true life planet

So, I’m not looking for Pink Boa constrictors on the elusive Pig Islands right now-I’m back in Copan Ruinas, close to the Guatemalan border.

Why?

Here’s what happened:

We took a bus to San Pedro Sula and then another bus to Ceipa, on the Mosquito Coast. The bus rides were amazing pleasant, as we a had decided to take first class buses because they were direct. The buses stayed on the newly paved highways, which turned out to be a good thing as we later heard the dirt roads were completely washed out and under water.

The view from the bus window was like a beautiful tour of the country-very green, lush, and tropical. All kinds of trees and plants, but mostly coconut palm and banana plantations.
people lived in small one room houses, and even though it was raining, everyone was outside under umbrellas or just hanfging out on their porches. There were alot of farmers, cowboys, and working farm animals dotting the landscape: horses carrying heavy loads of wood; a cowboy herding cattle; people walking along the side of road with metal cans of milk.

Even though it was really pretty in some places, there was also a crushing poverty that was especially visible in and around San Pedro Sula. For example, huge strips of land along the road had been turned into shanty towns, consisting of one room shacks made of scraps of wood, paper, and metal. Groups of children were playing outside in the mud and rain; women were cooking outside in makeshift kitchens; men were drunk on the side of the road; and many animals looked like they were starving (including horses, cows, and dogs).

In San Pedro Sula, the bus terminal is outside of the city, because the city is so dangerous. The bus terminal was pretty safe and included an enormous mini mall and food court, and there were tons of guys trying to get us to get on their bus companies bus. There were also homeless children there-this is a huge problem in San Pedro Sula-and they were very dirty, without shoes, and somewhat glassy in the eyes. At one point, I saw a young girl, no more than 6 years old, wearing a tiny pair of shorts and a womans sweater, shrieking and sniffing glue. I cannot get the image of this girl out of my mind. I also saw kindness towards others there-for example some bus drivers gave a homeless boy money for food, and the dogs that wandered around were not chased away, but loitered for scraps.

When it was time to get on the bus, everyone grouped together and shoved others out of the way-whoever got on first got a seat. It was orderly once everyone had a seat, and we were off to Ceipa, our next stopover on the Mosquito Coast.
The view from this bus ride was especially beautiful, and the closer we got to Ceipa, the more beautiful it became. It was even more lush, more overgrown with greenery, and completely covered in vines, flowers, banana and coconut plantations, and colorfully painted houses. The houses were mostly tiny, all brightly painted, in colors like turquoise, lavender, and cobalt blue. There were also shanties and shanty towns here and there, usually surrounded by children and a few chickens running around.

Even though it was beautiful and looked idyllic, I was really aware of the oppressive poverty that was pressing down on these people. Also, the military presence was very…obvious.
There were policemen everywhere with MK-47’s, police checkpoints along the way, and at one point police boarded out bus, asking random people where they were going. Many businesses were behind locked gates, and had armed guards.

The Honduran people that I met along the way were the nicest, sweetest people I have met so far on my travels. Everyone smiled, made jokes, and gave us help when wwe needed it. The people of Honduras have got to be one of the most beautiful peoples on Earth-everyone is beautiful, everyone is gracious.

When we finally got to Ceiba, we got off at the terminal-most of which was under water. We waded (I’m not kidding!) through the reddish muddy water to a collectve taxi, got on, and headed to a bank-because where we were going, there were no banks. After getting a bit more cash, we walked down the road in the pouring rain, walking through the water to the bus stop.

We boarded the bus for Nuevo Armenia, and it was standing room only-but within minutes people had offered us their seats.
We took a seat, and sighed with relief-finally, a bit closer to the elusive Pig Islands!

The bus was my best and worst (best for the story to tell; worst for the scary experience) chicken bus to date. It was an old yellow school bus, packed full of people heading back to Nuevo Armenia. The luggage racks held bags of food, cartons of eggs…it was a colorful bus, full of people laughing and talking.

