On the road to Gracias

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After my 2 week stay in Copan de Ruinas I decided to have a little R & R. I picked the little colonial town of Gracias which is located in the department (or state) of Limpira. Gracias was founded in about 1536 by Capt. Juan de Chavez- a Spanish conquistiador. Apparently he had been looking for a long time for a flat enough place to build a city. When he came upon this place he supposedly said " Gracias a dios que hemos hallado tiera llana"- thanks be to God we have finally found flat land. So that is how the town was named. The town became the administrative center of Central America in around 1544. Sorry to say it has been all down hill from there. Today it is a sweet, dusty town with an old fortress on tops of a hill being its sole tourist attraction. It does have several lovely churches. I can't vouch for this as I was only able to view the exteriors. Even late on Sunday morning they were closed.

I don't' mean to imply that the area was uninhabited. It was full of the Lenca indigenous peoples who were led by Lempira, a honduran hero, who gave heroic resistance to the Spanish Conquerors in the early 1500's. He is honored today by having the currency named the Lempira. He is also rememberd each July 12-20 in Gracias when they have dances, parades and civic activities- read that as lots of fiestas.

I looked long and hard for a restaurant to have Sunday lunch. Nada. There was one buffet type place but the food looked like it had spent the weekend sitting there. I went into another restaurant but they told me to come back later. So I trudged back up the hill to my hotel, Guanacascos, which, as far as I could see ,had the only decent place in town.

After my decision to go to Gracias I had to find a way to get there. On the map it looked pretty simple. But the reality was different. I was told I had to take 3 buses. 1 from Copan de Ruinas to La Entrada. I was then to get off the bus and wait on the side of the road till a bus for Santa Rosa came along. There is no formal bus station or schedule. It seemed a bit dicey to me. Bus number 2 was from La Entrada to Santa Rosa. I was told the bus shills or touts would be yelling out the name of the buses and I would locate the bus to Gracias somewhere along the road. Ohhhh, I was getting a little nervous now. I am not 22. Nor did I have just a back-pack.

I started asking at various tour agencies for the price of a van or car to take me. Holy Moly! I must have looked like the gringa with big bucks. They were quoting prices from $80 - $150. I was in sticker shock for a couple of days. I told my family and they just told me " no preocupada"- don't worry. Sure easy for them to say. When I came home on Wed. they told me that Delmy ( one of the sisters) and her husband Noel would drive me. I, of course, offered to pay and we settled on a price of $60. I got door to door service, my bags carried in and out of the truck and the entire trip in 2 1/ 2 hours instead of 5 or 6. It was one of the better decisions I have made on this journey.

One of the treats I had here was meeting a sweet young man from New Jersey who has been here in the Peace Corps for almost 2 years. We both enjoyed talking English and comiserating about the state of the current American political situation.
On the road later today for Santa Rosa de Copan.
Carolyn

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