Una Noche en Los Tangos

Been awhile since I wrote so I guess I´ll fill a bunch of space with the last few nights adventures.... Let´s see...
Over the past 2 days my plans are constantly changing. In lieu of returning to Guatemala, I decided to stay In Honduras and do a bunch of litte things that I have been wanting to do. The first 3 things on my list were: to make it to La Entrada, Santa Rita and Santa Rosa. The first 2 are taken care of! Friday at 7 am I was packed and ready to go to Santa Rosa with my friend Emily. However, due to problems with the ATM, i was a little short of money. Emily (after A LOT of coaxing) convinced me to hop some local buses with her in order to go to the Aldea of Los Tangos a few hours from here to meet her "family" in the mountains. I decided to go. We first took a bus to Santa Rita so I could at least see a part of it and be able to say I went. Eventually I would like to return, 1 because its different 2 because its a bit cheaper (no tourists). From here we bussed it over to La Entrada, walked around a bit and had lunch before taking another van to the community. After eating fried chicken and a potato salad with plenty of eggs and mayonaise I prayed that my stomach would not revolt as I had NO medicine with me. After eating and taking the next van We walked a bit down the highway where I met her friend Tito then walked up hill to play some pool (a very different but fun version). This was crazy because I´m not sure that many of the people in this male-only place (with exception of the shop owners wife) had ever seen a live gringa before, so needless to say there was a LOT of staring and whispering. To my surprise (AND Excitement I actually won a couple of the games!!! To their surpise too I imagine). Had a drink or two, played about 8 games then walked back to Tito´s family´s house and talked. From here we were supposed to meet Emily´s family then return to Copan, BUT it was too late and no more buses for the day so we decided that wé´d have to spend the night and left to meet the Fam. We took a pretty long walk up into the mountains were we recieved a lot more staring. I met her grandmother, some aunts, cousins and nephews, played more pool (where at least 10 people crammed into the small room to watch and talk). We talked to her Aunt, and she showed me the room i would be staying in (cool room, the wall paper is just endless pages from Avon Magazines). Thakfully the room was clean and the bed was big with fresh sheets. When we first arrived at her grandmothers I had to go to the bathroom, and i´ve never been so scared in my life. (not true, but I like to exaggerate!)..... You have to understand that the aldea´s aren´t like the bigger areas, and indoor bathrooms with electricity and flushing capabilities do NOT exist... I had to stumble in the dark to a small shack and was not able to see ANYTHING i was so scared that some horrible and disgustingly creepy thing would crawl on me at any moment...in fact I had flashbacks to when I was little and living in Oklahoma when one day while at the pool a spider crawled outta the toilet I was using and bit me.... SO needless to say i hurried! After getting hungry I had to walk quite a ways back DOWN the mountain in order to have some woman make me some MORE fried chicken with fried plantains and cole slaw....AGAIN i prayed again and again for my stomach to PLEASEEEEE bear with me just for one day. When we got back to his Aunts around 11pm or so, i decided i should try to use the bathroom again because i did not want to have to try and find in alone in the dark later...let me tell you that i have NEVER been so happy in my life to see tissue and old napkins in my purse because there was NO paper in this outdoor toilet shack. Finally got to crawl into bed and rest and to my delight did not have to get out of bed once. IN THE MORNIng, i was woken up to drink some fresh squeezed and picked orange juice then walked over to the grammas house to eat some of the best Beans i have EVER HAD. Picked some cacao plants and sucked on the sweet slimy seeds and watched the chickens run back and forth. After leaving around 830 am we walked back to Titos house where i sat on the side of the highway and talked with his sister and uncle a bit before heading back to Copan. We arrived back in Copan around 2pm and I have never been so grateful for the universe working in my favor before....i´m telling you everything worked out SOOOOOO well, considering what could have happened (and i´m mostly talking about the food and my stomach!). The first 3 things i did back home, in order, were SHOWER, EAT, SLEEP. I was exhausted!

Welllll, after sleeping I woke up and got myself all purty because it was my LAST saturday and Copan and I was determined to have fun. I´ll just tell you that I definately accomplished that and will talk about parts of the evening. First I stopped in at one of the local Cantinas with a friend. The bartender is a really cool woman and she takes care of me in this guy only place! From here I left my friend and went alone to TUNKUL which was PACKED!!! With the conference in town, the place was bustling and full of energy. I looked around hoping to find someone i knew and heard someone call my name. It was Deborah (a teacher here and UofM grad) and she bought me a drink. I sat and talked to the people at the table at met lots of cool people, some speaking english others spanish. I left from that table to talk with the Mayatan School director and her husband then went on to talk to the guys I had met a few days before from Ireland and Pennsylvania and they bought me a drink. After watching them dance (which was hilarious) I went up to the bar and talked to a guy from Canada (originally poland) while I ordered a drink. While talking to him Juan Gabriel arrived and i promptly gave him the last half of my drink since I was starting to feel a bit funny. I ended up walking with him and a really sweet girl from England (the director of another bilingual school nearby) and one of the mayantan teachers to LAS PISCINAS. Once there Juan started bringing me glass after glass of water (Thanks!!!) and I wandered around and mingled with people there. I was browing Karaoke songs with The director, her husband and another teacher Matt, then went on to meet more people. Ended up dancing with some older guy in the club ( a very good Merengue dancer) then wandering outside awhile and talking to more people. At one point, i was ready to go (since the place was closing) when I got grabbed by the girl that used to work in my familys restaurant and they bought me a bottle of water...My new small grouped talked and then eventually walked when we were thrown out of the complex (it was about 4 am). I ended up back home around 6am and after a few minutes of hugging the toilet around 7am I finally slept until 2 pm. Of course, a few details have been dropped from this story so if you want to know more, just ask....i don´t have forever to write!

When I finally rolled out of bed, I decided to go eat lunch, and after I went with my mom and sister to a birthday party where i was forced to eat more! After here we walked home, I slept another hour then went to a Goodbye party (IN MY HONOR!!!!) at Emory and Linda´s house (where the last party was with the great roof view). It was great, with spaghetti and garlic bread and about 10 people (mostly students from the advanced english group). I stayed here till 1130 pm then walked home with a small group. While walking home I was invited to the bar but decided that I should just go home and sleep. I kind of regret not going, just because i missed out on new experiences. But sometimes, its just better to rest...right? Today I walked the few kilometers uphill to Mayatan in order to say goodbye to Jose Raul and leave books in the library. Jose kept asking my why i wasn´t coming back and that he´d miss me and gave me a card he made :( Talk about pullin on the old heartstrings!!!! Well, got lots to do and i´m a few minutes over my time.
More later
ALISSA