Day 2 (June 29) - From Zambrano to Marcala via San Pedro de Tutule and Guajiquiro
We were fortunate enough to have Jorge Valle-Aguiluz (owner of Caserio Valuz) join us for the next two days. Jorge loves to travel and we had a great time traveling together. He guided us through a road to Marcala that ran past the Lenca village of Guajiquiro. We first stopped at San Pedro de Tutule, a small town with a tiny market. People were amused to see us, and we got our first sight of a small Western Honduran town. From here the road changed to an unpaved, rough road. On the way we took several passengers who were hitch-hiking back to their village. A woman and her daughter were returning from the Guajuquiro market with merchandise for their small shop. Whenever we passed someone they knew they smiled to each other ("we're getting home faster than them!"). At some point the road just dropped into a ditch and was completely impassable. Luckily there were two tractors building a steep muddy detour, and within a short while we were thanking our luck for the 4x4.
We arrived at Marcala in the late afternoon, and had lunch at a nice place (Casa Gloria) right off the Parque Central. After cruising through a few hotels and finding out that all the guidebooks either ignored Marcala or were outdated, we ended up staying in the new Hotel Jerusalen (which was originally located in a different place). This was the worst place that we stayed at during our entire stay, given our "upscale-backpacker" standards. We looked at a few musty rooms until we found one reasonable room with 3 beds and a shower. At 200 lempira you can't expect luxury, but still... The rooms are in a motel-like 2-storey building, surrounding a parking area. This means that you get the noise from the parking cars, and more problematic, trucks. Then, the existence of a TV in the rooms is not a sign of luxury but rather a noise-effect that permeates from far away rooms.
The next morning we went to the market to have breakfast. Jorge found us the best place and it was the best tipico breakfast we had in the entire trip! A small room in a row of such rooms in the market holds comedors. Everything is freshly made. We had milk directly from a cow (Noa will remember that forever), and a good tipico plate: avocado, refried beans, fried plantain, scrambled egg, a white grainy cheese, a salty creamy substance called mantequilla ("butter" in Spanish, but this was not butter), and small warm tortillas to wrap up the goodies into tasty bites. This is accompanied by good cafe negro (more like a Turkish coffee than "coffee" in the US) and good pickles. At first we were ordering two plates and sharing them among the three of us. But at some point, when Noa started another growth spurt, we moved to ordering three plates. An interesting thing we found out was that generally kids were not treated as separate entities at comedors or restaurants. We always had to ask for another fork ("un mas tenedor, por favor"), another plate, and another cup of water.
We walked around the very nice market. Everything is neatly ordered, and there is a pleasant narrow pathway that leads you from the veggies, toys, spices, etc. There is also a good supermarket which is well stocked. We bought different groceries and snacks, as well as an electric mosquito killer by Raid which works for 45 nights (they don't sell them in the US, but they really are a life saver if you can't sleep with mosquito buzzing and bites). In fact, since the electric sockets are the same as in the US, we brought this device back home, with a few refills. Finally, we had some ice cream, from a locked freezer in the supermarket. There are two brands in Honduras that we found in most places: Sarita is the equivalent of the Unilever brand (with they delicious Magnum and Solero ice cream). And Eskimo is a central-American brand that has lower-quality (but still good and refreshing) ice cream. We also stocked up on Aralen (chloroquine - a malaria prophylactic) at a drugstore which is much cheaper than in the US (50 lempiras for a strip of 10 250-mg pills). For Noa, we crushed a half-pill into powder and mixed it in a spoonful of jam, which she was able to swallow. This is after we found out that she could not swallow the half-pill, and she really tried (chloroquine is terribly bitter!) .
Finally, we visited a coffee-exporting office, right nearby the Jerusalen hotel. They invited us to a good cup of coffee and told us about the coffee and exporting. Apparently Honduras produces a lot of coffee and is exported mainly to Germany, and sometimes via another Central American country, to the US. Unfortunately, most of the good coffee goes to export, and we did not find any great coffee anywhere.
