to pick them up and sometimes when I had Black, Aspen or Henry would come and try to take him from me. But I always did not let them take him from me. And then one time in the morning he went out to milk two cows, and the first cow that he milked, it made halfway up the bucket, and then on the other cow, he filled up the other half. I used their machete, and in all the kids’ room, when I put my hand in front of my face, I could not see it. It was really pure dark. Then in the morning, we played. On our walk, it took probably one hour and then we went back home. That’s all.
[“Abe, would you like to live like the Terceros all the time?”
“No. They don’t even have a normal toilet.”]
[Aspen: “Abe, it’s a normal toilet; it just doesn’t have water in it.”]
Ranae: The children came home happy and full of stories. They were content and kind, having spent good time with good people who took good care of them. I was thankful to see them again—grateful that our prayers were answered that no one would have any accidents with the machetes, axes, and cows. I delighted to hear them talk nonstop as we hiked through the forest back to our car. The details of their stay with the Terceros tumbled out in happy sentences as we skipped along the path, over brooks, around mud, up rocks, past magically blue morpho butterflies. Muchisimas gracias to the Terceros for giving our children a great experience!
Abe: We found a grasshopper that was 6 inches long! It had red wings on the inside and on the legs it had spines. We found it on the side of the pool [at our landlord’s house].
On Monday afternoon, Stuart dropped off Ranae and the children in a little pueblo named San Antonio de Oriente—a little town at the end of the road as it goes up the mountain to the north of us. There, they met with Hermana Tercero, who led them through the forest on a mountain hike (complete with sweeping views of the valley below, creeks with tadpoles, wildflowers, butterflies, and lots of evidence of the cows that wander the mountains, too). They arrived after about an hour at the house of the Terceros, where Ranae and Calla stayed for a couple hours before hiking back down the mountain to meet Stuart again. The older four children stayed the rest of Monday and Monday night with the Terceros, spent Tuesday, and then hiked back down on Tuesday afternoon to meet their parents. The following are the children’s accounts of their experiences at the Terceros’ rustic mountain farm.
Henry: When we first got there, we found out that they had two new dogs, one named Black and one named Princesa. They are very soft.
Monday night we went to bed after a good dinner and having Family Home Evening. At night when they turned out the light, it was pitch black. I put my hand In front of my face and I couldn’t see my hand or my palm or my fingers or anything. We woke up about 5:30 in the morning, and we opened our door and it was so light! The sunrise was beautiful. You could see the sun’s redness through the clouds, and the grass was so green and beautiful. We figured out that the Terceros had just woken up a few minutes before us and they were still in their pajamas. When we walked out our door, and went out to the front porch, and Princesa and Black came up to me and jumped on me. It was a such a great morning.
After we had breakfast (breakfast was a hot drink called oasmeal and cookies called rosquillas), we went outside and sat in the hammock. Hermano went down and started milking the cows. We got to go watch him milk. The milk came out in two streams and hit the bottom of the bucket. When he was done, he let me help him strain the milk; I got to hold the strainer. Jack and I had to go open the gate so the cows could come in. We were a little bit scared because there was a giant cow in front of us with horns, but everything was fine, and the cows came in.
After we let the cows in, we had to go cut wood for the fire to cook with. So we went down with Hermano and his horse to go get wood. Everyone rode on the horse. I rode on the horse for the longest turn down the mountain trail. When we got there, we found that someone had been stealing his wood, so we had to cut down a new tree, chop off its branches, and haul the wood up the mountain a little ways. Jack and cxI both got to cut the branches off the fallen tree with our machetes. Hermano put the wood on the horse. The horse probably had 100 pounds of wood on its back. Hermano told the horse to go. He said, “Vaya,” and the horse started walking away. It just walked through the forest along the trails up to the house. I had to open the gate for the horse. Hermano came up and straightened the load on the back of the horse. He left his machete and his jacket out in the field of cows, so after the horse was all taken in, he asked me to go back to get them. I went up through the big herd of cows for the machete and jacket.
We had to take the calves from their moms, and I had to hold the loco calf for a little bit.
When we went home, we had to herd the cows out of the field, and so we got sticks and rocks and yelled at the cows to move out of the field. I threw some rocks at the cows to get them moving because Hermano said I could.
Machetes, horses, cows, milk, and wood. . .It was a great day.
Aspen: They had two puppies, named Princesa and Black. Princesa is a girl and Black is a boy. Their mom is just a dog, and their dad was a pit bull and something else, so the babies are a cross of that. Princesa was my favorite, but I liked Black a lot, too.
