Finally made it to Tela, a pristine Caribbean beach town on the north coast of Honduras. We were within 100 km of here when we had our littl hostage crisis in Puerto Cortes, but then had to drove way west back through Guatemala to a different border, south, then way east again. It was a long drive - just one lane with many large, slow trucks and buses to carefully pass on windy turns to get up any speed at all.
We had been completely spoiled by the peace, quiet, good food and happy company at the finca, so the long drive seemed tougher than the others. My last entry about the finca was a bit short. To fill in some details:
The finca is currently about 3,000 acres but used to be bigger. Started by Carlos´s grandfather in the 1920s, it is still family-run, through defining the family is a bit tough. It seems Carlos´s grandfather refused to marry any woman because he didn´t want to be controlled by one. This didn´t stop him from fathering a great many children. The ones he chose to recognize with his last name were educated, raised on the finca, and remain in the family.
Several of Carlos´s siblings live elsewhere and do other things, but he remains on the finca. He went to school in the U.S. and studied agronomy, but since his father, at 69, still manages the finca, Carlos seems to devote most of his time to providing tours of the finca to tourists in very small groups. (Alan and I were the whole group when we went.)
We started by driving yet another steep, slippery, narrow, muddy road to the guest house where we´d be spending the night. Then Carlos drove us up the finca on a road we would never have dared taking the Subaru. Speaking of the Subaru, nobody here seems to have ever seen one. They pronounce the name with the emphasis on the second syllable, which sounds super cool. Many are a little astonished to hear it has 4-wheel drive. Carlos looked skeptical when we told him. But that little car has pushed right on up some super intense hills, leaving pickups and SUVs stuck in the mud behind. That car has become our hero on this trip. There are some new squeaks in the alignment, and that check engine light comes on sometimes, but at 194,000 miles, the SubARu is doing well.
Anyway, after some tasty coffee at the finca, we climbed aboard beautiful, extremely well-trained horses and took a long tour of the various pastures, rivers, hills, lagoons, cattle pens, stables, and milking stations of the finca. Met many of the cows and learned a bit about the various kinds that do best there in the heat.
Carlos´s very devoted black lab, Isa, trotted alongside. We stopped in one little valley filled with beautiful young horses, small lagoons, and coconut palm trees. Arnulfo, who works on the finca training the horses, and joined us on the ride, knocked free a few coconuts. A few swipes with a machete later, we were drinking fresh coconut milk. Yum.
A couple hours and bruised butts later, we left the horses back at the stables and had lunch. Fresh, delicious finca food. Side note about chickens: I´ve never been a big fan of chicken, particularly right on the bone, but all over Central America, we have had the yummiest chicken I´ve ever had. We see the chickens running around everywhere and for sale at the markets; it looks like it´s all free-rang and fresh.
Over lunch we admired black and white photos hanging over the table showing Carlos´s grandfather and a few other men showing off a jaguar they had killed. After lunch, a nap in a hammock on the porch. I spotted a few deer in the field below before nodding off to sleep.
After the nap, we followed Carlos around to the various operations at the farm: coffee fields (shade-grown? we´ve always grown shade-grown. why would we cut down the trees - they´re nice and we use the wood from them); cardamom fields (taste soooo strong straight off the plant); coffee washing, drying, shelling, more drying, bagging, roasting; cardamom drying; etc. It seems there is more competition for coffee producers these days, so cardamom is a better crop, so they´re focusing on that. It´s a gradual transition.
All over the finca, the people who manage various parts of the operation live with their families. When we went to meet the guy who oversees harvesting of the cardamom, Carlos pointed out an old guy who used to be the manager. Apparently as he got older he went a bit loco. Now he thinks he´s the general manager of everything. He doesn´t do any harm, just walks around looking things over like a supervisor. Nobody seems to tell him otherwise.
Alan asked Carlos why all the kids aren´t in school. Apparently they are on break from October through February. Also, all of the kids have access to school, but it isn´t mandatory. They only go if they want and if they´re parents want. Many don´t. Most can´t read. Carlos told us the guy who oversees the harvesting only went through 3rd grade, but he can read and write a little. He showed us the logs of the daily harvest, comparing last year at this time to this year. The logs are kept in Barbie school notebooks.
Last adventure was a drive over to Agua Caliente, a place where hot water feeds into a cold river. By building up rocks to form a little dam between the river and the area the hot springs feed into you can regulate the temperature. The hot springs are really really hot, enough to burn the skin, but mixed with the right amount of river water, it´s perfect. We had to wade across the fast-moving, very cold river in the dark, which was a little scary, but once settled it was so worth it. Isa, Carlos´s dog, who we were completely in love with by this point, got a nice warm bath.
It was a cloudy night with no moon, so it was pitch dark. We had a whole conversation with a woman from Argentina, and a young local boy whose English was amazing, and we never saw their faces. At one point, I felt Alan lean against me and kiss my cheek. It wasn´t until the kiss became a lick across my whole cheek that I realized it was Isa, not Alan.
Another delicious finca meal, filled with vegetables and herbs grown there at the farm, and we slept so soundly in the guesthouse with only candles for light. In the morning, yet another delicious meal, including fresh passion fruit on our pancakes, and of course, very fresh coffee with very fresh cream.
The best tour I could possibly have imagined with fascinating sights, great stories, Carlos´s incredibly warm company, delicious food, and such beauty.
The next day the long drive to Tela meant a fairly late arrival on a Saturday night. Hotels were either full or overpriced, so we decided to splurge on a bit more expensive but highly recommended place from the guidebook. Maya Vista was built 14 years ago by a family from Montreal. It´s on top of a hill and is all vertical, many stories, giving every single room a breathtaking view of the entire coastline. It was expensive by Honduras standards, but cheap by U.S. standards and easily the best hotel I´ve ever stayed in. They even had hot water! Yay!
Laid around on the beach today, swam in the warm water and played in the gentle waves. Delicious conch soup with a yummy pina colada. And to top it all off, the TV in tonight´s cheaper hotel actually had the Bears playoff game on. Alan was in heaven. I´m not sure what´s more exciting for him, that after 22 years, the Bears are finally going to the Super Bowl, or that he got to see the game in Honduras.
Tomorrow, we head down the coast a bit in search of a good place to stay for a couple weeks - something with a beach, a kitchen, and Spanish school nearby.
Miss you all very much!
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