The Last Week or So

Hey All,

I thought I would start out with a picture of my favorite kitty, I have named her "Needy." She has gotten very aggressive on trying to get into my hooche, often rushing up and standing right at the crack of the door when I am entering. I end up either lifting her with my foot, or pushing her away with my sandal. I know part of what she loves is that my little landing is a great place to sun in the morning. She's gotten into the hooche a few times and it always takes a little effort to get her out, fortunately she doesn't climb onto the furniture, although one time she looked like she was about to explore under the bed.

A week ago Friday, I went on an MWR trip to the Puros Indios Cigar Factory in Danli, Honduras. There were three of us on the trip. The Chaplain, the Chaplain's assistant and myself. We rode for two hours and forty-five minutes to get there. When we got there, none of us spoke much spanish, and they guy there didn't speak any English. It ended up getting a 25 minute tour, just a walk through the assembly floor and into the coolers they used as humidors. Then it was the ride back, altogether not really worth all the travel time.

Last Tuesday, I was volun-told to have lunch with a bunch of one-star generals who were touring the base. I ended up sitting with two Navy Admirals and a USMC Colonel, although I did get my photo taken with three Admirals. I sent of an e-mail to them asking for an electronic version of the photo.

Saturday was my last visit to the orphanage, I'm not sure that I will miss it, it is just sad the poverty that the kids grow up in. But I am glad that I went all the times that I did.

Mine final thing is about the picture below. There are a million of these carts here on base, they are a primary means of transportation, all of them are called E-Z-Goes, that is actually a brand name, although there are also John Deere Gators, and Suzuki Mules. This is the one that I have time-shared with the Sargeant in the office, it is 15 years old and it ran out of gas once. I nick-named it "The Lemon Drop" after a very popular club out in town. It zips around at about 12-15 mph and is kinda fun. I put my "Meow" sticker up on the windshield.

Update on Photos

All,

While I know that I need to finish my El Salvador posting, I have posted a lot of pictures. I have found with the writing that I need to strike while the iron is hot, while I am feeling inspired...

Photos of Panama Canal by Panama City (Miraflores Locks, Pacific Ocean side)
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/PanamaCanalPanamaCityMirafloresLocks

Photos of Panama City
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/PanamaCity

Photos of Panama Canal by Colon (Gatun Locks, Carribean Sea side)
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/PanamaCanalColonGatunLocks

Photos of Portobelo, Panama (a history Spanish town)
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/PortobeloPanama

Photos of Costa Rica
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/CostaRica

Photos of the Puros Indio Cigar Factory (I need to do a blog post for this too)
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/PurosIndioCigarFactoryI

The Rest of Costa Rica

Hey all,



So I finished up my time in Costa Rica, on Friday morning with a stop at the excellent coffee shop in the town of Tamarindo, called Cafe Cafe, then hit the road heading for a volcano. It was a bit of driving through mountains, but pretty good roads. I stopped for lunch at a German Bakery. They were real good at advertising their business, they had signs posted along the road for at least 30 KM. I had the sauwerbraten, which was mighty tasty, it was a restaurant, bakery, gift shop and internet cafe all rolled into one.

About 2:30 in the afternoon I got to Volcan Arenal, a huge volanco that was largely obscurred by clouds. At the gate to the national park, the ranger told me that it was about 90 minutes round trip, so I figured that it would be about 50 minutes hike up and 40 back down. I parked in the lot and started hiking. It was amazing, there was this jungle grass that was 7-8 feet tall; the whole area smelled alive, I think the literary term would be verdant. I made real good time and at about 30 minutes I arrived at a large area of volcanic rock. Since I had gotten there so quick, I figured that the continuing path lead top more of a view, so I kept going. About 5 minutes later it started pouring rain, after trying to stay dry under a tree, I was soaked and I just kept walking. Turns out that the path went to this lodge that was half-way around the volcano. I turned around and hiked back to the car soaking wet.

That night I stayed in a really nice hotel, they were all seperate little wooden huts, but they had really nice wood floors, two huge king size beds, a huge bathroom and a nice little sun porch that looked out on the volcano. Included in the cost of the hotel was admission to this hot spring that the guidebook compared to roman baths. It was about 15-20 different pools that were hot springs water. All different temperatures, some with swim up bars, but most were too hot to stay in for a long period of time.

The next day I headed out, aiming for a coffee plantation that was half-way up another mountain. I headed out navigating the only way there was, by going town to town. It was like traveling in rural England and Ireland, even if the roads had been marked, it would have been no use trying to figure out north vs. south or east and west. I ended up getting myself thoroughly lost in the mountains and just had to follow my way to the big town along the only major highway in the country. I found my way south, then back north into the mountain. By the time I got to the coffee plantation, it had been pouring rain for a half hour and they were closed.

I pretty much made my way back to San Jose, the capital, where I spent the night in a Best Western, that was an okay hotel. The most notable things about it were the restaurant across the street that had some really excellent food, and the Denny's that was attached. The "Grand Slam" breakfast there was the equivalent of $9.00, an outrageous amount.

Evan

Costa Rica

Hey All,

I arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica on Tuesday morning, fell back an hour to Mountain Time, I picked up a rental, a small Daewoo 4x4 and drove 5 hours to the town of Tamarindo, on the Pacific Coast. That was pretty much the day, I had stopped for lunch and by the evening I was tired (I had effectively gotten up at 4 a.m., and something wasn't agreeing with my system, so I just crashed.

