In the Know

February 16, 2023 six people landed in the new airport called Palmerola International Airport. She had replaced the airport in Tegucigalpa which had the notoriety of being the third most challenging airport to land or take off in the world. At least I got to experience it once before in my life. Think slingshot, or coming in hard and slamming on your breaks to not run into someone’s house at the end of the runway. 

Travel is measured in time not miles, or kilometers. Otherwise it is depressing to realize you drove 45 miles in a little under 2 hours. Our first stop was Choluteca. It has two seasons: hot and dry and hotter and wet. The rain stops in late November and turns back on in May. We drive around to small towns that do not make international maps, but are home to precious kids. Over the next 2 days we traveled and delivered close to 200 backpacks. On  February 18th we traveled to San Miguel, El Salvador for one day. Crossing into another country is like driving out of Kentucky, across Tennessee and into Alalama. The border crossing experience deserves its own blog post. 

San Miguel El Salvador is at the foot of a mostly quietly sleeping Volcano named San Miguel. After handing out backpacks we went to the foot of the volcano and had coffee and pastries under the canopy of the forest. In 2001 El Salvador adopted the US dollar as her currency. This made buying stuff easy. 

The next few days we went to the capital Tegucigalpa and used a church as a homebase to pack backpacks and deliver them. It seemed like every church had the dog that hung out on the cool tile floors. This reminded me that all dogs do go to heaven. 

There’s a school up in the mountains called La Primavera (Spring). 180 energetic and happy kids go to this school at 7121 feet elevation. Perfect daytime temperatures, and I hear the nights require a couple thick blankets. Most schools would have some kind of ceremony, and this school touched me. At the end of short speeches, songs, and the principal speaking several children brought baskets overflowing with local organic vegetables. This was given in peace and love. Most readers will know you can’t load your suitcase up with fresh veggies. The axiom- The thought that counts,never counted more than this act of giving us vegetables. 

We snaked our way down the mountain and had some of the best fire roasted chicken you could imagine. The city of La Esperanza (Hope) was a small town where you could figure it out in a few days, but would want to spend weeks enjoying its simple streets.

Six tired and happy Gringitos as they affectionately called us left on February 24th, back to the USA.  

Why would a REALTOR® do all this travel? It’s quite simple- THE CHILDREN. They hug their backpacks, play show and tell with their buddies,swap spiral notebook paper, and test out their color pencils, or make sure the pencil sharpener sharpens. Children being able to do these simple tasks make it all worthwhile. 

Thank you for hopping in my van for a few minutes and looking out the windows with me.