November in Honduras

Info: the Internet didn´t work for the last weeks, so this report is about 2 weeks late!

Heavy rainfalls from the wet season hit the Rancho almost every day. Precipitation measurements would be scary. The weather changed from desert style to lets live below a monsoon. Feeling like getting washed away and brown drinking water lowers everyone’s mood. Good to know that heat and sun will come back soon.
The life in Rancho Santa Fé goes and goes on. No big changes, no big interruptions. At least if you observe the Rancho as a big unit. I feel like riding on the back of a wale through a deep ocean. The wale is the Rancho, the Ocean Honduras. Kids, stuff and volunteers arrive and dig into another world and will leave everything behind again once they have to go.
For some individuals life has changed significantly during the last weeks. New kids have entered. It is a turning point in their life now. Perhaps a decade or more on the back of the wale, passing childhood and teenager time will convert them into young adults. Two little girls just entered my “hogar” (home for a group of children) and I am very proud how well the other children integrate them. They must see themselves in a mirror again. One arrival reflects another. This makes the first days much easier for the newcomers. But how can they have a clue where they just got into it? Yesterday was one new girl’s 11th birthday and this night I brought her with high fever to the clinic. She is having a nasty flu. I can’t even spend a little more extra time with her since the other girls are without supervision while I am gone. One girl is crying when I come back. Memories of her dead mother have come up again. I am not thinking about the sick one anymore. Not till the girls are asleep and I am on the way back to my room. Then I tell myself: The girl has a hard time right now, but it was far worse two weeks ago. This helps, if it is true or not. In addition to the nice and entertaining parts of the day I can kick back and relax. Accepting tragic stories has become scarily easy for me.
I found a healthy mixture of dealing with the children’s problems, spending entertaining time with them and have overall some time for myself. “Pajero” (Bird). That is the name of my new pet. It is a horse. Brown, not too big, but very strong. It feels great to gallop over the highlands with him. We usually go once a week to the next village to buy beer for all the volunteers. I established for that the “Dani’s beer express”. The “Pulperia” (little grocery store) in Laventa is about 15 horse riding minutes away. Passing the Rancho school, the recently burned down forest, small houses and barking dogs make it to an always fun trip. The town itself is little and poor, the store where I stop tiny. You can’t pick up the food by yourself, an old woman serves you. Usually there is hardly anything in stock. I often buy all beers she has and head back to the rancho. We volunteers sometimes walk to the store by night to enjoy some beers with conversation. The nice old lady has some tables and cooks for you. Gun shoots, or an electricity crash may interrupt the mellow hangout.
Meanwhile vacations have started too. I will have to start a vacation course in about one week. But I am still not sure which one I “can” do. But that is how it is: you get the information right before whatever starts. Bureaucratic decisions have also basically stopped my football project to create a team for the girls. I tried to initiate it again and again, but there is no way. No support but high demands put everything down. It is like building a card house on a table which is shacking. Sad, but now I will spend more time for my “hogar” which is far more fun and nicer.