I have to say that the two airports are interesting. I think it is easier to judge siz by the number of luggage carousels, than the number of gates. Panama City had 5 carousels, it had a lot of duty free shopping, alchohol, cigarettes, perfume and electronics. San Jose had 3 carousels, but the shops were more along the lines of souvenirs that you may have forgotten to get, oh and it is in the middle of a major remodeling project.

Wednesday I got up and started the search for a dive shop and surf school. The only dive shop in town was booked for a few days, so I drove over to a neighborhing town and got signed up for a trip on Thursday. I returned to Tamarindo and signed up for surfing lessons in the afternoon, at high tide. I spent the remainder of the morning getting a little sun and walking aroung the town browsing. I guess it is a sign of how much of a tourist town it is on the number of shops, not just souvenir places, but clothing and the like. I did pick up some neat coasters that have slices of cinnamon embedded in rosin, they smell real nice.

I showed up at 3:00 p.m. for the surf lesson, fortunately some other students showed up and that kept the cost down. It was a familyfrom Dallas, with three teenage all giving surfing a try. We carried the boards to the beach and the instructor gave us lessons on how to get up, easier said then done. Then we headed out to try it. Suffice it to day, the waves were rougher than they had been in several weeks and it wasn't a good day for novices. I did get to ride a few waves, but never successfully got up. I chipped one of my two front teeth when I was paddling out and encountered a wave that tossed the board up and made me chomp my jaw. It was an experience, I may try it again, maybe. I was going to do the blog last night, but then the news of the brige collapse came on.

Today was a two tank drive trip in the neighboring town of Flamingo, it is a nice dive shop run by three Germans, the only other divers were a couple of German guys. They joked that they were going to do the brief in German and then if I had any questions, I could ask in English. They were pretty good dives, both about 60 feet, and 45 minutes. The visibility was a little low, only about 20-30 feet, but the schools of fish were bigger, I even saw a school of sting rays. The top picture is a picture of the beach Playa Flamingo (Flamingo Beach). On the way out to the dive sites, we even saw a whale playing around. I also thought it was interesting that I could see the thermal layers as we descended, it was like how you see as heat raidiating off the highway.

The picture below is from the hotel where I am staying, just of the little breakfast area. I had noticed a squirrel messing around with the coconuts yesterday, then today I noticed that the cocnuts had stayed on the tree, just chewed through. The squirrel was sort of interesting too, it had a mostly brown body, but with a big gray strip down it's back and tail.

Evan

My Two Days in Panama

Hey all,

I´ve had two very busy days here in Panama, and as the guide today stated, two oceans in one day. I´ve taken scores of pictures (thank goodness they´re all digital) and it will take some time to get them uploaded, depending on the internet back on base. But I start with this one I took yesterday at the gift shop at the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. I have actually seen a number of signs to this effect, I´m not sure if there is a suspicion of counterfeiting or what.

Sunday I woke up, had the buffet here at the hotel (included in the price) and then was met by a tour guide. We went over to another hotel to get a couple more folks then headed out to the Panama Canal. Along the way he pointed out all the places that had once been US military bases and what the Panamanians were doing with them.

We got to the locks and it was quite something to see. There was a four story building with an observation deck on top, and a museum that wound through the rest of the building. I thought the most interesting thing was one of the ship´s and it´s cargo (you might be able to see it when I post the pictures). It was a ship that carries other ships and in it´s hold was a Swedish submarine. Not real easy to see since the sub was so small, relatively speaking. I´m not sure what the story is, but I do recall reading sometime ago that the US Navy had contracted with the Swedish Navy to play the opposition force in submarine war games. The Swedes are supposed to be pretty good submariners, and their boats are desiel, but have a pretty lengthty underwater duration.

After the trip to the locks, we went out through Balboa along a causeway to what used to be a couple of islands, some nice boats in the Marina. Then a city tour into the heart of the historic district, which is very, very decayed. You could see that many of the buildings were nothing but walls standing, nothing inside, no roof, etc. The guide stated that the Panamanian government is investing heavily to restore the buildings and make them nice, into restaurants, hotels, condos, boutiques, etc. I have to say, as we looked across the bay, there is a lot of construction going on. It almost made me think of Dubai in terms of the number of cranes and number of high-rises going up.

Today, a different guide picked me up and we went across to the other side (Carribean side, north) and saw the Gatun locks (more pictures) and it was even better since the observation deck was closer to the locks. Along the ride, first on the Jungle Highway, then on Roosevelt Highway, what sturck me were the number of billboards for the Duty Free Zone in Colon, the guide called them ¨propaganda¨, what an approriate word. Then it was a trip to Portobello, a historic old town that was the financial center for the Spanish Empire for 200 years. Some real neat old forts, all fallen down, but neat never the less. A qick lunch, then back to Colon, the northern terminus of the Canal. I took the Panama Canal Railroad back to Panama City, it was only the second train ride in my life. It was a nice ride, but it was late, rainy and I only saw one ship in the Canal. As I was sitting there at the train station waiting for the train to pull in, I started taking pictures of the chicken buses as they passed. I probably took about 6 or 7 dozen. I decided to start a sister blog with nothing but chicken bus photos :)

One other note, the driver today drove me crazy. He was more passive than I am aggresive. He would leave the turn signal on forever. He would forget to turn off the wipers, twice he turned them on when it wasn´t even raining. He would slow to a near stop in traffic to try and complete his merge. He frequently drove 10-20 kph below the speed limit, and this is in part of the world where they don´t even bother to respect the speed limit. Really truly, I was beside myself. Oh well, the rest of the day was good.

