For email Blogicito readers
11 years ago
Happy Anniversary! (click here to comment)
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wedding
Today, Anah and I celebrate six months of blessed marriage!
The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous (Click here to comment)
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beer
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entertainment
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homelife
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San Pedro Sula
Finding decent beer in Honduras is an ongoing challenge for Anah and I. Our friend Jesse had warned us that, although cheap and plentiful, we would soon tire of the local beers. Thinking we were smartypants declaring "that no one gets sick of a cold beer in a hot country" we quickly dismissed Jesse's dire warnings.
He was right.
Like many things down in Honduras, he was right. Having returned from the land of dark beers and varied tastes (USA) drinking the local fare was becoming incredibly dull. The local beers (Salva Vida, Port Royal, Barena, and Imperial) range in taste from Bud Light to Miller Lite so the differences are not vast. Beer drinkers will also be disappointed to discover that the international choices are not much better. Heineken (along with American standards Budweiser and Miller Lite) shows up as the only other beer that could possibly be palatable to Hondurans.
I have attempted to literally "spice" up my beer drinking by incorporating the bland local brews into a Mexican concoction known as the "Michelada"." This wonder-drink is a mix of ice, lime juice, Worcester sauce, hot sauce and beer over the top of it with a salted rim. It goes without saying (but I will) that this is a much needed improvement.
Anah is still drinking the rum without complaints.
Still, an unmolested beer is desired from time to time and our salvation came in the form of an old friend. I had heard a rumor that this old friend had come to town and while there is no explanation how he got here or how long he would be sticking around, Anah and I welcomed him with open arms into our home. Meet our new friend:
Just like Boca Burgers, occasionally, a product that you would never imagine finding in Honduras shows up on the grocery store shelves. Without asking too many questions, my friend Sava and I picked up a case (not pictured) of the old Milwaukee standard and brought it to a party last night; a quick hit it was.
Now some may debate the quality of a beer like Schlitz, but let us set aside such petty squabbles and bask in the glory that is a piece of Milwaukee made such a journey to the remote corners of the world.
And just for the record, you still get the "Schlitzs" the morning after down here.
He was right.
Like many things down in Honduras, he was right. Having returned from the land of dark beers and varied tastes (USA) drinking the local fare was becoming incredibly dull. The local beers (Salva Vida, Port Royal, Barena, and Imperial) range in taste from Bud Light to Miller Lite so the differences are not vast. Beer drinkers will also be disappointed to discover that the international choices are not much better. Heineken (along with American standards Budweiser and Miller Lite) shows up as the only other beer that could possibly be palatable to Hondurans.
I have attempted to literally "spice" up my beer drinking by incorporating the bland local brews into a Mexican concoction known as the "Michelada"." This wonder-drink is a mix of ice, lime juice, Worcester sauce, hot sauce and beer over the top of it with a salted rim. It goes without saying (but I will) that this is a much needed improvement.
Anah is still drinking the rum without complaints.
Still, an unmolested beer is desired from time to time and our salvation came in the form of an old friend. I had heard a rumor that this old friend had come to town and while there is no explanation how he got here or how long he would be sticking around, Anah and I welcomed him with open arms into our home. Meet our new friend:
Just like Boca Burgers, occasionally, a product that you would never imagine finding in Honduras shows up on the grocery store shelves. Without asking too many questions, my friend Sava and I picked up a case (not pictured) of the old Milwaukee standard and brought it to a party last night; a quick hit it was.
Now some may debate the quality of a beer like Schlitz, but let us set aside such petty squabbles and bask in the glory that is a piece of Milwaukee made such a journey to the remote corners of the world.
And just for the record, you still get the "Schlitzs" the morning after down here.
Honduran Specialties #1 (click here to comment)
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Labels:
Honduras
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San Pedro Sula
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Specialties
In an effort to cover some of the more minute details of our life down here in Honduras (read: hopefully not too boring for you all), Anah and I are going to start documenting some of the day-to-day aspects of our life. Some interesting, some funny, and probably most of them downright bizarre.
Today, we'll start with a "bizarre" one.
Honduras is a country with a little crime problem. Suffice to say that the police presence is around, but rarely doing much of anything. Major US cities usually have the sounds of police sirens, which we usually translate to believing they are moving about chasing suspects, arresting individuals, and responding to the citizens' needs.
I have never heard a Honduran police siren since moving here. I saw them arrest somebody for the first time two weeks ago (although that was hauling a guy off a van for no apparent reason), but other than that they are good at one thing only: check points.
