Uyuca and parrots

What a happy weekend! Our American friends, the Packs, invited us to spend Friday and Saturday at “the Chalet” with them, and we were so glad we did. The Chalet is a rustic cabin owned by Zamorano University up on Mount Uyuca, about a 20 minute drive from our house. (Remember to pronouce all the vowels: u = oooo, a = ahh.) Zamorano is in charge of caring for a certain part of the national forest reserve on the mountain. The reserve is humid forest and cloud forest at about 1600-2000m (5200-6500 ft) above sea level. This is where the clouds sit and rest at the top of the mountain for much of the days.

At the very (bumpy) end of the road up Mt. Uyuca, you come to the Zamorano property, which includes a home for Angel, the caretaker, garden plots for raising cut flowers (the sale of which reportedly helps funds the property), and two cabins for guests and meetings. The grounds are well-manicured in a simple, almost Japanese style, with benches placed under just the right trees and wide open views of the Honduran mountains (and junked-car lot). It was a refreshing, peaceful, clean, beautiful, paradisical place to spend the weekend.

The rustic cabin was clean and pleasant. The rustic-ness meant exposed wiring going up the wall from the light switches to the overhead lights and no interior sheet rock or covering for the studs in the walls. The studs just make up part of the decoration. It does have an electric stove and fridge and spring water, which was really cold and drinkable from the faucet. We loved the change in temperature we noticed when we reached high elevation. Good blankets were essential for the night. (Thankfully, the Packs had some extras. We didn't really bring any blankets with us to tropical Honduras!)

Friday night we enjoyed a campfire together, with a Dutch oven dinner, guitar sing-along, Honduran folk songs sung by Angel and his family, s'mores and hot chocolate. (The s'mores were an especial treat, as graham crackers are an oddity here, and marshmallows are not so common, either.) Our children and the Packs' have gotten along so wonderfully. We are going to miss their company when they leave this Thursday to move to Ecuador. Our brief overlap of time together in Honduras, though ironic, has been the perfect way for us to ease into this new country.

Saturday morning started early. By 8:30 we started off on a great hike that took us through starkly different ecosystems. We hiked about 3 hours, making a loop that alternated through dry and and then dripping forests. The hike was technical and tricky at times, but everyone plugged along happily and safely. Some of the trail was slippery with dead, slimy leaves and mud; sometimes it was rocky and dry. One part of the trail was only about a foot wide, with a cliff about 900 feet down to the left and the side of the mountain about 100 feet up on the right. It was dry at this point (no mud) because it was just over the ridge. Upon turning up and onto the other side of the ridge, the climate changed in about 5 feet, as if we passed through a door into another space that was totally dripping wet and filled with epiphytes, ferns and bromeliads—we were in the cloud forest.

Stuart was really in heaven with all the cool plants—he marveled at the tree fern forests. These tree ferns got to about 25' tall, so really, really neat! He has always wanted to walk through one of those and had the chance to do it several times on the hike.
He also marveled at hornworts, which he has taught about every year, but never seen, since they mostly are in tropical areas and aren't very common, though here they were everywhere. The moss and ferns were spectacular as were the orchids, bromeliads, and much that was quintessential jungle.

After a lunch of scones and scrambled eggs and a brief clean-up, we said good-bye to the Chalet and drove home though a gentle drizzle. We'll definitely return sometime.

Last Sunday, Stuart was called as 1st Counselor in the Branch Presidency at Church. He is excited to work with the Branch President and the other counselor Reiniery (sic) Ortiz, who also works at Zamorano in the same area as Stuart.

The hundredth day of school was this past week. There was a celebration at the school and it was great for everyone, especially for Aspen. She went for a granita to the Espresso Americano, which is a little walk away from the school. She got blackberry (mora) flavor. A granita is just crushed ice (granitas) with flavoring, usually also with coffee. She was excited. She also got some kind of yummy cookie there...all for about 38 Lps. ($1.97). With the change we bought a big branch of bananas that we ate for about 3 days. It was 12 Lps (and 19.1 Lps. = $1).

Our natural gas tank for our stove finally ran out last night. It lasted about 1 month of cooking a lot each day. Boiling beans, rice, making eggs, heating tortillas, cooking bread in the oven a number of times. So we like it and think we should get a gas stove connected to a tank to use at home in the US. It is really great. It's about the size of an old-fashioned milk can. We'll haul it back to the market for a refill of gas.

The 6th grade class that Jack is in has planned for some big activity for the 6th graders. The original agreement in September was that each student would pay Lps. 600 each month for the entire school year. That means that by the end of the year, each student would have saved Lps 5400 for some activity. (For quick calculation just divide that by about 20, or if you're hardcore look up the exchange rate, which hovers around 19.1 Lps/dollar. It is about $280.) Then they'd pool the money of the 12 6th graders to charter a bus, drive to La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast, stay in a hotel and go to the beach for a weekend. La Ceiba is 7 hours one way. Some discussion is underway as to what the actual event will be as that seemed a little excessive for a 6th grade graduation fiesta to some, but not all.

Abraham was chosen from among the children in his class to take home Mr. Osito and have a fun week with him. Mr. Osito is a large (Abe's size) stuffed bear. He is to return him this Friday after doing something cool with the bear and documenting it in a notebook that came home with the bear. We haven't done anything cool yet with the bear, but Abe has a week to do something cool. Maybe go swimming or play Indians or ride with it in a Mototaxi! We'll see.

The children have been playing Indians this week. They've made a fire pit, hunted deer and buffalo, picked berries, collected buffalo chips, made axes and knives and bows and arrows. Henry discovered he could make sparks by hitting two rocks together. He is a “true descendant of Nephi.”

Guayabas are yummy and a very unusual flavor. Kind of like lemon mixed with pear, with the texture of a very ripe pear, but then again a bit more spongey.

Abe made fingerpuppets and dreamed of becoming a fingerpuppet vendor, at the price of $5 per puppet. He gave one puppet (for free) to each member of the family.

Henry: Lately parrots have been coming by our house. Right now I am hearing the parrots in our big tree. They are mostly green with red under their wings. They have yellow beaks. They are about as big as a pigeon, but a bit more skinny. They look like a pirate's parrot on his shoulder.