Honduras-part 5– My first attempts at the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras (Cont’d)

Honduras-part 5– My first attempts at the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras (Cont’d)

At our agreed upon time, Santos picked me up in Parque Central. He seemed a little stunned that I had disobeyed him by going into the market area that he had told me to stay out of.   

I told him I wanted to go to more markets the next day and asked if he would  take me.  He pondered it for a moment and said (in Spanish), “ok, I will be your driver tomorrow even though I am scheduled to be off”.  He asked me if I liked produce markets.  I told him, I did.  He said “ok, then before I take you back to the hotel now, we’ll cruise a produce market to see if you like it enough to see more of them tomorrow”.   I believe he thought I might be bluffing. 

The produce street market was starting to close down, but he parked his taxi on the street and we walked a few feet. 

There was pick-up truck loaded with some fruit. 

There was a man in the market who introduced himself as Francisco.  Francisco was sitting on the tail gate of his pick-up, surrounded by 5 or 6 friends.  He was friendly and asked me the standard questions…..Where are you from?  Why are you here in the produce market (and Honduras)?  Where did you learn Spanish?  etc, etc, etc.  Francisco seemed a little amused to see a gringo in a Honduran street market in San Pedro Sula.  His friends just stared at me.  I stared back.

Within a couple of minutes a sultry looking woman suddenly appeared at the truck, looked at me, and said something to Francisco.  Francisco laughs and tells her that I wouldn’t understand.  In Spanish, I asked her what she said, and she replied “soltera”, meaning single woman.  Then she flashed a big toothy smile at me.   They all started laughing.  Santos looked embarrassed.  I told them I understood completely and then they laughed even more.  I showed them my wedding ring and they laughed harder.  Santos was getting nervous and said it was time to go.  When we left, they were still laughing.   Ha, Ha, ha. 

By this time, Santos was convinced I was truly up for the street markets.  I told him that in the morning I wanted to hit every major street market in San Pedro Sula.  He said it would take 3 hours and to be ready to go at 8 a.m.  I headed back to the hotel for dinner.

Next-a great dinner at Ni Fu, Ni Fa

Steve Barrymore ssb11@prodigy.net

Read about all of my travels click here

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