nardobram

Planes from LAX to Honduras leave at 1:50 am and after 15 hours of flying, we’re here! As you may or may not know, I do not love flying so I enjoyed my favorite blue friend, a nice Tylenol PM to put me to sleep through most of the flight to El Salvador. Before passing out and performing my flying ritual*, I met an interesting and funny woman with a great name (Zariah). She immigrated from Argentina to Italy with her parents, in order to escape Peron, because her family was Jewish. She is now a Jew for Jesus and was headed to Nicaragua to visit her veterinarian brother. She wanted me to look into Jews for Jesus when I got back to the states. I apologize Zariah, it’s not likely going to happen, but I ... read more

RANDOM OBSERVATION UNO: You know that you’re in a third country when a beer is cheaper than a coke. RANDOM OBSERVATION DOS: There is a constant haze in Honduras because they spend much of their time burning trash in order to get rid of it. This of course is not really the best or most environmentally friendly way to dispose of trash, but apparently they don't do it enough because the country is quite dirty. This trash-filled and hazy country could be helped by a single word. Recycling. RANDOM OBSERVATION TRES: I wish my parents pushed me more to do some kind of international program like Peace Corps or an immersion program. I never knew about things like this until I was already established in my career. When my little Brams graduate high school, I will ... read more

LEMPIRA After all this talk about Lempira (Honduran currency), you are probably wondering where the term Lempira came from. Well, it’s named after the country’s first hero, Lempira, (“Man of the Mountain”) who led the Lenca (original Honduran people) in a war against the Spaniards, when the Spaniards came to conquer Honduras. Lempira was the last surviving chief because the Spaniards tricked the other chiefs to come and discuss a “compromise” to avoid more war. Those chiefs were all hung when they arrived at the compromise meeting. Lempira was the last chance that the Lenca people had against the Spaniards. Lempira and his army fought the Spaniards bravely, winning many early battles until Lempira was betrayed. It is not 100% sure how Lempira ultimately met his demise. He either was shot, beheaded, or shot and then ... read more

On the way from the Roatan airport to our hotel, we passed Coxen Hole which has great ocean front property without the nice properties. They are shanty houses made of wood and metal sheeting. This area is dominated by the Garifuna* people. We arrived late (obviously) to our hotel, the Kefeito’s Inn, run by Phillip, a Central American Chong (from Cheech and Chong) clone. Since there was no food available at the hotel, we walked, starving, with flashlights on the dark beach to the nearest restaurant. Crabs blanketed the beach and there were so many, you had to watch where you stepped. When we came near, they either retreated to near-by holes or were frozen in fear by us. Much like the grasshoppers, some of the crabs had death wishes. We made it to a restaurant ... read more

Our guide book said it was going to be $10 to get into the Gumba Limba park, but they were charging $20 and didn’t take credit cards. We told the girl at the ticket counter that it was more expensive than we thought and after a minute of discussion, we decided not to go. We weren’t so much cheap, rather worried, because we didn’t have a lot of cash left and didn’t know if the ATM’s would ever work. If that were the case, we’d need to reserve the rest of our money for Chong. So we left. Danielle and I stopped to smell the roses, literally just out of sight of the park’s entrance. As I was smelling, I heard laughing, and the voice of the ticket seller coming from the park entrance. She cackled, ... read more