chocolate factory and fishing

Finally back in Puerta Lempira, electricity, internet, cars etc..I missed the plane on Wednesday morning due to mucho sickiness and have been waiting in Wampusirpi since then. Mostly fishing in the rio patuca, which is the longest in Honduras [well except the rio coco but thats in Nicaragua too-the frontera that divides the countries]. You can travel all the way up the rio patuca to Tegucigalpa el capital, but unfortunately my cigars and laptop were here in Puerta Lempira so had to return.

Wampusirpi is a 30 minute plane ride from Puerta Lempira. Which takes you over the marshes and pine savanas, and into the tropical zone of the Mosquita. It rains a lot because it's "winter" here [from feb-may], and usually starts around 11 in the morning until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. The river is dirty now because of the rain, and also upriver theres gold mining and timber deforesting with fills the river with soil. So if you come here for fishing come in the summer months when the water is clear! I cought 3 catfish (which is another sign of dirty water because they eat anything) and one baby rommel i think. All I needed was a line, hook and some bait! no rods here.

I stayed in a hostel for $5 a night and $2.50 for meals. Although I still had the devil in my stomache until wendesday when i discovered pepto-bismol, so didn't eat much. Theres hardly any fruit and veg in winter here because the rain detroys a lot of it, so not much variation in the food. I did get a nice steak yesterday but I can't wait until i get home to some European food. The owner was called Rocky and I also met a kid with the name Michael Jackson, I think Indigenous peoples take the names of western stuff and use it without having to worry about getting slagged.

Wampu is beside the River patuca and is bigger than Tuntuntarra; the houses are closer together, it feels more like a town. It has a parque central with basket ball court beside the telecoms tower and catholic church. The minister, padre Josue, has been here for 23 years, originally from Catalonia, Spain. He has a chocolate factory here[awesome] so i returned with a kilo of pure and a kilo of powdered [without oil] organic mosquita chocolate.

I spent a lot of time with ICF, which is a goverment organisation similar to the forrestry commission. They also try to protect the endangered wildlife and provent illegal export of exotic animals. One Jaguar was killed when I was there so there was some arguments between the locals. Sometimes the jaguars kill the cows and sometimes it´s just for the price of the fur, but from the locals I spoke to, if they see a wild animal they're probably going to try and kill it. There's some hostility towards the ICF in terms of trying to enforce those sorts of laws because the people have been here longer. I went on a couple of day trips with ICF up and down the river and saw different communities. Krausirpi upriver has a race of asian looking people called the Awak, and they speak a different language to mosquita, theres only about 3000 people. They go upriver to look for gold for a month and then return to Krausirpi, so it was quite quiet when I visited. Downriver we visited a cacao fermenting farm, which smelled like hot chocolate, [to sell to switzerland], and further down a village called Pimiento where the president of the farmers co-operative lives.

People here have nothing and its really poor, the work is to survive and there are no companies to employ people. The government have stopped the schools for the moment due to some re-organisation of funding because Mosquita teachers need much more to get around on the boats, they get 15,000 lempira for a month. The previous government, before they stole all the money, sold rights to companies to pump oil in the area but because there are indigenous communities here they have to consult an international organisation, and the people of the laguna area, before anything can happen. There have been 4 presidents in 6 months here. 1 galon of petrol here is 100 lempira, about $5 dollars. A house with land $2000. One of the guys I spoke to had gone to the states to work for a while, and I asked if he was gonna go back, no, no, he said, I was deported. Apparently 1 plane full of illegal workers leaves honduras every day to follow the American dream. I said he needs to sell stuff to the locals for extra cash [he was from La Cieba], so next month he'll bring mobiles to sell. If you're staying in a place for a while its good to sell stuff (like the builders in Tuntuntarra) because you get to meet local people, and trade brings change, money and inspiration. Books would be useful here too because theres no library, only some national geographics in the ICF office.

If I come back here i'll bring a better camera, and would love to take a guide through the jungle for a month, or go up the river patuca to Palestine and Tegucigalpa to pan for gold. But alas I need to return. The race is on for my flight from Managua, Nicaragua on Wednesday. Starting with a pickup at 5 tomorrow to the rio coco, a boat across the frontera, a car to Guapan, a bus to Puerta Cabeza in Nicaragua..then 22 hours in bus to Managua and a taxi to and from Granada to pick up some stuff I left at Casas de la Esperanza. If I miss my flight I guess i'll stay here..