One Day in Copan – A Photo Essay

A new day was dawning and I felt rested and relaxed…. unlike the previous day.  On that day I had to drive my father and I from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula to pick up Barb and her son John at the airport.  From there we would drive through the mountains to Copan de Ruines.  It’s been almost a year now but I still remember it like it was yesterday.  The drive from La Ceiba to SPS takes about 2.5 hours and we were running behind so I needed to drive fast.  I had just risked life and limb to pass a number of slower moving vehicles on the windy two lane highway.  This is white knuckle kind of driving and at one point I was doing over 140 KM while passing and darn near lost control.  After all that hard work my dad had to go.  “Can’t you hold it another hour?”  I said.  “Just pull over at one of those filling stations” he replied.   I pulled over on the side of the highway and begged him to make it fast.  It was like a NASCAR pit-stop with the clock ticking and everyone not wanting to lose their spot on the track.  Fortunately he emptied his bladder before the slower cars caught up.  But I rushed him too much and his pants were no longer dry.  After another hour of driving we pulled into the airport about the time the flight was to arrive.  While I was inside finding our new travel companions my dad had successfully fixed the rear view mirror that was knocked off the day before by a bicycle.   The drive from SPS to Copan is much longer and harder.  First, you have to make your way out of the most dangerous city in the world without incident.  Then after dodging potholes and slow moving trucks you think you are close.  But then the fun starts as you hit the mountains before Copan.  Rock slides block the road in places and trucks crawl up steep terrain and there is just no way to pass on these roads.  When we arrived at Copan I just wanted a stiff drink and a bed.

But this was a new day.  I awoke before sunrise and tried not to wake my dad.  We were staying in Hotel Don Udo which is owned by a dutch expat.  I went to the top of the building to see the sun coming up over the mountains.

My dad was up when I returned to the room.  I explained the plan for the day with John Bodrug picking us up at 9 to take us to the village of La Pintada for a meeting with the leaders.  Dad couldn’t wait to visit the world famous Mayan ruins which was planned for the next day.  He would skip our village visit and go by himself to the ruins.  I was not going to change his mind.  After that news, we went down for breakfast but they were not yet open.  We strolled around the town before it became busy.  Here are some shots from that morning.

John arrived on time and it was great meeting him in person after many email exchanges over the past year.  John and his wife Marrianne packed up all their belongings in Ontario, Canada and moved to a citrus farm just outside Copan.  The day they arrived to their new home was their first visit to Honduras.  Because of its elevation on the Guatemala border, Copan has nice weather year round.  Their home does not require HVAC.  The cost of living is great for retirees.  John was a chemical engineer and Marriann a former opra singer in Germany.

John’s Lexus RX350 had no problem traversing up the rough mountain road to La Pintada.  This was the purpose of our trip to Copan.  Our meeting with the village leaders was in one of the classrooms.  A guy in a Hawaiin shirt and flip flops described the plans in Spanish.  Villagers would dig trenches from a reservoir up the mountain and install pvc pipe to carry water down to the village.  My Rotary club was providing the funding to buy the materials.

The diagram on the board showed the spring high up the mountain which was the source of the fresh water.  For some reason, I had a desire to see this source.  When I requested to go there the locals thought that not such a good idea.  When I assured them this gringo could handle the hike, they submitted and agreed to take me the next morning.  I overestimated my physical abilities but that is another story.

After wrapping up the meeting, we walked around the village and saw areas I had not seen previously.  Down the hill from the school was a building occupied by weavers.  A young boy accompanied me on this walk.  After a few yards it hit me that this boy was blind.  I held his hand and we walked several more yards.  I left him with his mother before arriving at our destination.  Through micro-loans some local women were able to procure looms and materials to make scarves, purses, and other items.  Here are some pictures:

Walking back up the hill I saw the blind boy passed out at his mother’s feet.  He had experienced an epileptic seizure and just went out.  I was really worried about this boy as the mom tried to drag him back to her home.  I picked up the limp child and followed her to their small dirt floor hut.  I vividly remember laying him on a hammock inside the home where half completed  dolls lay on the floor.  The villagers make and sell corn husk dolls to tourists in town.

We met many more villagers outside and inside their homes.  I was disappointed that Fransisco, a man I met on my prior visit was not there.  He was out working the fields for $8 a day.  The first time I saw Fransisco was in a picture posted by my friend James Adams.  It was a beautiful portrait of him playing his violin.

