San Pedro Sula

Honduras. Day 45.

This is a summary of Friday and Saturday.

This weekend I went with Marc to the city of San Pedro Sula to greet some of the new TORCH groups coming in. We woke up really early Friday morning and left Santa Ana at around 6:00 in the morning. We drove all the way to Comoyagua and then stopped at Dunkin' Donuts (surprise, surprise, to all of you that think it's funny how much I eat out here) for some breakfast to go.

Thank you, Father, for Apple Fritters...

We got to San Pedro at about 11:00. We stopped at one hotel on the way in to check their rates. It looked like a nice enough hotel; it had gated walls, covered garages, you know, just real private. Well Marc parked and went into the reception to ask how much it was for a night there. The lady looked at him funny and said, "Well, we charge for four hours."

Marc got back in the car and said, "How fast do you think we can get out of here."

Don't worry, kids; you'll figure that one out when you're older.

So we laughed about that for a while and then we eventually got into the airport. We greeted Tom Beech's group and eventually got them on Norlan's bus. Customs in San Pedro take an eternity, so it gave me plenty of time to relax and I actually got to call Stacy, my sister, which was a great treat. Once the TORCHers were on their way to Tegus by about 4:00, me and Marc loaded back up and went to a little hotel/apartment villa called, "Villa Nueva." Marc had stayed there before, and it was super nice. We chilled there for a little while and then decided to go and "feast" for supper that night. So we went to T.G.I. Friday's and had Jack Daniel's steak and a "Doble Brownie" for dessert. I got to go to bed early that night, and got to sleep in a little the next morning.

We got up around 8:00 or so and went and got pancakes at the restaurant in the village. There were a ton of gringos there. It was kind of weird to see other mission groups, especially living in such a nice villa. But to each his own I guess... After pancakes, we grabbed our computers and went around town looking for an Internet cafe. It was awesome to get to see the downtown of San Pedro; it was very American looking, yet still retained Honduran architecture, which made for a cool blend. We eventually stopped at a McDonald's and surfed the Web for an hour or so before heading back to the airport.

Terri and Andrea were there by the time we showed up. Marc went to look for people as they would come off the plain, and me, Terri, Andrea, Guillermo and his three friends went and had Wendy's. I got a chance to call home and talk to Mom and Dad, which is always great. The rest of Tom Beech's group got through customs about two hours later, and we shuttled them off to Tegus. And then at about 4:30, the South Carolina/Kingsport, TN group finally got out of customs and was ready to go. We loaded all of their luggage on Esperanza and left at about 5:00. It was a lot of fun to ride with this TORCH group. Several of them remember me from last year, and they are all just really a nice, warm group (much appreciated after a long summer!). I can tell I'm going to enjoy working with them. We all ate at a buffet called "Bongo's" in Yastepec, and then we started to make our way to Tegus.

And then the tire had a blow-out.

We called Marc who was ahead of us and got him to stop in Comoyagua and bring a mechanic. He showed up within 15 minutes with a guy that fixed the tire in about 20 or 30 minutes (he had to run back to his shop so it took a little while). And he did it, at 10:00 at night, for about $25. Ya' gotta' love Honduras. So we all finally got to get back on the bus, everyone extremely exhausted by that point, and made the last two hours to Tegus. We helped them get all of their stuff into their dorms at Julio's house in Santa Ana, and said goodnight. Tomorrow they'll come to church here in Santa Ana and then we'll go to Valley of Angels in the afternoon.

A great, relaxing weekend in Honduras!