Every once in a while a trio of officers will park their truck (no cruisers) and place a pair of traffic cones in the middle of the street. Seemingly with no rhyme or reason they will flag down a vehicle for "document" inspection. Think the sobriety check points in the states, but without the public's well being in mind.
I've heard that if you don't have the proper documents the officers will write you a ticket, which you can either clear up with a bribe (probably the whole point of the exercise in the first place) or pay the actual ticket at the police station. The rule is that the police will take your driver's license and keep it until you pay the ticket.
Problem (for the police that is) is that its cheaper to go to the DMV (the Honduran equivalent) and get a new license than it is to pay the fine. So Honduran police, lacking a computer system to check who has paid and not paid, sit on tons of licenses and empty pockets. The only reason not everyone just skips the ticket is that the Honduran DMV is like the one back in the states only IN HONDURAS so imagine what that is like.
The whole point of the story is that the police set up a check point this afternoon and Anah and I walked past it on our way home from the gym. The police, per usual, flagged down a brand new Toyota Tundra to check its documents.
As the officer was looking at the driver's papers, the passenger of the vehicle (a middle-aged woman) rolled down the window and THREW A BUNCH OF TRASH OUT INTO THE STREET. Given that that is not normally acceptable behavior at all (Mom, remember that time you scolded that one woman for littering?), it was especially shocking to watch this woman do this in front of the officer.
It was one of the more US-to-Honduras-disconnects that we had had in awhile. Its easy to understand somethings, but the blatant nature of this offense was a HONDURAN SPECIALTY.
- Dan
Today, we'll start with a "bizarre" one.
Honduras is a country with a little crime problem. Suffice to say that the police presence is around, but rarely doing much of anything. Major US cities usually have the sounds of police sirens, which we usually translate to believing they are moving about chasing suspects, arresting individuals, and responding to the citizens' needs.
I have never heard a Honduran police siren since moving here. I saw them arrest somebody for the first time two weeks ago (although that was hauling a guy off a van for no apparent reason), but other than that they are good at one thing only: check points.
Every once in a while a trio of officers will park their truck (no cruisers) and place a pair of traffic cones in the middle of the street. Seemingly with no rhyme or reason they will flag down a vehicle for "document" inspection. Think the sobriety check points in the states, but without the public's well being in mind.
I've heard that if you don't have the proper documents the officers will write you a ticket, which you can either clear up with a bribe (probably the whole point of the exercise in the first place) or pay the actual ticket at the police station. The rule is that the police will take your driver's license and keep it until you pay the ticket.
Problem (for the police that is) is that its cheaper to go to the DMV (the Honduran equivalent) and get a new license than it is to pay the fine. So Honduran police, lacking a computer system to check who has paid and not paid, sit on tons of licenses and empty pockets. The only reason not everyone just skips the ticket is that the Honduran DMV is like the one back in the states only IN HONDURAS so imagine what that is like.
The whole point of the story is that the police set up a check point this afternoon and Anah and I walked past it on our way home from the gym. The police, per usual, flagged down a brand new Toyota Tundra to check its documents.
As the officer was looking at the driver's papers, the passenger of the vehicle (a middle-aged woman) rolled down the window and THREW A BUNCH OF TRASH OUT INTO THE STREET. Given that that is not normally acceptable behavior at all (Mom, remember that time you scolded that one woman for littering?), it was especially shocking to watch this woman do this in front of the officer.
It was one of the more US-to-Honduras-disconnects that we had had in awhile. Its easy to understand somethings, but the blatant nature of this offense was a HONDURAN SPECIALTY.
- Dan
In Case You Missed It
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Labels:
Estados Unidos
I was flipping through the channels today when I saw this guy talking about America. He had some good points I thought:
Just for the record, watching from afar was just as cool. An amazing day for Americans and these two Americans abroad. We hope that the United States we return to is one that is stronger, more secure, and full of more hope than ever before.
Just for the record, watching from afar was just as cool. An amazing day for Americans and these two Americans abroad. We hope that the United States we return to is one that is stronger, more secure, and full of more hope than ever before.
Okay, so living here is pretty great...
Non-frozen body of water.Not to rub it in to those of you literally freezing in Wisco, but the weather has been gorgeous lately. Last weekend my darling sister came to town, and after one night in SPS we whisked her away to nearby Tela. Tela is only about an hour or so away from SPS, but for whatever reason we hadn't yet visited this tropical paradise. To be sure, it's not quite as lovely as Roatan but it does have a decent beach as well as cheap and comfortable hotels and most importantly, it is considerably more lovely than SPS.
Hotel view.