Next we hiked to the back of the ball field to see an amazing artifact – Los Sapos or The Toads.  For the Mayans, it was a ceremonial site with special powers for fertility and birthing.    Most interesting was a statue that appears to be a man in the act of bloodletting by his penis.  A village boy who attends a bi-lingual school in town and speaks good English led our tour.  He did not mention the penis thing but I read it on a plaque.

Some young American teachers were playing baseball with the local kids as we left.  For many it was their first time hitting a ball with a bat.  They were having great fun.

That afternoon I walked around Copan and had some lunch by myself.  I scheduled a massage while in the restaurant.  It was $20 for an hour massage.  A young lady greeted me at the restaurant and escorted me down some streets and through a locked gate to her little studio.  I was a little nervous.  Was this place safe?  What kind of massage was I getting?  I disrobed and laid on a makeshift massage table. It was made of wood and had a circle cut out for your face.  The young lady was talented and I fell asleep at some point in the process.  I paid and went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening events.

My dad was back at the hotel.  He had an eventful day.  First, he walked to the ruins not realizing it was quite a distance from the hotel.  He also informed me he met the former president of Honduras that morning during breakfast.  He was there for a wedding.  I know my dad loves to talk to strangers but the President of Honduras?  Dad said he would just skip the evening plans but this time I insisted he join us.

We drove my rental car to the beautiful Hacienda San Lucas owned by Flavia Cueva and her family.  Flavia was President of Rotary and her family owns 300 acres around the hotel.  We had drinks and appetizers with John and Marrianne.  Flavia had something come up in town and could not join us.  Here are some pics of her place.  That is Marrianne and I doing our best Yoga poses.

After watching the sunset we went down the hill to John and Marrianne’s place for a lovely dinner.  They have an outdoor kitchen and dining area that is really cool.  Dinner was delicious although I can’t remember what we had.  I remember Barb’s son asked for the wifi password and stayed on his smart phone most of the dinner.  I also remember that Marrianne was quite funny.  She is not a drinker and the two glasses of wine made her tipsy.  She fell as we were leaving and let out a loud scream.  John said not to worry and we departed back to the hotel.

By the time my head hit the pillow I was out again.  Another day in Honduras had come to an end.

The Real Superbowl Down South

Within the last week, there was a major event in the football world, an event hyped up by the press and filled with drama. The celebration by the winner’s fans was palpable…grown men danced and bragged about their team’s victory.  The winning coaches threw parties and tweeted about their accomplishment.   You didn’t think I was speaking of the Superbowl, did you?  I live in the south, and we had much bigger fish to fry than professional football.  We had National Signing Day!  Where decisions of 17-year-old teenagers dictate our happiness.  Will Martavius make the right choice and pick my beloved alma mater, or will he break my heart and sign with that hated rival in another state?  If Martavius keeps his pledge, he is a damn good dawg and should probably go on to be  All-American and probably a Rhodes Scholarship.  If he flips and signs with Florida or Auburn, we really didn’t want him anyway.  Those schools surely paid him to leave his home state and his momma probably has a new car in the driveway.

In Tennessee, Butch Jones’ performance could win him the governor’s seat in an election.  He would have better odds of passing Medicaid expansion than the current guy.  Forget his 5-11 record in the SEC….Butch baby just took the Vols all the way to number 4 in the nation.  Beer gutted, middle-aged men wearing orange pants hugged and slapped each other’s fannies as the faxes came across Wednesday morning.

So here’s to the winners!  And if you didn’t get that star player who flirted with you on ESPN only to pick up the other team’s hat, don’t fret.  There is still a chance the “student-athlete” will perform some transgression to warrant expulsion.  Perhaps he will steal a laptop,  punch his pregnant girlfriend or god forbid get caught smoking weed for the tenth time.  After a year at Hutchinson Kansas Community College, you’ll have another shot.   And should your team be so lucky as to win that signature a second time around,  know that your coach ignored all that bad behavior to help the kid and not solely to keep his $4mm a year job.

Below:  Dawg fans celebrate signing day with Coach Richt

 

Sometimes It’s OK to Quit

Winners Never Sometimes Quit

What is it with all this disdain for people who quit? The word quit or quitter usually has a negative connotation in society. Webster’s definition of the verb quit: to leave (a job, school, career); to stop doing. You would think the definition of a quitter is simply someone who leaves or stops doing something. But Webster’s defines a quitter as someone who easily gives up or stops doing something. I would argue that not everyone who quits something is a quitter. What do Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Princess Dianna, Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They all quit school.

