I heard the first horn about 4AM, then it was quiet until things started to liven up at 6A.

Went over to the central parque next to the National Cathedral. There's a two story Popeye's Fried Chicken place there. Tried a standard meal. Probably the most expensive as well as the worst tasting meal I've had - over $3

It started to sprinkle so I came back to the hotel. Fell asleep in one of the chairs in the lobby.

In the afternoon, I took a walk up the hill. Found a place (empty lot) for sale. It has a great view of the city and is on one of the little winding cobblestone streets. It is in a community named La Leona. I'll be interested in finding out the asking price. Seems to be a quiet place in a pretty much upper class area. Farther up there's a very nice park with an even better view out over the city. The guy who operates the snack bar there speaks a little English. His sister operates a Burger King in Miami. He warned me about daylight robberies at gunpoint. He said they took place even in the nice areas and even downtown. As best I could tell, he said that the robberies had gotten more frequent lately. They would take everything: rings, shoes, watches and so on. (I hope they would realize that there's little market for jeans my size over here). He said that I should be especially careful since I was walking around alone. That kind of depressed me for a while. I haven't seen/read of any instances like that in HONDURAS THIS WEEK or the Spanish papers. I hope that it really isn't all that common - or perhaps I don't look like an easy/lucrative target. I may give the taxi's another chance tho.

Encountered my little "friend" from yesterday. She explained that she had been talking to an FBI agent (or at least he wore a cap that said "FBI Special Agent") She had made him nervous because she had shown him some camouflage cloth and offered to make as many sets of fatigues as he wanted. But I wasn't to worry since she hadn't mentioned my name or anything. She hadn't said anything about me. Nothing about me had been said so I didn't have anything to worry about. She hadn't even mentioned me. etc... It was getting dark so I "had to leave".

I was kind of ashamed of myself for eating at Popeye's. So, to redeem myself, I went into a place called the "Picadeli Restaurante". I tried to order the "Plata del Dia" (Plate of the day) but it was too late for that. It was kind of a cafeteria with no "sneeze shields". I ordered some kind of bar-b-qued chicken, some kind of little beans, a couple of pieces of bread and some plantain bananas (cooked like candied yams). Somewhere around L28=$3. Pretty good also. The banana thing was too sweet to eat like a vegetable so I ordered coffee and ate it like dessert. while looking through one of the local papers. The paper mentioned an armed robbery where AK-47's and hand grenades were used, a couple of failed burglaries, and a few fights on some of the clubs. (Kind of like a night in Houston) Perhaps this one-on-one robbery in daylight thing isn't that common. Back to the restaurant - they open at 7AM and have live music at dinner. Their lunch special this Saturday is chicken crepes. And they didn't mind my lack of Spanish.

I stopped by the local bakery again and got a couple of empanadas L3=33c and ate them with a Canada Dry Ginger Ale while watching CNN at the hotel. I wanted to see if in fact Los Angeles had fallen into the ocean as my "friend" had said. It wasn't mentioned so I suppose> 1: It didn't happen or 2: It's old news or 3: It didn't impact the O.J. trial.

(The following is included to document these numbers (the phone numbers are correct, they're only 6 digits) for my later use - you may or may not care about the native peoples who were pillaged and enslaved by your ancestors) In reading the current copy of HONDURAS THIS WEEK they had an article on the Miskito Indians. (This is a tribe of Indians living pretty much in the northeast part of Honduras. They still live pretty much as they always did and they have a hard time adjusting. The families have a hard time sending their children to school and if one of them does get to go to school, he/she often does not want to return) Anyway, there's a special program to encourage them to further their education and return home. The MISKIWAT is the Miskito Cultural Center in Tegus. P.O. Box 20598, Comayguela, Honduras tel (504) 34-4935. Apparently, some of the Miskito students have been hospitalized for malnutrition while others suffer from gastritis brought on by not eating every day. The Honduran Confederation of Autochtonous Peoples (CONPAH) is currently working with Indian students to determine what kind of aid is needed. Contact COMPAH at (504) 34-4925. Also involved is the Organization of Students from Gracias a Dios (OEGAD) to help Miskito students studying in Tegus. It was defunct but is now reborn. It is therefor called Renacimiento-OEGAD. The group's advisor Minilio Smith-Zelaya can be contacted at (504) 33-9819