Finally a life message

If you follow the highway heading north from Tegucigalpa you will encounter the Nph Ranch where about 500 kids and staff members live.
There a basically ways to get there. You can grab an old rusty yellow school bus which found its way down from the States. Much quicker would be to hitchhike. Then you might find yourself in the back of a pickup truck which hits the road with 150 km/h passing other vehicles in every curve. It is your decision, the first one lasts a lifetime long and the second one can take a life.
You will get a first impression of the life of Honduras on your journey to the ranch. Poor villages, slums, military patrols, people with horses and people in fancy cars with darkened windows will be the pics during the safari ride. That is the social aspect, steep hills followed by highlands as well as endless Pinian forests and plain fields form the natural part, results from deforestation.
Finally, there will be a sign on your right, 100m more to the entrance of the Rancho Santa Fé which is short said in somewhere in nowhere. The entrance still looks normal, a basic strong fence and some guys in a little outpost checking incoming and leaving folks. That is about it. As soon as you enter the ranch you enter a different world. You will leave Honduras.
The territory of the ranch is huge, very rural, lots of green, rather like a big farm, not an orphanage. The school, the boy’s homes, the clinic, the church etc. etc. aren’t easily to find. A guide is recommended at the first time on the ranch. A 10 minute walk to next lonely building is the normal procedure. Lots of crops and domestic animals fake the appearance of the rancho. But why isn’t it a huge farm? Tons of kids will stream toward you as soon as you get to their homes to ask you questions like: What is your name? Where are you from? I am hungry. Do you have a gift for me? They want to be hugged. All want your attention. And you, you will be just overwhelmed.
Your first impression would perhaps remind you of a summer camp for scouts. The kids follow a strict schedule, with lots of activities during the weekends and lots of work during the week. All children live in “hogares”, homes. Those are separated by age and sex. About 25 children stay in an hogar.
I am officially a civil servant. Nobody really knows what this means. For them I am just a loco volunteer. The PE teacher. The only guy who works in one of the girl hogares. 19 volunteers live in “Casa Personal”, a house designated just for us. We share rooms in pares have a kitchen, a library, a great garden and a huge almost never used terrace. Cats, dogs, tarantulas, and a bunch of other semi domestic animals frequently visit our quarters. Our jobs vary widely, our experiences are different. Still, we share one thing, we are the entertainment company for kids and sometimes staff too. “Casa Personal” is the oasis. Exotic appearing gringos from mainly the States, but also from Germany, France, Mexico, Belgium and Austria are found there. We are strange, but accepted, especially by the kids. We give them the chance to leave the strict rules behind. At least for a while.
I am the physical education teacher for all grades. 9 classes, kids aged from 5 to 16 are forced to play, exercise and learn under my madness. It is a tough quest to teach since most kids share 3 things in common. They are lovely, they are motivated but they refuse everything as soon as they are forced to do so. And as a teacher, you can turn and twist it as long as you want, you are the authority, the one to rebel against. “Bajate!!!”, “Venga!!!”, “Sientate!!!” Those are the standard commands which do not work. You are really happy to get a class under control. It is especially difficult during those very hot dry Honduran days, then they refuse to leave the shade. I can understand them, but work is work. It is a decent job, but tiring and my throat usually hurts afterwards.
I really start feeling useful when I go to my hogar “Hijas de Maria” daily in the early afternoon. This is special for me. 25 little girls keep dancing and playing till they are forced to work, study or go to sleep. And I am mostly in the middle. If I want to participate or not isn’t the question. They remind me of those bunny rabbits of the old Duracell television advertisement. They run and run, and fall asleep at some point within 3 seconds. Usually just anywhere during the weekends when the activities last into the late nights. Being a sofa for 4 or more at the same time isn’t unusual.
I try to initiate frequently other projects and look for small extra jobs. Just to make work and life more attractive at the ranch. One example is the girls (12-20) soccer team, it works and we have the potential to practice, enter a league and form a team. Massive bureaucratic rocks slower the development. This leads to the only thing which I dislike here, it isn’t about the kids, but about the endless bureaucratic barriers. I am here to help, I want to help, but I often can’t because of none support from the staff. Sometimes it is the best to just do a planned activity, don’t talk and just do it.
Spare time is a lack, I hardly visit any places in Honduras. I could, but I don’t really want to since my work is just too special for me. Perhaps once per month, when I am totally exhausted, is time to take a break. The volcanic island of Amapala (Pacific, Golf of Fronseca) was the last vacation weekend for me. Delicious cheap lobsters and cool beers have recharged my batteries again. To summarize, the country is unsafe and very poor. It is egoistic to think that this place is like a summer camp. All kids have extremely tough backgrounds and I am often wondering how they can laugh that much. Their sad stories and experiencing bad moments with them makes me much harder. However, I am so happy to be here. When I have a hard time with the nasty bureaucracy, horrible behavior of my pupils or some individual sad stories I know that my “hogar” will make me smile within a minute again. That is good to know.