On the recommendation of friends, we stayed at the "MayaVista" which was a strange treehouse-like hotel that had a great view of the ocean and town below. The first day we spent at the beach where Dan was able to join a pick-up soccer game and Erin and I soaked up some sun.
The next day we woke early to venture out to "Punta Sal", a point of land just past Tela that is home to a large national park and several Garifunian (Indigenous Honduran) communities. We took a choppy boat ride out to the point, accompanied by some fishermen and our "guide", Juan Carlos. They dropped us off at the entrance to the national park (and to be clear, by "entrance" I mean medium-sized wooden sign stuck in the sand) and we followed JuanCa into the jungle. The tour literature promised monkey-spotting, so we were on the lookout for furry creatures but alas, saw none. We did however see lots of evidence of them as well as lots of funky insects and plants. Also, the hike led to a lovely lagoon where we found many crabs of different persuasions on a glittering beach.
You are here.
Juan Carlos (or as he like to say, "JuanCa... like the in the choclate factory") shows more lifesaving plants with his trusty stick.
Beach.
Beach Babes.The boat took us back into town in the afternoon and we found our way to the bus station. The "Tela Express" served as our chariot back to SPS and we were back with plenty of time to prepare for the school week ahead. It was a lovely weekend and a great chance to enjoy time with Erin. On Monday she was able to visit our school and meet the fabulous first graders (although I think their intensity scared her a little) and then on Tuesday she headed off to Roatan for the remainder of the week.
We're looking forward to our next trip to Tela- next weekend, maybe?
Click here to see all of our Tela photos!
Holiday Time Photos (click here to leave comments... if you wanna)
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by Anah - January, 4th - 8:00pm
We had a fabulous time back in good ol' Wisco, jumping around from Sparta to LaCrosse to Sun Prairie and ultimately to Milwaukee. We had a great chance to catch up with our families and friends and stuffed ourselves full of cheese, beer and all the other yumminess we miss down here. There was plenty of time for relaxing, reading, trying out PJ and Nanc's new snow shoes and even managed a Bowling Night for Danno at the Falcon. Another highlight was meeting the newest member of the Milwaukee crew, Mr. Even Grogan Seleen- one cool little duder.
Since most of you who read this blog were with us over the holidays, I won't do a play-by-play but rather just post up some of our pics from the time at home.
We were greeted on our first night with amazing snow.
The whole state had snow days!
We helped shovel at the Wiersema's!
Glad we don't have to keep doin' that!
The site of the wedding is a bit snow-covered!
Daddio with the best-dogs-ever.
Snowshoe-time with Mom! Blaze orange is in!
Mr. Even Seleen! How cute is he!??
Dinner with the ladies at Nessun Dorma while the boys were bowling. Perfect!
Dan making Emily spit beer by saying something innappropriate.
What do you guys do without us?
Getting Kevin ready for work...
The lovable Lemons
No one would ever believe what was happening
behind us in this photo...
Where's your blazer, Danno?
Thanks for coming down, you two!
Glad you could join us for a night of screaming at the waitress!
We had a fabulous time back in good ol' Wisco, jumping around from Sparta to LaCrosse to Sun Prairie and ultimately to Milwaukee. We had a great chance to catch up with our families and friends and stuffed ourselves full of cheese, beer and all the other yumminess we miss down here. There was plenty of time for relaxing, reading, trying out PJ and Nanc's new snow shoes and even managed a Bowling Night for Danno at the Falcon. Another highlight was meeting the newest member of the Milwaukee crew, Mr. Even Grogan Seleen- one cool little duder.
Since most of you who read this blog were with us over the holidays, I won't do a play-by-play but rather just post up some of our pics from the time at home.
We were greeted on our first night with amazing snow. The whole state had snow days!
We helped shovel at the Wiersema's! Glad we don't have to keep doin' that!
The site of the wedding is a bit snow-covered!
Daddio with the best-dogs-ever.
Snowshoe-time with Mom! Blaze orange is in!
Mr. Even Seleen! How cute is he!??
Dinner with the ladies at Nessun Dorma while the boys were bowling. Perfect!
Dan making Emily spit beer by saying something innappropriate. What do you guys do without us?
Getting Kevin ready for work...
The lovable Lemons
No one would ever believe what was happeningbehind us in this photo...
Where's your blazer, Danno?
Thanks for coming down, you two! Glad you could join us for a night of screaming at the waitress!
Thanks to all of you for your hospitality and overall wonderful-ness. Here's hoping 2009 is the best yet!
Work Avoidance Strategy #1574
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