after mitch

I worried before i came here that i might be hanging out with 19-year-olds who know everything about the world. The sort that tell you about the time they went diving in the Bay Islands and felt really "at one with everything and even saw a whale shark, man". But, fingers crossed, the people I have met so far have been really interesting.

Take the hotelier I met last night. Probably late 50s , with the perma-tan of an established ex-pat, he came out with his wife from France to set up a beautiful hotel in the Caribbean beach town of Tela. They renovated and decorated a house for 3 years. Then Hurricane Mitch came and gutted it. Most people would have gone home, but they simpy re-did it all again. He worked in advertising in Paris for 30 years, and his wife used to be a professional ballerina.

I sat listening to their stories of the storm. Apparently no metereologist knew where it was going, it zig-zagged everywhere. The aftermath sounded like madness. Every country wanted to help but much of the work wasn't co-ordinated or thought through. Efforts were well intentioned but slightly bizarre - one aid package included snow boots! Apparently there used to be 40-metre high palms on the beach. They all fell sick after the floods and died, so now there are replacement mini palm trees a fraction of the height.

After speaking to them, I went to eat with friends I made in San Pedro Sula: a very welcoming and helpful German couple who have lived here several years, and their friend, a Honduran girl who can tell when it is going to rain because she starts to sneeze a couple of hours before hand. So I have been lucky with the company i have kept in these first few days.

But like the littlest hobo, i just keep moving on, and I am about to go to La Ceiba. They have a saying here. San Pedro works, Tugicigalpa governs, La Ceiba has fun. We shall see.

...and the rain has stopped so I better go - it's not all beer and sunshine you know.

Hasta pronto.