El Patio: A covered pavillion with an extensive menu.
December 8, 1994
Decided to go to a shop at the Honduran Mayan Hotel. They are supposed to have maps. Hopefully I can get a map there that will be good enough and there'll be no need to travel to the National Institute for a map.
Didn't see any place that seemed interesting for breakfast so I just skipped it.. The walk seems really short - I'll have to check the scale on the map.
Found the shop across the street from the HONDURAN MAYA HOTEL. They have maps as well as some of the better gifts I've seen. Some nice dishes, wood carvings, clay pots and so on. Also checked at the HONDURAN MAYA HOTEL in their shops. They had some liquor as well as coffee beans. Unfortunately, I suspect that the beans will not taste very good because of the packaging but I also know that I'm almost certain to buy some. I hate it when a shop like that in the HONDURAN MAYA HOTEL has something you can't find elsewhere. You know you're overpaying but you have no alternative.
Next was a stroll over to Boulevard Morazan - rumored to be the place "where the action is" at night. Well, I confess I saw it in the daylight but I didn't see anything that made me want to be there at night.
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El Patio: A covered pavillion with an extensive menu. |
Almost had lunch at a place named "
Jack's Steak House" - that sounded interesting - but their menu wasn't appealing. Wound up at some place claiming "El Mejor Carne Asada de Honduras" the best carne asada in Honduras. That sounded promising and I've had carne asada many times. Great looking place inside - actually, it's more of a covered pavilion. Got a menu - couldn't find a mention of carne asada. Some other stuff looked pretty good. I ordered something that looked like a sampler plate and a beer. What I got was something kind of like a fondue pot (charcoal powered) with a mixture of refried beans and cheese and some tortilla chips stuck in that mixture. Also got the beer and the sampler plate. It came with some of the little tortillas and a side dish of picked cucumbers, carrots, and onions. Outstanding! The best meal I've had yet. I even took a couple of pictures of the meal. Around $4 with 2 beers. Hope I can figure out what the fondue thing was so I can get it again.|
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The Sampler Plate, the beer, and the "Fondue" thing (Center rear). The basket had tortillas - all gone. |
Next I wanted to check out the Village Bookstore - rumored to be an English bookstore. I found it, it was closed. Perhaps just for a late lunch but who knows. I'll try to come back some other day. There was a little "Cafe Sahara" there complete with Falafel and Baklava They had coffee and cappuccino but no espresso. I tried to explain that if you had cappuccino you had to have espresso but they weren't buying that story.
From the maps I could tell that the American Embassy was close by so I figured I'd just stop in and say HI. Wrong! You get there at 8AM, take a number and then they call you in by number. Otherwise you wait outside. There were about 50 people outside. I suspect that the procedure may be different for citizens but I saw no signs to that effect. In any case, they were certainly busy and probably wouldn't appreciate my smiling face so I moved on to spread joy and happiness elsewhere. They have a nice view of one of the hills from there.
Somewhere in this time frame, I had purchased a CONTAC (fortunately the same in English and Spanish) and something else for my throat. I have no idea what the thing for my throat is. It looks like a prescription thing and came out of a box that looked like a prescription type box. Anyway, they sell that kind of stuff by the tablet over here. That reminds me of the time when my "friend" and I went shopping for something for her throat. She said that the druggist offered to inject her with something. I didn't believe her at that time but maybe...
Back to the hotel for my afternoon nap.
Then out to look for some food (what a life!). It's getting late and I'd rather not be out wandering around. Bought another coconut. Finally settled on the Chinese place just around the corner from the hotel. Chicken fried rice. Good, fast, and hot. Around $2.50 with 2 beers. This is the first place where shoeshine boys, beggars, chiclet sellers, etc. have actually come in and tried to sell/beg while I was eating. Perhaps that tells me something about the time of day, the neighborhood, or the restaurant. I quit counting after about 10. This place also served a couple of pieces of white bread with the white rice. There was also a bottle of what I'll call soy sauce on the table. I later noticed it had separated into two layers. I've never seen soy sauce separate into layers. I hope my theory that hot sauce and beer kills germs is true. It's certainly being put to the test in this place.
On the way back, I stopped at the little bakery on the corner and got a couple of cream horns. It's now about 5:45P and cars are driving with their headlights on. There's still a lot of people on the streets.
Back at the hotel, I finally meet the manager. Turns out he also owns a farm in Missouri. He's trying to decide which (the farm or this hotel) to sell since he can't manage both.
We talked for a while about Honduras, electricity, crime, inflation and so on. He said he was going to have to raise the rent about 30% since he's been losing money for several months. He's also not going to let me pay in advance to avoid the increase. He has his own water pump to maintain pressure inside the hotel when the water pressure from the city is too low.
When I asked about crime in the streets he looked at me and said "With your size you won't have any problem." He said that the bandits mainly target taxi drivers and women (Again kinda like Houston) But, sometimes they would team up with a taxi driver to get someone into a location where they can ambush the passenger. He apparently has little trust of taxi drivers