Rancho Santa Fé: Summary of two weeks!

Days are passing here like hours. The Rancho Santa Fé, NPH camp, is situated about one hour away of Tegus in the mountains which are at an elevation of 1000+ meters. Pine trees cover the entire hilly area, steady brises and a intermediate climate provide a mellow day life. The rancho is widely spread out on an huge property, it takes perhaps a day to hike around. Kids live in houses grouped by gender and age. Other buildings, like two hospitals, the school or the casa personal were all the volunteers live are found in between.
The first week was about to get started, to learn where you can find what, volunteers, tias and tios of kids and other staff guided us through those informative days. Now, 11 new volunteers have a arrived including my although 3 are working in Tegucigalpa. Others have left on this weekend since the turnus is always in july and january, everyone serves at least 13 months. We are certainly a very individual group, unusual people meeting at an unusual place. But I like them all, everone has unique stories to tell, interesting philosophies. For sure, we have one thing in common we all like to work and spend time with kids.
Now about the most important and most heart catching thing, the kids themselves. About 500 children which come from very sad backgrounds live here, go to school, work in the afternoon, play, and study together. They arent children you meet in a usual household at your or somebodies home with parents. The seem grown, or even more, sometimes knowing. What they need is mostly attention and love, something they are always seeking for. A stranger is a friend of them when he already shows up at the camp. Groups hold together in a increible way, they share food, games and know when the have the most power. That is when they are together.
I am working in the school as a sport teacher, to help translating between the languages and with their homeworks. During afternoon and evening I have to go to my "hogar- house of some children who live there",girls from about 8 to twelve live there. We eat together, do activities, make homeworks and I leave when the go to bed. The hogar is the most intensive part for me
, you get the kids to know much better than in regular clases.
Everthing is overwhelming for me till now. I have tried to come here with low expectations since I didnt know to much about anything here. Now, I can say, although I hate the expression and I have never used it so far:---- Iam just experiencing on of the most important times
of my life here in Honduras. It is changing me daily. Also challenging, but how will you grow otherwise.
In general, people also in Tegus, actually an huge city, are extremely friendly. I havent seen too much about the country side, but actually it isnt that important for me now.
All in all I cant believe that this is a civil service, something I have to do. I enjoy it just too much.
I write more details soon but I hope that this a good overview about what I am doing so far.
Dani

