Kickin' some butt in Honduras

Today is Sunday and it's sunny and blue-skied here in Honduras. It was rainy this morning and I wrote a few letters and listened to Indigo Girls on my family's stereo. My breakfast was fresh tortillas, avocado, refried bean, queso, and eggs with ham. The contents on the plate change but everything here is wrapped up in a tortilla and eaten like a soft taco.

This weekend has been fun. On Friday after class we all met up at Iguana Mia´s, the cute college-type restaurant in downtown Siguatepeque, and had dinner and drink. I got to meet several volunteers who have been here longer and they told us stories and gave us random advice. There are some cute guys here, girl friends of mine! Just trying to give you some incentives to come visit me :) But Chris, don't feel threatened, everyone knows I have a boyfriend and it's one of the common conversation topics whenever I'm introduced to someone these days.

Saturday I went to the training center for some optional self-defense classes. How fun! We talked about security, punched and kicked some bags, learned how to get away from people holding on to us with some nifty moves, and laughed a lot. I got some great pictures. Our instructor was a current PCV who used to be a professional kickboxer and was 3rd in the world. Crazy huh? I feel like if the worst ever happens (and the chances are it won't mom!) I feel better prepared now. My favorite moment was my friends practicing punching and kicking this hanging sack and screaming "Get the $%!* away from me you jerk!!!" and "Give me back my purse!!"

I left early from the classes to go on a day trip with my 2 sisters, Lizeth and Cindy, and a cousin Diana to Comayagua, Lizeth's favorite city about a 45 minute bus ride from Siguatepeque. It sits in a big valley and is quite a bit hotter than here. There is good shopping and lots of colonial architecture from the Spaniards. The oldest clock in Central America is there on an old beautiful cathedral in the central square. We had lunch with extended family there, where I met several talking parrots and an iguana. Then we walked around the streets, and went to a nice museum where I read (in both spanish and english) about the ancient civilizations that used to inhabit the Comayagua valley and saw their artifacts, all the way up to the arrival of the Spaniards. One cool thing was that at the end there was a case with pictures and letters and artifacts of my sisters´ grandfather, Angel Campos, who was apparently an important figure in Comayagua in the old days. We went to the central square and saw the cathedral and fountain, surrounded by palm trees and lush greenery. We bought an ice cream cone at Kobb's, a great place that is in Sigua too, and relaxed around the square. There were a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers hanging out there too that I didn't know, but I recognized one as one of the guys who helped with the self-defense class earlier that day. He is really nice, a big black guy, who apparently is half of the female PCVs' "boyfriend" - he visits them to scare away any guy who are bothering them in their towns. I might have to borrow him in the future too!

We took the bus back to Siguatepeque around 4 pm, whipping around curves over some dazzling heights - I tried not to look down though! It was a fun day though, but I was ready to get home and relax. Today I am just relaxing with my family and my dad is supposed to call around 2 - yay! I passed up a hike with some other people because I didn´t want my weekend too full so I couldn´t rest up and get some homework done.

Well I gotta run - I miss you all! Keep writing :)