When a person quits a pursuit simply because it is difficult, they lack intestinal fortitude. When a person gives their word to someone that they will do something and quits before the job is done, that shows a lack of integrity. But many times, a person who quits something has no moral obligation to stick it out. I recently battled with my own feelings about this when my son decided to quit his college football team after two years. Last summer, before heading to camp, he broke the news. “I just want you to know this will be my last year of football.” My first thoughts were, “But doesn’t he know how important his playing football is to me? And how much I enjoy photographing the games and tailgating with the parents? And most importantly how I live vicariously through his football experience?” Once I got over my own selfish reasons why he shouldn’t quit, I thought of how it might look to a potential employer that he left the team after two years. Would they label him a quitter? But he had thought this through and concluded the rewards of playing college football at an Ivy League school didn’t match the sacrifice he would have to make. You see, he selected one of the most difficult majors at Yale… Bio Medical Engineering. There would not be enough hours in the day for him to be a division 1 athlete and keep up with his studies. His dean told him as much. He felt he had to make a choice between the two and chose academics over athletics. It was a difficult choice and telling the coach and his teammates he was quitting football wasn’t easy.

In my line of work, I talk to people daily who have to make the decision to quit their current job. One of the first questions I ask a potential candidate is how happy they are in their current role. Then I ask what their ideal job looks like. If they aren’t 100% happy and my client’s job more closely matches their ideal situation then our conversation needs to continue. Recently I was working a really difficult search. I knew there were few people whose skill set would match the requirements of the job. During my research, I came across the perfect candidate… that one in a million who had everything we needed. Wouldn’t you know it; she had just started with a new company three months prior. Many recruiters won’t bother calling someone that new in a job. And many employers will shy away from interviewing someone who would leave a job that soon. When I reached this person on the phone I asked about their new job. She wasn’t unhappy but the job was nowhere close to this person’s ideal position. When I presented my client’s job, I could hear the excitement through the phone. This was a perfect fit. Is it wrong for her to leave so soon after taking the job? I think not. There was no commitment from either party as to the duration of this person’s employment. No contract was signed stating the person had to stay a certain length of time (and there was no relocation cost.) This person had no way of knowing the perfect job would come knocking on her door so soon after starting this job.

Sometimes the easiest thing to do is stay in a job you don’t love because of the security it provides. I left a company where I worked for 19 years. Quitting that job and changing careers was downright scary. I have never looked back and know I made the right decision.

So, we define a quitter as someone who easily gives up or stops doing something. What should we call someone who courageously gives up or stops doing something? Sometimes we call them winners.

When it comes to assessing sales talent, one size does not fit all

For years now companies have been searching for the holy grail of selecting sales people. Ask just about anyone who has responsibility for hiring sales people and you will hear horror stories of bad hires. One method companies use to increase the odds of a good hire is the use of assessments. It is common to put the top performers through a psychometric (personality based) assessment and develop a profile of personality traits which equate to strong performance. For example, the profile may show the top performers rate high on competitiveness, assertiveness, etc. Once the profile is set you only hire new sales people who fit the ideal profile. This sounds reasonable but this methodology is flawed. Some of the best sales people I know would not fit the profile. Many are introverts. They may not be great mixers but they know how to ask questions and process information. Many extroverts just don’t know when to shut up.

The good news is there is a new technology that is far more useful for selecting sales people. It measures a person’s role preference, coherence, and teaming characteristics. For all sales positions, the preference is for coherent people. They are team players and handle stress well. Teaming Characteristics provide information about how people “team” with others. Some teaming characteristics that would be a red flag are “doesn’t realize how others view him” or “This candidate appears to be unconcerned with restraint of unethical behavior.” There are a multitude of other teaming characteristics that guide the selection.

Teamability provides us the candidate’s role preference. This is how the person most wants to serve the team. When it comes to role fit for sales people, one size does not fit all. You must understand the the type of selling you need this person to do before determining the best role fit. Below is a list of different sales responsibilities and the role that fits them best in terms of Teamability:

1. Technical Sales where short term problem solving is key – a Conductor is best suited here. One of the best hires I have made in my career was a conductor. I was responsible for a large global account with multiple sites. One location was taking up all my time due one problem after another. The person on the account was causing more problems than he was solving. We made a personnel change and just like that all the problems were off my plate. In addition, our business at this location grew exponentially. This person was not a flashy sales guy but he gained business by listening to the customer and solving their problems.

