Two Beers and a Pretzel

Wow, what a day…  I relaxed all day yesterday, as the horseback riding tour didn‘t work out.  I ended up booking a hiking tour for today.  My guide, Jesse, was from West Virginia.  We hiked in the hills of copan for about 6 hours total.

I ate termites!!!  They taste like citrus and pepper.

We then found a Mayan site associated with fertility where women from important families went to give birth.  We both sat in the “chair” and it was very comfortable.  I just couldn’t imagine taking a 9 month pregnant wife up there…  “Hey honey, come on, it’s just a 2 mile uphill hike to give birth on a rock shaped like a giant frog!  The Joneses did it!”   Jesse did a birthing demo:

From there, we hiked up to a waterfall with three different falls, a pool to jump into, and a part that goes thru a cave.

Finally, we ate lunch at an indigenous village.  The little kids from 3-12 years old sold me some “corn dolls”, and we ate freshly made corn tortillas, (yum) fried bananas, and chicken with rice, as well as the non-native Coca Cola.  What we didn’t finish was devoured by the kids.

I asked Jessie how the little girls could be so cute up until their late teens but seriously downhill from there quickly.  He said most girls start having babies at 14-15, and usually have 8 kids in their life.  They don’t have traditional families (even though they are mostly Catholic), and the boys/men have no obligation to support a specific woman.  In fact, even though a boy may father many children by many different girls, he will still live with his mother until he decides to get married – because men do not clean, cook, or do laundry.  What the men do is tend the crops and grow food for the whole village.

Well, I’m off to Twisted Tanya’s Thanksgiving Celebration…  Yes, there’s turkey and stuffing in Honduras!!!

Tomorrow I’m catching a bus to San Pedro, then an early bus on Saturday to Tegucigalpa and on to Managua, Nicaragua.  Then another Early bus toSan Jose, Costa Rica.  The flight was about $500-750 for a one way ticket.  The bus trip is about $100 one way on luxury coaches and continues on to Panama City whenever I want to go there.  I can chill for a few days reading on a bus to save $400.  Plus, I’ll spend the night in Nicaragua, so that will count as another country visited.

The only bummer is that the “windy” season is coming up, so I may not get to take a sailboat to Cartegena…  I may re-route from Panama City to Rio, and see Uncle Jimmy for Christmas in Brazil.  Then make my way thru Argentina, Chile, Peru, and bac