Christmas Vaca, Day One

Once again it's been a shamefully long time since I've written.  It's been two weeks since my birthday and I have yet to write about the three-ish parties, the Christmas decorating, the glue bottle explosion, and getting drenched with water by the students at school.  But, rather than catching up on all of that right now, let's talk about last night...

The first evening of our Christmas vacation.  We spent the afternoon at the hogar and grabbed a quick (and cheap!) dinner of baleadas with the Brewsters then headed to the park.  It was the night of the Honduras Filarmonica (philharmonic) concert at the cathedral (which you have to know is predominantly located beside the park) and also the night of the richest neighborhood's turn to provide the entertainment in the park for this week long Christmas celebration.  Apparently they usually do a grand fireworks display.

So we get to the park and start walking around waiting for our friends to arrive and see a small area of the park roped off with wooden frames holding lots of poles.  As we got closer to see what was going on it hit us that those were the fireworks.  Right in the middle of the park and the people, roped off so that maybe ten feet separated the crowd and the frames.  But don't worry.  Nearby were three highly trained red cross volunteers and guards with guns were everywhere.  Ha!  Welcome to Honduras.

We met up with our friends and wandered outside the cathedral to listen to the orchestra play from outside rather than pay the 100 limps to get in.  A few minutes later one of the local girls with us grabbed my arm telling me to come, walked right past the ticket table and worker and sat down in one of the back rows of the cathedral.  I couldn't get her to tell me what she said to the lady to get her to let us in without paying, but I was glad she did.  We listened to a few pieces I recognized but couldn't name and then... Lord of the Rings medley!  I was so happy :-)  But whoever decided this concert should be on the same night as the fireworks made a terrible decision.  As soon as the medley was over we started hearing some large "booms" outside.  The others wanted to stay but Emily and I headed outside to see.

It was a little disappointing when we stepped outside because the fireworks were the standard ones here that fly into the air, pop with a small flash, and that's it.  At first they started just a few, then several at a time, and after about three minutes it got old.  Then out of nowhere the real fireworks started!  We were standing right under them beside the Cathedral and it was fantastic!  Like ten minutes of what firework finales look like in the states!  You couldn't see into the park the smoke was so thick and several of the firework casings (still glowing embers) fell right into the crowd.  Oh yeah, and did I mention that some of the fireworks were being set off just to the side of some electrical poles and wires?  Lol.  No one was seriously injured, but I could see it happening pretty easily.

Next was the "Reyes de la Punta" band outside (yes, with the orchestra still playing inside).  The band's name means the kings of the Punta, Punta being a very fast traditional Honduran dance/music style.  And of course we run into the University boys from the hogar and of course they insist on pushing our way through the crowd to the very center of the crowd and of course they insist on getting the American to dance too.  Lol.  All I can say is that I hope no students were there any more and that if they were they forget anything they saw by the time we get back to school!

Fun times:-)