Tegucigalpa daze

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - I'm not sure where the time has gone in the hodge podge of decaying Lego blocks that make up this town. I think I fell out of that traveler's mindset when I started working again, then quickly developed a daily routine that consisted of little excitement and a lot of work that led to stories people were already paying the Associated Press for. I’ve also been suffering from allergies and a small bout with the stomach flu.

Plus I've spent way too much time the last two days with my head buried in “The Shining” by Stephen King, which I just finished. Not recommended reading for someone trapped in a decrepit old hotel all alone. Come take your medicine, doc.

I’m not all alone, per say. There’s a few couples here, and up until yesterday a family of about 10 Somali Muslims traveling through Latin America was also here. There were three young guys in the group, whose names I regretfully don’t remember, who would occasionally come up to me on the second floor balcony where I steal Internet and talk a little in English about traveling. They finished every sentence with a big bright smile, then stood around awkwardly reading over my shoulder. Sometimes one would just walk up smiling, not saying anything, put his hand on my shoulder and read my laptop screen for a second. I would look up at him and he was still smiling. Then just walk away. It was too amusing and harmless for me to protest.

No, I didn’t tell them that a guy I went to high school with is currently helping terrorists fight their government.

I finished a story for The Miami Herald today, but I have no idea when it will be published. Blake, who left Tegucigalpa for Granada today, hooked me up with that contact.

I’m sad I didn’t get to do much outside of Tegucigalpa aside from one day trip to La Tigra National Park, but I’d say I’ve had an authentic experience. Barring any big developments with the drama surrounding the coup here, I’m heading to Granada on Friday. I’ll have arrived just a little more than two months after leaving Mobile.

After I finished “The Shining” I put it up and grabbed a new book out of my backpack, this one a historical study titled “Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle” by Thomas W. Walker, a professor at Ohio University. Here are the first two sentences:

“Located at the geographic center of Central America, with Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south, Nicaragua is the largest country in the region. Even so, its 57,143 square miles of surface and its population of 4.9 million make it only slightly larger, in both respects, than the U.S. state of Alabama (with 52,423 square miles and 4.5 million inhabitants.)”

Bamaragua.