| Apr 9, 2006 - Small town life
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 | | show all 6 | | The street in front of our hotel | | Young cowboys | | Students at the Copán bilingual school | | |
| Copán is a small town. Maybe you didn't know that. You can walk from one end of town to the other in about 15 minutes, 10 if you hurry. The town is tucked into a narrow valley and houses run up and down the hillsides. In the morning the roosters begin to crow around five and shortly thereafter the delivery trucks start rumbling across the cobblestone streets. Some people still get around town on horseback, and this morning as I was walking around town, I noticed two pigs in the front yard of a house. The dominant fashion style for men is western wear, complete with cowboy hat, jeans, and boots.
Friday morning we visited a local school (Mayatan, a private bilingual school) that was staging a fiesta celebrating the different ethnic groups of Honduras. At one of the booths, we got to sample 'Chicha', which is a Mayan moonshine made of fermented corn. (Can you imagine an eight year old handing out samples of alcohol at a school function in the States??) This morning we were sitting in Parque Central, just like the locals, and chatted with a couple of friends who passed by, just like the locals. We have only been here one week and yet it feels as if we have lived here for years. In our first week we have met: the director and a number of teachers at the local bilingual school, the owners of two local hotels (one of whom is also a doctor), two architects, and the entire family of Carla, the woman who runs a Mexican restaurant on the outskirts of town.
Last night Carla threw herself a birthday party at the restaurant, and we were invited. The party guests were mostly professionals from the area and a few gringos who have been living in Copán for a while. Oh, and us, too. This is why we love to travel. Don't get me wrong. The Mayan ruins at Tikal, Yaxhá, and Copán were stunning. But, having the chance to spend an evening with people who live here, chatting about religion and politics in English and broken Spanish, and toasting feliz cumpleaños to a new friend, how cool is that?? We left the party a little while after the electricity went out, which happened just after the tequila was opened.
You should come here. |
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