I spent six and a half weeks in the village of Candelaria and surrounds, in Lempira Department, Honduras. Southern Lempira department is not exactly touristed, and appears as a footnoted "off-the-beaten-track" destination for "bean-lovers only" in guidebooks, if it appears at all. The department was named for the indigenous hero, Lempira, who was a Lenca warrior. He successfully organised the Lenca people and resisted the Spanish forces for a frustratingly long time (for the Spaniards) and became a hero in the process. He was eventually killed in mysterious circumstances - to this day it remains unclear whether he was killed in battle, ambushed or betrayed. Local legend has it that he was asassinated at Piedra Parada (Standing Rock), a site of immense local significance. Lempira Day in July is the biggest local festival of the year.
Las vistas...
Los alumnos...
For pictures of each student, click here/Haga clik aqui por fotos de cada estudiante.
Mis amigos...
Varios...
Nobody would believe this was really my website without some interesting photos of bark, leaves and rocks. So here you go, proof.
On the left is a view of the village of Candelaria. The small black dot in the sky is one of the ever present vultures or limpia mundos.
The centre picture shows a view down into the Department of Lempira as I was heading back towards the capital, Tegucigalpa. The sun was coming out in patches, but otherwise it was rainy and cold.
Finally on the right is the view from the daily drive to the field sites on a clear day, south towards El Salvador (all of the blue hills are Salvadoran). You can just make out a Salvadoran volcano in the distance.
On the left are the varrones, the guys. From left to right Chungo, Erik, Ever, Lucas, Jeremias and Edonaldo in front.
On the left is a picture of almost all of the students: L to R back row: Magna, Edith, Ana, Norma, Cordelia, Maria, Lilian, me, Wendy.
Top middle L to R: Ernestina, Rosali. Bottom middle L to R: Jeremias, Edonaldo, Lucas, Mirian and in front, Erik. The extremely observant
amongst you will notice that in addition to the standard geography student equipment of a compass, I am also wearing my Grography T-shirt,
which was impossible to translate, especially given that women here don't drink. An interesting thing was that everyone thought the squiggly
lines marking the grography route were actually the main roads in Australia - because that's what the main roads in Honduras really look like.
The boys collected mangoes while the girls tried to teach me the local dance - the punta.
The middle picture is a lovely one of the girls hard at work, clockwise from far left: Wendy, me, Edith, Mirian, Bessy, Maria, Rosali, Ana, Cordelia, Norma, Magna, Ernestina.
My little friends Cecilia, Alejandra, Hector and Nicole (left to right in first picture).
The wonderful women of the Lainez family in their comedor, and my mate Dave from the US Peace Corps shortly before I caused him permanent eye damage with the camera flash.
Honduras Winter 2004
Honduras Winter 2005
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