Advertisement
Published: February 12th 2009
Edit Blog Post
There's only one thing more awkward than leaving a message on an answerphone. Leaving the message in Spanish, asking to meet a lady who has no idea who I am, whilst being watched by three (greatly amused) staff of the Hotel Boston. Maybe because of the entertainment value or out of sympathy, they refused to charge us for the call.
I was trying to contact Zoila - to cut a long story short, a friend of a mum of a friend back home. We had her name, a phone number, plus some photos and a small gift from Ireland, carried through five other counties before reaching Honduras. There was little more we could do except explore Tegucigalpa and hope not only that it was a current phone number but that she would return our call before we left.
It's crushing when we travel somewhere with great expectations and are completely disappointed. The opposite was the case for Tegucigalpa. With its reputation preceeding it, I was prepared for mean street, a dangerous atmosphere and polluted air. In fact we found a decent capital city with trendy clothes shops, top notch art galleries, decent restaurants, a hip night life and it
Tegucigalpa
Not half as bad as the guide book made out. was certrainly much cleaner than the beaches of northern Honduras. One person had warned us to get out of the city as soon as we could - we ended up staying an extra night (each to their own).
The next morning, Zoila contacted the hotel and we arranged a lunch date. Zoila turned out to be a warm generous lady who we liked instantly. Over a delicious mediterranean buffet, we gave her the latest news of our mutual friend, Linda, originally from Tocoa in the north east of Honduras who now runs a wonderful little B&B in Bunbeg, Co. Donegal. Zoila invited us to join her the following evening at a concert. We had intended to catch a 6am bus to Nicaragua, but what did that matter? Isn't this the point of travelling with no plan?
Claro, we'd be delighted. There was plenty around the city to keep us occupied for another day.
The street lights flicker on around six in the evening in Tegucigalpa. We were not due to meet Zoila til seven. Darkness changes things in an unfamiliar urban setting - anyone lurking on a street corner is dodgy (as opposed to just waiting for a
bus) and someone walking behing us is suspicious (as opposed to simply heading home from work). So cautiously armed with a panic alarm (thanks Kate!), we crossed over Plaza Morazon and ventured down Avenida Miguel de Cervantes to an art cafe a few blocks out from the centre. Wisely we had scoped out the route earlier and the dry run enabled us to walk with confidence and we arrived at Cafe 1330 without any hint of danger en route whatsoever.
Although a few minutes early, Zoila and an artist friend were already there. Without a whiff of caffeine, we left on foot. More friends (we discovered as the night went on Zoila has LOADS of friends) also going to the gig passed by in a car, we all bundled in and zipped through the streets of Tegucigalpa to La Caramba - a funky little outdoor venue ten minutes away.
As a big table for all those friends was nabbed up front, a TV camera and microphone were interviewing one of the band members. James and I turned to each other. Who exactly were we about to see? We started asking a few questions. Apparently the band was newly
formed but the headliner, Polache, is a Honduran singer who had been around for a couple of years, and judging by the size of crowd, pretty popular in these parts.
Around 10 o'clock the band came out. It was due to start at nine - seems gigs start late the world over. They kicked off with a lively tune to warm up the eager crowd. Three guitarists (one who was particularly talented), a drummer, bongos, a box drum, keyboard, saxophone and a flute that somehow fitted in perfectly. Great stuff.
Then Polache took stage and the crowd cheered wildly. He was a young guy who could have been from Milltown, Manchester or Manhattan. He opened his mouth, a clear strong voice began to sing. It started spitting, but it didn't matter, it was all about the music. Zoila described it earlier to us a 'trove' music. I can only describe it as rock with a spanish guitar and jazz element thrown in on top of the strong beat. Polache had the presence and passion of Damien Dempsey, the band had the energy of The Frames live and the tunes had the melodic catchiness of David Gray.
Always
a classic crowd pleaser, Polache through in place names into some of the songs, including places we had visitied like La Ceiba, San Pedro Sula and Copan, which got a massive cheer from Zoila.
After a rocking two hours, the gig was coming to an end. In England they shout "More!", in Ireland the chant is "One more tune!", and in Honduras? "Otra! Otra! Otra!" We screamed "Otra!" along with the rest of the fans, I would have listened to hom all night long.
Don't just take my word for it - check out Polache for yourself
From Jess
Advertisement
Tot: 0.454s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 17; qc: 76; dbt: 0.0972s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
patricia taylor
non-member comment
FELICITACIONES
Hola, Mi nombre es Patricia, y soy tu compatriota, ojala tengas la oportunidad de leer este pequeno mensajito, estuve el dia de ayer viendo tus videos y me encanta tu forma de ser, es bien importante no perder su identidad en cuanto a lo catracho, tus videos muy bien gravados y sobre todo enfocado en la realidad del pais, en cuanto a nuestra cultura, pobreza, nuestras bellezas que tenemos los hondurenos, ojala que nuestro pais siga desarrollandose tanto en economia,educacion y bajando en la delincuencia, yo sali hace muchos anos del pais, cuando tengo la oportunidad de visitarlo lo disfruto mucho tanto, compartiendo con la familia, paseando y disfrutando de todo lo que tiene Honduras, te felicito de nuevo por todo lo bonito que estas haciendo, y todos los hondurenos disfrutamos de los videos, aunque estemos fuera del pais., sigue adelante porque eres de los pocos Hondurenos que se puede decir que si vale la pena.VIVA HONDURAS . y un beso para ti Polache