First impressions of Tegucigalpa, Honduras

View on Tegus, on the left is the Chile bridge

The last weeks in Costa Rica were more than busy, examens, organizational stuff, good bye sceneries and more were the reason. Honduras looked like balancing on a thin spoon. Lots of problems came up, but everything got solved with help of family and friends. They all know how thankful I am for that.
The 10th of July was finally the day to say good bye. We had survived a weekend of partys and Philipp and Thomas joined me to the Tica Bus station at about 6:30 am. My luggage was enormous, I had to buy a second large bag. Both of them were stuffed more than partly with books which I had collected throughout the semester in Costa Rica. I was hardly able to carry the stuff a block or even some meters. Still the taxi could carry us plus bags to the bus station although it hit the ground several times on the bumpy street in San Jose which seldom have names.
The Tica bus itself was nice and comfortable, 3 axes, tv and plenty of space. Perhaps not if you hadnt had rides in Costa Rica buses for 6 months. I could even stretch one leg a little, what a good feeling. The bus took off like a ship, the air condition caused rapidly an ice age, probably with the intention to preserve its interior a little more. But I brought a jacket and a hat since I had feared that already. I became really relaxed after the take off, kicked back and chewed on a mozart ball chocolate which Philipp had given me before.
There werent hardly any gringo passengers on the bus, mostly nicaraguan folks who got back from work. That is usual there. I shared the seating bench with a farmer, but he was one of those guys who get obviously really scared next to gringo looking guys. So what. I didnt want to disturb him and enjoyed the I-POD (huevo pod- Egg pod) music which I got from Eric the suiss guy. My attention for the landscape was really present till we came to the border to Nicaragua. There the border police did their job really well. I had to open my bags for them, and they found some stomach pills which were stuffed in a old aspirine box, whrapped with tape. It took some time to tell that this arent drugs or so. Sweating and a little pissed, but happy that this frontier was survived, we continued to Managua, Nicaragua. We encountered rapidly a totally different landscape, especially because of the tremendous lake of Nicaragua and the two volcanoes in the middle. Poverty increased too but making a description of a country out of a bus window is not objective.
We arrived in Managua at about 5 pm and I was challenged with my luggage. I had to carry it to an hotel, some 100m away from the bus stop. So I just "rented" a local with a cart and paid him as much as you usually do for a taxi in San Jose(2$), but I was just too tired to negociate for a dollar less. I quickly kicked back in the hotel knowing that I would have to get up at 3:30am at the next morning. The taxi guy also showed up at this time again.
More foreigners were on the bus on the next day. I was sitting next to a guy from Israel who was on all America journey, from Peru the the Estados Unidos. I quickly kicked back again with my huevo pod and got up pretty late close to the border to Honduras. The landscape had became more montainous throughout with progressing time and a destinctive deforestation increased too. Pinian trees showed up instead of the original vegetation.
The border to Honduras was weared, first it looked like an easy passage but then some head police guys showed up an started to check the luggage again. The were starting to open the stuff on the dirty road and it had started to rain before. I got pissed a little since I had so many books there. Now, actually it was like before at the previous border, but suddenly the found drugs in the bag of a dump surfer gringo. And than they started to check everything also in the bus of course. The police really exploited the guy. He definitely had to pay a decent sum just to continue and than he was so stupid again to leave valuables in the bus. So the police obviously took his camera while everybody was outside of the bus. The police guys were still waving their hands on our departure being happy of their succesful coup. You just cant do anything against that corruption of the executive, just stay back. I can recommend everyone: Watch your stuff always very very well.
Honduras is very different to Costa Rica, regarding almost everything. The landscape is different because of those Pinian woods which cover almost everything. It reminds me a little of the Adrian Sea in Europe. Poverty is far worse, I had a class recently about environmental geology and what I have seen there would get stucked in every ones gump if you need to evaluate the local situation. Whole towns made of very basic materials very sitting on very steep hill sides where erosion, and mudslides are certainly present. I really dont wanna know how many homes get just swept away, especially during the rainy season.
Tegucigalpa, the capital, is an interesting city, it is located in the mountains, quite big and so compact. Iam not used to all those narrow streets anymore. The culture is definitely more intense than in Costa Rica which is far more US related on my first impression. I was looking for a cash machine and finally found some after a run through the whole downtown. Then I had a coffee and got quickly in a chat with a local. Something I havent had in Costa Rica on the street.
I had breakfast in the park central and started to chat quickly with Julio Cesar, a Honduran Microbiologist, he introduced me to some of his friends around showed me parts of the city later on. Like a park where they have fakes of the Maya ruins of Copan. Also the park Leona to which you need to walk up but your goody is a great view on the city.
A wonderful day is coming to an end and I am really looking forward to tomorrow.
I will stay now 2 more days in the downtown till someone will pick me up and bring me to the nph ranch. Museums, some hikes, emails and a report which I still need to do for Costa Rica are waiting. I wanna always make myself a better impression of the country quickely.... learn the local slang etc. I keep u guys updated and photos are coming up.
So far, a big last costarican Pura Vida!