When we went to go cut wood, Abe and I rode the horse, and so did Jack and Henry. The horse was brown,` and the tail and the mane were black. They had a white calf and a brown calf. The white calf was one month old and it was as tall as Abe. The brown calf was two months old and it was taller than Abe.
I woke up at like 3:00 in the morning because my sock fell off during the night. And when I woke up, the rooster was crowing really loud, so I woke up Jack and said, “Jack, we have to wake up!” and he said, “Who said so?” and the rooster crowed again, so I said, “There’s your alarm!”
The white calf was really jumpy and scared and the brown calf wasn’t. Jack was leading the brown calf, and one time Jack was holding the calf, and it got tangled with the white calf, and then the cow started to run away, and the rope gave Jack a rope burn. He stepped on the rope that he was leading the brown calf with, but it just slipped right under his shoe and the calf ran away. Everyone laughed, and then Hermano Tercero had to go get the brown calf again. And then we went back to the Terceros’.
For Family Home Evening, we said a prayer and then we sang a song and then we each read a scripture or two, and then we had cookies and then we brushed our teeth and got ready for bed and went to bed.
They had this broom kind of thing that, when it opened, it was a big huge fan like the ones they fanned the kings with in some ancient times.
THE END
It was super fun!!!!
Jack: On the way to the Terceros’ house, some parts of the path were really muddy, and since I had big rubber working boots on, I stomped around in all the mud a lot just because I could. We got there and we looked for some cows that had escaped, and we didn’t find them. Then finally Hermano Tercero found them. We tied the two calves up to a tree, so the next morning they could have milk, and the calves wouldn’t drink it all. We ate dinner, and it was really good. Aspen stole my plate, which had more food on it than hers, so I got stuck eating hers. Then she ate all the super yummy rice, and she left all the burnt beans for me. (The beans burned because Hermana Tercero was showing us what was on TV, which was only Christian shows and Spanish soap operas. And we didn’t want to watch it, but while we were doing that, the beans burned.) Abe started crying because he missed Mom and Dad. Hermano picked up Abe and put him on his shoulder and they listened to reggueton/Honduran pop music radio station. Abe eventually felt better. We had Family Home Evening, and then we ate cookies.
Then we went to bed, and at night, it’s never really completely dark in California, but where we were, it was absolutely pitch black, and I held my hand up in front of my face, and I couldn’t see it at all. With your eyes closed or open, it didn’t make a difference. It almost hurt your eyes it was so black. Then we got up and the sunrise was really beautiful. We got up about 5:00. We ate this stuff called oasmeal, which is like warm milk with cinnamon and sugar and a little bit of oats. We dipped these little thingies called rosquitas in it, which were like a flat donut. It was really yummy.
Then Hermano Tercero went and milked the cows, and then everyone was hungry, for Hermana made a snack of baleadas, which were really just like crepes with beans and crema (very runny sour cream) inside. Henry and I were the only ones that ate our baleadas.
Then we went and chopped lena (wood), and we rode on a horse. We brought home about 100 pounds of wood, which will last them about 20—22 days. We came back and ate lunch. It was spaghetti and rice and sardines. I didn’t eat my sardines. Then we went and got the calves. We came back and just kind of sat around, and then we went home, and I splashed around in the mud again.
I took a shower after I got home and I felt a lot better. I thought it was nice to be a campesino (a guy who lives in the campo—country) for the day, but I wouldn’t want to be one for my whole life. It is nice to live in a house with electricity and a toilet that flushes.
Calla: We goed at the Terceros’ house and we hold the puppies and we goed home and I want to go to the Terceros’ and they were home and we drinked juice at the Terceros’. We eat dinner. We ate osmil!
Abe: Okay. There were these little puppies that were called Black and Princesa and it was fun to pick them up and sometimes when I had Black, Aspen or Henry would come and try to take him from me. But I always did not let them take him from me. And then one time in the morning he went out to milk two cows, and the first cow that he milked, it made halfway up the bucket, and then on the other cow, he filled up the other half. I used their machete, and in all the kids’ room, when I put my hand in front of my face, I could not see it. It was really pure dark. Then in the morning, we played. On our walk, it took probably one hour and then we went back home. That’s all.
[“Abe, would you like to live like the Terceros all the time?”
“No. They don’t even have a normal toilet.”]
[Aspen: “Abe, it’s a normal toilet; it just doesn’t have water in it.”]
