Tegucigalpa and Honduran Futbol

Wednesday, August 12
Today we had a travel day from San Pedro to Tegucigalpa; we packed all of our stuff into and on top of this van and off we went! Jake stayed behind to wait for Laura Beth’s flight to come in. The ride there was pretty good overall; the roads were windy and curvy (because of the mountains obviously), but there was also construction going on on these roads as well. When we got to Tegucigalpa, it was amazing to see all the houses going up into the hills around the city and it looked even better at night with all the lights of the houses shining on the hills. We all had a host family from the school that we stayed with while we were in Tegucigalpa. Kirsty and I roomed together in the same house with a lady who was the principal of the Spanish Abundant Life School in Tegucigalpa, Dona Aida Lopez. Her house was beautiful. See here when you look at these houses from the outside all you see are these gates and doors and you think, I don’t know how nice these houses can be because you don’t see them. But inside those gates and doors are gorgeous homes with tile and polished wooden staircases, high ceilings, large bedrooms, nice furniture and more levels than you thought. Dona Aida had 3 levels in her house and we stayed in one of the three empty bedrooms. Not all people have such nice homes in Honduras or Teguc for that matter, but I just didn’t expect it to be that nice; it’s nicer than my house in the States! And she can afford to have a whole maid/maintenance crew for her house. So we had a cook, Santi, who made all of our meals and then there were two other people who did the cleaning inside and outside the house.
Our first night Kirsty and I just relaxed for a while and checked our email (since there was wireless available for free! J) and then later we went with Dona Aida and her husband to her daughter’s house to watch a Honduran futbol game! This was my first futbol game in general besides seeing a few minutes here and there in the states. Honduran people, like most Latin Americans are CRAZY about their soccer teams. Honduras was playing Costa Rica that night and so it was even more of a big deal because they are such a close neighboring country. We arrived there and all of her family started coming so eventually we had this houseful of people all crowded into the living room to watch the game. The first half there was some question over a Honduran goal and it was a huge deal; eventually it got taken away which didn’t make people happy J But they soon scored another goal. During half time, we got dinner was amazing as usual: chicken, steak, pork, tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, avocado, and platanos. It was so good and I was starving. The next half the Hondurans scored 3 goals and won over Costa Rica 4-0! It was a great game. It was so fun when Honduras would score a goal because everyone would stand up and clap and holler and some people did this dance they do here called the ‘punta’ which is like their victory dance. It’s hilarious watching them do it. There was so much Spanish flying around too and I tried to pick some of it up, but it was hard. Most of them were bilingual anyway and knew English so we still talked with her family some. After the game, we toasted Dona’s son-in-law for the promotion he got at his bank job with champagne. Then we called it a night and headed back to the house.