Not much of a White Christmas…

On Christmas day Drue and I were on a beach in Tela, Honduras, singing Jingle Bells and getting sunburned. We were there for a wedding, but we weren’t about to waste tropical weather in the middle of December, so we made a vacation of it.

A single day in the sun had our white Midwestern faces feeling a bit blistered, so on the 26th we ventured into town to take in the culture and find a flower market. About all we could find were day lilies, daisies and roses. In fact, there was very little variety, which struck me as ironic, considering the fact that Honduran farms supply US florists with all variety of flowers. How strange that when we are in Kansas City we can buy Honduran flowers all year long, but when we are in Tela or La Ceiba, we can’t find a stem for sale.

Interestingly, this scenario doesn’t seem limited to the fresh cut flower industry. I was recently talking to our good friend Clint Newlan who works at the Roastarie here in KC. He observed that while many Central and South American countries grow excellent coffee, if you purchase coffee while visiting those countries, it’s generally bad. Clint’s theory is that the quality product is exported to the US and Europe, leaving only the worst beans for local use. Though it’s sad, Clint’s theory makes a lot of sense to me, and I suspect it’s the same with flower farming and exporting in those countries.

When in Honduras, do as the Hondurans do

On the plus side, when you live in Honduras you don’t have buy flowers. They grow all over. You just have to pick them. It’s amazing what grows in tropical environments. There was ginger, palms, hibiscus and bougainvillea springing up all over. We even spotted a phalaenopsis orchid plant growing off the side of a tree.

So, we got to work hunting down flowers for the wedding, and aside from a small run-in with a colony of ants, everything came together brilliantly. The wedding was beautiful. It was held on a beach in La Ceiba with only the family and close friends in attendance. It was intimate and charming and very memorable. Nate and Jen made a beautiful couple; Jen with her bouquet of ginger and bougainvillea and Nate with his flip flops.

I’m beginning to think destination weddings are the way to go. In spite of the trouble of gathering passports and scheduling flights, weddings out of the country are actually much less stress. And for the friends and family members who can’t make the wedding, a reception can be thrown back in the states. Nate and Jen are doing just that. In a few days, we’ll be preparing flowers for their reception at the Blue Gallery on Southwest Boulevard.

Trip highlight: the forests

Drue and I took a bit of an excursion to a national park. The road into the park was rough. We took a cab, and he bottomed out at least twice. The forest itself was amazing, though. I’m something of a tree buff, but I’m just not used to seeing trees that tower well over one hundred feet in the air. Some of the best trees, though, were the shorter ones with gnarly branches and the flowering ones with vibrant colors. Our favorite, perhaps, was the malay apple. It was hard to miss in the forest, with it’s wide branches and thousands of hot pink blooms. Needless to say, if you like plants at all, and you find yourself in Honduras, you have to venture in to the forests.

Trip lowlight: a lot of lempiras

What are lempiras, you ask? Well, come on over to the shop and we’ll show you a lot of them. Lempiras are the currency of Honduras. On the way out of Honduras, we realized there was an exit tax. Drue and I have been to Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, Thailand, China, India and Japan, but neither of us could remember ever paying an exit tax. In Honduras they wanted $67 to let us board the plane.

This begs the question, “What if I have no visa, but I also have no cash to leave the country? Do I have to stay at the airport forever?” I thought about asking the customs lady that question, but my Spanish is rough and I was worried she’d hear “I want to stay in this airport forever.” I felt it prudent to keep my mouth shut and come up with the cash.

The real problem is that neither Drue nor myself had any cash and the ATM’s wouldn’t recognize our card. We were in real danger of missing our flight. Thankfully (sort of), Drue spotted a bank, and thought it would be the solution to all of our problems. So, while I took care of the luggage, Drue went into the bank, MasterCard in hand, hoping for a cash advance. It seemed like a good plan. It would have been if the teller spoke English (or if Drue spoke Spanish).

Now, having not been in the bank myself, I can’t say exactly what happened. All I know is that we agreed that Drue would go in and ask for 1,900 Lempiras (about $100) and she came out looking completely confused and somewhat disgruntled holding 19,000 Lempiras (you do the math). Oh well, no time. We had a plane to catch and we could sort it out when we got back to the States. At least that’s what we thought. Then we found out that KCI no longer does currency conversion.

So… Those of you planning a destination wedding, Beware the exit tax!!!

Packing up and coming home

Though Honduras doesn’t top anyone’s list of tropical getaways, we found it to be very charming. Service was painfully slow, but that’s the case in most laid-back countries. The people were very friendly and hospitable. There’s still many countries we haven’t visited, so our travel list is full. Still, I would be thrilled to go back to Honduras if ever I had the chance. It’s was a good time and a great cultural experience.