Evan

P.S. I´ll add notes later when I get photo albums of the places visited and the chicken bus blog.

Trip to Panama

Hey all,

So I left this morning for 9 days of leave, starting in Panama. I took the shuttle from the base to the airport, a 44 passenger bus that had two passengers. I got to the airport with six hours until my flight. I guess it beat having to pay 50-60 bucks for a cab from base. I was so early that I couldn´t even check in since the counter wasn´t manned yet.

Since I had so much time, I started with a cup of coffee at the ¨starbuck¨ of Honduras, called Cafe Americano, it is actually pretty decent coffee, especially when compared with the foul stuff they serve at the dining facility on base. I sat there and started readling this new book, a reprint of a pulp fiction book from the 50´s call ¨Home is a Sailor¨. After an hour, I checked, the counter had just opened up and I was able to check my bag. Then I went for lunch at a chinese place across the street from the airport and for four buck, got enough food to serve two and a half people. I thought it was comforting to see a group of eight cops come walking in to have a chinese lunch. I continued to read the book. I walked back to the airport, sat down in the food court and continued on the book. I finally made my way to the gate (having my water confiscated enroute, thanks to the Latin American inclination to emulate the foolish rules of the paranoid, senseless administration of the north) got on the plane and promtly finished the book. It was perhaps the easiest read that I have had in a long while, but really fun reading complete trash.

The flight was on Copa Airlines, a pretty good sized airline based out of Panama, it is a partner with Continental and their entire network. The plane was nice, clean and newer. There were two legs, the first stopped in San Jose, Costa Rica where I was a bit surprised to see a big tent like hangar emblazoned with the NASA logo, and a medium bodied jet with UND on the side and the NASA logo on the tail. I have no idea what they are doing down here, but I am curious. The second leg took me to Panama City, I really enjoyed looking down on the final approach and seeing dozens of ships at anchor, waiting to transit north from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Tomorrow I tour the city and see some of the canal, Monday I take a train ride along the length of the canal.

A final thought, I think it was interesting that on both legs of the flight, they offered not just a beverage, but food!! The first leg it was a turkey sandwich that was fair, and a little packet of oreos. The second leg it was a warmed cheese and ham thingy, which was less than fair. But I do give them a whole bunch of credit for at least serving something other and peanuts or pretzels.

I think that is about it for now. I changed time zones, ahead one hour, so now I am back on central time. I was looking through my ¨Lonely Planet¨ guide to Central America looking at the times listed and I found such a tremendous editorial error that I am really peaved. For El Salvador, it listed GMT minus 6, for Costa Rica, GMT minus 6, Panama GMT minus 5 (all of these are right) but for Honduras, it lists GMT plus 8, which is incredibly wrong, it should be the same as El Sal and CR. GMT minus 8 would be somewhere like India...

Until Later,
Evan

Small World

So now that the Joint Task Force had a change of command a month ago, Southern Command came down to for an Inspection.

I was having dinner Wed night and there was a gentleman wearing a t-shirt with Minnesota on it. I asked if he was really from MN and he was said, yes, from Mora. I told him I was from the cities.

Then yesterday, Thursday, there were these sensing sessions (asking how life is down here) and he was there, turns out that he is a Navy Captain. What are the odds, down here in little ole Honduras, that I would not just run into another Navy Officer, but that he would be from MN??

Roatan

Hey all,

I've been keeping busy, getting back from a vacation to Roatan (a Honduran Island in the Carribean and source of picture below) and getting ready for a business trip to El Salvador (a neighboring country to the west, southwest of Honduras).

I flew to Roatan on Friday the 29th and came back on the 4th of July. It was just georgeous there, the water was beautiful, the air was warm and humid (almost too hot, reaching into the mid and upper 90's). I was very fortunate, when I made my room reservation, they said they were out of water facing rooms, when I got there, they put me in a room right on the water.

While I was there, my principle activity was scuba diving. I got in 10 dives, kind of impressive since I had only completed 12 up to that point. I bought a cheap little 35MM camera for under the water ($20) and ended up shooting 5 rolls of film. I still have to get them developed, and will have to make the trip into the capital to get them developed and digitalized at the mall.

All in all the time there was pretty good, I breezed through a couple of books. There were a few interesting restaurants, including one called Cannibal Cafe, which had some really good mexican food.

A daytime shot of Half-Moon Bay.

My hotel room.


The only street in town.

Some local vegitation.

A shot of the bay through the hotel area (I can't figure out how to rotate it).

A nice sunset shot.

Public TV

Hey, just a quick note. Of the bazillion TV channels we have down here, they finally added PBS, the station out of Denver (actually all our channels come from there) which meant that I was able to watch the 4th of July concert from the US Capital.

A Few Little Anecdotes

Hey all,

Just thought I would write a few notes. Monday was a great day for getting off base, made the run to the airport to pick-up the two instructors. One is retired Army, the other is getting ready to retire, both with a great sense of humor. As I drove into town with the Air Force Sargeant, we talked about the differences and similarities between the three services that are represented down here. While we were waiting at the airport, we grabbed a bite to eat at the "food court" at the there. The food court consisted of a coffee stand and a McDonalds. Now, I'm not a huge fan of McDonalds (White Castle is much better), it has been well over a year, perhaps years since I've had a Big Mac, but I have to admit that Big Mac tasted pretty darned good. The dining facility here gets very, very boring after a couple of months.