Ranae: The children came home happy and full of stories. They were content and kind, having spent good time with good people who took good care of them. I was thankful to see them again—grateful that our prayers were answered that no one would have any accidents with the machetes, axes, and cows. I delighted to hear them talk nonstop as we hiked through the forest back to our car. The details of their stay with the Terceros tumbled out in happy sentences as we skipped along the path, over brooks, around mud, up rocks, past magically blue morpho butterflies. Muchisimas gracias to the Terceros for giving our children a great experience!
Abe: We found a grasshopper that was 6 inches long! It had red wings on the inside and on the legs it had spines. We found it on the side of the pool [at our landlord’s house].
Thursday, July 26, 2012
We had a momentous week. The children went to the Tercero's house to work on the farm and spend the night.
Here are some fotos of the main event!
What could be better than a machete!?! Abe and Henry went immediately to the machete and here is Abe pausing, and posing, while he chops branches for the stove. He is a great worker and loves to chop wood (and other things) with the machete.
Hermana Tercero walking back to the house on the hill. They live on about 250 acres of mountain paradise. Walking back to the house, you can see the banana and coffee plantation in the background, with the house rising up out of the banana trees. One of my friends who visited, mentioned that we should get some kind of ecotourism going at their house. I mentioned it to Hno. Tercero--he thought it was a great idea. With the right marketing, it could be a real money maker, I think.
This moth was just sitting and tasting something on this leaf. These brown moths are pretty common up at the Tercero's house. You can't have a Honduran blog post without some cool bugs!
Each afternoon/evening, the calves have to be separated from the cows, so that there is milk for the morning milking. This is one of the more lively of the two calves tied up in the coffee/banana plantation.
The foreground is a plant that looks like elephant ears plant, but it is called malanga and is a different genus and species in the same family. The purple streaked roots are eated like yuca (cassava) or sometimes in chips. At the store, variety chips come with pieces of malanga, sweet potato, potato, etc. It isn't as popular as other root plants (yuca, potato), but it is easy to grow and does really well.
More photos of the activity are available to see for free at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52577150@N07/sets/72157630761648316/
Ranae took nearly all of these--they are all really great!
More text to come...I just couldn't find the actual blog that everyone wrote that describes what happened.
We'll be home in two weeks!
Here are some fotos of the main event!
What could be better than a machete!?! Abe and Henry went immediately to the machete and here is Abe pausing, and posing, while he chops branches for the stove. He is a great worker and loves to chop wood (and other things) with the machete.
This moth was just sitting and tasting something on this leaf. These brown moths are pretty common up at the Tercero's house. You can't have a Honduran blog post without some cool bugs!
Each afternoon/evening, the calves have to be separated from the cows, so that there is milk for the morning milking. This is one of the more lively of the two calves tied up in the coffee/banana plantation.
More photos of the activity are available to see for free at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52577150@N07/sets/72157630761648316/
Ranae took nearly all of these--they are all really great!
More text to come...I just couldn't find the actual blog that everyone wrote that describes what happened.
We'll be home in two weeks!
Monday, July 16, 2012
El Salvador
Whatever we did the previous week was overshadowed by our recent trip to El Salvador, which was wonderful.
Here are a few pictures of where we went and what we saw.
I will just comment now that I will recommend the Arbol de Fuego hotel in Antiguo Cuscatlan as a great place to stay in San Salvador.
Here is what our breakfast was like the last day we were there. I am not sure why Calla looks so funny, and Jack commented that he really was a lot more excited about the trip than this picture shows!
We saw a lot (way more than in Honduras) of women (only) carrying loads on their heads. We saw full 5-gallon water jugs and many other loads. A friend here says they carry up to 100-lb loads, but that it doesn't hurt them, because they build-up to it and are strong. Whatever the case, it is impressive. They use a small towel twisted to make a "rope" and then lay it in a circle on their head to place the object upon it. Totally impressive and these pictures don't do any justice at all to the loads. Although the one where they are carrying loads of wood on their head, totally amazing.
We went on a tour of a mangrove (mangales) estuary at a place called Barra de Santiago. It was very cool. These mangroves are different than ones you find in the US. Much taller, different species (about 5 here) and smaller leaves, though some were as broad as Floridian mangroves. Still have the cool roots that are used to absorb water but also to provide air to the plant, since the stagnant water is pretty anerobic. They'd die otherwise. The guide (Alessandro) and his father Juan Alberto (on the right) took us into a protected area to see crocodiles (we didn't see any. We saw a lot of birds and 4-eyed fish, though. I posted a video of the trip (a la African Queen--without the danger) at the following YouTube site.
