The first morning we woke at 5.30 am to bright day light and at 6.30am were 'entertained ' by deafening Latin American music. Glenn and I couldn't hear each other speak and were wondering how we were going to find a postive thought about the noise.
Vanessa arrived later in the day to help us buy our bikes at the bike shop across the road. The owner of the shop was a young, cheerful black Caribbean, who turned out to be the owner of the stereo. He made up our really good bikes from new and second hand parts for $30. Vanessa negotiated with him to turn down the music which he did.. However, the negotiations only lasted for a few days and the music is still loud.
Geobany working on my bike.
Vanessa arrived later in the day to help us buy our bikes at the bike shop across the road. The owner of the shop was a young, cheerful black Caribbean, who turned out to be the owner of the stereo. He made up our really good bikes from new and second hand parts for $30. Vanessa negotiated with him to turn down the music which he did.. However, the negotiations only lasted for a few days and the music is still loud.
Geobany working on my bike.
Geobany and I completing the contract.
When he'd finished my bike we pretended to shake hands for the photo, he wouldn't give me a proper handshake because he said his hands were too dirty. We said goodbye to Geobany a few days later as he told us he was going to United States to work. He was back the next morning working in the shop as cheerful as ever, customs wouldn't give him a visa to go to the United States. Never mind, we quite like his lively Caribbean dance music and he's still there to fix our bikes when he's needed!
Getting the keys cut.
Another job we had to do was get some keys cut for our house and front gates. The key shop was next to the Billiards Hall where the locals drink and play billiards. Woman are definitely not to be seen drinking in this establishment.
Parking the bikes.
The most common form of transport for the local people are bikes, motor scooters or motor bikes. These bikes are parked in one of the drains which are in all the main streets in the centre of Tela. Some of them are a metre deep and have been built to drain away the water in the heavy tropical storms. They really are just a traffic hazzard as you can see in the next photo.
An accident waiting to happen!
I took this photo for a couple of reasons. Just behind the man in black trousers are about 20 people lifting a car out of the ditch. The car came around the corner too quickly and the inevitable happened. Immeditately people gathered to help, a thing I love about Honduras. They had it out in about 2 minutes. I couldn't get close enough in time for you to see the car being lifted out of the drain, but it does give you an idea of some of the streets in the centre of Tela. ( double click on the photo to get it larger.)
Glenn and Vanessa waiting for lunch on the beach.
After all the help Vanessa had given us to set up our house we took her out for lunch. She suggested a beach restaurant in a Garifuna village. The Garifunas are a dark race of people who live on the coast of Central America from Honduras to Guatemala and Beliz. They originate from African slaves who were left on the island of St Vincent in the West Indies. They integrated with the indigenous people on the island and now speak their own language as well as Spanish. They are keen fishermen and are famous for their freshly cooked fish. We had a tasty fish meal, of soup, crab and prawns cooked in butter and garlic, very oily but tasty and served with fried platanos ( bananas).
