La Ceiba -- Honduras's girlfriend

After a brief stay in San Pedro Sula, we headed to the north coast last Thursday to explore Tocoa, Trujillo, and La Ceiba. La Ceiba, the third largest city in Honduras with 100,000 inhabitants, is affectionately known as Honduras's girlfriend. I don't quite know what that means, but the guidebook explains Honduras's three largest cities this way: in San Pedro Sula, you work; in Tegucigalpa you think; in La Ceiba, you party. We haven't partied yet, just like we haven't really worked while in San Pedro Sula, but I can easily say that the North Coast is my favorite part of Honduras so far. To be fair, I have yet to see Tegucigalpa, but we'll had there this weekend. On Thursday we explored the old colonial town of Trujillo, and ate ceviche in a restaurant right on the edge of the ocean. It was so close to the water that I would expect that during high tide the water comes right up to the first row of tables. It was painful to not be able to swim, as we caught only a quick lunch before heading back to Tocoa but at least have some good itineraries in mind for visitors. The rest of the weekend was spent attending the Honduran Mennonite Church's National Assembly. Most of the pastors from Honduras were there, so it was a good chance to get to know some of Honduras's Mennonite big-wigs.

Since then, we've been in La Ceiba taking classes at the Central American Spanish School. Classes are four hours in the morning, leaving the rest of the day for study, relaxation, and exploration. Today's afternoon activity was one of the most unexpected surprises so far. We had previously been told to hit La Ceiba's Butterfly and Insect Museum, as it houses one of the best collections of Honduran butterflies, moths and insects, so we decided to spend our afternoon there. Upon entering we were greeted by a gringo named Robert Lehman, who graduated from Goshen College -- Amanda's and my alma mater -- in the 60's. After graduating from Goshen, he worked as an elementary school teacher for one of the American schools owned by the Standard Fruit Corporation (now Dole) and ended up staying. Throughout his thirty plus years here he has amassed an amazing collection of more than 14,000 specimens from 101 countries. He spent many of his nights out in the mountain jungles with a black light and white sheet, collecting moths, beetles, butterflies, dangerous moths, and other creepy crawlers. I got the sense that he no longer collects in the mountains, but is now an avid trader of insects throughout the world. He is currently awaiting a shipment of 700 butterflies from Poland.

You never know where you'll find a Maple Leaf.

As for the rest of this week, we'll have two more days of classes at the Central American Spanish School, and head back to San Pedro Sula on Friday. A Learning Tour from MCC in Akron will be meeting us in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, before which we plan to go to the Honduras National team game against Panama. It's a tough life.