So Hurricane Adrian was a no show on Friday. A good thing too for La Ceiba because this was the big Carnival weekend. Friday morning government officials cancelled carnival, but by that afternoon it was clear that the only pounding we would take was a light rain of  less than an inch. The hurricane tracking center had forecast rains of 6 – 10 inches. We Ceibeños dismiss that as a mere shower. 

Yesterday Ellen, the girls and I attended the Carnival parade. It’s easy to forget how much fun a parade can be. After a cloudy, wet week yesterday was gorgeous. The beauty probably was even more appreciated by everyone who had expected the worst from Adrian.   

Within the first fifteen minutes of the parade two events occurred. First we saw a girl, maybe 6 years old, get on a horse her mother was riding down the parade route. Just as soon as the child was on the horse, something upset it and it started bucking wildly. The mother and child wouldn’t have won a prize in a rodeo as they only lasted a few seconds. Both went flying and hit the pavement hard, but they appeared to be ok. Fortunately the horse calmed down quickly and was captured before it could do any harm. The second event was when a big cloud of smoke exploded on the other side of the street from where we were. Hundreds of people fled in panic. Fortunately no one was hurt seriously in the pandemonium and the smoke didn’t reach our side of the street. We assumed that it had to be tear gas because of the violent reaction people had to it and the number of people who had to pour water on their eyes to wash out the stinging sensation.  We never heard who or why someone would do this. Fortunately the rest of the parade was less eventful.

 In conjunction with the Carnival there is a regional fair and last Sunday we went to the fair grounds. As we were passing a food concessions area we stopped to say hello to some acquaintances. For reasons we couldn’t fathom, they were sitting in front of the loudest, largest speakers in Honduras. It was so loud we didn’t stay to visit with them, but as we were ambling away we could hear shrieks of freight. When I turned around there was a bull on a rampage about 30 yards away. Even if I wasn’t white with fright the bull would have appeared immense – a perfect study in muscle density and power. A saddle was on its back and a long rope attached to the saddle. The young man at the other end of the rope was being tossed around like the tail of a kite. Everyone made mad dashes to pick up their children and run for cover, but the only cover available was between some lightweight tables. Fortunately we weren’t wearing our red capes. There were about five seconds of panic when the bull stopped to consider his next move and it could have been over your back. Fortunately the bull spotted some cows a short distance away and made in that direction. These three stories could understandably give you the impression that life here is unpredictable, even dangerous. It’s true that in a country with little or no regulatory oversight, and a different understanding of the term “safety precaution”, that events like these do occur from time to time. But they never get to the point that we feel like our lives are in danger. For those of you who know Ellen, you know she and the girls would be on the first boat, or bull, out of here if that was the case.

We had attended the Carnival parade last year when we had only been in country for a couple of weeks. Fortunately there were no frightening events like yesterday, and it was encouraging to consider how much things had improved. Last year we were struggling to get our home set up (before going to the parade I’d driven off from a store with four new mattresses only to find three on the truck when I got to our newly rented home - I frantically retraced my route and found the mattress up on end next to a man who was claiming a finder’s fee) and adjust to all that was new including the heat and humidity. It was all so overwhelming that we only stayed at the parade a short time. Yesterday we watched the entire parade then drove down town to watch it again from the roof top of our favorite restaurant (it’s French if you can believe that).