the great monkey hunt in CocaCola

Yesterday, Wednesday the 11th of November 2009, Blair and I went in the morning to downtown Tegucigalpa, to explore the city!
It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the center, where we first met people organizing a demonstration. Ｗe bought some bananas in a tiny fruit store and enjoyed the sun in the park. The demonstration slowly got bigger and bigger, while we visited the art museum, close to the central park. When we finished our museum tour, the whole place been full of people, but gladfully it has been a peaceful demonstration.
Still they got police and military there, just in case something would get out of control. The demonstration people had a car with big speakers standing in the middle of the place, giving the speech of one leader. I didn’t really understood his Spanish, but what Blair translated me sounded kind of strange! He told the people for example to not go and eat at McDonald’s, as it will make them become fat.
We continued our tour and just kept walking trough the city.
I’ve been fascinated by the big CocaCola advertisement on one of the mountains. It looks like the Hollywood slogan in Los Angeles, USA! =)
After walking for half an hour in “CocaCola” we saw a big Jesus statue on the top of another mountain and decided, that’s where we want to go.
We started chatting with a girl on the street, which tried to sell remote controls for your TV. She been very friendly and even went together with us back to downtown by bus, to show us the right bus connection.
This bus took us in snake-lined-streets up the mountain and gave us an incredible few above the city!
The city Tegucigalpa got around 1.6 million habitant, while the most houses over here are not very tall.
Blair and I finally reached the entry of the national park and walked relaxed to the Jesus statue, to once more enjoy the amazing panorama view! =)
We actually planned to visite the zoo first, but missed the entrance.
On our way back we came by a family, having a family grill event on the top of the mountain. Blair whose Spanish is pretty perfect just started talking with them and they offered us to share lunch with them. Each of us got one spit of grilled meat, frijoles (beans), cheese and one Tortilla. Plus a glass of rum mixed with CocaCola! =)
Blair spoke with them a lot about the political situation in Honduras. They are thinking the same way, the demonstrations we met in the city earlier do and most people we’ve spoke here with. They all like and support the old president and think that the political push against the old president wasn’t democratic at all. As well this family told us, that the situation got worse for them, there living costs increased and in case they would have weapons, they would go on the street to support the old president. (as if anybody over here would do that … everybody pretty sure got a weapon over here from the past wars, but nobody wants to use them!) As far as I know, the old president got into Honduras, hidden in a truck and sits right now in the Brazilian embassy. The new president sits in the president palest and both can’t get out there places, as they would run into people who don’t want to see them.
We already got informed, that the police here now tries to charge everybody for everything, they can charge you, as they need more money. The city got much more unsafe and we try to not be out too late at night, but in case someone would rob us, we will just give him our prepared wallets – only including 2 or 3 USD …
Anyway I feel here actually safer than in Guatemala. It might sound crazy at first, but Honduras is definitely richer. Or at least it was so far, as now almost all international connections have been canceled – nobody else (including the USA and Venezuela) wants to support the new president! Still people over here believe, that the US army helped at the push at least on some point or level. As far as I heard, the republic party in USA would support the new president, while the democrats don’t, as it’s in there eyes not democratic to push a president.
If I understood everything right, the old president basically got sent away, because he tried hard to change the constitution of the country to be president for ever … – also not a very fair or nice move from him …
Anyway, this country is still keeping running and so far everything looks good. We will see, how the situation will change after the votes in about 2 weeks. But I will by then already be (hopefully) back in Guatemala!
After talking with this very nice family we met, we continued walking and finally arrived at the zoo.
The zoo actually would have been already closed, but we been allowed to enter. I guess they just wanted our money! =P
We saw a few very nice animals, including a lot of snakes, until we arrived at the leopard. The zoo was something totally different from the ones you would see in Europa or North America!
Only a very thin wire mash fence and another one meter hight one did split our world from the leopards one.
Basically you could have put your hand trough it … – scary! ;)
Just when we stood there and looked at the leopard, who has been very un-photogenic as he always looked away from my camera, a monkey came to us. The monkey been outside his cage and came along on the small fence. We first thought, the monkey will be peaceful, but immediately he started to attack Blair. He jumped into Blair’s direction, who immediately backed up. Still he insured Blair’s left arm a bit with his sharp finger nails.
Following this monkey at least another 6 free monkeys, Blair and I decided to be fast like the wind and started running! For me it would have been hard to defence myself, as I got my small but heavy packbag on my back and my big camera in the front around my neck. Blair used his small packbag to defence himself against the monkeys. After we were running up the hill, the monkeys stopped there and only looked at us, showing there big teeth and crying very loud!
We walked the last couple of steps to the exit of the zoo and saw a zoo guide sitting there. When we told him about the free monkeys and that they attack tourists, he reacted very relaxed and told us something like “oh – that happens always …”
Personally I could imagine, that they let them go free at 3pm, to get the tourists out the park.
It was very scary to see all those monkeys running very loud behind us – hunting us through the park! … on the other hand something, which doesn’t happens each day and definitely one crazy story more to tell! =P
We took the small bus back down the mountain and started our way from downtown back to the home of our couch hosts.
We had some problems to find the way, as there was basically one small hill between our couch and the downtown. In the morning we surrounded the hill on the right side and when we started our way back, all the people we asked told us the opposite direction. Anyway we arrived after a long walk back at the couch.
On the way to there, we’ve been vouchers at a car accident. A taxi just hid a motor bike. Gladfully both were going in walking-speed and so nobody got really insured. Anyway we decided to sit down over there for couple of minutes and watch the situation, what will happen after that accident.
Immediately 4 guys jumped out the taxi. The three girls, which were sitting in the back just got out too and took another taxi, while the boys got together with the young taxi driver. Also the motor bike driver been very young. They both called the police, but before the police actually arrived, they already started to fight. Both of them then got knocked into their face, while the situation was very unfair – 4 guys against only 1 …
Two young police officers arrived then on their motor bike and first of all marked the position of the car and the motor bike on the street. Then they moved both vehicles off the street and started talking to those guys. It looked professional, but we guess, that the story probably ended corrupted.
I guess, that the young police officers then just called older ones which will come there and take money from both parties. Who pays more, will win the fight. We could see it going into this direction, as the taxi driver already took all his money out his pocket and started counting … – but not in the way like “this is what I will give the guy on the bike for his damage …” ;)
Anyway we then decided to move on, as the sun was already going down.
In the evening, we enjoyed a very good Chinese dinner with our couch hosts, just before I’ve been able to talk with the girl I love over Skype for about 1 1/4 hours! =)
It was already one o’clock in the morning, when I finally went to bed on the couch. They got a sweet cat, which joined me sleeping – but I friendly taught  her how to fly off the couch, after she started playing in the middle of the night with my hand … =P
Well, this day definitely was a big adventure and many things happened – that’s how this post actually got now up to over 1600 words! =P