Notes from Honduras 8

We like maps in this family. If you are anything like us, then you would want to see a map of the journey.

Here is a great map for planning. We drove from Copan to San Pedro Sula. I love this map because it includes driving times. I already have a fantasy about dragging the whole family to Honduras some day (that's how much I liked it), so I've spent some quality time staring at this map while day dreaming that I have children who would prefer a tropical adventure to playing video games. Now I share this map with you.

As you can see, once we returned to San Pedro Sula, we were no longer "in the jungle."

Oh yes, we were at an Applebee's. (When we asked Sergio at the hotel to suggest some nearby restaurants, he responded, "First I am obligated to recommend the restaurant at the hotel." It was so sweet and innocent and funny. Then he listed restaurants in the vicinity.) I have to laugh that we ended up at Applebee's because it's a place I almost never go. I seem to have developed a pattern of eating at popular American chains in foreign countries rather than in America. (For example, the first time I tried a Big Mac was in Portugal of all places.) One more note on Applebee's. It was attached to a huge, nice mall with air conditioning--that worked (which is how you can tell a true Americanized mall). It also had the HUGEST food court I'd ever seen! There was a Popeye's Chicken, a KFC, and a Church's Chicken--and that was just the fried chicken! Never mind all the choices for Greek, Chinese, churros, burgers, ice cream, sandwiches, and so on. Wow--it blew my mind. It's always a bit unsettling to see another country take American culture even farther than we take it here in America. And now you are wishing I'd go back to the ancient Mayans, don't you? What, you don't think food courts are fascinating?

We had an EARLY morning the next day. (But it's much easier to wake up at 4 am when you haven't been up with little kids all night.) Our flights were supposed to leave at about the same time from the San Pedro Sula airport. Greg was flying to the capital, and I was flying to San Salvador to make a connection.

I love little regional airlines in other countries. It can be a very interesting experience and not necessarily unpleasant. Look at Greg's boarding pass. It was handwritten and waiting for him at check-in. They were all handwritten. And they are every time. (By the way, here is a picture of the kind of plane.)

Since we're looking at travel documents, here is a picture of the first stamp in my new passport.

My passport creaked when it opened--that's how brand-spanking new it is! Oh, how my heart yearns for my old, well-worn passport. Passports should be well-worn. But, alas, they don't last forever. Eventually, TEN YEARS passes and they expire. Wow, I'm getting old. I am now going to stop thinking about my passport because it's depressing me...

...unless I think about all the stamps that await my new one. What do you think? Will there be any more than this Honduran one before it expires?

Greg and I got a few minutes together in the terminal before my flight boarded.

We make a pretty good team. No, make that a really good team. Yay for us! Yay for eight years of marriage! (And yay for the chance to celebrate it with a real get-away!)

David likes seeing pictures of airports. Here is a view of the San Pedro Sula airport.

This, my friends, is a view of El Salvador. Airports don't count, so I can't say I've been to El Salvador. But I can say I've seen it, right?

By the way, it looked beautiful.

And here is proof that I have seen El Salvador--because that's what it says on the terminal building. (Click on the pic for a better look.)

Airplane picture for David.

When I got off the plane in San Salvador, I heard my name over the loud speaker, along with some Spanish mumbo jumbo that I couldn't understand. I was so worried there was a problem.

This was the problem.

Note the large center arm rest, the pre-flight beverage, the blanket, the spacious leg room. Oh yes, baby, I was UPGRADED!

It was a glorious, wonderful, dreamy, perfect, relaxing, heavenly flight home. HEAVENLY. HEAVENLY!!! (It may possibly have been the highlight of my trip.) I have no idea why I was upgraded. But I deserved it. Am I allowed to assert that? Because it's true. If ever there were a women who deserved a little time alone, without anyone crawling on her, with nothing to do but read a good book, it was me. Sometimes things in the universe work out just right.

By the time I got home, I knew it was time to be home. I wish I could have left my kids longer. But I also knew I couldn't. If that makes sense.

I was happy to see my little love bugs. (And begin David's job as a promoter of Central American beer.)

We spent an hour, the three of us, just cuddling together and talking and laughing.

Here is Mary (and the purse we brought her).

I like to be with my kids.

I like to be with my husband.

But sometimes you can't have it all at the same time. Bummer.

And this concludes my posts about Honduras.