Que Rico

My first grade assistant, Fanny, and the first grade Spanish teacher, Rosita, both live in Catacamas. Catacamas is another city just 45 minutes or so outside Juticalpa. So Laura and I decided to go and visit them for a weekend.

After school on Friday we hopped on the chicken bus with Rosita and Fanny. I think it was quite the chicken bus experience for them. I'm pretty sure they're used to a pretty tranquil bus ride Friday afternoons. Little did they know that traveling with 2 gringas would change the scene pretty quick. We were magnets for all the creepy men on the bus and in typical Hondi fashion, spent the entire bus ride listening to men chatter about how beautiful and special we are.

When we got to Catacamas, we went to Rosita's house to put our things down and to take a quick post-school siesta. Rosita lives alone in a house that used to be a carneceria or butcher shop in front and a house in back. It's quite a large home for one person, with a really nice outdoor/pila area...I was dreaming of a hammock.

Post siesta, Rosita and Fanny took Laura on a little paseo around town to get to know Catacamas. In town there is a beautiful central park with the biggest and bestest looking trees. I just wanted to climb them all. The park was so pretty with lots of trees, flowers, walk ways, and benches. Then we went to see the Cathedral and area by the church. While we were in the church's park, Fanny found 100 lempira, so we decided to buy ourselves dessert with the money. We went to a local repostería and bought some cake, cinnamon rolls, tres leches cake, and flan. As we were walking to dinner, we passed a bar called Quuuuueee Riiiiiiicooooo, which we adopted as our mantra for the weekend.

Dinner was one of the best eating experiences I've had in Honduras. We went to this small cafeteria. The cafeteria was nice because it was like a patio style restaurant. We each got a baleada and taco. I don't know how I ate all that food, but it was by far the best taco I've ever had in Honduras. And the baleada, quuuuueeee riiiiicooooo.

After dinner, we ran home in the rain screaming que ricooooooo! We were being so silly, but it was good times. Back at Rosita's house we shared desserts and chatted for a bit. We tried to start a dance party, but we all entered into a pretty deep food coma and just ended up talking for the rest of the night. Rosita told some really powerful stories to Laura and I. Man, that Rosita, I just love her, admire her, and hope to someday have the same faith she has.

The next day we woke up to Rosita cooking us breakfast: sandwich, eggs, avocado, refried beans, plantains, and cheese. A perfect, traditional breakfast to start off the day. Then we headed out to go and see where Fanny's mom lives. Their house is so nice and in the back they have hammocks and parrots. It was so tropical. Then we went to this place called el Sembrador. It turns out El Sembrador is a Christian reformatory school run by American volunteers. The school is for boys throughout Honduras in need of emotional, behavioral, academic, financial, or spiritual aid. The school and area is absolutely beautiful. We hiked up to this little pond/lake area. The pond with the clouds, que rice. Behind the pond the water dropped off into like a chute that went down into a whirlpool of a stream. I wanted so bad to find a tube and to slide down, it looked like so much fun. I just couldn't tell about the bottom of the slide to risk doing it, but if I had a tube, I would have gone for it. The rest of the grounds were just covered in beautiful flowers and trees and best part.....RECYCLING! I literally jumped for joy and took a picture I was so happy to see recycling in Honduras. Then we went to the University for Agriculture and walked around there for a bit. Another beautiful Honduran spot.

From here we went to Fanny's house. Fanny lives with her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. They were the nicest people. Her brother-in-law was so friendly, kind, and willing to share life stories. I love hearing people's stories. So we enjoyed some quality conversation over chocolate chip banana smoothies. Again, que rico.

Then we returned to Rosita's house where we were able to relax for a little bit before Rosita made us lunch: fried chicken, salad, plantains, and rice. She also made refresco natural. It's like a natural blackberry juice, woah. Ahhhhhmazing. Unfortunately, it was time to get going after that because Laura and I needed to meet up with the rest of the Juti crew for dinner.

It was wonderful to adventure outside Juti to see another city and to get to know some wonderful Honduran friends even more. Man, I love those women.