Trip Log (Letter written October 4, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008

Classes all morning. Maybe it’s my age and possibly it’s just life, but I am finding it difficult to accomplish much beyond Spanish classes and studying. Haven’t really had time to follow up on L4L stuff nearly an actively as I had anticipated. Worse case is that I don’t get much done during these two weeks of Spanish and I simply have to move at double time during my stay with Fernando.

These two weeks of emersion are going much better than my first time 2 years ago. Primarily because:

I set my expectations much lower (more realistic)
I have more background Spanish to add to the mix
I know more specifically what I want to work on
I don’t hesitate to speak my very poor Spanish with anyone

The hotel I am staying at is one of the 5 recommended by the school and it is a very pleasant surprise. The hotel is 4 floors with 6 rooms per floor. Breakfast is cooked each morning and one places his lunch order (if you plan to eat at the Hotel) at breakfast. The cook purchases the necessary food and prepares it to be ready at the predetermined lunch time. There is a small frig and microwave in the room. They will stock at your room at your request (mine is snacks and beer). The hotel is secure, the rooms are clean, and the staff is helpful. I am paying $50 per night and intend to set up a corporate account for L4L.

I guess Teguci is becoming too familiar; there simply aren’t many stories to tell. The daily sites and occurrences are just as unusual to fresh eyes and I still enjoy every minute, but it’s not new to me anymore. The one outstanding circumstance is how immediate and how great the impact of events in the US are on conditions in Honduras. As you know, L4L has been a vehicle for me to move within levels of Honduras that most outsiders don’t have access to. Conversations among these friends about the state of Honduras have two primary components:

The immediacy of the negative impact of the US credit crises on Honduras
A kind of a fatalistic “that things are as they are” attitude; tragically Mayan

The Motorcycle Diary

Trip Log (Letter written October 4, 2008)