Memoria Gráfica de Honduras (Memories of Honduras)

La Ceiba beach front after the 1932 hurricane

I can't remember if I ever told my readers about the Memoria Gráfica de Honduras blog. I first discovered it in 2009 during the 'bad' time and sent the link to some of my Honduran friends but may not have posted it here during that hectic time. Oh, well, even if I have already written about it, it is worth repeating.

If you are Honduran, and even if you are not, you will love this blog. I promise. It includes a lot of history on various topics as well as the old photos, antique postal cards, money, stamps, and documents.

Honduras' postal service, 1897

The articles are in Spanish, but even if you don't read Spanish, you'll enjoy the photos. Click the first photo in each article to view a slide show of enlarged photos for a much better experience.

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Crime hits close to home again

So beautiful and peaceful out there...

The other night we were awakened about 2:30 a.m. by two very loud gunshots. It sounded as if it was right outside our fence but sounds carry weirdly out here where we live. Sometimes during the day, I hear voices that sound like they are in my back yard but it is actually workers at a construction site about a block away. Since the shots woke us up, we were groggy trying to figure out where it was and what we should do. But there was no question that it was a gun and a big one at that. This was no birthday party fireworks.

Right after that a flatbed truck went racing by our house. I stayed low but peeked through the window expecting to see TVs and computers or construction materials in the back of it but there was nothing there. Maybe a neighbor or the construction guard chased off the robbers with his gun? Our guard dog was going crazy, but she was running along the fence, barking the angry warning bark, not the 'imminent danger' bark that would indicate that someone was in or trying to get in the property.

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US renews Honduras Travel Warning

Honduran President Pepe Lobo and
Minister of Tourism Nelly Jerez

The US State Department has issued another Travel Warning for Honduras. I thought it would be interesting to compare the wording in this one with the previous November 21, 2012 warning. Below is the June 17, 2013, warning with the new words and sections underlined. The parts changed or eliminated from the 2012 warning are indicated with strikethrough.

Travel Warning
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs

Honduras

June 17, 2013

The Department of State has issued this Travel Warning to inform U.S. citizens about the security situation in Honduras. continues to warn U.S. citizens that the crime and violence levels in Honduras remain critically high. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated November 21, 2012, to include additional information about reported kidnappings, information for victims of crime, as well as the Honduran police force's ability to respond to reports of crime, and also serves to update contact information.

Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens safely visit Honduras each year for study, tourism, business, and volunteer work without incident. However, crime and violence are serious problems throughout the country and the Government of Honduras lacks sufficient resources to address these issues. Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. San Pedro Sula is considered to be the world’s most violent city, with 159 murders for every 100,000 residents in 2011. These threats have increased substantially over the past several years and remain high. Incidents can occur anywhere. In January 2012, the Peace Corps withdrew its volunteers from the country to conduct an administrative review of the security situation.

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