2. Strategic Account Management when you have a very large customer and need someone to maintain and grow the account – A Vision Mover is best suited for this role. I have a confession here. One of my titles at a previous career was Strategic Account Manager. I was not a great Strategic Account Manager. What I was good at was winning strategic account business. A Vision Mover makes things happen at a high level but they will need a team of day to day “doers” supporting them. Vision Movers are also ideal for high level mergers and partnerships. I have a client who partners with large hospitals to move their rehab business to a new facility which my client manages. This high level negotiation is best accomplished by a Vision Mover.

3. Developing New Markets – here you want an Explorer. I am an Explorer and there is nothing we love more than finding new markets, especially ones involving new geography or new technology. But remember that we get bored easily so keep us engaged with new challenges outside the office.

4. Account Maintenance – Many times you need someone who will build strong relationships in an account and service the customer’s needs. This is a job for the Communicators of the world. They will love learning every detail about the client’s family and interests. Entertaining and relationship building are their specialty.

5. Driving New Business – When it comes to making the calls and winning new business the Action Mover is who you want out in the trenches. Give them a task and get out of the way. Action Movers are hard workers who just get more done than everybody else. They are not the dreamers (like us Explorers) they are the doers of the world. But, you must have a manager who will provide them direction on a regular basis.

So how are you selecting sales people? Do you have the right people in the right roles?

Want to assess your current team or try this new technology on your next sales hire? Give me a call at 615-595-1813 or email tomt@sanfordrose.com. Business is a team sport; May the best team win!

Life Lessons from an 86 Year Old Sushi Chef

I viewed a documentary recently that resonated with me.  It is about 86-year-old Jiro Ono,  the most acclaimed Sushi Chef in the world.  His is the only sushi restaurant to win 3 stars by Michelin.  It is one of the most expensive restaurants in Tokyo ($368 per meal) and reservations must be made up to a year in advance.  The documentary chronicles Jiro’s life going back to his alcoholic father abandaning the family when Jiro was 7 and young Jiro leaving his home at the age of 9.  He started with nothing and has worked the last 76 years  to perfect his craft.  I highly recommend renting the movie (it is on Netflix).  Here are some of the lessons I took away from his story:

1. To be great at your profession you must love what you do.  Even when he was working from 7 am to 10 pm every day Jiro says he never hated his work.  To this day he only takes off for national holidays.  He loves it so much he actually dreams of making sushi.
2. Your going to need some talent if you want to reach the top.  Jiro has an uncanny sense of taste and smell that he was born with.  It helps him know what will be appealing to the pallet of his customers.
3. Don’t do it for the money. Money does not motivate Jiro.  Probably the reason he never expanded to a larger space (his restaurant only seats 10 guests).  If,  over time, you become great at what you do (whatever that happens to be), the money will come.  And how rewarding is it to make a lot of money in a job you hate?
4. Don’t expect overnight success.  Jiro toiled for years as an apprentice before he was good enough to start his own restaurant.
5. Strive to be a little better every day.   Read the book, “The Compound Effect” to understand this principle better.
6. There are no shortcuts.    The process Jiro and his team go through every day to prepare their meals is unbelievable.   For example, Jiro now insists Octopus is hand massaged for 50 minutes because the standard 30 minutes didn’t produce the texture he desires.
7. Dedicate the time to train the people on your team and expect the best from them.    Jiro’s eldest son and his apprentices do most of the preparation but he oversees their work and makes sure the customers are satisfied.  They must perfect a task before progressing to the next one.
8. Focus on being the best you can be, not on your competition.   Jiro simply goes about his business to be the best sushi chef he can possibly be.  He never said, ” well I am better than the other sushi chefs in Tokyo so I don’t need to improve.”
9. Specialize.   Jiro has focused on one thing and one thing only…Sushi.  You are probably not going to have your family doctor remove a brain tumor.  You want someone who does that procedure every day.

I seem to be giving out a lot of career advice these days.  Whether from a downsized executive or a new college grad, people are searching for what do with their careers.  I think Jiro may have some answers for us.   “You must dedicate your life to mastering this skill,” Ono says in the film. “This is the key to success.”