Tuesday morning I started out attending some of the training from the two instructors, it was on Mortuary Affairs. I have to admit that it is rather interesting the things they use to identify the dead. Tuesday I had Staff Duty (don't get me started) and while I was doing rounds I did come across a skunk. Don't worry, we were a good 20 feet apart, but still interesting to see it down here.

I think that's about it for now. Tomorrow we go back to the capital to drop off the instructors at the airport. Then in the evening there is a farewell dinner for the JTF Commander, which will probably be bawdy as all get out. (We have the Change of Command next Wed). Saturday, a couple of us may take the bus back to the capital to see a movie. I would really like to see Shrek 3, although, since it is a cartoon, it may be in spanish, rather than english with subtitles.

Minor Update

Hey all,

It's been a while since I've written. Just as I was starting there was a pop over by my hooche, there had been a pop earlier this afternoon, the power went out, and then I heard a back-up generator start up. When I came over to the office, there was a guy working on the transformer across the street from my hooch. I guess he just energized the new one without any success!!

Last weekend (9/10) was another nice weekend in Hoduras. The Chaplain's Assistant (Navy RP3) was getting ready to leave, so he took a van load of folks to these water falls by the big lake, Lake Yahoa. Below is the link to the photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/Pulapanzak

After the day of fun, there was a bar-b-que at the base Chapel for his farewell. Sunday, a group of us went downtown Comayagua with the intent of seeing the inside of the Cathedral. We breifly stepped inside, but a couple of the guys were underdress (shorts) so we stepped back outside to have coffee until the end of services. By the time we got done with coffee, not only had church ended, but it was locked up.

Last week was a good week, primarily because a new boss showed up. 180 degrees different than the old guy, he actually communicates. Wednesday (13th) we had a day of sports competition against Honduran military teams, for me it was a matter of getting a little too much sun, then heading back indoors. The sports day was ostensibly to honor the Army's birthday, which was actually on the 14th.

Thursday was the last day of my Spanish class. I was eager for it to end. Two hours everyday was a bit much, the bigger problem was that after class I didn't feel much like studying, and it was so quick after the work day that there was no studying before class. I do think I learned a lot, all things considered. I just need to learn lots more vocabulary, remember how to conjugate, figure out which are irregular verbs, and get native speakers to speak slower, much slower.

Yesterday, we made a visit to the orphanage, it seems like I spent about half the time pushing kids on the swing. I guess gettig pushed is a luxury the kids seldom have. We got back and I made a run into town to do a little shopping. There is a Cuban rum that I really like and it is twice as expensive on base. I also picked up a few more South American Wines to try.

Today was mostly a day of reading. It is terrible but I made a great discovery. The library here on base (and they had this at Ft. Benning too) has donated paperback books free for the taking. There are a number of good non-fiction books there, and I've gotten hooked on a mystery series based in Venice Italy.

Tomorrow I get to run into the capital to pick up a couple of Army instructors. They are coming to teach a Mortuary Affairs class. I'm really looking forward to getting off base for official reasons.

The Last Week (or so)

Hey all,

I thought I would start with a real live photo of a real live iguana. They seem to be moderately plentiful around here and this one was sunning itself on the sidewalk last Saturday as we drove by.

Last Wed night I had duty, again a major waste of time. All told two people checked out. The next day I had off as compensation, but most of it was rehearsal for the Army change of command. Friday was the change of command and after we finished at 10, it was the rest of the day off. That afternoon, I picked up a rental car for the weekend. There was no way that I was going to spend my birthday stuck on base.

Saturday we took off around noon, went to a neighboring town, La Paz, to look around, walked the market. I did find a decent cell phone, that I may go back and get. I needed to do some research into what frequencies it uses and what is used back home. I also saw some nice material for suits. Enough for a suit would cost me $25, and I bet I can get labor real cheap down here. After that we headed into the capital, Tegucigalpa, and a new mall there, ate a late lunch and then did some shopping at the super-store there (supposedly, it is owned by Walmart).

Sunday we headed out and got lost looking for this microbrewery, D & D Brewery. The only microbrewery in Honduras. After three hours we found it. The best directions we recieved were from these three gals that were driving a Mercedes with California license plates (I have no idea if they really drove all the way down here). We chilled there for a couple of hours. It was a really great location, both pictures below are from there. Nice and lush scenery. If we had more time, it would have been great to chill in a hammock and read a book. The return trip only tool an hour forty minutes. After our return, we had a cook-out with a bunch of Navy folks (speaking of which, we actually are at 14 Sailors here, there are three positions in turn-over, another couple weeks and we will be back to 11).

Today it was back to the grind. Many things happening this month.

Photos Update

Hey all,

Just a quick post to let you know that the photos from Memorial Day weekend are posted on Picasa (another fine google product). I have also started posting additional pictures of the sawdust carpets from Holy Week.