Hiking Osa: PART3: Sharks and crocs

dani hiking south ©Philipp

We had a comfortabe night at the river camp. Some rainy clouds hit us during the night, but we could rest and the pain because of the wasps was gone at the next morning. We wouldnt make it during hightide to next and biggest river, this was our estimation. So we took it really easy in the morning, had even a breakfast and didnt start hiking before 9am. The marsh was similar to that one from the day before. Endless, hot and heavy. Still so wonderful that there are pipa palms along the way.
We got to the river during high tide. I was a little bit infront of Philipp and checked the situation. And this was a little shock. I saw the first crocodil swimming around as soon as I got there. Ok, it wasnt THAT big, but big enough for me. The current got much stronger before the river entered the sea and above the rapids were the crocs. Okay, what about the sea. This was probably the most scary thing. Lots, and I really mean many, of sharks showed their fins in the little delta. And those were occasionally very big. I would guess that this place was crowded from sharks from 1-4 meters. And they were right beyond the river entrance to the sea. So, if the current would have dragged you out, you were seafood. Philipp was astonished too and we were thinking about how to cross it. Building a raft perhaps? But the current was probably to strong. We decided to wait for the very low tide and watch the situation then. There werent any palms for shade and we decided to get back without the stuff to some palm trees with pipas.
The hours past by again and we returned in the afternoon. The level was much lower, the river much smaller. So we decided to cross in the crocodil area. One of us was watching, and the other one passed it really quickly.
The next Ranger camp was just some few kms away. But as soon as we got there a ranger rushed out of his cabin telling us that this past hike was forbidden etc etc etc. He wanted to call even the police. Haha. I got really pissed and told him about this corrupt ranger up north, the pictures and the lack of information. He calmed down and we had a pleasent stay at the camp. There we met 2 young from woman from CA who were hiking on some different trails than us. 3 Canadians stayed there too and we had some funny dice games in the night. We shared our last bottle of rum too--- with cold coke.
We were hiking farther south at the next day, to the exit of the park. Carate was the destinations name. We met some people but the hike was still great. Lots of animals. Aras, monkeys, snakes, etc. The highlight was a Jagurundi, a similar cat to that I had encountered some days before up north in Monteverde.
What a great feeling when we got to Carate and to its little plan strip. Only a little pulperia (grocery store) is there. We were waiting for a collector taxi to get to the big town of Pt. Jimenez. This was another tuff 2 hour ride on the back of a pickup truck. And it started to rain heavy. But even a bad ride has an end, and we got to the town where the bus back to San Jose would leave at the next morning. A cheap hotel, new dry clothes from one of the cheap stores, and we were ready to go out for dinner. Oh, we were hungry, had everything in a Mexican restaurant. Starter, meal, desert, beers and cocktails. Mjamh...
The bus ride took 10 hours at the next day. Still, we were exhausted, but it was worth it. What a trip!

Hiking Osa, PART II: The long hike

Photo: Coast of Osa, before we started to hike.

