Photos from Gracias

1. Mauricio and Jonathan at a restaurant overlooking the town

2 and 3. Streets in the town

4 and 5. The boys playing in the pool. Very cold water.

These are photos taken at the old fort above the town.

These are at the hot springs.

During our hike up the mountains.

It was a sunny day but you can see the background is all cloudy after we go up rather high beyond the cloud layer.

More swimming in the pool while they set up for the concert.

The last 2 photos are at night duriing the show.

Santa Rosa de Copan

The 3rd day of our journey we traveled to Santa Rosa de Copan, a larger town on the main highway between El Salvador and San Pedro Sula. It is high in the mountains and was extremely cold when we were there. It was cloudy and rainy too. We arrived around 4 pm and left the next morning around 11 am. It was so ugly out and not much to see that I did not even get the camera out. The only photos are of our giant hotel room. Three double beds for the 3 of us. The hotel was nearly empty so they gave us the big room for the same price as the double.

Copan Day 2 Horseback Riding

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The last 5 photos are of the place we went on the horses where the women make little dolls out of corn cobs and husks and the little kids are all trying to sell them. They also have a place there where they make bags and other textiles. Mauricio is demonstrating how to do it after they showed him. The young guy with the white hat is José, our guide. He walked and ran the entire time with us rather than going on a horse too. We probably went somewhere between 6 and 10 miles with him on foot the whole time. Great exercise.

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Copan Day 2 Mayan Ruins

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The guacamayas in the last 3 photos are free birds that live near the ruins, not in the bird park.

Day 1 Copan Photos

1. View from roof of hotel . . . . . 2. Rooftop of hotel . . . . . . . . . . 3. Hotel room Copan

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1. Mauricio at bird park . . . . . . 2. Jonathan with me . . . . . . . . . 3. Mauricio with another Guacamaya

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1. Mauricio with Toucan Sam . . . . 2 and 3. Mauricio and Jonathan at bird park

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1. Coffee beans, a couple ripe . . . . 2. Boys eating a snack . . . . . . 3. From cafe with view of Copan

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Back in San Pedro Sula

We made it back to the casa today after a great week on the road visiting some small towns of Honduras. I will begin to post my photos in the order of our trip. This may take a while. I have never figured out how to put labels with photos on blogspot and always have to use spaces and periods to try and line them up because blogspot automatically deletes blank spaces. It ends up looking fine on my screen, but I have seen my blog on other computers with bigger or smaller screens and the photos look messed up so try to figure out the labels the best you can.

Day 3 Gracias

Today was an adventurous day. We went to the National Forest Park at Mount Celaque, which is the tallest mountain in Honduras, rising up to 9347 feet at its peak. We did not climb to the top as that is an overnight, 2 day trip. We did climb a long way though to an area supposedly with a view of water falls. I say supposedly because we never actually saw any falls that high up. We got close enough to hear the falls and kept going thinking they would be around the next bend or next peak, but they never appeared. We went fairly high up to the top of one of the lower points along side the mountain which was about 7000 feet high into the cloud forest, about a 3 hour climb up and little more than an hour mostly out of control run down. You cannot see down below from there nor can you see these peaks from the town below because they are surrounded in clouds all the time. We did hike along lots of cascades of the rivers with small falls along the way. The water was freezing cold. No bathing is allowed because this is the drinking water for the towns below. Definitely the cleanest rivers and streams I have ever seen in Honduras. We passed lots of coffee plantations along the way up in the lower areas before it got too steep for people to live. These high altitudes with clouds are the ideal climate for growing coffee and this is the season too; lots of red bean pods on the plants. My legs are killing me!

We went from the town center to the entrance to the park in a moto-taxi, which is the little form of taxis they have in lots of towns in Honduras. The front looks like a motorcycle with two wheels in back and a place for 3 people to sit, covered. The trip from town up the mountain over a terrible dirt, rock, pothole road took 40 minutes and cost the equivalet of $5. That is such a good wage that they guy was happy to agree to return 5 hours later and pick us up for the return trip, same price. Nearly 3 hours of his time in total driving 2 round trips over terrible terrain for $10.

When we got back we all went to the hotel pool, which was freezing cold, but felt refreshing after being so tired. Yesterday was the hot tubs, today the cold tub. They were having a sound check poolside for a concert that was going on later in the night. The concert was later in the evening with three different singers, all supposedly famous Honduran singers. The boys were embarrased to swim at first with all the people there setting up for the show, but got over it before too long. We went back later on for the show which was nice. Recorded music with each of the singers singing his songs live kind of like keroke. It seemed like big doings for this small town on a Sat. night. Nice way to spend our last night here.

Gracias a Dios day 2

Today was a beautiful day; sunny and warm all day! We went walking around the town and the old fort in the morning. The fort is the burial place of a man named Juan Lindo, who was president of both Honduras and El Salvador during his lifetime in the 1800´s. He is best known as the founder of the public school system. It was his dream and desire that all Hondurans have the opportunity to be educated for free and fought much of his life to bring this to a reality. What a great person. I bet he is a little disappointed on how the educational system is being treated by his countrymen now.
This afternoon we went to the pools at the hot springs about 5 miles outside of town. There are two springs that feed round hot tubs and these drain into two very warm pools, one of which was quite large and 5 feet deep. Those pools drain into a 3rd pool a little lower that is cooler than the other two. I guess the water cools as it moves on from one to the next. We all had a great time. I will get the photos on here next week when I get back to my computer with the cable for my camera.
I forgot to post that yesterday was Juan Fernando´s 4th birthday which I missed. Juan´s birthday is the same date as Junior Fernandez who was my first Godson in the casa. He would have been 12 yesterday had he not gone to be with the Lord 5 years ago.