We were fortunate enough to have Jorge Valle-Aguiluz (owner of Caserio Valuz) join us for the next two days. Jorge loves to travel and we had a great time traveling together. He guided us through a road to Marcala that ran past the Lenca village of Guajiquiro. We first stopped at San Pedro de Tutule, a small town with a tiny market. People were amused to see us, and we got our first sight of a small Western Honduran town. From here the road changed to an unpaved, rough road. On the way we took several passengers who were hitch-hiking back to their village. A woman and her daughter were returning from the Guajuquiro market with merchandise for their small shop. Whenever we passed someone they knew they smiled to each other ("we're getting home faster than them!"). At some point the road just dropped into a ditch and was completely impassable. Luckily there were two tractors building a steep muddy detour, and within a short while we were thanking our luck for the 4x4.
We arrived at Marcala in the late afternoon, and had lunch at a nice place (Casa Gloria) right off the Parque Central. After cruising through a few hotels and finding out that all the guidebooks either ignored Marcala or were outdated, we ended up staying in the new Hotel Jerusalen (which was originally located in a different place). This was the worst place that we stayed at during our entire stay, given our "upscale-backpacker" standards. We looked at a few musty rooms until we found one reasonable room with 3 beds and a shower. At 200 lempira you can't expect luxury, but still... The rooms are in a motel-like 2-storey building, surrounding a parking area. This means that you get the noise from the parking cars, and more problematic, trucks. Then, the existence of a TV in the rooms is not a sign of luxury but rather a noise-effect that permeates from far away rooms.
The next morning we went to the market to have breakfast. Jorge found us the best place and it was the best tipico breakfast we had in the entire trip! A small room in a row of such rooms in the market holds comedors. Everything is freshly made. We had milk directly from a cow (Noa will remember that forever), and a good tipico plate: avocado, refried beans, fried plantain, scrambled egg, a white grainy cheese, a salty creamy substance called mantequilla ("butter" in Spanish, but this was not butter), and small warm tortillas to wrap up the goodies into tasty bites. This is accompanied by good cafe negro (more like a Turkish coffee than "coffee" in the US) and good pickles. At first we were ordering two plates and sharing them among the three of us. But at some point, when Noa started another growth spurt, we moved to ordering three plates. An interesting thing we found out was that generally kids were not treated as separate entities at comedors or restaurants. We always had to ask for another fork ("un mas tenedor, por favor"), another plate, and another cup of water.
We walked around the very nice market. Everything is neatly ordered, and there is a pleasant narrow pathway that leads you from the veggies, toys, spices, etc. There is also a good supermarket which is well stocked. We bought different groceries and snacks, as well as an electric mosquito killer by Raid which works for 45 nights (they don't sell them in the US, but they really are a life saver if you can't sleep with mosquito buzzing and bites). In fact, since the electric sockets are the same as in the US, we brought this device back home, with a few refills. Finally, we had some ice cream, from a locked freezer in the supermarket. There are two brands in Honduras that we found in most places: Sarita is the equivalent of the Unilever brand (with they delicious Magnum and Solero ice cream). And Eskimo is a central-American brand that has lower-quality (but still good and refreshing) ice cream. We also stocked up on Aralen (chloroquine - a malaria prophylactic) at a drugstore which is much cheaper than in the US (50 lempiras for a strip of 10 250-mg pills). For Noa, we crushed a half-pill into powder and mixed it in a spoonful of jam, which she was able to swallow. This is after we found out that she could not swallow the half-pill, and she really tried (chloroquine is terribly bitter!) .
Finally, we visited a coffee-exporting office, right nearby the Jerusalen hotel. They invited us to a good cup of coffee and told us about the coffee and exporting. Apparently Honduras produces a lot of coffee and is exported mainly to Germany, and sometimes via another Central American country, to the US. Unfortunately, most of the good coffee goes to export, and we did not find any great coffee anywhere.
posted by Galit Shmueli at 9:00 AM
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