Sunday, January 02, 2011

Valley of the Angel




I will admit that I have forgotten how to write it in Spanish. So, you get the English name. It's a small town the other side of Teguc, which meant that it was a longish van ride. I went on a trip with the folks on Post a few weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting the pictures.




It's a tourist town, small and basically friendly. It is what I would like to think most of Honduras is like, but probably represents the country about as well as Gatlinburg does Tennessee. There are small shops in most of the brightly painted buildings with hammocks and such hanging around the doors. The chickens are on a patio that when the shop is open I'm told you can walk out to where they are. It was closed when we were there.




When you walk in the door under the chickens, this is what you see. There are small shops off this main hall and upstairs.




This is looking on up the hill to a residential area. If you look closely you can see the small red 3 wheel motorized taxi There are several of these in town to haul your tourist tail up and down the steep hills. We didn't use one so I don't know how much they cost, but our conversations were about how cool it would be to have one on Post.




A lot of the buildings are painted bright colors, as I mentioned. The other thing In noticed about this restaurant is that the sign is mostly in English. We were also pegged immediately by shopkeepers as being from the Army Post. They always started spouting about 'specials' for soldiers. Prices are negotiated by using a calculator to show how many dollars are offered/asked. Dollars are universally accepted wherever I've been in Honduras.




This is another mall, just off the central park. We didn't go in there. We did eat at a restaurant just behind me, and just before leaving stopped for coffee at the coffee shop next door.




The park is really nice here. I would go again just to hang around the park for an afternoon. It is a nice,quiet town where I felt safe. I did have 2 nice male soldier escorts for the day, but I think I would have felt safe alone. Then again, the soldiers are so rigged into the idea of staying together that as long as I'm on one of their trips I'm not sure I would be able to get off by myself. One of the other soldiers did separate from his 'battle buddy' for a few minutes and immediately acquired a shadow, a local male half his size who acted very protective and tried to act like he was guiding him. Of course the guide expected money for keeping him safe. He didn't get any. As I said, he was half the guy's size, and all he was doing was walking down the main street.

So, not a terribly exciting trip report. I'll do better when I go back.

3 comments:

  1. IMHO, a delightfully descriptive and illustrated post telling of a place ways your life is different than mine. Thanks.

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  2. Again you say that it is boring,BUT Not to us!!! We're stuck up here in the same ole same ole, While you are running around in a strange exiting ( to us) foreign country Thanks for the colorful pictures.

    About your translation,,how's this look? Valley of the Angel= El valle de la Angel

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  3. Ben,

    That is a good literal translation but rarely does the literal match the actual.

    Valle de Ángeles is the name of the place.

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