Wedded Bliss!

  El Triunfo de la Cruz, Honduras
Monday, May 28, 2007

Cabana Panchy.

Good morning husband!  Good morning wife!  Unusual words for us to verbalize, yet reassuringly comfortable.  We had made plans with Noemi to get together for breakfast in the morning so we awoke in our stifling hot room at 7:30am.  There was a fan in the room and we had turned it on to the highest setting the night prior, however it did not circulate air nearly enough to make a noticeable difference. 

Our room at Cabana Panchy.

We wondered why we had not insisted on exchanging the fan for one that worked better.  It was not until later in the day, when we started to turn off the fan, that we realized the speed settings on the fan were reverse to what we are used to back home.  In Honduras, the #3 setting is the slowest speed while #1 is the fastest.  The lesson here folks, is to always check all settings because we are not in in Kansas anymore Toto.
 
 

Breakfast joint.

On cue, Noemi came knocking on our door at 8:00am and we all headed down the road to find a breakfast joint.  Our first couple of stops proved fruitless; however the third attempt was the charm...somewhat.  The restaurant was open; however they only had coffee, sweet-bread and eggs on the menu.  Not having any other options, we all ordered eggs and sweet-bread.  Coffee was served and then our host hopped on his bicycle and rode off down the road. 

Raking the beach.

We had not seen anyone else around, but assumed there was a person in the kitchen preparing our meals.  Not more than five minutes later, our host arrived back and approached our table.  He informed us that he had been unable to find any eggs in town, so all he had to offer was sweet-bread.  Knowing that it was either that or nothing, we simply sat back and waited for the four buns to arrive.  As short as our experience at the restaurant was, we all enjoyed listening to sounds of the morning waves hitting the shore and watching an older gentleman rake the beach.
 
 
In order to catch her flight back to Tegucigalpa, out of La Ceiba, Noemi had made arrangements with Fausto to have a taxi delivered to Cabaņa Panchy at 9:00am.  We strolled back to the hotel and waited until 9:10am.  When no taxi showed up, Michael and Noemi went off in search of Fausto. 

Street in El Triunfo de la Cruz.

Unfortunately he was not home.  This was not the best situation to be in, however Fausto's neighbour from across the way, Crecensia, was more than happy to help out.  Crecensia is a wonderfully charismatic woman and a smile continuously graces her face.  She was always delighted to see us drive by her house and each time eagerly waved.  She managed to contact a taxi driver and within minutes, Noemi and Michael were headed back to Cabaņa Panchy to pick up the luggage.  The unfortunate part was that this particular taxi cab was rather old and run down.  Noemi had concerns about the car breaking down on the way to La Ceiba, so the kind cab driver agreed to drive her to Tela where she would be able to find a newer vehicle to take her on the hour drive to the airport.  With Noemi safely on her way home, Michael and Geraldine went back to the room to pack up the belongings they had taken into the hotel with them.
 
 

Hammock naptime.

Our photographer, Ruiz, had agreed to come to the hotel at 10:00am today to show us the photos he had taken so we could choose the 50 that we wanted to have developed as part of our package.  For the first time since arriving in Honduras, we felt like we were back in Mexico.  Everyone seemed to be running on their own time.  Finally, at 12:00pm, Ruiz showed up at our door.  We greeted each other briefly and then Ruiz excused himself as he had forgotten to bring his camera with him.  He must live close to Cabaņa Panchy as he was not gone more than ten minutes before he returned with camera in hand.  We all sat down together at the table and spent the next hour reviewing photographs.  There were some very beautiful shots taken and we were both pleased with Ruiz's work.  After we had chosen our preferred pictures, we made yet another appointment with Ruiz to get the prints.  Tomorrow at noon.
 
 

School girls.

For the afternoon, we decided to head into Tela.  We wanted to get a small gift for Braulio and Blanca as a thank you for all they had done for us since arriving in El Triunfo.  As we drove down the dirt road out of El Triunfo, we were greeted and waved at by ever local that we happened upon.  Geraldine even had one lady affectionately call out "Buenas, mamacita".  Mamacita in essence means 'Little Mama' and it is a term commonly used by Central American women when speaking to a younger generation of girls.  It was a very heart warming drive and we really felt like we had found ourselves a home away from home, complete with an extended family.
 