Jiro Ono

Match Role Preference with the Job for Top Performance

No. 46 Blake Thomson versus Dartmouth

Our Teamability technology provides clients three important pieces of information about how a person fits into and performs on a team.  These are Coherence, Role Preference, and Teaming Characteristics.  The focus of this blog is on role preference.  In Teamability terms, Role Preference is the manner in which a person wants to serve the team.  When teams come together, we have to assign different roles for each member of the team.  We can’t all play the same role and achieve a worthwhile goal.    It is vitally important to have knowledge of each team member’s strengths.  But what if we can go even deeper than what we believe to be a person’s strength and know how they really want to serve the team.  Let me give you an example that differentiates between knowing someone’s strengths and knowing their role preference.

My son, Blake, was a pretty good high school quarterback.  He had the perfect college and NFL build at 6″2″ 225 lbs.  He also had a strong arm and was very intelligent.  He was good enough to beat out a strong field of candidates and start at quarterback his sophomore year.  Many believed he would be a major college QB.  Problem was Blake didn’t want to be the quarterback.  He wanted to hit people versus be hit.  So mid-way through his Sophomore year he asked for a meeting with his coach and requested a position change.  Fortunately for the team, there was a great option at quarterback (a kid who is now a QB for the Iowa Hawkeyes).  So the next game Blake was lined up at linebacker and also playing tight end.  Blake was named All State Linebacker his Junior and Senior year.  But he was also a pretty good tight end.   This summer Blake was looking forward to attending Yale and playing linebacker for Coach Rick Flanders.  When he arrived for camp, he was assigned to the offense and position of H Back.  Being a team player, he didn’t complain.  He made the travel team but didn’t play in the first game and was buried down the depth chart.  Yale’s defense struggled so after the second game Blake was moved to Linebacker.  It changed his entire outlook.  He went from struggling at practice to feeling comfortable and loving football.  After just one week at Linebacker he was on the first team and one of the team leaders in tackles his first start.  The coaches recognized Blake’s strength as an offensive player (good hands, fast, strong).  But they didn’t know that he loved defense more than offense.  Once placed in his role preference he flourished.

Think about your business and teams.  Do you have the right people in the right roles?  How do you know?  You may have a sales person who is great at business development but terrible at leading teams.   How many times have we promoted a great engineer to engineering manager and seen performance suffer.  Teamability allows you to assess your team and align assignments to optimize performance.  It will tell you if you a person will be happier and perform better in a strategic planning role or a more tactical role along with many other insights.

Business is a team sport.  We have a fantastic new technology and the experience to help you get the most out of your team and build a happier, more productive work place.  Give me a call and let’s start the process.

Copan Ruines

Blake and I headed over to the Ruins at 8 am and purchased our tickets as well as obtained the services of a tour guide.    We noticed a large number of military and discovered the President of Honduras was coming to the park to give a speech later in the morning.   After touring the main area and museum, we ran into Jorge Ramos.  We had hoped to have a private tour with Jorge but he was tied up filming a show with a crew from Guatemala.  Jorge was born in a village about 20 km from Copan and left his family to attend high school at the age of 11.  During high school he had the opportunity to work with an archaeologist and decided to take this on as a profession.  He studied at a university in Guatemala City and then travelled to the U.S. to obtain his PhD from University of California Riverside.  His specialty is Mayan art.  Jorge appeared to be in his early 30’s and has a trim physique and full head of curly black hair.  He apologized for his schedule but said he had a break and asked if we would like to go to restaurant.  At least that is what I thought he said.  It was mid-day and we were hungry from all the walking and touring.  I said sure and we all jumped in our rental car.  Rather than go back to town they told me to turn right and head out of town.  After a few Kilometers we turned left and headed up the street for the Clarion Hotel.  I assumed we were eating at the hotel restaurant.  However, Jorge instructed me to take a dirt road by the hotel and we drove up a steep hill to what looked like a construction site with large awnings.  It didn’t look like a restaurant at all but I thought it must be an outdoor grill and we would have a neat experience eating here.  When we exited the car and walked closer I realized Jorge did not bring us here to eat.  The word Jorge was saying was actually Rastrojon.  It is a new discovery on a hill above the main city.  Jorge explained to us why they believe this was living quarters and guard station for the Mayan warriors.  Seeing the excavation of the fallen structures was amazing.  So although we did not enjoy a meal here, Blake and I gained a huge appreciation for the meticulous work the archaeologists perform to restore the ancient structures.  We saw a site few people have seen and were educated by one of the leading authorities on Mayan culture, Dr. Ramos.  We would learn more later that day.

