Sin Planificacion/Without Planning

Sometimes the weekends you do not plan end up being most fun. That was the case for me this past weekend. I had a salida/free weekend. The Europeans were going to Amapala, and I figured I’d already been there, so I chose not to go. Vanessa (San Francisco) and Annemarie (Minnesota) were planning to go into Tegucigalpa. They had their entire weekend planned out, so I figured I’d ‘tag along’ with them. They went into the city early on Friday, whereas I chose to wait until later in the afternoon. I hitched a ride with Victor (ex-pequeño from Mexico) and Miguel (ex-pequeño from Honduras). Instead of dropping me off directly at the hotel we went to Media Mall, which is the Honduran equivalent to Borders or Barnes &Noble. We had coffee, read magazines, chatted and chilled out. I then went to the hotel and hung out with Aline (France) while we waited to hear from Annemarie and Vanessa so we could meet up with them. We decided we’d get something to eat in the meantime so we went to the Multi Plaza Mall food court and got Quizno’s and ice cream…yum! Annemarie and Vanessa text messaged us and said they were going to meet up with us at the mall and then we were going to go out dancing. Well, our group quickly grew; Victor and Miguel showed up, as well as some other ex-pequeños: Giovanni, Benigno, and Hector. We all went out to Los Cabalos for drinks and reggaeton. It was a good time – Victor even entertained us with some table dancing.
The next day we went into the center for licuados and pan dulce/sweet bread. Then we all split up to run errands. While I was out shopping I got a text from Miguel and Victor inviting me to go to Valle de Angeles (a little pueblo outside of Tegucigalpa…I’ve written about it in one of my first entries). I really had no other set plans, so I said sure! Can I just mention that it is so much nicer to travel by car than by Honduran bus! It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. We stopped at a roadside vendor for elote/corn on the cob on the way. While in Valle de Angeles we café and bar hopped; sitting out on the terrazas/outdoor seating, we ate pupusas, anafre, and pastelitos. It was a beautiful, relaxing day. Feria/fair was going on as well in the pueblo, so we got to see some traditional dances and hear music. Afterwards, the plan was to drop me off at the hotel so I could meet up with the girls and we were going to go out and celebrate one of the ex-pequeños’ birthdays. However, Miguel and Victor dragged me out to a restaurant where they were meeting up with one of their co-workers, Nancy. Nancy’s husband works for El Heraldo newspaper, so he gets tons of free stuff. Well, it just so happened that they had extra tickets to a flamenco show at the theatre, and they offered them to us. There was no way we were going to turn those down, so we headed directly to the theatre in our scrubby clothes. We ended up sitting in box seats and enjoyed a wonderful show, which reminded me so much of being in Spain. Afterwards, we got some food and I headed back to the hotel.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I hung out for the most part in the hotel with Annemarie, who was sick, watching movies, reading, and napping. I went out for dinner with Vanessa and Douglas (New York), but that was pretty much it.
On Monday we had off of school in celebration of the discovery of America. Jean (New York) came into town early – we usually come into Tegucigalpa on Mondays to do therapy in Casa Angeles on Tuesdays. Miguel and Victor text messaged us inviting us to go to Picacho, which is a park on the top of a mountain with a huge statue of Jesus looking over Tegucigalpa. We hopped in the car and went along for the ride. Tegucigalpa actually looks pretty nice from afar. Afterwards, we headed to El Dorado, a strip mall with the best licuados in town. The boys then invited us over to their place for dinner, where we watched cable T.V. and ate spaghetti.
Then it was back to work on Tuesday. Casa Angeles at 6:00 AM. However, Jean and I enjoyed ourselves a little bit more in the afternoon. We treated ourselves to T.G.I.Friday’s for lunch and I got a pedicure…yeah baby! Now that’s high class! Hey, after three months of living and walking on the ranch, my feet needed a little T.L.C.
Basically, Tegucigalpa is growing on me. This weekend enabled me to see the city from a different view, immerse myself in the local culture, and hang out with Hondurans…what more can you ask for!