The entire road all the way to the village was entirely flooded-literally, completely under water. In some places, the water was more than three feet tall, and the bus was rocking back and forth, from side to side. I started thinking about how I would get out of the bus, if it fell to one side-or if we got stuck in the reddish mud, how I would have to walk to the village!

We were passing little cement houses, wooden houses on stilts, and entire landscape that was particially underwater. There were no people or animals-it looked like everyone had taken to higher ground.

The bus got to one point where the crossing road had turned into a river-and we had to drive thru it. It was going pretty fast and hard, and our bus slowly crossed. People were looking out the windows, pretty amazed that we made it across, making jokes that we were in a boat, not a bus!

The bus ride was supposed to have taken 45 minutes-but took several hours. By the time we arrived, it was dark and pouring rain. We got off the bus, no idea of where we were.

Luckily, almost everyone in the village is related somehow, so when we asked for Hotel Chi Chi, a few women told us to follow them down the road. We followed along, wading thru the water and utterly soaked thru our clothes(in spite of rain jackets!).
We were the object of curiousity, as there are no tourist facilities there and so gringoes are unusual.

When we arrived at the Hotel Chi Chi. there was no sign that said, Hotel, or anything like that-only what seemed to be a sign for a bar and a nother saying , Armenia Disco. The owner Chi Chi came out and took us into the patio area. It seemed to be some sort of eatery/bar/dance place.

Chi Chi was really amazing-a tall, strong, black woman with glasses, smoking a cigarette, with an amazing presence. (we found out later that she was a real leader in her community, has been instrumental in organizing her village, and has served in the past on commissions with Rigoberta Menchu, a famous activist for Guatemalan Indigenous people).

We hung out for awhile while they got a room ready-and after it was tidy, she handed us a key and we were led thru a backyard full of laundry to our room. We opened the door and found two little twin beds, each topped with a mosquito net, and a room painted brightly coral pink, with wooden shutters instead of windows. Also decorating the room were many signs about the importance of using condoms(!) and a huge array of condoms. There must have been at least 15 condoms in the room. (It turns out that Chi Chi is trying to combat AIDS and STDS in her community-and similiar signs about sex education were all over the hotel, including in the bar area and the kitchen. She is also a Catholic and has 6 children herself….)

We were soaking wet, but giggling at the array of condoms we had not been expecting for our arrival(being two women traveling together!) so of course we had to photograph the room!

After we changed, we went to investigate the bathroom, which turned out to be right next to our room. It consisted of two rooms. Room one was a big bucket with a shower head-probably rainwater.Room two was an enormous barrel, full of rainwater, with a yellow pail floating in it. Alongside this was the toilet-apparently after you used the toilet, you scooped up some water with the pail and flushed it with that. I was feeling adventurous, so I immediately tried it out-turns out it’s a pretty good system!

We went out and talked to Chi Chi about getting to the Pig Island-turned out, this was n’t possible as the rain strom was huge, and there was no chance of it stopping until at least Monday or Tuesday(and even after that, heading out to the island on a small fishing boat might prove too difficult until the sea calmed down). So we were stuck. But, thankfully, stuck in a wonderfully interesting place!

We were starving as we had been on the bus all day, so we had some dinner. The typical food for this area of Honduras is fried fish or chicken, and fried banana chips. The fish is fried whole, with the head on and everything…

As we were eating, Chi Chi’s god daughter came in to the bar, and began dancing- a certain kind of dancing that the Garifuna people do, called punta. Everyone was friendly and enjoying themselves, and Moira got up and started learning the dance.
Punta is-very sexually suggestive,and you don’t move your whole body-just your pelvis and hips a little, accompanied by a kind of shuffle.

When we got up the next day-rain. We asked about the weather, and trying to remain optimistic, decided to stay for another day and hope it cleared up-besides, we were in the middle of a very interesting place, so why not?

