Chatos, tucanes, y guayabas

Greetings from Valle de Angeles. Or rather from Tegus after having spend three days in beautiful Valle. On Saturday afternoon, Paula, Manu, and I took a trustworthy taxi to the centro where we caught a $1 bus ride to Valle, about 50 minutes away. When I say bus, I mean a vehicle that is fashioned curiously like a Hope Network bus (see googled pic below).

On the inside, there are two seats on the left of the bus and two seats on the right. There are also flimsy seats that fold down and block the aisle. We sat in the very back of the bus and I contracted claustrophobia. The seat in front of me was a fold-down aisle seat. When a man sat there and made himself comfortable, his back basically ended up between my knees. I was slightly taken aback. He didn't even send an apologetic look my way. I smirked at Paula and Manu as if to say, "Check out this jack-wagon." They did not pick up on this. 

Upon arriving in el centro of Valle, we visited Nelson, the tailor, and I was measured for my pants. Then we took a moto to Manu's street. 

Manu's lives a little outside of the pueblo and the house is situated up the side of a mountain/big hill. Like many houses in Valle, the structure is linear so each room has a door and one must walk a gloriously mosaiced floor to go from room to room. Let me just say, the (almost) rock climb to reach the house is worth it: 

These red flowers shown below are called tucanes or "tucans" because of their resemblance to the tropical bird of the same name.

A view from one of the bedrooms. We spent a lot of time looking from this perspective because it rained much of the weekend. Hondurans are pretty serious about rain because it makes one wet/cold and therefore sick. One does not venture out into the rain lightly. 

A closer look at the floor mosaic which contained shards of different plates and pottery in the design. This made me think of my sister-in-law, Tracy, and my brother, Mike, who are now full-time artists currently traversing the lower Southeast corner of the U.S. with their own mosaics!

Now I am going to make a list of some of my new friends. 

Anna. The matriarcha, the cook, and the glue. 

Helen, la chiquita.

Manu in his natural habitat. Joking. But, seriously, dude can climb a tree. He doesn't climb them for nothing either. We made fresh mandarin orange juice in the morning. Other fruits collected from the front yard: chatos (short, squat, sweet bananas) and guayabas (unlike any other fruit).

Elias, fellow Ferris wheel rider. Interesting fact: a Ferris wheel is called la rueda de Chicago (Chicago wheel) in Spanish. Chicago boasts the first Ferris wheel created and designed in 1893 by George Washington Gale Ferris. 

Some third party friends:

Carbón (coal). He's not sad here, he's sleepy. There are a lot of stray dogs in Valle and in Tegucigalpa. Most all of them are dirty and have fleas. The fight to avoid petting Carbón was fierce. Look at that face! His silly white paws!

The horse with no name and her daughter, Pricila, helping herself on the right. 

The pila. Most every house I have encountered has one. This is where Anna washes clothes. 

The bath-hut. The idea here is to squat. 

An ox. Of course. 

Elusive and blurry tropical bird we all got excited about. Apparently, they never come around and we saw three in one tree! 

Numerous new friends are not pictured. I was able to practice my Spanish all weekend, as few people in Valle speak English. Favorite topics include improv, plastic surgery, scarves, dish washers, Indian weddings, stage fright, etc. I mentioned one of my favorite writers and in response I was asked if "Shakespiro" (it sounded Spanish somehow when I pronounced the name) was a Latin American poet. It was a privilege to introduce someone to Shakespeare for the first time! Also, I discovered that practicing a second language is mentally exhausting. In a native tongue, we listen, decipher, and respond without any effort. However, speaking Spanish required constant mental vigilance for hours at a time. 

More pictures:

Bigger view of ox in his zone. 

Walking to town.

Anna showing me how to make tortillas. Apparently, I'm a natural. They were fabulous! Anna works on a flat top surface (on her left) which she heats by lighting firewood underneath. She is also responsible for the best coffee I have ever tasted. Below we are taking some dough in hand and rolling it into a ball. 

The dough-balls are then flattened and set on the hot stone to cook. 

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Next weekend we will most likely travel to Valle again and at that time I will pick up my new pants. 

Adios!