Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Snow, out of order

I wrote this a couple days ago, but this has been the fist chance to upload it ----

Snow in Honduras!!

Today, we're waiting at the Honduran border in El Florido for permission to circulate with the bus. All the paperwork for the equipment is done. We're free to take that to La Esperanza. We're just camping here, sitting on the termite eaten porch of the Honduran customs building waiting for one little document. Now that the weekend has passed, it seems like things are in motion to get the bus through.

Meanwhile, a tank truck of liquified carbon dioxide pulls up, and vents off a plume of gas (because of altitude?). After about 15 minutes, there's dry ice building up inside the vent pipe, pieces start breaking off, and, it's snowing! Well, no accumulation, in fact it's kind of hard to see the flakes amid the gas plume, but it's novel.

Now that Adrienne and Jane are back in Urbana, I can say how great it was to have them along....our erstwhile drivers So much great energy and understanding in the midst of really pretty trying siituations. Adrienne's painstaking mountain ascent, and hair-raising descent, after we all missed seeing a turn, and headed up the mountains toward Tuxla Gutierrez, rather than staying on the flat southern route through Mexico. If they can drive this bus under these conditions, they're experts! We were sad to see them go, but very much feel their need to get back.

Don Soltero and Don Chico, from the Lenca organization COPINH, met us when we first crossed into Honduras in Aguas Calientes. They are a great source of support, and their good humor keeps us happy, in spite of feeling so anxious to get on with the work.

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