Gracias a Dios

We arrieved in Gracias a Dios today, a pretty little colonial town in the mountains. The name means Thank God, supposedly named this when the settlers said this upon finding a little flat area amongst all the mountains and said ¨thank God¨. We spent last night in Santa Rosa de Copan, about half way between here and Copan. It was freezing by our standards here. It was probably in the 50´s this morning and rainy, very miserable for us San Pedro Sulans used to the 90 degree heat everyday. That is why we decided to come here after just one night in SRC and I am glad we did. The weather here is much nicer, no rain and probably 70.


The highlight of the trip so far for the boys was our 3 hour horseback riding excursion in Copan. We went along the Copan river, up some mountains and to an area where women make little dolls out of corn husks. If you have seen the Travel Channel show where Samatha Brown goes to Honduras, it is one of the places she visited and filmed for the show. The boys loved the trip although we all still have sore cabooses 2 days later : ) Jonathan was almost crying from fear when he first got on his horse, but after a few minutes he was riding fine and all smiles. The boys want to go again here in Gracias.


Thanks to my mom, we upgraded here to a nice hotel that has a pool. Although it is cool out, the boys plan on getting in the pool and swimming while we are here. They still love just watching cable t.v. in the room. I rarely permit them to watch t.v. at home so this is a real vacation for them.



Now my negative commentary. I was checking the news on Yahoo and saw the photo below and it really made me sick. I have no idea what this girl was protesting and don´t care either, I only know she is lost. There are lots of things about the U.S. that I miss here in Honduras but in all my time here, I have never seen a person with a sign that says God Hates anyone. This is something that I am not looking forward to seeing when I return home. This person obviously does not know God, does not have God in her heart and is the type of person who turns so many people against the church because they think this is how believers think and feel. WE DON´T!! People see signs like this and think ¨If that´s the way those religious people think I don´t want to be one nor associate with them.¨ WE DON´T. The person who made and the person who is carrying this sign are lost and don´t know the first thing about God or Jesus Christ, but God still loves them regardless.

I am going to enjoy these few days in this beautiful town beautifully named Gracias a Dios and I will give thanks to God for bringing me here to see the wonders of His creation knowing that he loves us all.

On the Road

I am writing from the nice town of Copan. I am here with Mauricio and Jonathan. We are on a week travel to visit some of the smaller towns of Honduras. It is very nice here, cool and very safe. No razor wire on the houses here! Don´t have my cable to post photos, but I will next week from the casa. We went to the bird park yesterday and the Mayan ruins this morning. Cafe copan is fresh here, but more expensive than in San Pedro Sula. The boys love just being in the hotel room with cable t.v. Typical.

Back to Square One

Nothing has changed politically here in Honduras. The false hopes put out last week were just propaganda. Both sides signed a document thinking they could get their way with loopholes and neither side wanted the other to get its way, so really there was never a deal, just a paper with signatures that don't mean anything. Zelaya thought the deal required his return to the presidency and Micheletti says the deal only said the Congress would vote on his return but the deal did not say when they have to vote so they can vote in January if they want to wait until then. Politics as usual in Honduras.

This is from the AP:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Friday that a U.S.-brokered pact failed to end a four-month political crisis after a deadline for forming a unity government passed.
"The accord is dead," Zelaya told Radio Globo from from the Brazilian Embassy where he has been hold up under threat of arrest. "There is no sense in deceiving Hondurans."
Forged last week with the help of U.S. diplomats, the pact gave the two sides until midnight Thursday to install a government with supporters of Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who was named interim president by Congress after Zelaya was ousted on June 28.
Jorge Reina, a negotiator for Zelaya, said the pact fell apart because Congress failed to vote on whether to reinstate the deposed president before the deadline for forming the unity government.
The pact did not require Zelaya's return to the presidency. It left the decision up to Congress. Zelaya interpreted that to mean that Congress had to vote on the issue by Thursday.
Supporters of Micheletti, who was named interim president by Congress after Zelaya was ousted on June 28, disputed that, saying the pact required that members of the unity Cabinet be in place by Thursday but that there was no deadline for Congress to meet.
"The de facto regime has failed to live up to the promise that, by this date, the national government would be installed. And by law, it should be presided by the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya," Reina said.
Shortly before midnight, Micheletti announced that a unity government had been created even though Zelaya had not submitted his own list of members. Micheletti said the new government was composed of candidates proposed by political parties and civic groups. He did not name the new members.
"Everybody, with the exception of Mr. Zelaya, recommended Hondurans to lead the institutions of our country as part of the new government," Micheletti said.

Time Change

Since your time changed, I am now only one hour behind eastern time. Honduras does not do daylight savings time so what was a 2 hour difference last week for us in the central time zone is only one hour now.

No progress today in the congress approving the accord. They are moving forward with the other parts of the agreement, setting up the overseers, etc. but everyone is still waiting to see if the congress will vote to return Mel as president. If not, it will all fall through. No word as to when we can expect a vote.