last day of my adventures....well I am on my last full day and back in Teguciglapa.  After I finished writing you all yesterday....I found out that I can check two bags on the plane without cost because it is international.  So I was very happy about that.

I went to eat at a restraunt listed in my lonely planet book.   It was a surreal experience....I felt like I was in a Salvatore Dali painting.   There is a statue of Our Lady of Supya that was stolen in 1986 and she is the patron of Honduras.  Later that year..the statue turned up in the mens room of this resturant and they made a shrine to her.  So you stand at the urinal and there is the virgin mary watching you.  The food was good and there was only two other people in the resturant.  There was a man playing a synthesizer providing live entertainment.  I then noticed he had no eyes....he was completely blind and playing the synthesizer and the waitress would put a straw in his mouth so he could drink his coca cola.  To add to the bizarness of it all...he was playing ABBA on the synthesizer...so there I was eating chorizo in a cafe being entertained by a blind man playing Fernando on a Synthesizer with the Virgin Mary watching me in the unrinal!!  After my bizarre dinner I went to the central park and sat and rested for a while and chatted up someone named Santiago.

I went to bed and this morning headed back to Tegucigalpa.  I went to the first church in Tegucigalpa built in 1574.  I then walked over to the National Gallery which i´m not key on museum but it was interesting and they had some great renaissance and colonial paintings as well as some artifacts from Copan.  After I went over to the congress building which is a sad site...but there was gathering going on...so I went to investigate.   It was  a rally for the handicapped and disabled people...so there were down syndrom, parapalegics, cerebral palsy, blind, all gathered for social justice and equality.  It was very interesting and some of the handicapped people were providing entertainment by singing and dancing.

I then went to the "other side of the river"...what an experience....it was the epitome of Les Miserable.  I saw a mother picking lice out of her daughters hair, an old lady with leprosy, men with no legs, massess of people every where begging, cowering, sitting around.   It was awful....It was somewhat scary.   It was so crowded and overwhelming and smelly and hot....I got a little dizzy and wanted...needed to get out of there.  I then got back accross the river and had a late lunch.   I then went to do final shopping and drop the stuff off at my room...I have so much stuff.   The last thing I bought was two CDs of Reggaeton Mix Music...which I love to exercise to.  Reggaeton is sort of a mix of Reggae, Latin Rhythm, Hip Hop, and Carribean all mixed into one.  I can really describe it.  Though I get made fun of a lot that I am the only white boy that likes Reggaeton.

I then stopped and had an ice cream and the rains came and they were torrential....I kept wondering how the people who  live in the shacks on the side of the hills survive this.   There was lightening so close it was so bright and the thunder cracked almost simultaneously I thought I was going to go deaf.

So all that is left is to eat dinner and pack tonight.  Sleep and then get to the airport, change money and of course make my last run to Duty Free.   It is hard to believe that two weeks ago I arrived in Managua.....I am sad to be leaving and yet happy to return home to the comforts I know and the people I know.   Of course it will take a week or two to recover from all this as I dissemenate, absorb, and make sense of all that I have learned on this trip.   As with all other trips...this trip was no different in that it strengthened my spirit, it opened my eyes again to the many injustices in the world, the unfairness of life, and the human capactiy to triumph over a world and an environment that is so very often harsh and uncaring.  To see the poor laugh, to hear them sing, to see the sick dance, a blind man to play a synthesizer,....now that is triumph over the cruelties that life has handed them.  And I cannot go home and forget these memories...some happy..some sad.  And they will remind me of all that I have to be grateful for...gratitude for all the things I take for granted such as my friends, my job, my apartment, having two eyes, two ears, two cats, food in the pantry, a TV, cable, medical coverage, etc.  The list is ad infinitum....and so many of these people will never have any of it.

And again I am grateful to have this experience...to not be sick...to not be so drunk I dont know where I am....to be so scared not to get out of my small world.  Another year, another trip, and another great experience....I will let you know when I get home safe and sound...and of course post the 400 plus photo.

With love and gratitude.