First day of school!

Yesterday was the first day of school. I left the house a few minutes before Dunia and headed to my favorite coffee shop, just down the road from the school. Two cafe lattes cost the equivalent of about $4.00, and the coffee is great! At school I was greeted by the other teachers who remembered me from the last couple of years. It's nice to see familiar faces. As promised I was given an exam to write which took about 45 minutes. I have spent most of my time over the last year working on conversation, so my grammar has suffered. It was a good review and showed me how much I still need to work on. Dunia and I spent the rest of the morning until break, working on some revision. After break it was conversation then back to grammar revision.


After class, Dunia and I headed to the local market. I had arranged with Ellen to meet her later that day to go and visit the elderly couple that I wrote about last year, Francesca and Carlos. They live in Miraflores,an area just north (well it feels like north as you go up a hill to get there, but in reality, it could be south) of Copan. Last year their roof had been fixed by an American couple who had some funds left over that their church had raised for their travels. It was badly needed as they have little. Ellen and I took a tuk tuk (taxi) as far as we could go. As we pulled up, Francesca was waiting for us. She said she remembered me from last year. We climbed the hill to their house and were pleasantly surprised to see a lady helping them with a few chores and cooking tortillas. She is not family but lives nearby and knows they need help. I had brought some food to leave them and then Ellen and I chatted with them a while bfore we left;

Up the hill....Ellen and Francesca;

The view is worth the climb;

Ellen, Francesca and Carlos;

Their only source of cooking;

The afternoon and evening was filled with some studying until Rudy came to get me to tell me to come outside and see the views. These were taken from thier neighbours rooftop;

Last night's dinner was baleadas, my favorite Honduran dish......Tortillas with beans, cream, cheese and last night chorizo. Baleadas can have numerous and varying ingredients and another one of my favorites comes with scrambled egg.


This morning, Dunia and I headed to La Casa de Te (the tea) house) to join another teacher and her student. This house is part of a Botanical Research Station that has served as a pilot project to demonstrate how the areas around the Copan valley can viably be planted with many useful types of trees which will help hold and renew the soil, aiding to replenish the sources of water. The areas around Copan are vulnerable to erosion and landslides and their sources of water are drying up. The tea house provides stunning views over the landscape while serving a variety of organic teas. They also have to die for hot chocolate made from organic cacao. They have a saying on their literature, "Let's make planet earth our church and protecting it our religion." (E. Aguirre). That seems to say it all.


La Casa de Te;

I am presently sitting in Cafe San Rafael, enjoying a cold beer and about to study for an hour or so. For those that haven't read the blog before I will add some photos below to show you a little more around Copan. If you want to look at just the photos, you should be able to tap on any photo to view all of them in a slide show format. I always wonder if the photos capture the beauty of the area. Hopefully they at least give you a sense of what it is like here. Enjoy;