September 27, 2006

• First Day

  Saturday night before I went to bed I had the Juan talk to the person at the front desk of the hotel and arrange for a rental car to be brought to me in the morning.  The clerk told him that I would have no problem getting a rental car place to bring me one although it was going to be Sunday morning.  My plans were to drive to the sewing co-op and then on to Olanchito.  I was told that it was approximately 45 minutes up to the co-op and Juan told me that Olanchito was a 1 hour easy drive.

  Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30 and showered and went downstairs to start the day.  Before going to breakfast I stopped at the front desk and inquired about having them contact the rental car company to have a car brought over for me.  The clerk said that it would be impossible to get a rental car on Sunday morning and that my best hope would be to get one sometime in the afternoon if the rental car place opened up.  I was somewhat disappointed.

  Breakfast was to be served starting at 6:30 so I hit the road walking to see if I could find a taxi and inquire as to how much it would cost for him to take me to Olanchito.  I found one on the corner up the street and after communicating with him in broken english/spanish, he told me 12000 limperas for a trip to Olanchito which is 60 USD.  I thought that would be fair but I noticed that his car was not air conditioned and the fact that he spoke no English and I speak virtually no Spanish, it could end up being a bust.

  By now it was 6:30 so I headed back to the hotel for breakfast.  I stopped at the front desk and asked the clerk if they could get me an English speaking driver with an air conditioned car.  They said that they would do so and I headed for breakfast.  I needed a reminder that I am in Honduras and 6:30 does not mean 6:30 for the breakfast buffet to open.  6:30 is simply a target that no one really expects to be when food will be available.  When the waiter saw me sitting outside the restaurant at 6:35, he started scurrying the help around and opened the doors at around 6: 45.

  I ate breakfast and headed back to the front desk where they had a very well dressed driver waiting to haggle with me over the price for his services for the day.  After getting him to agree to half of what he originally asked for, I headed up to my room to get the rolling duffel bag I had brought to transport the bags from the sewing co-op.

  Juan Garcia is the driver for the only taxi in La Ceiba with Quinta Real Hotel plastered all over it.  He has a mural of the hotel on both sides of the car with EXCLUSIVO and QUINTA REAL in decals on the windshield.  Needless to say the little 4 door Nissan stands out from everything else on the road.

  We headed out of town to our first destination which was Juan Pablo Segundo Cooperative.  The trip up the washed out gravel mountain road was somewhat rough for the little car but that didn’t stop Juan from driving around 10 miles per hour faster that I was comfortable with.  Once we crossed the wooden bridge with holes that Juan had to dodge, I got my bearings and started to recognize some of the landmarks that Mel had sent me in an email.  After we passed the last little village she mentioned the next instructions said to stop 200 meters before the sign that said El Pital at the concrete barrier on the left side of the road which was the retaining structure for this side of the cable for the zip line basket that is used to get to the co-op.

  I noticed the cable before we approached the concrete barrier and told Juan to stop.  He honked his horn and a boy brought the basket across the river for me.  My 45 pound bag full of goodies for the women and I piled into the basket with the boy and we were off.  The basket is moved with a 3 foot long ratchet device that the boy pumped.  Around 3/4 of the way across the river, he stopped ratcheting.  His breath was heaving and I realized that he was having trouble moving this 220 pound Gringo and his big bag across the zip line.  I started helping him pull the ratchet and we reached the other side shortly thereafter.

  We were greeted by Rosario and some small children.  I carried the bag up to the workshop where I was greeted by an anglo face.  Lindsey Brownlee is the interpreter that Mel had mentioned and she is a 19 year old young lady that had been at the co-op for 8 days.  I gave Rosario the stuff in my bag and commenced to pack it with the cloth bags that she had made for the convention in Washington DC.  When we got them all loaded, I paused to take a look around the co-op.  They had a stack of wares in a corner and Rosario showed me many of them.  I bought some of the hot pads and she insisted on giving me a small towel with pictures of Honduran wares.  I will post pictures when I return home.

  I then told Rosario through Lindsey what I was doing in Honduras.  Tears came to her eyes as Lindsey explained what this big Gringo was planning in her country.  I had Lindsey tell Rosario that she was doing a great work and to continue to do so.

  I didn’t mention that Juan Garcia’s English was only a little better than my Spanish and I realized an opportunity to have a full blown interpreter accompany me on the second leg of my journey.  I asked Lindsey if she would like to go with me to Olanchito to see the peace corps volunteer.  You would have thought that I had asked her if she would like to take a trip to Disney World.  She agreed to go and went away to clean up and change her clothes.

  The co-op is carved out of a steep mountain that does not have any natural flat areas.  They had to dig and pick through rock for 3 months to clear an area for the 30 by 50 workshop.  Every piece of construction material including concrete, concrete block and wood had to be transported over in the basket hanging from the cable that crosses the river.

  I spent some time drinking in the beautiful children that gathered around while Lindsey cleaned up.  Then Lindsey and I piled into the basket with Rosario and the heavy duffel bag.  Half way across I started helping Rosario push the ratchet and we said our good byes.

  More of this adventure later.

  • 12:58 pm
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