We grabbed a late lunch back in town and rested at the hotel while we waited for Jorge to call us.  He was late due to delays from the film crew but we still had time to visit the village of La Pintada.  This was the primary reason for our trip to Copan.  A few months earlier James had posted a picture of a man playing an old violin on Facebook.  It was a striking image and James explained that the man was poor and lived in this village that had no running water six months out of the year.  I communicated to James that I was a part of Rotary and the organization had completed many water projects in Honduras.  James then provided some really good news.  His company dug a well some time back on property they owned near the village.  They had planned to build another ecolodge there but had to abandon the project because of the cultural deposits (mayan artifacts) found on the property.  James said the well could be used by the village.   This is why James introduced me to Jorge Ramos.  Jorge wanted to help provide water to La Pintada.

Around 6 pm, we jumped in Jorge’s truck and headed south along the Rio Copan.  Jorge stopped on the dirt road so several of the children and women from the village could jump in the back.  The villagers make this walk to town most days.  Some for jobs and school and others to sell corn husk dolls to the tourists.  La Pintada is inhabited by Chorti Indians who are descendants of the Maya.  They are short and have large heads.  The road up to the village was steep and we were not sure Jorge’s truck would make it.  We passed the well and calculated it to be only 1 km to the village.  Although obviously poor, the village was nicer than the village we had visited along the Congrejal near La Ceiba.  They had a soccer field and a main building.  The huts had dirt floors but there was electricity.  I immediately recognized the man from James photo, Fancisco Lopez.

Fransisco Lopez with a few of his 13 children.

Jorge introduced us and Francisco gathered his children for a photo.  We discussed the water situation.  The village has water during the rainy season from a natural spring. Four to six months out of the year it is dry and they have no water source close by.  What that usually means is the women and girls need to walk long distances with buckets for water.  It keeps girls from having time to attend school.  There are sanitation issues  and illness from drinking dirty water.

All but one of the children really enjoyed having their pictures taken.  The one little girl would not smile for a picture and seemed very sad.  She continued to ask me to buy one of her dolls.   I think she was asking for 20 lempera which is one US dollar.  I felt bad but did not have any lempera on me at the time.  It was getting dark .  I told Fransicsco we would help and he was very pleased with this news.  That night we had dinner with Jorge and Rachel Nelson from Texas.  Rachel was leaving Copan after three years there.  She and two friends came to Honduras after college and started an after-school program called Urban Promise.  They hired older local teens to help teach the younger ones.  Rachel said at first the teens had no hope for their lives but learned their work was important and now wanted to go to college and have careers.  It was obvious she and Jorge were very close.  We had a traditional Honduran BBQ which was delicious.  After dinner, Blake and I wanted one last German beer but the place was closed.  Perhaps Thomas was just too tired to serve that night.

The next morning we drove back to San Pedro and boarded our flight

Stela “B” depicts the ancient city’s 13th ruler, Uaxaclajuun Ub’aah K’awiil, or “18 Rabbit”

to the states.  We were ready to be home.

The Ball Field

The Library whose Hieroglyphic stairway recorded history of the Mayans

They made carvings in stone when someone died

Blake overlooking the main plaza

“Old Man” statue

Children of La Pintada

Blake, Jorge, and Fransisco

The girls with their corn husk dolls

cooking tortillas

Guacamaya or Scarlett Macaws have been re-introduced to Copan

Blake and I stopped for a picture on the drive back to San Pedro

Day 6 – The Road to Copan

 

We decided to leave Pico and head north to Copan.  Before leaving, we visited the herpetarium at the lodge.  They have a variety of local snakes and Blake enjoyed handling a pink boa.  On our way out of La Ceiba we stopped at place along the Santiago River.  A Canadian named Terry is near completion of a nature lodge there.  He is a super nice fellow and has hundreds of hummingbirds he feeds.  Terry said he goes through 100 lbs. of sugar per week.  See a few pictures below.  James was there helping him and we said our good byes.

The drive to Copan takes you back to San Pedro Sula and from there it becomes interesting.  The road from La Ceiba to San Pedro is excellent.  Once you bypass San Pedro and turn right on the highway to Copan the road is not so good.  There are many large pot holes that could do serious damage if you hit them.  The problem is you may be passing a truck and then have to dodge a bicyclist and pothole at the same time.  We were told the drive would be 5 to 6 hours.  At the 5 hour mark I was pretty tired of driving and then we came to a town we thought was Copan.  There was a sign across the highway that read, La Entrada Copan.  I knew entrada meant entrance in Spanish so thought this was the entrance to Copan.  We knew Copan had cobblestone streets and this place had cobblestone streets. But something just did not seem right.  We drove a few kilometers out of town and then returned.  Finally, we decided this could not be the place so followed a sign for the ruins of Copan.  We winded along the mountain roads for almost an hour and did not see another sign for the ruins.  We had no idea if this was the right road and thought we might end up in Guatemala.  We had no cell phone so if we broke down we would be in trouble.  But finally, we arrived in the town of Copan Ruines.  This was much better than the town of La Entrada we passed thru an hour earlier.  It was clean and charming.

