La Pintada

The last couple of days have been filled with class, a lot of homework and a fun excursion yesterday to Pintada, a small indigenous village about an hour by horse from Copan Ruinas.


The school and my study area;

I also study a little at the house, sometimes with some help!

A couple of days ago I met up with Rudy(papa), Rudycito(little Rudy), Keren and Leo and walked with them down to the church for a game of football. The route takes you over the river which also serves as a car wash.

Yesterday, I took an excursion to the Mayan Chorti village of La Pintada. The community is extremely poor and makes some money by selling corn husk dolls to the tourists. Most days many of the children will come in to Copan to try to sell them or will wait until visitors venture there way often on horse back. I joined four other students from the school, another guy from Canada (B.C), a girl from Quebec, another from Texas (I think) and a guy from Finland. The school had arranged the excursion for us and was included in our weekly fees. As we approachd the village, a cry of "Gringos" began and about ten children ran out trying to sell us the dolls. I visited La Pintada two years ago so already have some. But at only $1 a doll, buying a couple is not a hardship. The village also has a woman's weaving cooperative that earns them a source of income. Again, I picked up a couple of hand woven scarves for about ten dollars each.

Views on the way;

Rounding up the cows;

Most of the homes in Pintada are hand made with adobe, a mixture of mud and plant material. Unfortunately the mud is home to a parasite which causes a disease called Chagas. It is also known as the "kissing disease" by virtue of the fact that the bugs come out at night and bite people on the face as they sleep. It can be life threatening and is mostly found in Latin Americas in the impoverished areas;

The school:

Part of the ruins can just be seen from La Pintada;

One lady kindly allowed us in to her home and showed us the process of making torillas, a staple of the Honduran diet. She makes about 50 each and every day for her family. Our guide Beto told us that La Pintada has about 100 families but as each family has up to 14 children each, it obviously increases the population by quite a bit;

You can see the little girl in the blue t-shirt, holding the corn husk dolls;

Beto also showed us some tubes that have been brought in for a water project to bring fresh drinking water to the village. It is likely sponsored by a private agency or church;

As we rode home, we saw a man in the river separting the sand and gravel from the river bed, by hand. The gravel will be used in construction;

And for no reason, I include this photo, because I like it;