A sort of panoramic view of the beach looking towards La Libertad and towards Guatemala. The beach was outstanding and we all loved it. We saw more actual marine life here, living than at any other beach, except maybe the tidepools at Monterey, CA. The water here is WARM unlike our beloved California Pacific ocean. Swimming there will never be the same! Note the coconut palms, the shacks and fishing boats--Even some people in chest deep water and waves fishing with nets.
Here are some fellows "fishing" for shrimp and crabs. The nets are used to collect shrimp and the two young fellows in the boats put out crab traps to collect small black (more expensive) or small(er) blue crabs. They are a little larger than the palm of an adult hand. The blue ones are a bright metallic blue on the undersides of the arms and belly. Pretty neat. Water here is about 50cm deep. In some places it is only about mid-shin deep where sand bars occur. The water is salty but the estuary has 2-3 rivers that run into it. The "barra" is open at a point where sea water comes in. The tides then, fill and drain the estuary twice a day, so a lot of material moves in and out of here. The small, palm-treed city with some nice touristy hotels (allegedly a 5-star hotel) are behind us...we never did see any really touristy--nice, swanky hotels...we did see primitive housing and a pupusaria.
Lots of people rode around in these pick-up truck converted taxis. At least it is a safe way to travel quickly!
The San Salvador, El Salvador Temple was within easy driving and seeing distance from the hotel. Just to see it provided some comfort and ease for us. At night it was lit up beautifully. At least from the roof of our hotel (where this was taken), the temple does look like a stand-alone bldg in the middle of the jungle. However, what you can't see (even if the picture weren't cropped) is the huge mall next door to the temple. It is on a hill and the area is totally covered in trees, so despite the huge, bustling, traffic and city beneath the trees, the temple really stands as an oasis, in many ways. It is also a very elegant building and is certainly a gem in San Salvador. Ranae did a session at night, in Spanish, I and Jack did baptisms (for about 1 hour--I was the baptizer for a group of youth from about 1.5 hours away). It was rejuvenating, as we hadn't been since last November.
Here are a few pictures of where we went and what we saw.
I will just comment now that I will recommend the Arbol de Fuego hotel in Antiguo Cuscatlan as a great place to stay in San Salvador.
Here is what our breakfast was like the last day we were there. I am not sure why Calla looks so funny, and Jack commented that he really was a lot more excited about the trip than this picture shows!
We saw a lot (way more than in Honduras) of women (only) carrying loads on their heads. We saw full 5-gallon water jugs and many other loads. A friend here says they carry up to 100-lb loads, but that it doesn't hurt them, because they build-up to it and are strong. Whatever the case, it is impressive. They use a small towel twisted to make a "rope" and then lay it in a circle on their head to place the object upon it. Totally impressive and these pictures don't do any justice at all to the loads. Although the one where they are carrying loads of wood on their head, totally amazing.
We went on a tour of a mangrove (mangales) estuary at a place called Barra de Santiago. It was very cool. These mangroves are different than ones you find in the US. Much taller, different species (about 5 here) and smaller leaves, though some were as broad as Floridian mangroves. Still have the cool roots that are used to absorb water but also to provide air to the plant, since the stagnant water is pretty anerobic. They'd die otherwise. The guide (Alessandro) and his father Juan Alberto (on the right) took us into a protected area to see crocodiles (we didn't see any. We saw a lot of birds and 4-eyed fish, though. I posted a video of the trip (a la African Queen--without the danger) at the following YouTube site.
A sort of panoramic view of the beach looking towards La Libertad and towards Guatemala. The beach was outstanding and we all loved it. We saw more actual marine life here, living than at any other beach, except maybe the tidepools at Monterey, CA. The water here is WARM unlike our beloved California Pacific ocean. Swimming there will never be the same! Note the coconut palms, the shacks and fishing boats--Even some people in chest deep water and waves fishing with nets.
Here are some fellows "fishing" for shrimp and crabs. The nets are used to collect shrimp and the two young fellows in the boats put out crab traps to collect small black (more expensive) or small(er) blue crabs. They are a little larger than the palm of an adult hand. The blue ones are a bright metallic blue on the undersides of the arms and belly. Pretty neat. Water here is about 50cm deep. In some places it is only about mid-shin deep where sand bars occur. The water is salty but the estuary has 2-3 rivers that run into it. The "barra" is open at a point where sea water comes in. The tides then, fill and drain the estuary twice a day, so a lot of material moves in and out of here. The small, palm-treed city with some nice touristy hotels (allegedly a 5-star hotel) are behind us...we never did see any really touristy--nice, swanky hotels...we did see primitive housing and a pupusaria.
