El Downtown

Yesterday my host brother Guillermo took me to the center of Tegus. We took a walk around the neighborhood and went to the Museo para la identitad Nacional. It was absolutely worth a visit. Not only did they have the exhibition of the nation of Honduras and the virtual guide of Copan, they also had two really nice exhibitions of contemporary art. One consisted of works of different female honduran artists and the other one exposed paintings of a Venezuelan artist, Ramón Chirinos. I really loved some of these paintings, his work is a mixture of abstract and figurative art, filled with emotions and really nice color combinations. I recommend everyone who has the opportunity to check this museum out. 

the city center

 

 

Ramon Chirinos

Afterwards we went to have crepes and coffee in a "hipster" café, the hipster thing took me by surprise, evidently the hipsters are all over the world. Guillermo also told me the story of the name of the currency here, the lempira. Lempira was a war chieftain of the lenca people and lead the resistance against the spanish invasion. He was the leader of 30 000 lencan soldiers before he got killed by the spanish and the lenca people surrendered. There are two different legends, one where the spaniards killed Lempira by ambush, the other one says that Lempira died in combat. It was nice to know the story behind the name, I thought the name sounded a bit strange, but now everything fell into place. 

lempira

Later on in the evening I went out with my other brother Luis and his girlfriend. We went to a bar nearby and had some beers, I also tried a Nicaraguan rum called Flor de Caña, good stuff. Today we are going barbecue with the family, honduran style. My host brother Guillermo gave me some very interesting books to read. One is about the protests and strikes of the workers in the banana companies in the 1950s, that actually was started by the female employees. The other one is written by Ernesto Che Guevara and tells the story of the cuban revolution. I'm really glad to live with a host family, it is a great way of getting a closer look at the costumes and daily life of the people of Honduras, and you get a safety net of persons that look out for you and can help you out. I've never liked living alone so for me this is the perfect solution. 

Oh yeah, friday night we went to the feria AGAFAM wich is a fair where the people go to see horse shows, pet the animals, eat, drink, dance and sing karaoke. There are also small shops and a small amusement park with a roller coaster and a ferris wheel. It was a lot of fun, we sang karaoke and danced in the imperial (honduran beer) tent. 

in the imperial tent

the karaoke king of the feria

Singing the huge hit, sopa de caracol