We checked into our hotel and decided to check out a German restaurant  we heard about from one of the guests at Pico Bonito Lodge.  Sol de Copan was only a block up the hill from the hotel.  The entrance door was closed but we heard a dog barking and a very nice Honduran lady heard us outside and told us to come in.  We went down some stairs and there were a few tables and small bar.  The lady told us her husband normally greeted guests but he had been up for 24 hours making the beer.  We ordered the darker variety and could not believe how wonderful it tasted.  This was a real German beer!  We drank one liter and had a really strong buzz.  We decided to walk around the town and come back later for dinner.  When we came back the owner, Tomas, was there.  He is a tall German man..thin and tattooed.  I would guess him to be around my age..mid 40’s.  He had a wonderful smile and was very proud of his beer.  Tomas orders all the ingredients from Germany.  He lived in Bavaria most of his life as a businessman and always wanted to make his own beer.  He had married a Honduran woman 12 or more years before and they had a son who had dark skin but the facial features of Tomas.  I told Blake, “see that kid over there, he is Tomas’ son”.  Blake said no way and we wagered $20 on it.  I asked the kid to come over and if Tomas was his dad.  He said, ” yes I have his nose don’t I?”

Easy $20.

We ordered homemade sausage and german schnitzel to eat.   Two young couples wandered into the bar and sat at the table with us.  One couple was from New Zealand and the other from Calgary.  They had met on the bus from Nicaragua and were staying at the hotel next door.  We had a wonderful time drinking the beer, talking to Tomas, and hearing about their travels.  The “Kiwis” were fun, expressive, and did not seem to have a care in the world.  Their trip was one month in and had another month to go.  Starting in Costa Rica they would bus trip through Central America all the way to Los Angeles.  The young Canadian couple was not as fun loving.  We learned the young man had been kicked out of high school and struggled in what to do with his life.  He seemed to know a lot about martial arts although he was not a big, strong guy.  We learned he had tried and failed at scuba diving while in Roatan.  This was quite interesting considering he did not know how to swim.  Apparently, swimming is not a pre-requisite for scuba diving…who would have known?

The food and company were great and we stumbled happily back to our hotel for a good night’s rest.  The next day we would tour the famous ruins of Copan.

 

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Day 5 – Hogar de Amor

The rain fell hard all night from the passing Hurricane.  We planned to meet Cristy Garrido at the Duncan Donuts in La Ceiba at 11 am and go to the orphanage.  We spent the morning at the lodge  inflating the soccer balls and cleaning the donated cleats.  We arrived at Duncan Donuts at 11 am and waited there for about 20 minutes with no site of Cristy.  I didn’t have a cell phone in Honduras so I asked a customer if he would mind letting me use his to make a call.  I reached Cristy and she told me schools were cancelled because of the hurricane and she had left a message with James.  She said she would reach David, the founder, and have him meet us.  Fortunately, David was just across the street at the mall with several of the kids.  They arrived soon after and we told the kids to order whatever they wanted to eat or drink.  Blake played games on the Ipad with the boys while David and I visited.  We planned to go to  the orphanage and then to the school.  Hogar de Amor is the name of the orphanage and the non-profit is called Helping Honduras Kids.  Hogar means “home” in spanish and Amor means “love”.

Surprisingly, the house was in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in La Ceiba.  It is has three bedrooms for the 22 children living there.  David told us they had a bigger place but some gangsters had driven by in trucks shooting at the place.  They scared off the guards and workers so David had to flee with the children in the night.  They stayed in a hotel until he could find a new place.  This house was for rent and they moved in as a stop gap.  The place is not big enough for their needs.  It has only one full bath so the kids need to wake at 3 am in order to shower for school.