Lots of people rode around in these pick-up truck converted taxis. At least it is a safe way to travel quickly!
The San Salvador, El Salvador Temple was within easy driving and seeing distance from the hotel. Just to see it provided some comfort and ease for us. At night it was lit up beautifully. At least from the roof of our hotel (where this was taken), the temple does look like a stand-alone bldg in the middle of the jungle. However, what you can't see (even if the picture weren't cropped) is the huge mall next door to the temple. It is on a hill and the area is totally covered in trees, so despite the huge, bustling, traffic and city beneath the trees, the temple really stands as an oasis, in many ways. It is also a very elegant building and is certainly a gem in San Salvador. Ranae did a session at night, in Spanish, I and Jack did baptisms (for about 1 hour--I was the baptizer for a group of youth from about 1.5 hours away). It was rejuvenating, as we hadn't been since last November.
Monday, July 9, 2012
An American Fourth of July and Glimpsing Nicaragua
Ranae: Happy Fourth of July! 
We were invited to attend the American Independence Day celebration at the US Soto Cano Air Force base about 1 hour north of Tegucigalpa near a city called Comayagua, which was one of the old capitals of Honduras. Anticipating the event brightened the first half of our week. By Wednesday, the children were as excited as puppies with sparklers tied to their tails. They woke up eager and early on Wednesday and busied themselves to prepare for our day out. We drove to the US embassy in Teguc, parked, and boarded the bus to Soto Cano. The day was happily filled with true blue American experiences, which the children will detail below. We felt like we were really on American soil. At one point, Jack said, “I forgot I was in Honduras!” And so it was. Maybe some of the feeling came from being able to understand all the conversations around us. Maybe some of the feeling was the freedom that comes from feeling at ease to move about as we please in safety and health. Clean restrooms, familiar traditions, fantastic facilities, lots of gringos, chocolate chip cookies, fireworks—aah, America! I left the day with a deeper gratitude for my country, with some of my longing for home satisfied, with a surer sense of delight in my family and in the opportunities that are ours because of our heritage.
ABRAHAM: The fireworks at the Fourth of July made Calla cry, and they were very loud and very big. There was an army helicopter, and it was very awesome. We could go inside it in the back and in the cockpit. Click on the picture and you can see the children in better detail.
We got to put on the helmet.
There was a very big fire truck and we could get in it and in the driver’s spot. There was this thing that was probably as big as a dining table and it was called a smoke house. It had stinky smoke (I think like candle smoke; it smelled like candle smoke). It was made out of wood and we could go inside of it. And there was a train. (It wasn’t really a train, it was kind of like a tractor with a little trailer that you could sit on, and then it had a roof and it had seats in the middle of it that you could sit in.) ABRAHAM
Jack: Happy Fourth of July, everybody! We thought we were going to ride on a really nice charter bus from the embassy to the air force base. But we didn’t. We went on an old school bus and two of its window panes were missing. On the way home, we were driving on a part of the highway that was really bad, where some ladrones [robbers] could ambush us, so we drove with some Humvees escorting us. There were also some big Suburbans that drove with us all the way back to the embassy.
I liked to jump off the diving board at the awesome pool, because the pool was so deep. There was free cotton candy, popcorn, and snow cones. I got three snow cones—one of blueberry, one of orange, and one of strawberry. I gave the orange one to Calla because she wanted it and I didn’t really like it. I ate two little cups of flan. Flan is a pudding thingy that tastes really good, and is squishy.
Yesterday we went to Nicaragua, and I crossed the border illegally a couple of times. I have a video, and there were a lot of big loud trucks. The border was just a little chain on the ground, and Henry moved the border between Honduras and Nicaragua by kicking the chain. On the way home, we stopped at Pizza Hut, and all of a sudden it started to rain really hard. The pizza was really good.
Henry: At the base there was a Blackhawk helicopter. They let you go into the cockpit and put on the helmet, and there were a lot of buttons. One of the gadgets was a little blue circle, and it showed you all the aircrafts in the sky. We also got to go in the back, where there were a bunch of seats and a machine that you can pull people out of the ocean or the jungle with. The helicopter had giant propellers. It was awesome!
We also saw a lot of Humvees. Some were camouflaged, and some were just brown. We got to go inside a fire truck that they use to put out the airplane fires.
