On the streets at 8AM. Looking for Hotel Gran Krystal. A (relatively) more expensive place at $14.40 but then it has a telephone (who am I going to call?) and a television without cable (what am I going to watch) and a ceiling fan. Overall, a somewhat nicer place (toilet tissue was better at the other place) in a more central location. They even provided water and ice in a pitcher for the room - Do I dare drink the water? Sure, why not. I suspect in this type of place it will be OK. And, if I'm going to get sick, I want to do it early. (I want to be well for the return flight) They very thoughtfully provided a candle and some matches - did I forget to mention? They are having power rationing throughout the country. This includes traffic lights and the office buildings downtown. I don't know how long it lasts or what the story is. Anyway, at the moment, I'm snuggled next to my window on a ventilation shaft using the light that manages to find its way in. The window is about 12" wide and 4 ft high.

Now, off to explore.

OK, found out that I had actually walked right in front of the Hotel Gran Krystal yesterday. I just didn't recognize it.

That large church I found yesterday (the pink one) actually is the Delores Church. I was also able to find the cathedral with the "pleated" white front. Unfortunately, it rained most of the afternoon. Kind of dampened my taste for exploration.

I ate lunch at some place next to the hotel - "Lucky Cantina". Had the plate of the day and two beers for L28=$3.08 (NOTE: the national currency of Honduras is the Limperia. It is divided into 100 centavos. They use 5, 10, 20, 50 centavo coins and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 limperia paper bills. The rate while I was there was 9.3118 L for $1) It seems not everyone likes my charming personality. My waitress didn't seem to care for me at all. Her friend however seemed to find me handsome, charming, and debonair. Unfortunately, her friend didn't speak any English either.

I decided to try to find another hotel (The Excelsior) which was mentioned as having an owner who speaks English. During that little excursion, I found the most exclusive hotel in Tegus: The Honduran Maya. I had hoped to find a copy of the English newspaper in the gift shop there. They had the New York Times, the Miami Herald, Newsweek and so on but not Honduras This Week. Looked like a typical hotel like you might find in Galveston: nice restaurant, pool area, etc. Even a Dale Carnegie course being taught downstairs. I had a strawberry shake. I'm pretty sure it came from a mix of some sort since I've made shakes like that myself and mine come out of envelopes.

Anyway, I found the hotel - It had gone out of business. Too bad, it had been in a very nice part of town.

In walking around the pedestrian malls around the church, I discovered how they tolerate the electrical black-outs. Throughout this area (and I suppose the rest of the country) they have set up huge generators that run constantly. Business continues pretty much uninterrupted.

I saw two traffic lights today and one jogger. The jogger was in the area next to the Honduran Maya Hotel. That area seemed to be a pretty upper class neighborhood.

Somewhere during my wandering, I met a couple from Austin. Actually, the guy was from the Rice area of Houston. They had been in Guatemala and had talked to some other people who had been backpacking through the Mosquito Coast area of Honduras. No one reported any problems.

I've only encountered a couple of instances of persistent beggars. Probably what you would encounter on a visit to old Chinatown on Chartres in Houston. I wish I could speak Spanish. I've encountered a lot more smiles than frowns. Many people seem amazed by my size and about as many don't care.

Saw a couple of buses today: "Air Wolf" complete with helicopter decals and another named "The Warrior". The prize went to one without a name but it did have multiple lights, decals, neon green windshield wipers, (lights are out now - writing by candlelight) a rotating yellow light on top as well as an airfoil on the rear (to keep the rear end from lifting due to high speed attained between intersections)

Well, the lights are out and it's dark but I can hear rock music off in the distance. I suppose that means that the clubs have generators as well. The generators (and buses) all seem to be in excellent condition. I have not seen a single one that was not in top running condition. (A couple of the buses could stand some body work and a paint job - but overall, the buses are probably in as good a condition as Houston Metro) (Also, I read in one of the local papers that the bus drivers had been on strike for $6 per day for an 8 hour day - that's total per day not the increase they wanted)

You could probably get rich off of the chrome lug-nut concession over here.

I think I'll go see how widespread the blackout is since there's a nice view from the hallway.

Well, the blackout seems to be pretty much localized to this area. I can see candles burning across the street but up the hill there are plenty of lights.. The street lights continue to burn on the street just outside.

I forgot to mention that I had an afternoon snack at a Dunkin' Doughnuts place. They're all around town along with a variety of other doughnut shops. I tried my personal favourite, a good old dunkin' doughnut, you know, the cake ones with the handle to make dunking easier. Well, somehow they have managed to put the handle on the inside! (That reminds me - I saw a guy wearing a Texas A&M T-shirt today) I also tried a fried pastry of some sort. Tasted pretty good but probably took a day or two off my life.

An unexpected additional benefit of wearing jogging shoes: the shoe shine boys totally ignore me.

I think I'll move to the Hotel Nuevo Boston tomorrow and check it out.

Some club near-by must have their own generator. I can hear the music and it's really jumping. If the stairways weren't pitch black I might go explore some but I don't care to explore the stairways in the dark.

The electricity came back on at 11PM. Naturally, the TV was still on and it woke me. By the way, the "A-Team" is perfectly understandable in Spanish. I'm not sure what that means but I'm sure it means something.