Honduras: Parte 2

Ok, so where was I?  As far as I remember I had put photos up from Copan Ruinas.  From there I started to make my way south.  First to Santa Rosa de Copan --> Gracias -->La Esperanza.  (in case you want to see it on a map)  In Lonely Plant guidebook parlance it's known as the Lenca trail because it traverses the lands where the native Lenca people lived.  It's a mountainous region where coffee, tabacco and incredible sights are super numerous.

Flor de Copan cigar factory.  I don't smoke but it was pretty darn cool and now I also have 3 cigars to eventually share with someone.  They do everything from fermenting and drying the leaves to rolling and then even build the boxes on site.  And they make cigars for dozens of different brands - all in the same place.  Made me wonder a bit about what distinguishes one brand from another...

In Gracias - want something pickled?

Also in Gracias, but I am not really sure from whom they would need protection or who would be crazy enough to bring an army through the region.  Legend has it that the name Gracias came from one of the conquistadors who was travelling through the country and reached the relatively flat area around Gracias and said "Gracias a Dios that we have reached flat land" - in old school Spanish of course - and the name stuck.  And Gracias isnt really the flat either...

I liked this quote alot.  And he must have done something right as he served as both President of El Salvador and later as PRes of Honduras.

These bus/vans can tackle any sort of terrain!

The road from Gracias to La Esperanza is beautiful!  Get ready for a bunch of vistas...

Still the main highway between Gracias and Esperanza - the quality is a little lower though...

La Esperanza - the city at highest altitude in Honduras and as such it was downright chilly - definitely could have used some more clothing although I brought all the warm stuff I had - which is really that much given the crazy heat in El Sauce.

In La Esperanza I met up with the San Jose Partners brigade from Rochester.  Check out their site for loads of information and even a blog from a med student who spent a year working down there.  In brief, it is a project through the Department of Family Medicine at Rochester and a group of docs and residents go down for 2 weeks every 6 months to this small village in the mountains of Honduras.  IT is a beautiful but very poor region and the goal of the project is to help lift the people out of poverty by improving aspects of their health.  To this end they run a clinic(a small part of the project in reality) and have projects of water filters, improved cook stoves, better latrines and are starting projects in fish farming and experimenting with different vegetables.  There is also a scholarship program for students and a small business loan project as well.  After 8 years, the project is quite well established and the people truly trust and believe in the project.  So much so that people in the surrounding communities are clamoring to be involved.  So hopefully, things will keep going in the right direction!  I only spent a week with the project but hopefully I can return next year as an official member of the brigade (1-2 medical students also travel with the brigade each time)

This is where we eat.

THe school and guy's dorm.  If you can't tell it is steeeeeeep around here.

THe new government built health clinic, with some students, residents and translators.  The clinic was provided by the government and it's nice,  but doesn't actually have anything but rooms inside.

We attracted a group of kids everywhere we went.  My favorite part of this pic is the little guy without clothes, but with shoes.  All the others have clothes but no shoes!

The sunsets were incredible!

More brigade members.

Not a bad place to work.  I was amazed daily by the scope of roadwork going on in a place where the roads truly are straight up and down.  I am super surprised no truck of other heavy machinery hasn't slipped off the road and off into the jungle below!

As in Nica, smiling in pictures is not allowed but after a lot of coaxing this was the best result I could get.

The improved cookstove - it gets smoke out of the house and with a smaller opening than normal retains more heat - thus using less firewood.  And it looks really nice.

Giving a quick lesson on cookstoves and latrines.

The group that went to visit the outlying community that would like to participate in the groups projects.  It's only 4.25 miles but the hike lasts over 3.5 hours...I'll let you imagine the mountains that make that happen!

After leaving the brigade I headed to Lago de Yojoa for some scenery and good microbrews ( yay stouts!) and then headed on back into Nica.  After 2.5 weeks I received a lot of "you've reappeared!".  But it's good to be back and now to do a bit of work and travel a bit through Nicaragua.  After 2 weeks in Honduras I have seen more of the country than I have in 2.5 months here in Nica!  It's time to change that...