Honduran Song and Dance

Last night we went down to "our" beach, just down the hill, to Tranquil Seas, a small boutique resort right on the beach. The Englishmen owners had invited us to come enjoy the Honduran music, dancers and food. We thought they might serve some type of island food, but their chef had cooked up paella, a Spanish dish of rice and seafood (or chicken), and served with a glass of sangria. We got there in time to watch the sunset.

The dancers were quite good, performing traditional Honduran folk dances in costume. They did not have much space to move around though; I'm sure it would have been even better on a larger dance floor. When we first arrived, a guitarist was playing and singing. He was followed by a group of musicians who performed on guitar, sax, keyboard and sang lively Honduran songs. And it was not ridiculously loud either.

Our food was good - well, my seafood paella was better than Don's with chicken. We ate with a young Canadian woman, Sally, who is staying at Tranquil Seas and whom we had met on the dock the day before, and our Canadian neighbor, Wenda. Sally is getting her diving certification. Her goal is to go back to Antarctica and dive! Yikes.

This is the beginning of Semana Sante, Holy Week. For many Hondurans, it is vacation time. The mainlanders come to the island to hang out on the beaches and party, and many islanders go to the mainland to visit family. The ex-pats and other locals generally stay home. We've been warned that the beaches are packed solid, forget trying to get into a beach restaurant, and stock up on groceries early before the hoards descend upon the grocery stores. We've done the grocery stock up and this morning after our Sandy Bay beach walk, Debi and I went to West End to buy our fresh vegetables from the produce trucks parked along the beach. We saw these children playing in the water at Half Moon Bay. Ordinarily there aren't locals or mainlanders in the water on a Monday. There weren't too many people in West End yet - the majority arrive mid-week.

We keep having power outages. Still don't know the reason unless it is just that it is hot and more people are running air-conditioners. Today the power was out from 12:30-2:00, on for about 30 minutes and then went off again at 2:30 and didn't come back on until around 6:30. Kellie is out of school this week for Semana Sante and came down with her Monopoly game at 2:30. We played on the deck until nearly 6:00 when I had to stop and make a quick dinner while I could still see. Just as I finished cooking, the power came back on. We'll see how long this will last.