La Gringa's FAQ

Every good website has a FAQ (Frequently asked questions), right? So here we go.

How do I find stuff on your blog?

I'm embarrassed to tell you how long I read blogs before I noticed that Blogger search box in the upper left corner! It really works. If you are looking for something specific, like, say Dijon mustard, you can search this blog by using the search box. Dijon mustard gives five articles − I'm obsessed! I also have a Google blog search box in the sidebar.

Another way to find what you're looking for is with the list of topics (categories) in the sidebar. If you came to this blog to read about food, for example, click on the topic in the sidebar and you'll get all of the articles related to that topic together on one or more pages.

But I want to know something else!

If there is something particular you are interested in about La Ceiba, don't hesitate to ask. New ideas are always welcome. If I know something about it or can easily find out (I'm basically lazy, you know), I'll be happy to write about it. Don't try to give me a job though, because I'm not going to do it. ;-)

How can I remember to come back here?

Well, you could bookmark it, but that is so 20th century.

Click 'Subscribe' beneath the blog title to see the options to subscribe to La Gringa's feed for your Yahoo, MSN, AOL, or Google homepage, Bloglines or just about any other newsreader. Go ahead − try it. It won't bite. You don't even have to know what a feed is.

Newsreaders are the way to go. It's really the only way to keep up if you like to read several blogs. I used to like the Bloglines newsreader. I'm now checking out Google Reader. I think I'm going to stick with Google Reader but they are both relatively easy to learn to use. And like all my recommendations, they are free.

But if all this is just too confusing, you can subscribe to have a daily email delivered to you.

Why don't you answer my comments?

I do! I do! You just forgot to come back to see. In the "Subscribe" section, you also can sign up to receive all the comments in your newsreader, too. That is so that if you leave a scintillating comment and want to see what I and everyone else has to say about it, you can get the feed instead of coming back to check the comments. You can also sign up to receive follow-up comments on a specific article by email, but only if you comment on the article.

Don't you like me? Why won't you give me a link?

I love so many blogs and consider bunches of you bloggers as real friends! But I made a decision a long time ago that I was going to highlight only Central American and Mexican blogs on my blogroll. The reason is that I feel they are largely ignored by the rest of the world and for the most part, are difficult to find. So I'm just trying to do my part for the under-appreciated.

What are "Shared Items?"

One of features that I like about Google Reader is "Shared Items." If I like an article on someone else's blog and I think that my internet readers, who obviously are extremely intelligent and have excellent taste in blogs, might enjoy it, too, I just click to add it to my shared items. If you look on the side bar on the right, down towards the bottom, you'll see "La Gringa's shared items." You can click on an individual article to go to that blog or you can click "read more" to see all my shared items. From my shared items page, you can click to go to any of the other blogs.

La Gringa's guest map

Look for the "Guest map" link at the top. Click to leave a message, mark your location, and upload a photo if you like. Feel free to look at the photos and comments left by other guests.

How much time do you spend on your blog?

Way too much!

Who are you? Are you a real person?

Yes, I am real. Yes, I live in La Ceiba, Honduras − you don't really think I could make this stuff up, do you? Come on! Besides, if I was fake, I wouldn't be constantly admitting all the stupid stuff I do, now would I?

What's your name? Why don't you use it?

Well, I've really never liked my name if you want to know the truth. When I would meet someone when I was a little girl, people would always say, "Oh, that's my grandmother's name!" No little girl wants to hear that. I always wanted a name like Suzi or Debbie, or at least a cute nickname like everyone else. Now I have one!

I write about my life here in Honduras and the things I see around me and in the newspapers. It's not always pretty. I've been griped at by real estate agents, tourism people, and others who don't want me to write the truth as I see it. One reader kept asking where my house is located. A couple of others said that I should get my @$# off the internet or out of Honduras. This is a dangerous country. For those reasons, I won't use my name in this blog. If you know my name, I hope you won't use it either.

How much does it cost to live in Honduras?

I answered this as best I could in Cost of living in La Ceiba. Prices of just about everything have risen tremendously since then, so I really need to do an update. Like anywhere else in the world, it depends upon where you live and how you live.

How much does a house cost in Honduras?

That is a really tough question to answer! I did the best I could in this article.

What is the crime situation really like in Honduras?

I know that you are asking me this because you want me to say it is no worse than some parts of the U.S. I really can't say that. The 2006 murder rate in Honduras was 46.2 per 100,000 population, with some states being as high as 71.7. That is compared to an average of 8.8 worldwide. The 2005 U.S. average was 5.6 per 100,000. Home burglaries and petty theft are rampant. Being a relatively well-off person in a poverty stricken country makes you a target in some respects and helps to insulate you from much of the crime in other respects. If you want to learn more, read the Honduran 2007 Crime and Safety Report.

What is the weather like in La Ceiba?

Hot and humid most of the time. I wrote more in How is the weather in La Ceiba. You can also click the "Weather" topic in the sidebar to read me complaining of it being too hot or too cold.

When is the rainy season in Honduras?

There is no one rainy season in Honduras. It varies depending upon the part of the country you are talking about. On the north coast, we get rain pretty much year round, just more of it during September through March. The article mentioned in the previous question gives more details and a link which explains even more.

Didn't you spell Blogicito wrong?

Yes, I did. Thank you for reminding me. I spelled it in Spanglish and admitted it in Title dilemma. By the way, if you don't know Spanish, anything that ends with a '-ito' means 'little whatever,' e.g., little blog.

More FAQs

You can read other frequently asked questions in the FAQs topic here. To see them all, click on "older posts" at the end of each page.