Does this look familar, Eng. Jones?
The driver’s seat was in the middle of the cab, and it was giant, and the front was slanted up. I got dressed up in all the fireman’s gear, with the helmet and pants and jacket and axe.
The swimming pool was very deep. When I jumped in from the diving board, I didn’t touch the bottom. I only touched the bottom of the pool once or twice (and I jumped off the diving board at least 15 times). Then it started raining, and the lifeguard blew his whistle and we all had to get out. We made little dressing rooms out of our towels to change back into our clothes, because all the normal dressing rooms were full. After swimming we got free popcorn.
There were these stilt walkers who were at least 8 ½ feet tall.
They were dancing and running alongside of the “train.” There were also four bounce houses. One was giant and the other three were small. There was this DJ dude, and he totally took requests. We listened to “Fireflies,” “The Scientist,” and “Waka Waka.”
We also played pool and foosball. I beat Jack in pool. [This detail is contested. Supposedly the game was truncated prematurely.] On the way home from the Fourth of July, in the escort Humvee, there were soldiers with machine guns. If bad guys did come, they would have jumped out and started fighting and called for back-up. They were right behind us, and there were turrets on the top of the Humvees (but there were no guys at the turrets). Once we got out of the bad part of the road, they pulled off the side of the road with their flashing lights and went back to the base, and we were left alone.
On Saturday, we didn’t know what to do, so all of the sudden my mom came up with the idea to go to a different country! That day we went to Nicaragua, and I crossed the border of Nicaragua illegally! I thought it was cool that I moved the border between two countries by moving a chain. On our trip, we saw a giant tree with a bunch of nests of oropendula birds.
They weave nests that are like bags, which hang down from the branches of the trees. They have a really weird song. Also, on the way home we stopped by Pizza Hut, and there was a “Play Place,” and it was actually a good play place. I really liked that. (But some of the parts stunk really bad.) Also on the way back, Abe, Aspen, and I had to get out and walk 100 yards down the highway because we were being bad in the car.
Aspen: When I went in the helicopter, I put on the survival vest and the bullet-proof vest at the same time, and it was super heavy. It weighed about 26 pounds.
It was really cold on the bus ride home. The army Humvees followed us as an escort because the highways were really bumpy and dangerous. I thought the Humvees were really cool. At the embassy, Jack and Henry had to go to the bathroom, and a guard escorted them there.
We also went Nicaragua, but we didn’t really go in. The border was just a chain, and I stepped over it. On the way back we saw a nanny (goat) and her kid.
Ranae: At the end of our week, we found ourselves with an empty Saturday. We decided to go get our passports stamped in Nicaragua and do a quick trip down into the country, since the border is only about an hour and a half away.
Today we invited Reiniery and his family to join us for dinner. When we have Honduran friends come for dinner, we like to make homemade wheat bread, chicken, sautéed vegetables, and avocados. We set out peanut butter and jam, too, and everyone makes his own sandwich. Sometimes they put together unexpected combinations. Today we all giggled when Reiniery’s son Cesar combined chicken salad with mustard and quesillo (a salty white cheese) and orange marmalade.
Stuart: The Fourth of July fest was great. Though I do not work for the State Dept. because the Fulbright award is administered though them, we have gotten to participate in a few things that "normal" expats don't get to do. That has been a great aspect of this trip. The connection to the US has been reassuring in a country where security is something I constantly think about.
The bus ride was authentic and very bumpy. I had contracted (I think) a parasite which wasn't easy on the bowels. However, on the 2-hour ride up and 2-hour ride back there were no problems, for which I felt very blessed. The issues returned just right after we got back to the house.
I took some antiparasite medicine (2 pills in the AM) on Saturday and seem to be much better now. I am hoping that situation is resolved!
We have been wanting to go to some of the other countries of Cen. Am. but since we don't own our vehicle, we have to get permission from the University and others (lots of paperwork). Well, we finally got permission. So we are trying to figure out how to go places in the limited time we have left. We'll see if we can actually get somewhere!
Passing from Zamorano to Nicaragua, we pass through the main large town, Danli.
A good friend of ours spent time as a missionary in Danli more than 30 years ago. We spent some time there remembering him and wondering if he bought mangos at that fruit market.