The link for the Mayan Ruins is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/CopanRuins

The link for Maccaw Mountain is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/MaccawMountain

The link for the Sawdust Carpets is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/SantaSemana

Weekend Update

Hey all,

I got back from the weekend at Copan and thought I would update the blog. I started with a photo of some of the cats here on base that I took Friday moring. The kitten laying on the payment was playing with the tail of momma while a sibling ran in the background. All told the litter is five kittens.

The weekend was pretty good, it started with a painful van ride out to the city, 5.25 hours through winding, bumpy roads. I could not believe that it took us as long to get there as a quick run to Chicago. Got there, took a nap, walked around the town, had an early supper then walked around the town more, hopped in the hot tub but it never turned on...

Sat morning it was the Mayan ruins, lunch at Maccaw Mountain (a tropical bird park) and then toured the bird park. After that, five of us went to the "Hot Springs" a very bumpy, dusty 45 min ride to a very disappointing destination. We stayed maybe 25 minutes. That night we went out to eat and most called it an early night, a couple of us ended up chatting in the hotel bar, then bedtime.

Sunday morning we could have gone horseback riding but everyone slept in. After lunch we went on a canopy tour of the forest. It was a truck ride up the mountain, then riding down on cables suspened tree to tree, 14 lines in all, really kind of fun, there are a couple of pictures below, the lines were various lengths and speeds. On the longest, highest one, (but only third in sequence) I was so nervous that I over braked (a glove encased hand was the brake) that I got stuck about 3/4 the way down, hanging about 150 feet above the ground... That evening we had the best pizza I've had in quite some time, then four of us walked around town looking for a discoteque, not much luck, it was Sunday in a small town.

This morning we left around 10 and got here about 3:30, another painful ride. It was actually kinda nice to get back, although it has been rumbling thunder all evening.

This was actually the "superman" way of doing it.

Only on the last two lengths and only with one of the guides.

P.S. I have a lot of photos from the Mayan Ruins and Maccaw Mountain Bird Park, when I get a chance, I will post them on a seperate photo album and post a link.

A Quick Note

Hey All,

Just a quick note, it has been a short week, tomorrow I leave for a 4 day weekend. I am going with an MWR group to Copan to see some Mayan ruins.

I've been taking Spanish in the evenings and it is a very challenging two hours, we only have 20 sessions to try and attain conversationally proficient. Usually after those two hours, I don't fell too much like coming back to the office to work on the blog.

The other day, I was returning from the pool and there was a herd of goats right by the hooche and I shot the pictures. The one billy goat had huge horns and a lengthy beard, sorta visible in the top picture.

This week has been real interesting. I have learned more about the culture or climate of the United States Army and I don't like it. I've also learned more about the Air Force. I have found that I have more in common with the Air Force, since the and the Navy tend to be more trusting of human nature.

Playing Army

Hey all,

Just a quick post, today has been pretty mellow, a matter of recovering from yesterday, then this evening I started the 20-day class in conversational Spanish. We'll see how that turns out.

The bulk of yesterday was spent at the gun range here. I wanted to fire the M-16 rifle, which I had never fired before. It was a long hot morning. We started out having to "zero" the weapon, which means getting a sight picture, then adjusting the weapon's sights so that with your sight picture you are hitting the target dead on. The target, by the way, was a paper target that was only 25 meters (81 feet) away, but was so small that it was meant to simulate a target 300 meters away, the figure was only about 3-4 inches tall. For zeroing, we would get into the prone position, laying on the ground, one leg cocked, up on both elbows, with the muzzle resting on sandbags. We would fire three rounds, then get up to look at the target, adjust the sights, then fire three more rounds. This was painfully long, it took me 27 rounds (that was nine times up and to the target).

Once we finished zeroing, we finally got to shoot the qualification round, which was 20 rounds supported (on the sandbags), ten rounds unsupported, and ten rounds kneeling. The target was another paper target 25 meters away simulating 10 different targets at ranges from 50 meters to 300 meters. Qualification was 26, I made 27. I want to go back and try again for a higher score.

It was exhausting, in the sun and heat, I drank a little over 2 liters of water and didn't use the bathroom once, it was all sweated out. Today I was still sore, in the back, arms and legs; it was all the prone position and then getting up, back down, shoot, up, down, etc. Just some major usage of muscles in different ways than usuall.

That was my last couple of days, the rest of the week will be paperwork, yeah!!! (just kidding)

Evan

The Last Week

Hey all,

It's been a little while since I've posted anything, we had a major multinational airborne operation the first week of May that consumed a lot of time and energy, we were rewarded with a three day weekend, however, that friday evening, I started feeling a bit of a sore throat. That sore throat turned into a cold that ruined my weekend, slept a lot, blew my nose a lot, etc. For me the last week was a three day work week, thanks to having duty on Thursday evening (Friday was off, but I slept until 1400).

I have learned that duty in the Army is a far different creature. I think it is wasteful of time and badly managed. They had put out the May duty roster at the end of April, so I knew that I had the weekends off. For Memorial Day, we have a four day weekend, so I signed up for a trip to Copan, where there are Mayan ruins. Last Thursday I opened a revised duty roster showing that I was supposed to have duty on Memorial Day, I was like, NO WAY! I was not a happy camper. The change was really due to an error by the Duty roster coordinator, which in they Navy would mean the watchbill coordinator would be standing that duty, but no, the Army just says stick it to the next available person. The Army actually has a regulation addressing duty rotations. It is kinda stupid, the Navy actually troubles to differ between duty that falls on regular weekends, vice duty that falls on holiday weekends...

