Historias de Honduras: Very important visitors

When I first moved here, my parents said they wanted to visit "but not when it is hot." That narrows the time frame pretty drastically, and their visit in February was perfectly timed. We had some rain, some sun, and mostly very pleasant temperatures.

They worked hard at some dusty and monotonous but very needed projects- looking for lice in school childrens' hair, organizing and re-alphabetizing medical charts (discovering the downsides of a language where 'v' and 'b', 's' and 'z', and at times 'c' and 's' are interchangeable), and counting endless quantities of medical supplies in the central storage room. The ice cream chest freezer in the cafeteria provided a welcome break mid-morning and sometimes mid-afternoon for their jobs!

It wasn't all work, though. We went to the beach, waterfalls, hot springs, and a national park that I hadn't visited yet. There's nothing like having visitors to make you get out and actually enjoy the activities and sights in your backyard.

Our trip to the national park included a couple of local "chicken" buses and they were good sports about cramped/non-existent seating, dust and bumps, and actual chickens. There are not many people who have parents who plan their weekend luggage around its suitability for sitting on the dirty floor of a public bus.

This is why they call them "chicken buses"

Rio Cangrejal

If you can judge based on the pictures my dad took while they were here, it seems like they enjoyed the tropical flora and fauna as much as I do. The howler monkeys chatted with Mom one afternoon, and a couple of white-faced capuchin monkeys approached the porch while she was sitting there. The toucans showed themselves a few times, and Dad helped me identify a few birds I see a lot of. The pictures also show my dad's love of civil engineering with photos of the construction at the school and the foundation and cables of the bridge.