Up around 8AM. Off for espresso. On the way I stopped off at a bakery for a ham and cheese croissant and something else. Really good and flaky - whatever it was - it was round. The lady warmed it up in a toaster oven. Took a long time- it's amazing how you get accustomed to microwave technology. Buy a newspaper and I'm there.

The lady who charges L7 isn't there but now she has everyone else charging me L7. I still wish I knew who was taking advantage of whom.

Ned shows up after a while. He claims to have won again at the casino. I don't think I've ever met anyone who lost money. I must just have lucky friends. We discuss the 20% increase in the minimum wage that just went into effect here. From what we've read in the paper, inflation has been about 29% over the last year. I'm sure that there's more to it than that but it's difficult to read economic discussions in Spanish. I did note that they plan on increasing the monthly salary of their draftees to L850 per month. At the current rate of exchange (10.36) that's about $82.05. Now folks, I don't know if any of you can identify with that number but I can. When I first enlisted in the U.S. Army my starting salary was $81 per month. That also happens to have been my salary two months later when I was sitting at a desk at the Headquarters of the Army Security Agency programming IBM 1401 computers in Autocoder (an assembly language) AAhhhh - the good old days. (Did I forget to mention that my room/ clothing, board, hospitalization, etc were paid ?)

Ned has found some "Cultural Institute" that's close to the Honduran Maya hotel. It's actually a much shorter walk than we thought it would be and we're there quickly. We walk through the door/entranceway into an inner courtyard. It's kind of a strange scene: it's both airy and pleasant as well as dark, heavy, and threatening. Anyway, it's not a museum or anything of similar interest. It seems to be a school of some sort. Or a prison.

That doesn't take much time so I offer to show Ned La Leona Park. It's a beautiful little park overlooking the city. I hope I can find it. It's in a nice part of town but up some pretty steep roads. I don't want to get lost going up and down those streets.

The view from La Leona Parque.

We head west, looking for Las Damas street. I think that that's the name of the street that takes you to the park. I'm not sure but I think I remember that's the name. Well, I'm not sure if I was right or just lucky but, somehow we did wind up on La Leona street. Up the hill we go. It's a lot steeper than I remember but some of it starts to look familiar. The house that they were building the last time I was here is still being built. It now has a For Sale sign on it. I wonder how long its been for sale. Wonder what the price is..

We continue upwards. There are some really nice homes on the way up here. They almost certainly have nice views. you couldn't prove it by us though since the view from the street is virtually completely blocked by the houses themselves. Finally we're at the park.

It's larger than I remember. Quiet a few people hanging out and a full-court basketball game going on at the basketball court. Ned wants to watch until a basket is made since we never saw one at the last game we watched. The snack stand is still over in the corner. It's been expanded and painted. There's a different guy running it now. We get cokes in plastic bags with a straw. It's a lot cheaper that way. They open the bottle, pour it into a bag, and keep the bottle. Instant recycling. We walk over to the game.

It takes a while for someone to score. Suddenly, there's a flurry of points for both sides. It's an "OK" kinda game - they call a lot of ticky-tacky fouls, the outside shooters don't have enough arc on their shots but it's still fun to watch. They, like the other players, have watched too much NBA,

There's a house for sale right across the street from the park. Nice looking townhouse type place. White, red tile roof, wrought iron bars all around. 39-0255 or 56 or 57. I wonder how much for that one.

We decide to return back down a different street. More nice houses, schools galore and very steep. Steep doesn't do it

This is one of the houses next to La Leona Parque. It isn't the one that was for sale.

justice. It makes Lombard Street look like a pool table. As we're walking down the hill, trying not to fall, we hear this voice: "Hey guys - if I were you I wouldn't walk in the street over there. This is a one-way street and the cars come down on that side pretty fast." Just as we move over to the other side of the street a car slides/whizzes past. Right through the area we had vacated. While we're discussing our good luck we're almost run down by another car coming up the hill (the wrong way) on what was now our side of the road. By the time we had recovered from these two near-death experiences our Good Samaritan had disappeared.

We decide to desert the thrill and excitement of the road and take what appears to be a shortcut. Envision the steepest stairway you've ever been on. Now remove the handrails. Now remove every other step. Now make the surface of the remaining steps slick and irregular.