This last weekend, we spent Saturday at the orphanage. Some little girl was trying to teach me a spanish version of patty-cake. Given that I am so overwhelmingly coordinated, it didn't work too well. Sunday was a trip to Valley of Angels, a souvenir town about 2 hours away, followed by stop at the Mall in the capital, Tegucigalpa. I bought a couple of knick-nacks and then at the mall I looked in the bookstore before we went to eat a TGI Fridays, actually a decent meal that was a welcome break from the Dining Facility here on base. Below are a couple of pictures.

The group I was with, L to R, Eduardo (CIV), Sureisa (USAF) Gwendolyn (USA), Lilija (USA).

A nice representation of the base composition.

The town is a little country, as evidence by the horses.

Bugs and Reptiles

Hey,

So a week ago, on Friday night, I was crawling into bed. I have a little ritual, I turn on the bedside light and get ready, then get into bed and shut off the light. As I was getting ready by the dim light of said bedside light (which is really an old gooseneck desk lamp) I noticed something moving on the wall. I had a minor case of the heeby-jeebies and turned on the big lights (really just two flourescent fixtures on the ceiling). I notice that there was a gecko on the wall. I grabbed a paper towel figuring that with all my dexterity and athletic abilty, I could easily capture the beast. No such luck, after about an exasperating three minutes of trying, I shut off all the lights and went to bed. I hadn't been lying there much more than five or ten minutes when some bug flew by my ear. I swatted, but it persisted.

I ended up turning on the light and saw a number (probably a couple dozen) swarming around. Thing was they didn't fly for too long, they ended up losing their wings and then crawled around like little worms. I ended up killing as many of them as possible and that took a serious half hour, maybe even forty-five minutes. The following monday I called the lodging office asking about fumigation options and described the bugs to the guy, he was like, yep, those are termites. I have to admit that I never knew that termites flew, to be honest, I always thought they were more like ants.

So today they finally came to spray, they sprayed down every wall, since the whole place is made of wood. I hope that takes care of the problem. The senior guy pointed out where one of the joists has a major chunk missing, and a few other places that needed repair. While the other guy was spraying, we talked, he in broken english and me in decrepit spanish. I was telling about how cold it can get in Minnesota, he just laughed.

So now that the termites are mostly taken care of, I'm not sure what the gecko is going to eat. I did get a couple of picture of the little fellow. I know that he is still around. Gecko's (according to Wikipedia) are know for their distinctive noise, and this guy "beeps" three times. It doesn't really bother me, at least I know that he can take care of bugs for me.

Evan

Flying Cow Pies

So this morning the Col call the entire Joint Task Force together for a little talk. There are of course a few trouble makers and he wanted to remind everyone what it means to be a grown-up in the military today.

After that we went for a 3-or-so mile formation run around the base. Towards the end, we were running down a road in a more remote part of the base. I've been on this road once before and have seen cattle and horses grazing. All of the sudden, the First Sargeant of the Army Company picked-up a chunk of cow pie and had a cow-pie fight with the Col. Absolutely disgusting... I must remember to not shake hands.

Weather and Bugs

The Command Sargent Major here was telling me about the rainy season here, he said that it consists of brief rain showers, 15-30 minutes, followed by the normal heat and humidity. He said it would start in May and continue to Nov or Dec. He also said that early in the rainy season, the storms would be around noon or early afternoon and gradually get later in the day so that by the end of the season, they would be at night.

That being said, the last two days, we have had thunder showers. It has rained so hard that it bleeds through my wooden panel door! It even runs under the door a little. I guess I have the pleasure of having a front door that faces the direction of the rain. This prompted me to look up the forecast for the 2007 huricane season (which starts May 1). It seems that they are saying it will be a more active hurrican season than normal, great. I guess the one good thing is that we are protected by a ring of mountians around us. The bad news is that the base is in the bowl, and we all know what runs downhill... rain and mud.

Fiona had so kindly warned me to check my shoes for bugs before putting them on, here's one for you. Sunday afternoon, the chaplain held a bar-b-que in celebration of Easter. As I was walking to the Chapel, I felt something on my back, it felt like a burr had fallen down my shirt. I tried finding it, but there was nothing, then I felt it again, but a little lower, felt for it nothing. Again I felt it a little further lower, that time I thought I felt something, but not real sure. I took off my shirt and looked. It appeared to be an ant. Today I had a few welts on my back from the bites. I guess the rule is to check everything before putting it on.

Evan

Holy Week / Pascha (Easter)

The link for the Sawdust Carpets is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/evan.r.stanley/SantaSemana

Honduras is an overwhelmingly Catholic country and to that end they take Holy Week and Easter very seriously. Most of the country shuts down for the entire week. On base, if the locals weren't off for the whole week, they took off Wed through the weekend. We were given a three day weekend. Thurs evening I caught a movie at the base theater, it was Night at the Museum. It had been on the plane from Miami to Honduras, but we missed the last 20 minutes or so. The theater is fairly rudementary, sort of old style flip-up seats, but the floor is sloped. It is just a DVD player hooked up to a good quality projector, the downside is that if the movie is not in letterbox format, the top and bottom get displayed on the floor and ceiling.

