La Gringa Rumana

It is a small, small world.

Once upon a time there was a pretty young woman way across the world in Romania who wanted to learn more about life in Honduras. She was in love with a Honduran man and considering moving to Honduras to spend her life with him.

Searching the internet for information, she came across La Gringa's Blogicito and started reading it regularly. Some things that she read were not so different than her home country. Some things made her laugh. Some things made her shiver. Some things she took with a grain of salt, thinking, "Hmmm, well maybe this American is a little bit spoiled." (..."as most Americans are," she could have added but was too polite to do so. ;-D )

The biggest surprise came when she actually realised (by making some connections and deductions) that La Gringa is not just an American (spoiled or not) who came to Honduras and had been living there for almost seven years, but also.....her sister-in-law!!!! Funny, eh?

She was just meaning to dig in for more information on the country where she intended to move and there she was, discovering a new relative. That captured her attention even more and since that day, checking the Blogicito became a daily routine.

She got to know pretty much about La Gringa's way of living, about her habits, about the things that make her happy or drive her crazy, about life in Honduras in general. And even if she quit seeing Honduras as a tropical Caribbean paradise as shown in the photos posted on different tourist sites, at least she got down to earth as far as her expectations were concerned.

Following La Gringa's sage advice, she came for an extended visit and lived with her Honduran family to find out for herself what living in Honduras was like.

After she met La Gringa, she said, "I've been reading your Blogicito and I want to say: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" Everything you wrote was true. EVERYTHING! I think it would have been very hard for me if I had not been prepared for the reality by reading your blog."

Since she came to Honduras, day by day she had the chance to see that almost everything La Gringa wrote is not fiction, but reality. There are days when she swears that when this holiday is over, she'll go back to Romania and never set foot again in Honduras and days when she thinks that Honduras is not the worst place to live after all, and with love, patience, and good will she can overcome all obstacles.

One of those days, while sitting together for lunch, watching her add plenty of Salsa Picante Chile Tabasco in her food (because she likes spicy food), her mother-in-law told her smiling: "Whoever comes to Honduras and tastes chile, will spend the rest of his life here" (Cualquiera que venga a Honduras y guste de comer chile, pasara el tiempo de su vida aqui.)

Is she right or not? Who knows? Only time will tell....


Co-written by La Gringa and La Gringa Rumana.