This Woman Walks!

I am a maniac for walking - especially since getting my hip rebuilt last year and can now actually enjoy the exercise!

One reason I indulge myself on a daily basis is because the weather is usually great and there is always something new, no matter how minor, for me to see and discover. But I have caused a fair amount of confusion by consistantly refusing rides from friends who honestly think that they are offering me a favour!

One gentleman, Mr. Leno, is a taxi driver who lives on my street and though I have made use of him professionally for airport runs and trips to the Estadio Deposito for cases of beer (he'll carry them up the stairs for me) he simply doesn't understand my passion for the freedom of walking. I can't count the times he's pulled over and tried to give me a ride when he's spotted me en route to El Centro and he has even gone to the extent of assuring me that it would be a free ride. A free ride from a taxi driver? Unheard of here in La Ceiba... So, I enjoy our little conversations, make my good byes and head off walking again...

Walking also means that I can waunder off the main routes, do some exploring, learn a little more about this city that I live in and use my camera for the most ridiculous purposes. I've written about concrete construction in La Ceiba, but during one of my "waiting for the laundry" walks found this little place tucked away out of sight and snapped away merrily simply because the man working was actually using a breathing mask! It's the first time I've ever seen someone working with concrete making use of safety equipment and was a real surprise to me.

If you want better detail from the pictures in this blog, just click on the photo and it will enlarge itself for you - I'm very slowly learning how to make use of Blogger, now if I could just convince the cyber gremlins to leave me alone....

Water Delivery Timing Opps!

There are three companies that deliver 5 gallon jugs of drinking water door to door in our barrio, generally on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each week. My personal favourite is "Aguazul" reputed to be the cleanest but "Arroyo" and "Pingoino" are also used by my neighbours.


Generally, I start hearing their call outs a couple streets away and have lots of time to get out on the patio to wave them upstairs for my own delivery. Each company has their own "short form" call - though "Agua, agua" is the predominant announcement. Arroyo sounds like a long "a row ho", Aguazul is more a "agua zoo zoo" and Pingoino is the most confusing for me as it sounds like a rapid "eeno eeno".






Usually, the companies follow each other in about half hour installments but there must have been a mixup this morning as the two trucks were nose to tail with each other as they wended their way through the barrio. Given the size of these trucks and sundry vehicles parked along the narrow street, as well as my neighbours' preferred water choices, there wasn't a chance for either of them to get out of the log jam!

So the workers called out, hustled in and out of homes and managed their deliveries in record time as no other vehicle traffic could access our street during this course of events.

For me, a slightly-disabled small woman, having 5 gallons of water delivered into the stand in my upstairs apartment is a blessing and for only 27 Lps ($1.50 USF or just under $2 CAN) a jug. Some things are affordable for "supposedly rich" gringas here in Honduras and quite frankly, this isn't light work for the employees either!

A "Thrifty" Discovery in La Ceiba

I do have a knack for finding thrift stores, consignment shops and various other kinds of “new to you” places in Canada but now realize that I’ve expanded my talent for discovering such places here in La Ceiba, regardless of my lack of Spanish and geographical skills.

I was just having a long, lazy stroll around a different part of town when I spied furniture, tastefully arranged on the boulevard (rather than thrown out) and accidentally found what looked to be a good old fashioned thrift store. It's called "Nueva Para Mi" (New For Me, translated literally) and was crammed with furniture, kitchen appliances, televisions, tools, computers and pretty much a bit of everything else thrown in for good measure, including used medical aids like crutches and walkers (not that I need those anymore!)

Well, I can’t resist a good browse through other people’s supposed junk and stepped inside and was greeted by the owner, Allan Lorenzana, a charming gentleman who is also a bilingual Catracho. We proceeded to have a delightful conversation about the business and the various services that he offers to both Hondurans and the expat community, all the while he was tending to customers and I was browsing and being quite thankful for the air conditioning.

He also specializes in both a consignment service (you set the price, deliver it to the shop and he sells it for a percentage commission) and an "encargo" service. In English, I believe this to be an expediting service whereby he will find what you want (new or used) in the USA and then arrange shipping, customs and delivery to you. He'll determine all the costs, confirm with you that you're still willing to pay said costs and take care of all the ensuing hassles for you.

Given some of the nightmares I’ve heard about people moving here only to live without their furniture and belongings for weeks (even months!), while they struggle to get the correct paper work to the correct official in the hope of ransoming their shipping containers, the expedited service Don Lorenzana offers seems like a true blessing!

So here’s my little bit of promotion for Nuevo Para Mi and a taste of the simple adventures that I find for myself in La Ceiba. Happy browsing!

*Catracho is a more respectful term of address for a Honduran man.

Business in the Barrio

I do love living in my little barrio! There’s always something happening, starting in the wee early hours of the morning, going on throughout the whole day and finally winding down sometime in the mid to late evening. We won’t discuss the neighbours who like really loud, really late night music though…

There are the door to door deliveries of water, various companies on various days, all with their own distinctive calls that I’ve learned to recognize over time. There are the horse carts selling green plateno by the single pound right on up to the giant stalks of more than fifty or sixty at a time.

There are the hand carts full of vegetables or citrus fruits, (complete with their swinging scales) that are pushed along while the vendors call out their sing song of wares for the day. There is the man who uses a hand pedalled, bicycle cum cart who comes around selling huge, fresh avocadoes for 20 Lps a piece and the Garifuna women who stride along with their big plastic tubs full of fresh “pan de coco” or “casaba” balanced on their heads, calling out their own song of wares for sale.

But today I watched something new for me. It appeared to be a scrap metal buyer that drives through each street, in each neighbourhood, using his loud speaker to announce that he will buy your scrap metal, car parts and batteries, corroded lawn furniture, aluminium window frames and even dead and dismembered electric fans for cash. Not necessarily cash on the barrel head, simply lempira passed out of the passenger window.



Two young men do all the physical work of collecting, hauling and miraculously loading onto the truck, the various and sundry items that people have stashed in their carports or yards rather than discarding into the garbage. The buyer, who is also the driver of said over-worked vehicle, watches from his mirrors and determines the value of the booty and hands over small or large amounts of lempira to the seller.

One elderly gentleman determined that his “junk” was of greater value so the buyer lumbered out of the truck to continue the payment negotiations in plain view of said goods and it appeared that both men were satisfied in the end.

























Then he climbed back in, fired up the truck, started repeating his spiel through the crackling loudspeaker and trundled off down the road with his workers hanging onto the back of the overloaded and definitely over-used pick up truck.

I guess there’s always room for one more piece, isn’t there?