Friday morning we all hopped into a van and headed into the town here, Comayagua. They hold an annual passion, which is really the stations of the cross, spread out through the downtown streets. It took close to two hours to walk the whole way, of course that included stopping to take a lot of pictures (170 total) some of which are below, I will post more as I have time. The pictures are sawdust carpets, it really is sawdust. I have no idea where it all comes from, but they start with a base of plain sawdust, then using cut out forms, they fill in with colored sawdust. Some of the carpets were sponsored by local business. Also along the way they had an altar set up for each of the stations. I imagine that they must have done a quick mass at each one. One of the gals from work stayed for the whole thing and took pictures, once I get mine posted, I'll post some of hers. The Chaplain (an Air Force guy, protestant, and the only one on base) did hold a Good Friday service in the afternoon, before running off to conduct a wedding! That evening I watched the movie Children of Men, it really was a very good British dystopic movie.

Saturday was pretty quiet, no services at the chapel. I woke up plenty early to take the wood shop safety class, then of course the guy wasn't there. I hopped in the base pool, which is really a very nice pool, except that it isn't heated and you really notice in the morning. With the sun so nice an bright, high in the sky, the water of the pool seems so nice an clear. I've been in the pool a few times and hope to start making it a lunch time tradition. This Sat morning the sun was high and by evening I felt the burn on my back. I had forseen this and had some aloe lotion in my hooche. It was feeling better by Sun evening. That evening I made a run to the pizza hut in town with a few of the Navy guys, before returning for an early evening.

Sunday morning was an early wake-up to make the Chaplain's sunrise service. In the great protestant tradition, it was quick, so it was off to breakfast with some of the aviation squadron folks. One guy was telling me about all the deals he gets at the liquor store out in town. At lunch, the chaplain held a celebratory bar-b-que at the chapel. It was a nice easy Sunday.

The one that I haven't told you about Holy Week, apparently everyone here has it affect them in their first month here. You never want to be too far from a latrine. The one enlightenment I did have was that if you think about the Simon and Garfunkel song "Sounds of Silence," Kaopectate fits nicely into the first line, as in "Kaopectate my old friend..."

Evan

Tela / La Ceiba

The weekend of Palm Sunday, our second weekend here, the six of us Navy guys that showed up together took an MWR trip to the north coast of Honduras. Friday was what they called a spring training holiday, so we had a three-day. Friday morning (after waiting for an Air Force guy to show up) we left and headed for the first stop, the town of Tela, we got there about 2 pm, so by the time we got checked-in and all, we had time for the pool, but not any real good time for getting sun. It really was very nice, the resort was one of the nicest places I've ever stayed, right on the beach. Below are some pictures.

Saturday morning we headed over to the town of La Ceiba, another resort town that is considered more of a party town. Since a couple of the Navy guys were trying to save money, we stayed at a different hotel than the rest of the group. The hotel stunk, big time. It was way away from the beach and the pool was tiny. The rooms weren't ready yet, they asked for an hour, so we walked over to the mall to wander around. We returned after almost two and a half hours and the rooms still weren't ready.

We did end up chatting with one of the hotel workers who was from the island just of the coast, Roatan. It is supposed to be beautiful and have great diving. The island apparently more like a Carribean island than a Latin American country. This gal spoke really good english and ended up sending us to a really great restaurant.

Sunday morning we got up, cleaned up, had breakfast and started on the five hour ride back to base.

The Beach at Tela

The Hotel Pool area at Tela

A couple of the guys on their balcony

Traffic Accidents are really common, people pass without regard for road conditions or oncoming traffic. In this case, a driver probably cut off the truck. The guy with a gun is a Honduran Army guy. As democracy has grown, and the threats for communist insurgents gone away, the army has done more to help the police with the crime. They essentially guard the police from attacks while the police exercise their powers.


Here are the Navy guys (l to r): MA2 Troy Barrett, MA2 Justin Rhodes, SKCS Rolando Henriquez, CWO3 Al Campbell, SK3 Dmonique Daphness, we've been together from Ft. Benning, although here on base we are spread around. This is the restaurant the gal at the hotel recommended.

Ten Days in Honduras

After all that I headed back to Ft. Benning to get some sleep in order to wake up at 0400 to pack and get to the airport. We had a 25 min flight to Atlanta, where we had to ruch to make our flight to Miami. It was almost like those old rental car commercials with OJ Simpson, except I can't hurdle worth a darned. From Miami it was a two and a half hour flight to Honduras, and a two hour time change. Flying into Tegucigalpa was quite the experience. Apparently there are only a handful of US flight crews qualified to fly into what is the most dangerous airport in the Western Hemisphere. We came in real low, you could count the leaves on the trees, for added effect, there was a brush fire burning at the end of the runway. It took forever to get our luggage, customs was a quick process. We then had a quick lunch at pizza hut and then headed for the base.

I will admit that I am a crazy driver, at least I am very aggressive. The drivers here scare me. The roads are two lane with little to no shoulders, they wind up and through the mountains. Obviously trucks have a harder time in the mountains, so people pass them, but without regard to oncoming traffic. The other real crazy thing is they don't recognize the concept of turning left. If there is oncoming traffic present when you want to turn left, you need to pull off to the right and wait until oncoming and behind traffic have cleared. We had to do an hour long driving course last week. I'm not sure if I will ever bother to get a rental while I am here. The other thing is that American's are presumed to be at fault (mostly because of money to be had) even if you are just an onlooker.

