La Vista

I´m in the town of Copan Ruinas in western Honduras. It is named for the nearby Mayan ruins that date to around 2000 yrs ago. The town is on a hill surrounded by densely forested small mountains. I love the bright and joyful community that I see all around. People look at me when I walk down the street, so I smile and say buenos and they always respond with a smile and their own buenos. People often hang out in groups on the side of the street talking and laughing until around 9, when most people go to bed.

I´m amazed every time I walk around the town because of the incredible view of the mountains that the streets offer. Everything here is so colorful! Liz noticed that the amazing patters and colors of flowers and plants that we see everywhere are replicated by the culture. You can look at necklaces and bracelets on a table on the street then look up and see the same color and shape about 100 times the size. Its so beautiful how Hondurans embrace the nature around them.

At the same time, I see a lot of American influence. Apparently a TV store opened up recently and everyone went and bought one. Or three in the case of my host family. They have a lot of TV channels showing a lot of American programming. It made me pretty uneasy to see the Simpsons in Spanish playing during dinner. At least it wasn´t South Park, but its still pretty scary. My family generally sits around and watches TV when they´re at home and all I can do is hope that they aren´t taking too much away from the experience.