1. Driving.  The word “courteous” is not in the vocabulary of many drivers here.  It is every driver for him/herself.  For instance, the other day as I was waiting at a busy 4-way intersection to take a left turn against traffic, the taxi behind me got tired of waiting and went around me (on my left side) and proceeded to take a right turn right in front of me.  Drivers here are also good at forming new lanes, turning a two-lane road into a three or even four lane road whenever they wish. Drivers taking left turns think nothing of turning into the wrong lane, since, of course, it is closer.  Never mind that you might be driving in that lane.  It takes all my concentration to drive.  You cannot let up for a second.  The good thing is that nobody really drives too fast.  I rarely get out of third gear.  On those rare occasions that I get into fourth gear, I feel like I am on the Indianapolis Speedway.  I have never used fifth gear on this car.  I had to check today to see if we even had a fifth gear, which we do. 

 

2. Plumbing.  I suppose I should be glad we have a plumbing infrastructure here, but it certainly could use some help.  You cannot put toilet paper in the toilet.  Never. No matter what.  Especially no matter what.  You have to put your used toilet paper in a garbage can.  As you might imagine, in this heat that garbage can soon becomes awfully stinky.  When we bought small garbage cans for our bathrooms, I bought some with lids.  I am amazed that not everyone does this.  Will also had the idea of buying those stick up air freshener things, which we stuck on the underside of the lid.  It helps, although obviously the best cure is simply to change those garbage bags on a very regular basis.

The other issue we have with the plumbing is water pressure.  We now consider anything above a trickle good water pressure.  We have good water pressure downstairs, but upstairs can be a problem.  We like to rinse off at night, in order to cool off and get rid of sweat, bug spray, etc.  Sometimes at night we barely get a trickle upstairs.  You never know, and we have no idea what causes this.  One of the charms of La Ceiba. 

3. The Mountains.  Although we are on the coast, we are also at the foot of some beautiful mountains.  Will believes that it is the mountains that make La Ceiba special, and some days they are indeed quite majestic.  They have their own weather up there.  It can be sunny and hot here, and cool and rainy 30 minutes away in the mountains.  The mountains also contribute to our extended rainy season – the storms have trouble getting over the mountains and so just roost over La Ceiba for awhile.  We have been very fortunate that the recent hurricanes have followed a northern track and have missed us.  Bad for Florida though.

 

4. Soccer – This is a Latin country and of course soccer is a BIG deal.  The coach of the national men’s team is paid about $70,000 per month.  He is supposed to be paid by private contributions, but is seems to be a well known fact that the government kicks in some funds too (diverted from somewhere).  When it came time for the Olympics this year, Honduras had 5 athletes to send, but no money to send even one.  Fortunately, the Intl. Olympic Committee has a program where they pay for athletes from poor countries, so all 5 were able to go.  I suppose you could compare this to American Football, both college and professional, where the salaries seem way out of whack, but in such a poor country it seems even more disproportionate.

 

5. Cats – there are a ton of stray dogs here, but cat sightings are rare.  How can this be?  How can a city with at least one stray female cat and one stray male cat not have packs of stray cats everywhere?  They are not being kept as pets either.  What predator is there that is keeping the cat population almost non-existent?  Or are there just not enough mice to keep them fed?  I don’t think that is it. 

 

6. Juice – Moving to the land of Dole Fruit gave Will visions of fresh fruit juice every day for breakfast.  It hasn’t worked out that way though.  We bought two types of juicers – one for citrus fruit and one for other types of fruit, such as pineapple.  The oranges here are not actually orange.  They are green on the outside.  Inside they are orange, but they are sour.  We have tried several different types, including one that we were told was the best for orange juice.  None have worked out though.  The oranges are a bargain though – 20 oranges for 50 cents. If only we could think of something to do with them.  I have also made pineapple juice.  It comes out well, but it takes a whole pineapple to get one little cup of juice.  They are also cheap though – about 75 cents each.  Watermelon juice is also good, but it takes a big melon to make a little juice.  We’ll keep trying.