We got to base and were given a tour, and then started to move into our rooms, we were all given temporary rooms. I went into mine and was looking around and saw what I thought looked like rice piled up in the corner, I asked a couple of the other Navy folks and even though there was no movement, we guessed that they were termite larvae. The builings here are all wood construction, they were built in 1983 and are classified as temporary (meaning to be used for 5 years), you do the math. I ended up being able to move into my permanent room, which is a whole hooche, about 15 ft by 40 ft, (the more junior folks have half-hooches) it is officially divided into three rooms, the bedroom (with a full size bed, sure am glad I brought that twin sized bedding!) a living room and a kitchen with a counter and table, but no plumbing.

My hooche:

After the experience of moving in we went to a place called "The Zone" which is what passes for a navy club. There are six clubs on base, most "owned" by one of the Major Service Components (MSC), all drinks are 1 buck, the profits from the clubs go to support the orphanges that each MSC has adopted, more on that later. There is one club, that is open only on Thursday nights and it is the only one where they allow local Honduran women to come in to... socialize, ahem. At the Zone we fired up the grill for burgers and hot dogs, since we had missed chow hours. I had picked up some chips and salsa and salt and vinegar potato chips. While we were there hanging out, cats starting coming around. There are quite a few cats on base, I presume that they are all feral and teaming with disease, but they are really cute, although all I have seen are females, there must be some toms around somewhere, just this evening I saw a momma cat with five kittens, they were soooo cute. (Can you tell I miss my girls?). But back to the potato chips, I was tossing down chips to the cats and they were eating them up. I've never seen a cat eat potato chips...

Tuesday was the start of my check-in process. It was a matter of running around to a whole bunch of different buildings, filling out paperwork, collecting signatures. The base itself is realatively small, the runway is 7000 feet, the total perimeter is less than five miles. The main US compound is little more than a half mile across. Many folks have checked out what are called E-Z-Goes, essentially gas powered golf carts that get them around, this is what we used to chase signatures. Then I hit a brick wall, the new boss wanted me to attend a meeting. It was the briefing for an Airborne Operation on Thursday. It was actually kinda interesting, my first exposure to Army stuff, me that Commander of the Joint Task Force.

Wednesday morning I needed to do more check in, but the boss dragged me along to a Force Protection meeting, enroute he told me that it was going to be one of my jobs. We (five of the six Navy folks) met with the JTF Commander, he wanted to do a quick personal meeting with us since there aren't many Navy down here (now there are 10). I knocked off for the afternoon and went to get my computer account information. After dinner I went to the office to try the new account and the boss dragged me to another meeting. Three meetings in the first 48 hours, bad precedent.

Thursday was an early morning, got up at 0500 to go along with the Airborne Operation. It was actually kinda interesting, I sat in back when the first 16 jumped, got some pictures (once I get my laptop working again I'll be able to download the pixs). The helicopter then landed to pickup the second group and they let me move up front to sit between the pilots, that was kinda interesting. We got back to base a little before noon, had lunch and it was time for.. another meeting, a continuation of the one the prior evening.

The helicopter and ground shots:

The base as we left:

Jump Shots:

A view out the ramp:

Cockpit shots:

Mountains as seen from the cockpit:

Hey all,

It's been a little while since I've written, partially owing to no computer access, partially due to the number of things they've had me doing. A recap:

Sunday the 18th, my last full day in the US, I drove over to Macon, GA for church at St. Innocent Mission. It was a very friendly congregation, just about all the men (it seems) were military veteran's, and from every branch of the service. I then headed back west and stopped enroute at Andersonville, the famous site of the Civil War POW camp, it was built for 10,000 men and at its height held 33,000, some 13,000 died. They also have the national POW museum covering from ancient times up to Vietnam and the Persian Excursians.

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Friday was the driving class and two more meetings on the same topic (it is a Quarterly Training Brief they had to give to the one-star General that runs US Army South). That evening we met back at the Zone, I learned to play spades and later we ventured out into town to a club named the Lemon Drop, why I don't know. There were a lot of folks from base there and of course, local girls. One girl grabbed me for dancing, after 35-40 minutes of dancing, she got kinda forward, actually real forward. As one person phrased it, they are real desperate to get to the US.

Saturday was the day to go to the orphange. It is the orphanage that the Army Forces here sponsor (since there are so few Navy here, administratively we belong to the Army). It was a BBQ day there, normally they just go out for a couple of hours every other week just to play. This particular time it was a special event, we were there for about four hours. They had gotten some pinyata's (sp?) and the kids were divided between boys and girls and they got to wack at it. If 3 pieces of candy fell on the ground, all 20 kids would hog pile in an attempt to get the candy. I ended up having some runny nosed kid glom onto me, he really liked to ride on my shoulders, much to my neck's regret. All day it was warm there. Once we got back, I think everyone did the same thing as I, took a long shower and a longer nap.

I better stop there, we (the 6 Navy guys) are heading out to a couple of coast resort towns this weekend (tomorrow is off) and I will have more writing to do next week. It is comfortable here, nice and warm, cools off in the evenings.

I can be contacted as below:

Work: DSN 449-4158
Commercial from US 011-504-234-4634 x 4158
Hooche: DSN 449-4655
Commercial from US 011-504-234-4634 X 4655
Mail: LT Evan Stanley
PSC 42 Box 459
APO, AA 34042
E-Mail: mailto:evan.stanley@jtfb.southcom.mil

Take care,
Evan