The children range in age from 6 to 14. There are 12 girls and 10 boys.  The kids were warm and inviting.  They flocked to Blake who must have seemed like a giant to them at 6’3″ and 230 lbs.  David asked if I could video a song a donor in Spain wanted the kids to sing.  The kids had a few practice rounds and we made the video and posted to youtube.  We did not hand out all the soccer gear as David wanted to save it to give the kids at the school on National Kids Day in September. The kids did enjoy playing baseball with gloves and balls donated by Mark Spivey.

In addition to starting the orphanage 5 years ago, David started the Jungle School.  Over 100 kids attend from villages along the Congrejal River.  Many walk as far as 2 hours each way to get to school.  For some, the meal they receive at school is their only meal of the day.  For that reason, the school is open year round and David does not like when the government forces them to close (which was the case this day due to the Hurricane).  The school was built on the mountainside as the land is cheaper.  It has two classrooms for five grades and two full time teachers.  After visiting the school, we drove up to a village and visited one of the Abuela’s the charity supports.  These grandmothers take care of ten or more children in their homes.  We stopped at a property an American preacher purchased and saw where he is building a new home for a family whose house burned.  Plans are to have this as a retreat for the kids.  The property has orange and avocado trees.  The kids picked and ate both.

David has lived in Honduras for 30 years.  He was a research scientist for Dole.  David volunteered his time at another orphanage outside of La Ceiba until they told him they would no longer use volunteers.  He began Hogar de Amor as a labor of love.  David explained that 40% of Honduran children are sexually abused…most at very young ages.  Many of the children at Hogar have been taken from abusive families and take years of therapy to overcome their situations.  David is a soft spoken man with the personality you might expect from a scientist.  His love and devotion for these children is apparent and for these children, he is their father.  David takes no money to run the organization and relies on donors in the U.S. and other countries.  It takes $215 per month to feed and take care of each child.

A donor from Spain is funding the building of a new orphanage close to the airport.  There will be more room and a better place for the kids to play soccer.  These beautiful, smart children deserve this.  If you would like to help, visit www.helpinghonduraskids.org and make a donation.  You can commit to as little as $30 per month and really make a difference since all the money goes to the kids.

Note:  I was so proud of my son for the way he cared for the kids and interacted with them.  I know he has a big huge heart to go with that big body.  I also know he will be return to this place and lend a hand.  He is planning to recruit his football pals and other athletes from Yale to go with him.

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Day 4 with Hurricane Ernesto

Fishing Boat

The lodge van took us to Sambo Creek which is  a Garifuna town south of La Ceiba.  We boarded a small wooden boat with Elmer, the boat captain and X man (our tour guide).  The fishermen in this village have tiny dugout boats they paddle solo up to 5 miles out in the ocean.  After their catch, they hoist a sail to return back to the mainland.  We were amazed they could manage the ocean waves in these boats that are only about 3 feet wide and maybe 6 feet long.  Our captain was taking us to Cayos Cochinos, a group of islands which are close to Roatan.  There are two main islands, major and minor, and then several smaller islands.  We landed on the larger island and noticed a group of students waiting to leave the island.  The news was not good.  The students were evacuating because of the on coming storm, Hurricane Ernesto.   The skies looked ominous and rain began to fall when Elmer told us our trip would need to be shortened.  We had time for some snorkeling and perhaps a visit to a small Garifuna island for a beer.   As the rain fell harder we jumped in the water with our snorkeling gear.  Under the surface was a beautiful display of coral and fish…one of the most spectacular I have seen.  After about an hour of snorkeling we climbed in the boat and cruised over to the other large island to look for the pink boa the island is known for.    If I am inflicted with Malaria it will probably be from this short hike we took here.  No pink boa but we did find a brown vine snake for a few pictures.

The waves had picked up and I was anxious about the ride back to the mainland.  We stopped off at the Garifuna island and what a treat that was.  The island is tiny with no electricity.  Several families of fishermen live here.  We had cold Salva Vida beers and ordered lunch.  The lady pictured below cooked us fish and rice along with fried plantains.  Her son who we met had caught the fish only a few hours earlier, yellow tail snapper.  It was some of the best fish I have eaten.  Still nervous about the weather and the ride back, I drank a few more cervecas in a short period, liquid courage for the final leg of our trip.

The wooden boat took a beating on the return trip.  We sat on our life jackets to ease the pounding.  Rain stung our faces and I am certain the entire boat was airborne on occasion as we battled to make it back.  When we finally were within reach of the beach at Sambo Creek the water calmed and we jumped out to swim to the shore.

I was disappointed our trip was cut short but also happy to have made it back safely.

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