Oh wait! I went to Copan this weekend! For those of you who don't know, Copan was an ancient Mayan city. It took us about 7 hours on a mini bus filled with Honduran teenagers to get to Copan from La Ceiba. Copan is only 11K from Guatemala so we got to see a lot of the Honduran countryside. Honduras is beautiful! It is very green with rolling hills. We passed various farms (bananas, corn, etc) with lots of cows... This was particularly exciting because a girl in our group is afraid of cows and kind of freaks out when she sees them (she thinks they're going to run after her and bite her arm). The roads are pretty bad (many rockslides and annoying speedbumps). There is also a fairly liberal passing policy on the roads here. Basically, it's perfectly acceptable for a minibus to pass a car on 1 lane curvy road with oncoming traffic.
The town of Copan is super cute. It's a little bit touristy and has a slight hippy feel to it. It seemed a lot cleaner than La Ceiba though there were more stray dogs roaming around. There also a bunch of tiny red minicabs (think covered tricycle motorbikes... I think they're little deathmobiles) racing around the cobblestone streets. There were a bunch of cute street vendors and cafes.
On Friday, after we arrived from La Ceiba, we grabbed lunch and explored the town. The next morning, we woke up early to go see the ruins. As some of you may remember, I was an anthropology major and took a Mesoamerican Civilizations class my sophomore year (thanks, Shawdog...). So what I'm saying is: like 8 years ago I knew something about the Mayans. And so walking around the Copan ruins was pretty exciting! The size and complexity of the structures were very impressive and we were even able to go in archaeological tunnels to see older ruins (each king would build a new city on top of the old one to signify his power).
After a full morning of ruins exploration, our group went horseback riding (don't worry I loaded up on allergy meds before the ride). Of course, my horse was the smallest and didn't want to move. I brought up the rear in true LRC fashion. Oh and not one but two horses decided to bite my legs (so random, I know). Halfway through the ride it started pouring down rain and we took shelter near an indigenous Mayan school where there were a bunch of cute kids trying to sell us handmade cornhusk dolls (I declined... sorry mom).
Our ride back to La Ceiba was treacherous and I wanted to kill myself because the highschool kids thought it would be fun to sing along to the bus driver's weird techno music and play clapping games. So so special. Anyway I'm exhausted now and it's almost time for bed (or last week of classes starts tomorrow!).
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After the morning's activities, we return home for a big lunch. Lunch almost always includes some form of fried plantains and rice and beans. Usually we have meat, too. It's definitely the biggest meal of the day and is a little heavy for my taste... especially in the heat.
Dinner is pretty small. We usually have baleadas (beans and cheese in a flour tortilla), pastelitos (fried dough filled with rice, beans and sometimes meat), or quesadillas on handmade corn tortillas. This may sound like a lot but each of these is served in appetizer sized portions.
Okay. You're probably thinking "wow, J! Thanks so much for that boring glimpse of your daily life. I don't care what you eat." To this I say: true, but I promise this is going somewhere.
During meals, our crazy host mother, G, sits with us and usually tells us about her menopause medications (they're all natural and she takes them twice a day and they're very expensive). When she's not talking about menopause, or the heat (another daily topic, which is shocking because it is almost always hot in Honduras), she likes to tell us that we're fat. "Oh! Que gordas!"
Last night we were super gordas because we asked for seconds at dinner: in total we had about the equivalent of a 6-inch subway sandwich with a light layer of beans and sour cream in it = not that much. After dinner, S and I were chilling in my room when G decided to come in and called us fatties again (okay, this time I may have been sprawled out on the bed like an obese person in a food coma after turkey day). She then convinced us to go for an evening stroll around the neighborhood. It sounded simple enough and the night was cool so we agreed.
The walk started off as expected. We went to a local bodega and checked out some of the local goods. Next thing we knew, we were getting into a truck with one of G's friends, cruising the streets of La Ceiba. Umm WHAT?! Good thing S and I had 1) no money 2) no ID and 3) no idea where we were. The first stop was the beach where a bunch of locals were chillin and kids were playing in the water. "Don't go in there!" G yelled at some child running towards the water, "there's poopoo in there!" hmmm. I'm also pretty sure it was the beach that the school director told us to avoid going to after dark because that's where "drug addicts inject and sniff drugs." sweet!
G and friend (who was a dude) clearly wanted to get a drink somewhere so we got back in the truck and drove to another beach on the other side of town. The bar was right on the beach and consisted of tables under a big tent. Patrick Swayze's "She's like the wind" was playing (yesss). Even though S and I had to be up early (5am departure the next morning) for a trip to Copan, we were persuaded to have a beer. As random as it was, the beach bar was pretty cool. We watched a crazy rain storm with lightening over the ocean and then walked along the beach. While S and I tried to avoid the crabs scuttling across the sand (and our feet), G (who is married) was making out with her friend (obviously). When we returned to the bar the friend ordered us more beer (twist our arms). Then, he unexpectedly got up, ordered us more beer, and said he'd be back in a bit. So now, S and I were stranded at some random beach bar, a little buzzed, with our crazy host mom.
Luckily the friend returned after about 45 minutes and we headed back to our neighborhood, Colonia El Sauce. Finally! We thought. (we still had to pack for our early morning trip). Wrong! Instead of going home, we stopped at the friend's store where some people were sitting out front drinking beers. More beer appeared in front of us (which we tried to refuse, which didn't work). So we sat around, joking with G: she made fun of my fat legs and S's big butt (she's a "chine especial" even though she's Korean) and we mostly laughed awkwardly. G spit some beer in S's face (accidentally, of course). Finally, we decided to walk home. Our short evening stroll, which began at 7 came to an end around midnight. At least we made it home alive!
I thought the excitement was over for the night when I heard S screaming from the other room: a cockroach! After an epic battle involving folded papers, a broom and lots of DEET, we prevailed and S could sleep the 3.5 hours we had before leaving for Copan in peace.
Yup. Just a typical night in Honduras. And it all started because S and I are gordas.
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