From worse to bad
At first glance Tegucigalpa & Honduras seemed as if the economy, of one of the poorest countries in Latin America, had made a change for the better over the last 8 years. But just like so many other Latin American countries, once you dig deeper you only realise that only the rich have become richer and the poor poorer. It is obvious that major US fast food companies realised the potential of the country when real estate value was probably at it its lowest for years directly after Hurricane Mitch in 98. The Hurricane left thousands dead and many more thousands homeless. Tegucigalpa being the biggest and financially strongest city of Honduras has made a full recovery, but from what I understand, the North coast which was struck the worst is still struggling to repair and rebuild.
Catching up with my host family has been an amazing experience. My host father has been able to realise his dream by building a house on their property in Tatumbla, retiring, moving there and growing his hobby farm into a fully productive dairy farm whilst still producing coffee (my favourite), platano and plenty of chilli. I think my whole family is happy for the move, I mean who wouldn’t be happy living in front of a beautiful cloud forest covered mountain.
Lilla and I stayed up with them for the first 5 days making day trips to Tegus to check out some of the old favourites, only to find that Australian restaurants and bars no longer exist, my after school licuado (smoothie) shop (the one that made apply for a job at Boost) is not there either and my favourite in town restaurant behind the church has been replaced by a fried chicken and random other things fast food joint! Our favourite coffee joint, Espresso Americano, where we used to sip Granitas on a daily basis is still around however; in fact it has become more like a Honduran Starbucks, with stores every 10 meters from each other. Malls have replaced empty blocks of land, Plaza Miraflores is now a fast food gaunt, most bridges have been rebuilt (after Mitch washed them away), Hotel Centenario is still where it used to be, Christ still watches over the city and Bigo’s have changed their menu, but nearly everything else is the same.
We have spent the last couple of days up in Valle de Angeles, relaxing by the pool, eating many of my Honduran favourites and checking out some nearby attractions like Parque Nacional La Tigre (no drinking of streams this time Geoff) and Santa Lucia where my other favourite French Restaurant has also sold up. We headed back into Tegus yesterday afternoon as Marcella, my host sister who was with my family in Australia whilst I was in Honduras, was heading into town for the weekend. She has been in Cuba studying to be a doctor for the last 7 years and has now returned to Honduras for placement in the middle of nowhere. We teamed up with some of her friends, Mario, his girlfriend and her friend for a night on the town before heading back to Centenario where we are spending the weekend to party the rest of the night away on the roof (just like old times) with Richard’s host brother, Edgar.
The plan for the weekend is to check out some more local nightlife and enjoy Centenario’s rooftop before heading into no man’s land early Monday morning to meet my sponsor child, Santos G, before heading to Trujillo and some Caribbean action!
Photos below……..
Catching up with my host family has been an amazing experience. My host father has been able to realise his dream by building a house on their property in Tatumbla, retiring, moving there and growing his hobby farm into a fully productive dairy farm whilst still producing coffee (my favourite), platano and plenty of chilli. I think my whole family is happy for the move, I mean who wouldn’t be happy living in front of a beautiful cloud forest covered mountain.
Lilla and I stayed up with them for the first 5 days making day trips to Tegus to check out some of the old favourites, only to find that Australian restaurants and bars no longer exist, my after school licuado (smoothie) shop (the one that made apply for a job at Boost) is not there either and my favourite in town restaurant behind the church has been replaced by a fried chicken and random other things fast food joint! Our favourite coffee joint, Espresso Americano, where we used to sip Granitas on a daily basis is still around however; in fact it has become more like a Honduran Starbucks, with stores every 10 meters from each other. Malls have replaced empty blocks of land, Plaza Miraflores is now a fast food gaunt, most bridges have been rebuilt (after Mitch washed them away), Hotel Centenario is still where it used to be, Christ still watches over the city and Bigo’s have changed their menu, but nearly everything else is the same.
We have spent the last couple of days up in Valle de Angeles, relaxing by the pool, eating many of my Honduran favourites and checking out some nearby attractions like Parque Nacional La Tigre (no drinking of streams this time Geoff) and Santa Lucia where my other favourite French Restaurant has also sold up. We headed back into Tegus yesterday afternoon as Marcella, my host sister who was with my family in Australia whilst I was in Honduras, was heading into town for the weekend. She has been in Cuba studying to be a doctor for the last 7 years and has now returned to Honduras for placement in the middle of nowhere. We teamed up with some of her friends, Mario, his girlfriend and her friend for a night on the town before heading back to Centenario where we are spending the weekend to party the rest of the night away on the roof (just like old times) with Richard’s host brother, Edgar.
The plan for the weekend is to check out some more local nightlife and enjoy Centenario’s rooftop before heading into no man’s land early Monday morning to meet my sponsor child, Santos G, before heading to Trujillo and some Caribbean action!
Photos below……..
posted by Sanchez at 4:18 AM
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