Back at the hotel we encounter some guy from Holland. He actually has an apartment here in Tegus but he's visiting one of the maids. He's retired from Royal Dutch Shell and has worked pretty much all over the world. He seems to have specialized in third world countries. He claims to have tried the language schools in Nicaragua but got tired of conjugating verbs. He says he just bought a Spanish dictionary and traveled around Central & South America being a tourist during the day and studying his book at night. He's only been down here for four months but I suppose it's been pretty successful since he's engaged to the maid. He says he's going to rent her an apartment of her own and she'll live there and he'll continue to live at his place. He wants her to have an apartment of her own since she's got a couple of kids and he prefers a little more quiet.

Lunch at Marbella's (the happy hour place). I had a Pina Colada (great!) and spaghetti in a butter with garlic. It was OK but last time I think there was more garlic. I need to learn the word for garlic so that next time I can ask for more. Ned had spaghetti with chicken. Then we try cappuccino and espresso. Total of L99.

Ned decides he needs some pictures of the casino. On the way we pass through the parque centeral. This Aztec looking guy walks between us, turns and says something with a scowl, and then walks angrily away. I'm sure it wasn't anything personal. I'm also sure it wasn't anything that I wanted to translate.

I take us the wrong way. Over some bridge but not the one I expected. All streets look familiar now and I have a tendency to turn down a street because it looks familiar. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, we wind up on the far side of the Honduran Maya and have to loop back. We pass by the San Martin Hotel - probably the #2 hotel in town. It looks pretty nice from the outside. There's some lady out front begging. There always seems to be more beggars (and perhaps more persistent/consistent beggars) around these fancy hotels. I suppose that makes sense.

The lady who manages the casino at the Honduran Maya will not permit photographs. Seems a little strange to me since there's not a customer in here other than us. But perhaps that's why. She does permit him to take her picture at one of the roulette tables. Then, one by one, he gets permission to take pictures of the other ladies. All of these are carefully arranged to get the most out of the background. I think he winds up with pictures of everything except the kitchen.

Ned needs to get back to the hotel and pack so we take a taxi to the hotel. I recount my taxi trip from my last visit. I had paid L4 to ride from downtown to the airport (sharing a taxi with 3 other people). He's not especially happy with me since he promised a taxi driver last night that he would pay L50 for the same ride. The driver is going to meet Ned at the hotel at 2:30. We arrive back at the hotel at 2:00. The L50 ride is already there and waiting.

I decide to try to find the airport taxi stand that I had used on my last visit. Earlier I had tried to show it to Ned but couldn't find it. We had walked around and around trying to find it. I'm sure Ned thought I was lost again. Anyway, I found it. It's right where I said it was. It's just that the sign is facing in the opposite direction.

Dinner at El Terrace de San Felipe. I'm not really hungry but I want to check it out again.

The balcony is in the left-center. Pink building with brown trim. (This may be Don Pepe's - but you'll probably never know)

Nice place - large, lots of small alcoves and a balcony or two. (Balcony is right in the middle of this picture from 1994) I sit on one of the balconies and admire the tops of buses as they rumble past. The band starts playing and I can hear some guy singing. It's probably time to leave. Wait, maybe I can learn something here. There's guy here in one of the secluded alcoves with an attractive young lady. Quiet a collection of moves. He seems to be doing OK.

I decide to go back to the park and see if the weird character is still trolling around. Nope - let's check out the Espresso American. It's closed. Back to the hotel.

It's just as well, my contacts are filthy so I take them out immediately. There's some commotion in the streets. I go to my balcony to see what's going on. Well, it's dark and with my contacts out I can't see anything. It kinda sounds like some teenage boys but, since the words are in Spanish, I can't really tell who/what it is. It could be a bunch of Methodists for all I know.

I'm getting concerned about the airport Monday morning. How do I manage to: 1> get up around 4:30 AM so that I can 2> leave here at 5:30 AM so I can 3> be at the airport by 6:00 AM and thereby 4> catch my flight at 7:30. I'm also concerned about the short layover in El Salvador. It was kinda fun spending extra time there on the way to Honduras but I'd rather not repeat that on the way back. Well-maybe.

I may switch to the Honduran-Maya tomorrow. Just for the wake-up call and the taxi stand out front. I have no plans to walk to the airport in the early AM. Plus the stay might be fun.