The village of Nuevo Armenia is entirely populated by the Garifuna people(as are the immediate surrounding areas). Garifuna means Black Carib, and they are found throughout the coastal areas of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras..they can be traced back to the Carribean island of St Vincent, where some African slaves were shipwrecked long ago. When the British took over St Vincent, they deported the Garifuna people. Most of them went to Roatan, one of the Bay Islands off of Honduras, where many starved to death. The remaining Garifuna now live there and along the coasts of the previously mentioned countries.

The Garifuna people are really beautiful, with amazing hospitality and warmth. The amount of love and care that I saw Chi Chi give to others was extraordinary-she really is a leader in her community.

Throughout the community are signs posted saying that the Garifuna people there have a dream that they can have their village be a part of the ecotourism of Honduras. They seem to be somewhat forgotten, or not important to the government of their country-for example the conditions of the roads leading to their community are impassable in some areas.

We got to walk around a bit in the community and talk to some of the people there-it’s a fishing village, with a very simple lifestyle. There are about 300 houses, all very small, some only consisting of one room, and a few general stores and one or two churches. About two thousand people live there, including some 300 or so children. People know and speak a surprising amount of English, and school is important-although Chi Chi told us that after secondary education, everyone goes on to work with the fishing industry, so people don’t go to college or learn other trades.

We wanted to walk down to the beach, but Chi Chi told us that she had to go with us-for one, there aren’t alot of tourists walking around; second, the beach was dangerous because of the waves and the undertow. So instead, we walked around the town, getting absolutely soaked like everyone else! There were so many beautiful people and beautiful moments that we saw that would have made really great photographs-but we were really trying to be culturally sensitive, and didn’t take many pictures(only of Chi Chi and the children in her family).

We spent the entire day hanging out with the kids and her family-even visiting her mother down the road, who had diabetes and was in a wheelchair. We sat in her living room and met the family members, and just watched tv on the couch. The house of her mother was painted a brilliant turquiose green, on the inside and out. The living room had family photos framed on the walls and certificates of family accomplishments…her mother was funny and sweet, with a soft face and a low laugh.

We were sitting there for some time watching a call in talk show, when we realized that Chi Chi was trying to call in to the show. Apparently she calls into this show everyday! She actually got through a couple of times and got on the air. Her mother was laughing and shaking her head the whole time. The show was about the days events, including the terrible flooding and the cost of goods day to day(inflation is terrible here). Chi Chi had alot to say about everything.

We then walked out into the rain, and Moira and I went in search for an umbrella(had a travel one, left it in La Esperanza, thinking a rain coat would suffice!). No tienda had one-but we also needed a few pens, so we went into the tienda at the end of the road to ask for a few. A beautiful woman came out wearing a black slip, smiling at us. The image of this woman I will never forget, it was so amazing-in the middle of this flood, this jungle, this lush overgrown place, with reddish mud for a road, there is this woman with a radiant smile and a black slip, standing in her doorway.

We walked back to the Hotel Chi Chi, and napped, hung out with the family, and just had a mellow day. After a dinner of fried chicken(gained about 5 pounds in 2 days there!), Chi Chi turned on the tv, and there was a guy singing traditional Honduras ballads on. Of course it was a call in show, and she called in! She requested a special song for the two touristas she had (US!) and we watched the guy sing a song just for us.

After we got back to our room, under the din of the pouring rain, we laid on our beds under our mosquito nets, trying to decide what to do next-the Garifuna community was amazing, but we couldn’t stay here for a week waiting for it to stop raining. So Moira went out into the rain to Chi Chi’s house to tell her we needed to take a bus the next day.

Chi Chi woke us up at 5 am, and walked with us down the road to the bus stop. She was so sweet, she invited us both to return, and I think I will-someday.

We returned to Copan Ruinas, it being the easiest road to take. We’re here for the weekend, then Monday am heading back to Guatemala, where we will be visiting an animal refuge, and enormous lake, and taking a boat ride thru the jungle to get to Livingston(where the largest concentration of Garifuna people are). Then on to Tikal ruins…

gg

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