July 30, 2008 - Copan, Honduras

"We don't have anything like a honeymoon, either. The honeymoon is running away with a woman and sleeping out in the fields together for first night. And the next day back to work. That's the campesino's honeymoon."
~Elvia Alvarado

"Thunder and Lightening Storms." A Common response to the inquiry, "What turns you on?"

The morning was spent wandering Copan, with my Spanish teacher, in hopes of finding a replacement digital camera, as mine has corrupted.

An Oregon friend, met on this trip, suggests the key to successful international travel is three items:
1. Passporte
2. Three forms of $$$ - Cash, Travelor´s Checks, Credit Card
3. Sense-of-humor

A sense-of-humor became necessary when I discovered all pictures of horseback riding, the Choti Maya Village, the Butterfly Gardens, and the Macaw Mountain Bird Park were lost. After hours of trekking Copan in blazing sun and heat, opted for an inexpensive disposable camera and will upload digital pictures after returning to The States.

Throughout the region, the World Bank has funded individuals to maintain traditional arts in their native villages. While visiting a ceramic potter in the mountains, near the Guatemala border, an afternoon storm began with a spine curling crack directly above our heads, followed by a lightening strike within feet from where we stood.

The same Oregon friend, who worked for an adventure backcountry outfit for over ten years, and myself both reacted with screams of fear. Possibly it was because we´re the only two with enough training to know the possible consequences of a lightening strike running through the ground and taking people down - but the rest of the group barely reacted.

Within minutes, a downpour that lasted for hours, lightening knocking out Copan power for the second time today, and all running water lost again.