We landed on the beach some kms south of Drake. The landing was difficult because the surge was strong. Anyway, right after the landing a gringo looking lady from the lodge greeted us in german. Once again, we spoke german somewhere in the middle of no- where. We told her quickly that we wanted to hike south through the Concorvado National Park.
Already the first impressions were impressive. A small trail led to the entrance of the park, on the way we met the first Aras (those red parrots which can be also found on pirate ships), cut down coconuts (called pipas if they have more juice) and just enjoyed the wildlife and scenery. Along beaches, sometimes through the beautiful rainforest, but already worth the two days of getting there. We passed a biological station, lonely beachhuts and very few locals. All those fruits attracted us, including bananas (were not really ready yet) and carabolas (Star fruits, oh they taste great). Our slow pace forced us to stay somewhere to sleep, we knew that we wouldnt make it to the first station (were you can camp) of the national park since we had made to many stops to enjoy. Suddenly we came to a big property which was very cultivated and well kept. And a gringo family with some tico workers was playing soccer there ( see photo album). They told us, stay here and play soccer with us. We were thankful and agreed. After some converstations we found out that they are looking for science teachers, since they are doing homeschooling. This is perhaps an option for the summer of 2007?
We left right after sunrise at the following day to reach the first ranger station in the park. The hike wasnt too long but you always needed to be very careful with the poisonous snake. I usually used a long stick to check the ground and low plants infront of me. Finally we got to the station and guess what, there were two friendly hikers (no more than that) from germany. Then we had a chat with the indian park ranger of the camp. He was really rude, didnt give us informations, but told us: "Guys you cant go south because you need to pass really big rivers and they have too much water right now. A budy of mine can bring you 20km south with his boat for JUST 140 bucks". He spoke spanish, but what should we said except HAHAHAHA. We didnt believe this guy at all, so we stored our bags at the station and continued to go south to check the first river (7km away) for its waterlevel. We also didnt trust him because the family were we had stayed before told us that we would need to watch the tides very very well, but no more. The 7km hike was nice, mostly through the rainforest but already without the luggage a little exhausting. Fallen down trees and little creeks were responsible for that. We finally got to the beach passed Arc rock (see photos) and got to the first "dangerous river" during low tide. Hohoho. The water didnt even reach our knees when we passed it. The ranger had teased us for sure.
We got back to the ranger station very late, and left it again very early in the morning before everybody was awake. It took us almost three hours to get back. You hardly make more than 2km/h on foot there with heavy bags, since the forest is dense and you always get stuck and at the beach you sink into the sand shadow doesnt exist. Anway, it was high tide when we reached the river----- and everything was flooded. I saw already the first fin of a shark and we decided clearly NOT to swim or pass. Time passed and passed and we were hanging out in the shade waiting for the low tide, watched wildlife (all kinds of birds, hunting fish etc.) and decided finally to do some fishing (but those pufferfish (globefish= Kugelfische) dont taste well). Beautiful coconutpalmtrees were on the other side of the river, so I decided to pass the river (see photos). This was a very quick swim. Soon after a refreshing drink we crossed the river with the stuff above our head. We involved also a basic carry system based on wooden sticks. Philipp had a hard time with that because he is smaller than me.
Our long march continued and we were hiking, hiking and hiking. It was hot, we didnt meet any people, didnt see even foot print. It was like one of the famous lonely islands. Some Pipa breaks on the way even encouraged this association. The goal was to pass the second river before the high tide would come again.
We were lucky, the second river was like a little rill. We made our second camp in the wilderness right next to the river. I ckecked the are for some pipas found some but ran directly into a wasp nest too. No comments about that, but it hurted. A beach fire, a nice sunset and some coconutjuice with rum made the pain forget and we could relax and enjoy days images again.
Part 3 is coming up!

Hiking Osa, PART I: Getting there

Photo©Philipp

Duration of the trip including transport: 7 days;
Hiking: 4 days;

Not much time is left in Costa Rica. A good reason to have more adventures. The trip to the Osa Peninsula (Corcovado National Park) was certainly the highlight and an extremely beautiful experience.
It started with an excursion from the volcanologia class to Quepos which is found at the Pazific coast, pretty far in the south. A Tsunami warning, related to an earthquake (8), delayed everything because it was unsafe to go to the beach according to the radio. Fortunately, the Tsunami never hit the coast and we could continue several hours later. Searching for nice Olivin cristals was the primary goal. The day ended with a wonderful view from a restaurant where we enjoyed some beers.
Quepos is pretty far in the south at the pazific coast. Osa is a little peninsula in the very southwest of Costa Rica, close to the border of Panama and is the country´s highlight regarding animals. It has the second highest mamal diversity in the world!
However, it wasn´t easy to get there. It took us 2 days. First, we had to go east to San Isidro. A bad bus connection made us stay there for a while although we had left at 5 in the morning. Not too bad because we could do some important shopping, like buying useful machetes for coconuts. We also met some Austrian, guys who were having breakfast there.
We could finally get a bus south to Palmar Norte in the afternoon, but we drove directely into the monsum. We grabbed a taxi to Sierpe from Palmar Norte. There, we spent another night. Sierpe is located north of the biggest mangrove forest of Central America. The idea was to continue from this town to Drake by boat. We very lucky and found a boat at the next day which brought us south, down the river, along the coast to Drake. High waves and a good captain made this trip kind of save but definitely really exciting. We landed a little farther south east of Drake at a lodge, to which the boat belonged too.
The story continues.........