La Tigra

Today we went for a hike in La Tigra. It was so nice to get out of the city. It was one of the most fun days I've had since I got here. I love the mountains. I was so excited to write a fun, uplifting message in the blog about what a great day we had but coming back into the city really popped my bubble. Haven't heard from the Utila folks, but I'm sure that no news is good news and they are safe and feeling as relaxed right now as I felt this afternoon in the mountains.

Passed by the place where I stayed last year and thought about all of the ladies at home.

I tried to label the photos, but couldn't get the words to correlate with the photos. Notice how huge the fern like plants can grow - larger than a person! But at the same time they come in all shapes and sizes as another photo illustrates.

The red mushrooms made me feel like Alice in Wonderland - no I didn't eat one, I meant just looking at it.

The beige steps are all naturally formed of stone. In real life they had a lot of colors on them.

The shelter has a tire on top. Nobody has been able to tell me why.

I forgot the name of the little animal that scurried in front of us, but Walter was excited to see it so I'm guessing it was something cool. It looked like a woodchuck to me.

We got home to find the streets packed with cars. It took hours to drive what should have been minutes. I'd like to report differently, but after a perfectly serene day in the mountains, the city feels pretty sketchy.

We called Jairo to ask him if the church will be open for the breakfast program tomorrow. From what Karla understood, Jairo was at the church today at prime time for the breakfast program. She said either no kids, or very few, were there (she didn't know which). To me, this is very strange because school is cancelled indefinitely. I figured they'd all head to the church. All of the kids in Los Pinos must have been house bound or something.

Jairo told us to watch the news in the morning and make a judgement from there as to whether or not it is safe for me to travel to the church to run the breakfast program. I have already talked with my cab driver. He has agreed to drop me off, then pick me up at 11 am sharp so I am assured an early ride home before the city becomes too active. I just have to call him in the morning if I decide to go. I feel obligated but unsure. Jairo said it was a very "ugly" day in the city today and for me to be careful if I go.

I'll watch the morning news and make a decision from there. My cab driver says there is no milk in the city. Without milk the breakfast program cannot happen. So another obstacle could be finding milk in the morning. Karla told me to try one certain store and if that store doesn't have milk then no store will. We'll see...

Please continue to pray for a peaceful ending to this political mess.