 
Tela was hot and humid like always and we leisurely strolled the streets looking for a gift.  As we passed by the florist shop and the bakery, we stopped in at each to talk to the proprietors.  We conveyed that we were very pleased with the product they had provided and that the wedding had been beautiful.  They were both very happy to hear from us and once again we felt like we were locals ourselves.  In between shopping, we decided to knock off two birds in one trip.  We grabbed our two loads of laundry from the van and dropped them off at the Laundromat.  Told to return later in the afternoon, we continued on in our search for the perfect gift.  Just before it was time to pick up the laundry, we hit the jackpot.  We found a ceramic wall hanging with a beach scene hand painted on it.  We could just picture it hanging behind the bar at Lito's Place.  On the walk back to the Laundromat, Michael came up with another great gift idea.  Since we had watched the local boys share three glasses amongst themselves every day after school, we thought it would be a good idea to get a set of eight glasses for the bar.  We quickly stopped off at some shops and found a great little set within our budget.  Pleased with ourselves, we picked up our laundry and drove the ten minutes back to El Triunfo.
 
 

Beach sunset.

When we pulled into Lito's Place for the first time since the wedding and we received a warm welcome from our friends.  They had been waiting for us all day and were eager to share some drinks with us.  Not being ones to turn down a drink, no matter how tired we were from our late night and early morning, we sat down and chatted for several hours.  At one point, Michael got up to dance and was immediately told to do the punta again.  Michael was fervently shaking his behind when Fermin's nephew could take it no longer.  He stood up, faced Michael and showed him the simple foot movements.  Having mastered the footwork, Michael was then told to shake the lower half of his body without moving his upper body.  Sounds easy enough, but not that easy to carry out.  The nephew repeatedly had to take hold of Michael's arms and lower them.  Finally Michael put his hands in his pockets to keep his arms from joining in on the dance party.  This little trick seemed to help as the nephew was pleased with the progress.  Moving along with the lesson, the nephew showed Michael that it was now time to turn his gyrating body around in a circle.  All previous advancement in dancing was lost the moment Michael made his first turn.  The nephew shook his head, threw his hands up in the air and sat down.  The lesson was over.  Michael had completed the vibration part of the dance and that would have to suffice. 
 

Lito´s Place in the moonlight.

It was rare to find both Braulio and Blanca present at Lito's Place.  Today they were both seated at a table in the corner and we took the opportunity to present our hosts with a thank-you gift.  We had gone so far as to find a gift bag at the local stationary shop and finished off the bag with left over pink and white ribbon from the wedding decorations.  We walked up to the table and simply told them thanks for everything and handed them the package.  The gift was accepted with return thanks.  The funniest part was when some of the regulars from Lito's Place came over to the table to peak into the bag.  Braulio swatted their unwanted hands away and Blanca whisked the bag from the table and took it to the house.   
 
 

Showing off his night moves.

Feeling the effects of several short nights, we excused ourselves early from the party and went to the van.  Deciding to have a night cap, we mixed ourselves some Plato Rum and Pepsi that was left over from the wedding, which seemed to give us a spike of energy.  The crowd at Lito's Place had dissipated and all the lights were now out.  We jumped at the chance to have some privacy on the beach and wandered out with a blanket to lie in the sand and watch the stars.  Michael has a hard time sitting still, so in between star gazing, he would entertain Geraldine with some odd singing and wild dance moves along the beach.  We hung out at the beach for nearly an hour before the sand flies became too much to handle.  Retreating to the van we spent the rest of the night in our heavily screened fortress. 
 
 
The morning of May 29, 2007 we woke up early after a decent night of sleep.  We were both starting to feel stronger and possess a little more energy than we had the previous few days.  As we prepared breakfast, a handful of kids from the village showed up and were all too curious about what we were doing.  The kids took turns poking their heads in through the van door opening and were taken aback when they saw a full kitchen inside.  The kids played with anything that was not bolted down inside the van and asked numerous questions.  Kids will be kids.  After breakfast and showers it was already approaching 9:00am and we were scheduled to be at Fausto's house to look at his artisan handicrafts and jewellery.  Fausto and his wife Sanaida have a small traveling business in which they sell bracelets, earrings, and rings crafted out of turtle shell, bull horn, coconut or mother of pearl shell.  We had expressed an interest in getting some items, so Fausto had set up a special viewing for us.
 
