The depths
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2009
1
5
Trip End
Jan 12, 2009
La Ceiba, Honduras
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1821 and is now a democratic republic. About the size of Prince Edward Island, the country borders Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatamala, and a warm body of water in the northeastern part of the Caribbean Sea. The capital is Tegucigalpa (say that three times fast). About 7.5 M people live in the country, most in the capital. Numbers drastically vary but Hurricane Mitch killed between 5 and 25 thousand people in 1998 and since then the economy has been making a slow comeback. The average age of a Honduran is 19 or 20. AIDS is prevelant. A little more than 70 Canadian dollars gets you one thousand Lempira. I wonder what you can buy with a thousand lempira. In 1502, Christopher Columbus landed on the Bay Islands/ Islas de la Bahia (that is close to where we are staying and I hope we will get there on a day excursion).
Honduras literally means 'depths' in Spanish (so says Wikipedia). There is an area on the east coast that our atlas names Gracias a Dios. On first glance I thought, ' thanks to God, wow, that must be a pretty place'. Senica thought it sounded like a hellish place. Turns out he was right and it was named Gracias a Dios as in 'thank you God for getting us out of those depths'.
The more I learn, the mor I am sorry our trip is only a week!
