Brewery!!!

I devoured a rather large, freshly sliced mango at breakfast Saturday morning and should have known right then it was going to be a great day. I made my first cup of Honduran joe. Picked up a “coffee sock” (I’ll have to learn the word for that in Spanish) when I was at the market with Chris on Thursday, along with a pound of coffee, but didn’t have power Friday morning so I couldn’t come up with a way to heat the water before Chele arrived to tote us to school. I need to get my water/scoop/steep ratio down, but I’m going to love my morning coffee I can already tell. …and I’ll of course reacquaint myself with green tea when I return to the States. I’ll use the “I have to fit in!” excuse for the coffee while I’m here ;) I made what I’ve decided is my version of French toast, and it turned out fantastic. Hah, if I do say so myself I guess. They sell this brown sugary/hardened molassesish cube of yum at the market, and I shaved some over a couple thick-cut slices of bread. Yes, the “best bread in Honduras” made with the loving, tiny hands of a woman living just up the street from us. Then I drizzled the slices of silky joy with olive oil and let them slow toast in the oven. When I sat down to eat, the bread was perfectly toasted sugar sweet on the outside, and still soft and chewyoowie on the inside. The sugary shavings (I really do need to ask the name for some of these things, and write them down!) got a fun crunch in the oven, and I guess the oil just brought it all together. So, so good.  **Come to find out the sugary cube of yum is colloquially referred to as dulce de caña. And the bread is made by Angela. Mmm.

Chris stopped by a little before lunch to see if Irene and Maryann wanted to go get phones and take a little tour of the market. We piled into his truck and headed al mercado in search of a mirror, a couple cell phones and anything else that caught our eye. **Caution Dad—don’t flip out, I’m in Honduras and things are sometimes done a little differently here. Maryann and I climbed into the back and rode “dangerously” for the day. It was quite liberating, and I’ve decided riding in the back of a truck puts convertibles to shame.  When I return to the States I think it’s settled I’ll have to move to the country. And find a man who drives a truck. Preferably a tall, dark and handsome who knows how to “ho the rows” or however that saying goes—and will drive me around in the back of the truck with the wind in my hair and no windshields blocking my view of the skies and fields. I hope the mountain views here never lose their luster. To put a positive spin on that, I’ll go ahead and say these mountains will always be breathtaking. I’m caught off-guard each time I look up and see them from a new angle. The clouds do such amazing dances off the peaks and up into the sky.  I kept trying to take pictures from the back of the truck, but that just made me laugh. I’m not sure my pictures can do the view any justice, but I have to at least try. And maybe right now my eyes are just picky, and in ten years or so I’ll look back on the photos and melt all over again.

The cell phone purchasing took much longer than any of us seemed to anticipate, so we didn’t hang out in the market after that but headed right to lunch—at the D&D Brewery! Before I take us there, I have to share a little fun. Chris knew the woman at the Tigo (Honduran Verizon) tienda (store) so he was doing the talking to get Maryann and Irene their phones. I needed to put minutes on my phone, so I started chatting with her a little about that. I can’t remember her name, but she was a very sweet woman. I hadn’t said much to her before she complimented my Spanish, which always spreads a blushed smile across my face. Then she told Chris she could understand me better than him! She might have just been joking, but I still thought it was sweet.


So the D&D Brewery--what a neat place. It’s under new ownership; a gentleman by the name of Bobby who came to Honduras a few years ago from Chesapeake, VA. I want to say he was here teaching in a different city, but I might not be remembering correctly. He gave us a tour while we waited for our food, and I feel like we could have used a few more hours to soak it all in. D&D is tucked inside this rainforest, and I think they said it houses over 250 different kinds of plants. 

Bobby showing us some of the plants. This guy grows bright yellow petals as it matures (do plants mature?) 

We all agreed the menu and English-speaking owner (and poolside outdoor seating…) made it feel a little too “American,” but we never know when we might need a dose of ‘home.’ Rumor has it their burgers are fantastic, and I liked the beer so I’m not opposed to visiting every now and then. They have guide-led hikes, fishing guides and an archeological park that I’ll have to check out. They also have rooms and cabins to rent if we want to stay the night, and a few small campsites if anyone wants to visit and bring their tent. A few of the campsites are perrrfect for hammock camping which I think sounds ridiculously fun.

Once we got back home the weather was pretty stormy, so we took chairs to the porch to watch the rain. Not knowing each other at all it’s nice to get time to connect with my roommates. I had some fake tattoos I brought to give the kids as prize-type things (thanks Connor!!!) but was told that wouldn’t be ok…so Irene, Maryann and I decided to have a tattoo party! At first we were thinking of just one, and then we all three ended up with thigh sleeves. It was pretty funny, and definitely nice to laugh with my new girls.