When we arrived at the boarder of Honduras and Nicaragua, the immigration offical from Honduras, for some reason, couldn't understand what I wanted to do: Just cross over, get a Nicaragua stamp in my passport and come back. I explained it a few times. I have even explained it, in Spanish to others, they understood fine. So clearly, it wasn't my Spanish. In any case, "if I helped him, he would help me" and we could have gone through the border, no problem. I decided I didn't want to "help" him and didn't really need him to help me, after all. So we walked up and the Nicaraguan Homeland Security detail (1 guy in a polo shirt and ball-cap,) at the border let us cross over the small chain to be in Nicaragua. He was very pleasant and talked with us for a while about the US and why we were in Honduras. The border is certainly porous and had we been really motivated, we could have just hiked over through the coffee plantations surrounding the border crossing.
I have found that doing one's duty, even when you don't want to very much or you are reluctant to do it, still brings blessings. E. Eyring talks about doing things now (when you're young) that are hard, so you can strengthen your faith. Then, when you are older, you will have greater ability to do things that are hard for you because you are old and more decrepit. He has noticed that things are harder for him now, that he is in his late 70s, than before.
We were invited to attend the American Independence Day celebration at the US Soto Cano Air Force base about 1 hour north of Tegucigalpa near a city called Comayagua, which was one of the old capitals of Honduras. Anticipating the event brightened the first half of our week. By Wednesday, the children were as excited as puppies with sparklers tied to their tails. They woke up eager and early on Wednesday and busied themselves to prepare for our day out. We drove to the US embassy in Teguc, parked, and boarded the bus to Soto Cano. The day was happily filled with true blue American experiences, which the children will detail below. We felt like we were really on American soil. At one point, Jack said, “I forgot I was in Honduras!” And so it was. Maybe some of the feeling came from being able to understand all the conversations around us. Maybe some of the feeling was the freedom that comes from feeling at ease to move about as we please in safety and health. Clean restrooms, familiar traditions, fantastic facilities, lots of gringos, chocolate chip cookies, fireworks—aah, America! I left the day with a deeper gratitude for my country, with some of my longing for home satisfied, with a surer sense of delight in my family and in the opportunities that are ours because of our heritage.
ABRAHAM: The fireworks at the Fourth of July made Calla cry, and they were very loud and very big. There was an army helicopter, and it was very awesome. We could go inside it in the back and in the cockpit. Click on the picture and you can see the children in better detail.
There was a very big fire truck and we could get in it and in the driver’s spot. There was this thing that was probably as big as a dining table and it was called a smoke house. It had stinky smoke (I think like candle smoke; it smelled like candle smoke). It was made out of wood and we could go inside of it. And there was a train. (It wasn’t really a train, it was kind of like a tractor with a little trailer that you could sit on, and then it had a roof and it had seats in the middle of it that you could sit in.) ABRAHAM
Jack: Happy Fourth of July, everybody! We thought we were going to ride on a really nice charter bus from the embassy to the air force base. But we didn’t. We went on an old school bus and two of its window panes were missing. On the way home, we were driving on a part of the highway that was really bad, where some ladrones [robbers] could ambush us, so we drove with some Humvees escorting us. There were also some big Suburbans that drove with us all the way back to the embassy.
I liked to jump off the diving board at the awesome pool, because the pool was so deep. There was free cotton candy, popcorn, and snow cones. I got three snow cones—one of blueberry, one of orange, and one of strawberry. I gave the orange one to Calla because she wanted it and I didn’t really like it. I ate two little cups of flan. Flan is a pudding thingy that tastes really good, and is squishy.
Yesterday we went to Nicaragua, and I crossed the border illegally a couple of times. I have a video, and there were a lot of big loud trucks. The border was just a little chain on the ground, and Henry moved the border between Honduras and Nicaragua by kicking the chain. On the way home, we stopped at Pizza Hut, and all of a sudden it started to rain really hard. The pizza was really good.
Henry: At the base there was a Blackhawk helicopter. They let you go into the cockpit and put on the helmet, and there were a lot of buttons. One of the gadgets was a little blue circle, and it showed you all the aircrafts in the sky. We also got to go in the back, where there were a bunch of seats and a machine that you can pull people out of the ocean or the jungle with. The helicopter had giant propellers. It was awesome!
We also saw a lot of Humvees. Some were camouflaged, and some were just brown. We got to go inside a fire truck that they use to put out the airplane fires.
The driver’s seat was in the middle of the cab, and it was giant, and the front was slanted up. I got dressed up in all the fireman’s gear, with the helmet and pants and jacket and axe.
