stroking the soft underbelly...

I have a good friend by the name of Brandon Story. The sort of friend who says the sort of things that stick in your head. Well, we used to drive around Bristol, TN at all hours of the night raising hell. And as we cruised through the backstreets and forgotten alleys of town, Brandon would often quip that we were stroking the soft underbelly of Bristol. What does it mean? Well, it means something, doesn't it?

This weekend, Elisa and I hit the road again with our hardened travel companions, Mike and Mavis. We rented a tough little European car and set out on a journey to connect in some small way with our new homeland (and get the heck out of our troubled city). Now, it wasn't hard travelin' in the Woody Guthrie sense...but it was somethin'. After 400 hardbitten kms, we topped the mtn looking down on Tegucigalpa on our return, and felt like we had stroked the soft underbelly of Honduras.

Here's a few pictures. I'm sure Elisa will fill in the gaps.

If you look close, you can see that the rim was hung upside down. Yep, that's about right for Honduras. Why make something easier when you can make it harder?

Alright, it's my (Elisa) turn to write--Colin's spent a good hour uploading these selections. We have so many to choose from.

There were so many amazing flowers along the way--these kind of looked like skinny morning glories.

This is a snake skin! No...not really. But it is a tree. Can you believe that?

This flower was called something in Spanish that meant "blueberry lips." I'm definitely a fan.

The falls were beautiful, and muy refresco! We got a snack and just listened to the roaring water as we caught our breath.

Some parts of the hike were almost dark because of the jungleness (a new word for a solid description).

Mike has a way of making Mavis smile--wrapping her hand around his sweaty waist is one of them. They're great fun to hang with.

Not many road signs in Honduras, but we were grateful for these. We found the road to the national forest (which was a mixture of pavement, rocks, dirt, and a combo of the three at times) happily with these signs.

This massive "cataratas" was overwhelmingly beautiful! And the picture only captures one side of it--there was another waterfall to the left of this picture. People went down near the bottom to enjoy being sprayed by its waters. We also swam above it in the rapids--felt a bit like the Y in the Smokies (sigh...).

We stopped for lunch in a town about an hour and a half from Tegus--Comayagua. This church was the center of the town, and we sipped some wonderful granitas at the local coffee shop. And I bought three huge bags of limes from a sweet, old man for 30 lemps (a little over a dollar).

Colin was an excellent driver. We saw some some pretty crazy driving as we drove back to the city. This bus was passing the 18-wheeler just as the car (you can see it at the top left) was coming around the corner--thus the lights. The custom here is to flash your lights when you want to warn someone to get back on the other side of the road. Honking is mostly used to say "hello" or "can I get in this lane?" Whoever scores the middle of the road first gets the passing lane (regardless of the side of the road).

Home sweet home. This is a picture from outside of Tegus...we spent about an hour in traffic due to a construction worksight/car accident (side-swiper)/taxis hogging the outside lane and finding their way in. My bulging bladder made me one cranky lady. But we made it home. :) Or at least to the nearest grocery store.

Speaking of home, when we dropped Mike and Mavis off, we just had to snap a shot of their neighborhood wiring. This is typical Honduran fashion. And new lines are popping and being put up everyday--and this is in the good neighborhood. Speaking of which, we just lost our power a few minutes ago, so I'd better publish this before it goes out again. The wind tonight is CRAZY. It's almost like being at home during the fall.