 
As we walked up to Fausto's we were impressed that he had two full tables of his wares prominently and proudly displayed at the entry to his yard.  We were motioned to sit down as he was going to serve us breakfast. 

Breakfast and shopping.

We had no time to respond and simply smiled and followed directions.  Fausto ran into the house and emerged moments later with a pile of breakfast snacks.  A large plate contained maduro (slices of ripe plantains, baked or broiled with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon) and home-made chorizo sausage and was accompanied by a bowl of organic hard boiled eggs.  We were surprised at the colour of the egg shells.  Some were pink and others were green.  A large jug of orange juice rounded out the meal.  We picked away at the food as we slowly browsed through the full tables of handicrafts and chatted about life.  We had noticed that the temperature outside was steadily increasing during our visit and near the end it was becoming unbearable.  There was very little shade in Fausto's yard and we were getting pounded by the sun.  After bagging our souvenir purchases and thanking our friend for his generosity in setting up our special show, we slowly walked back to Lito's Place.  It was near 11:30 in the morning and we had spent hours with Fausto.  Time flies when you do not wear a watch.
 
 
We sat around at Lito's Place waiting for Ruiz to show up for our meeting at noon.  As expected, noon came and went and no Ruiz. 

Beach day.

It was near 1:30pm when a guy walked up to the bar and explained to us that there was a problem with the photograph developing machine in Tela and that Ruiz was not able to get our prints done.  Ruiz was hoping to come by Lito's Place later in the afternoon once the machine was repaired.  We could do nothing but wait.  We did not want to leave El Triunfo and tour around in the event that Ruiz may show up at any given time.  As lunch had come and gone, we decided to have a mid-afternoon snack.  Re-energized, we walked to the beach to work off lunch.  We tossed a Frisbee back and forth for nearly an hour and worked up quite a sweat.  We cooled off riding the waves in the Caribbean Sea to round out the afternoon.  There was still no sign of Ruiz and by now it was nearly 4:00pm.  We gathered that the machine was still down and we would not see him today.
 
 

Curious kids.

Fausto showed up at Lito's Place late in the afternoon to check out our photographs, but we had nothing for him to see.  When Fausto learned that Ruiz had not shown up all day, he was a bit disappointed and we gathered that it was because he had recommended the photographer.  Fausto jumped on his bicycle and rode off to learn more regarding Ruiz's whereabouts.  We continued to sit around.  Earlier in the day we had passed by Julie, one of our little decorating helpers, and she told us today was her 10th Birthday. 

Geraldine and Julie.

Whispering to each other, we decided to get her a small piece of jewellery from Fausto's and asked her to drop by the van when she had the time.  Julie showed up at Lito's Place as nightfall was just setting in.  It was getting quite late and we were surprised to she her.  As blunt as children can be, she simply stated that we had asked her to come, so she did.  We presented Julie with a dark plastic bag which concealed her gift and was tied off with a curled pink ribbon.  Julie was gracious and took the bag in her hand and rode off down the road.  We thought this a bit odd as generally gifts are opened when you receive them, however not this time.  Julie returned a while later and was sporting her new bracelet.  She had a beaming smile from ear to ear and thanked us for the gift.  It was a warm feeling.  Julie and Geraldine posed for a few pictures and then the kids sat at the doorway to the van to watch Michael cook dinner.  They were all too easily amused with us.
 
 

Bear Hug!

After dinner we sat outside at Lito's Place and chatted with Blanca and her daughter Julissa.  Julissa was working on homework, which included learning English.  We took turns working on vocabulary with Julissa in English and then took our turn expanding our Spanish vocabulary with her help.  It was a pleasant evening.  Blanca even joined in on the homework word games with us.  None of the bar regulars were out, so it was a quiet night and we all went to bed relatively early after finishing our homework.