The swimming pool was very deep. When I jumped in from the diving board, I didn’t touch the bottom. I only touched the bottom of the pool once or twice (and I jumped off the diving board at least 15 times). Then it started raining, and the lifeguard blew his whistle and we all had to get out. We made little dressing rooms out of our towels to change back into our clothes, because all the normal dressing rooms were full. After swimming we got free popcorn.
There were these stilt walkers who were at least 8 ½ feet tall.
We also played pool and foosball. I beat Jack in pool. [This detail is contested. Supposedly the game was truncated prematurely.] On the way home from the Fourth of July, in the escort Humvee, there were soldiers with machine guns. If bad guys did come, they would have jumped out and started fighting and called for back-up. They were right behind us, and there were turrets on the top of the Humvees (but there were no guys at the turrets). Once we got out of the bad part of the road, they pulled off the side of the road with their flashing lights and went back to the base, and we were left alone.
On Saturday, we didn’t know what to do, so all of the sudden my mom came up with the idea to go to a different country! That day we went to Nicaragua, and I crossed the border of Nicaragua illegally! I thought it was cool that I moved the border between two countries by moving a chain. On our trip, we saw a giant tree with a bunch of nests of oropendula birds.
Aspen: When I went in the helicopter, I put on the survival vest and the bullet-proof vest at the same time, and it was super heavy. It weighed about 26 pounds.
It was really cold on the bus ride home. The army Humvees followed us as an escort because the highways were really bumpy and dangerous. I thought the Humvees were really cool. At the embassy, Jack and Henry had to go to the bathroom, and a guard escorted them there.
We also went Nicaragua, but we didn’t really go in. The border was just a chain, and I stepped over it. On the way back we saw a nanny (goat) and her kid.
Ranae: At the end of our week, we found ourselves with an empty Saturday. We decided to go get our passports stamped in Nicaragua and do a quick trip down into the country, since the border is only about an hour and a half away.
Today we invited Reiniery and his family to join us for dinner. When we have Honduran friends come for dinner, we like to make homemade wheat bread, chicken, sautéed vegetables, and avocados. We set out peanut butter and jam, too, and everyone makes his own sandwich. Sometimes they put together unexpected combinations. Today we all giggled when Reiniery’s son Cesar combined chicken salad with mustard and quesillo (a salty white cheese) and orange marmalade.
Stuart: The Fourth of July fest was great. Though I do not work for the State Dept. because the Fulbright award is administered though them, we have gotten to participate in a few things that "normal" expats don't get to do. That has been a great aspect of this trip. The connection to the US has been reassuring in a country where security is something I constantly think about.
The bus ride was authentic and very bumpy. I had contracted (I think) a parasite which wasn't easy on the bowels. However, on the 2-hour ride up and 2-hour ride back there were no problems, for which I felt very blessed. The issues returned just right after we got back to the house.
I took some antiparasite medicine (2 pills in the AM) on Saturday and seem to be much better now. I am hoping that situation is resolved!
We have been wanting to go to some of the other countries of Cen. Am. but since we don't own our vehicle, we have to get permission from the University and others (lots of paperwork). Well, we finally got permission. So we are trying to figure out how to go places in the limited time we have left. We'll see if we can actually get somewhere!
Passing from Zamorano to Nicaragua, we pass through the main large town, Danli.
A good friend of ours spent time as a missionary in Danli more than 30 years ago. We spent some time there remembering him and wondering if he bought mangos at that fruit market.
When we arrived at the boarder of Honduras and Nicaragua, the immigration offical from Honduras, for some reason, couldn't understand what I wanted to do: Just cross over, get a Nicaragua stamp in my passport and come back. I explained it a few times. I have even explained it, in Spanish to others, they understood fine. So clearly, it wasn't my Spanish. In any case, "if I helped him, he would help me" and we could have gone through the border, no problem. I decided I didn't want to "help" him and didn't really need him to help me, after all. So we walked up and the Nicaraguan Homeland Security detail (1 guy in a polo shirt and ball-cap,) at the border let us cross over the small chain to be in Nicaragua. He was very pleasant and talked with us for a while about the US and why we were in Honduras. The border is certainly porous and had we been really motivated, we could have just hiked over through the coffee plantations surrounding the border crossing.
I have found that doing one's duty, even when you don't want to very much or you are reluctant to do it, still brings blessings. E. Eyring talks about doing things now (when you're young) that are hard, so you can strengthen your faith. Then, when you are older, you will have greater ability to do things that are hard for you because you are old and more decrepit. He has noticed that things are harder for him now, that he is in his late 70s, than before.
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