Still in Gracias

Having a pretty cool time in Gracias, mostly because of the cool people we are meeting and the fact that there is a bit of a fiesta going on here, which is kind of fun in the evening. So far we have seen the annual competition to be the fiesta princess (all 10 year old girls - general concensus is that red is the best colour but significant disagreement on their favourite fruit!) and I have won 10L (about 30p) on their version of roulette. I got quite excited by this and squeeled much to the amusement of the massed Hondurans!

Also went to visit this small village the other day (La Campa) which necessitated us hitching a lift on the back of a pick up truck (dont worry Mum, v safe and the preferred method of transport around here given the lack of buses). Was really fun and the village itself was a real eye-opener. Loads of NGO money appears to be pouring in and they have an internet cafe with the best computers I have seen in a long while. At first we wondered what we had done as it was drissling and the village looked really small, but ended up staying for 5 hours. Managed to get talking to the local family planning woman who appears to work out of her pottery shop and the family planning clinic consists of a white polystyrene box kept under her table which is full to the brim of pills, injections and condoms. She was the coolest women I have met in ages and really interesting. They are so big on family planning and immunisations here it is almost to the point of oppressive but it appears to be working.

Then on the way back we got talking to this guy who lived in La Campa called Alan who was waiting for a lift with us as he had an interview in La Campa for a job leading the education on issues surrounding rural development (we think!). Anyway, we seem to have arranged horse riding with him tommorrow but randomly got talking to a women today who lives in Gracias but knows Alan and says he is lovely and will look after us! Here´s hoping.....

Am looking forward to moving onto Nicaragua though, am hoping to be there by Sunday. As much as I have enjoyed Honduras, am now looking forward to a new country. Just hope they have some food that isn´t deep fried. Never knew it was possible to crave salad!!!