La Gringa gets out

An old style wooden house converted to a store
Love the bright colors. It caught my eye!

I had my first day out of the house today since I went to the emergency room on June 15th. Can you believe it? I put a lot of camouflage makeup on my forehead and did a special "do" with bangs to cover my burned looking forehead.

View of the church from Parque Central

Unfortunately, my passenger side window would not open so some of my photos are lousy, not to mention that El Jefe will never slow down when I need him to.

Streetside avocado vendor

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are visiting from Dallas. This was almost my last chance to see them since they are leaving on Thursday. We had planned to take them to Playa Taty's restaurant for lunch where I was sure they would just swoon over the good food and wonderful service. Damn! It's Tuesday and Playa Taty's is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We even called (no answer) and drove by there on the off chance that they would be open. No such luck.

My jewelry purchase

The relatives were coming from El Porvenir, ten miles the other side of La Ceiba, so we agreed to meet at the Central Park. We didn't make connections right away, so I took the opportunity (finally!) to take photos of the park. I also had an encounter with a Garífuna coco jewelry vendor and bought a couple of things.

Another brightly colored store

We drove around the Zona Viva, trying to decide where to go. El Jefe would name a place, and I would unenthusiastically say, "Yeah, we went there, once." Doesn't that say something for a restaurant? If you don't leave a restaurant saying, "Oh, I want to try that again!", then you probably weren't too impressed. A couple of places we thought of weren't open for lunch. El Jefe named another one and I quietly said, "Hmmm, it wasn't that good." I heard my sister-in-law in the back seat say, "No, let's not go there if (La Gringa) doesn't like it." She trusts my judgment − as she should. Heehee.

Finally, it came to me: Kabasa! Kabasa is a Garífuna seafood restaurant. They moved, but we were able to find them. It was a nice lunch and their new restaurant is huge and very nicely done. It was a good choice. They loved it.

Kabasa menu

The subject of my blog came up in conversation and both the US relatives and the Honduran brother-in-law were discussing how they had met people who have read it or who have relatives in the US who told them about it. They are impressed with my fame. Heheheh. I told La Madre that someone commented on my blog that she knows La Profesora. She was pretty excited to know that she was famous, too. She wanted to know who the person was but I had to tell her that I didn't know.

Purple bougainvillea growing by the street

I confess to a crime (probably, I don't know) while we were driving around. One area had some landscaping at the side of the road − rare but wonderful to see! I've been wanting to grow some of this purple bougainvillea, so we stopped, I jumped out with my handy 10-in-1 gardening tool, and snipped off a couple of cuttings. I carry the tool in the car just for crimes of opportunity like this. I promise that I didn't harm or disfigure the plant. Unfortunately, the cuttings became very wilted before we arrived home. I hope I can get them to grow.

The brother- and sister-in-law are considering moving back to Honduras part time, maybe when their kids are out of college or maybe when they are closer to retirement. My brother-in-law is from El Salvador, but he says that he likes Honduras better. I'd love to have them here and I know that it would make La Madre happy to have her daughter back home again.

José spent his first 24 years in El Salvador and the next 24 years in the US, where he has achieved permanent residency, along with his wife and their kids. I'd love to talk to him about what it was like to grow up in El Salvador − maybe on their next visit.

So anyway, I thought they might enjoy a drive-by of some of the new colonias around La Ceiba to see what was available. El Jefe wanted to show them Rancho Lima (which I wrote about here) because we both think that it is a particularly attractive colonia. Well, they loved that colonia so we had to stop and talk to the sales representative and get all the details.

Typical house in Rancho Lima, La Ceiba

Man, were we shocked! The prices have gone up 30% since I wrote about it in February. Not only that, but they currently have only one lot available. And he told us that the prices would increase 10% with each new section they are developing. WOW! Real estate is booming in La Ceiba!

So, in my 5-6 hours out of the house, I have material for at least four blog articles! Parque Central, the jewelry vendor, a restaurant review, something about real estate, plus this one. Not bad. I'd better make some notes right now before I forget.


This was actually yesterday, but Blogger wouldn't let upload the photos. ;-/