Falling in Love in a Foreign Language

Yep, you read that right.  I am officially, head over heels, never-felt-this-way-before, one hundred per cent in love.  Augusto is a one of a kind person who has learned to live each moment to the fullest and appreciate the small blessings (a large bag of fresh strawberries, a perfectly grey morning to stay in bed, inventing new fresh juice flavours), and little by little, I am learning to see the world through his eyes.

  It took me a while to get used to life here in Tegucigalpa. The noise, the pollution (think 35 year old buses, garbage-clogged rivers, and overflowing sewers), the ever present sense of possible danger around the corner, the traffic - it wasn´t until I had been here a while before I relaxed and was able to enjoy the great things about life in this crazy city. Sometimes still, I get overwhelmed by the blatant government corruption, the lack of opportunities for this country´s youth, and the long uphill battle that is the fight for basic human rights.  Having Augusto’s shoulder to lean on has been a huge comfort.  Now, each day is a new adventure, as we zip around on his Yamaha scooter, beating the traffic and finding hidden gems around and outside the city.

A taste of some of our adventures: Santa Lucia, a beautiful old, cobblestoned town in the hills with a view looking down onto Tegucigalpa, with great little cafés and restaurants. There is even a little pond with row boats people can rent out. One night, on a whim, we went out to Santa Lucia at night to have a glass of wine and a milkshake (I chose the wine, although the milkshake was also calling my name) and enjoy a chilly evening (by Honduras standards) by an open fire, watching the lights of Tegucigalpa twinkle below us.

Yoga in El Picacho: There is a beautiful park up in the mountains about 10 minutes’ drive from the center of Tegucigalpa, and once a month, Alexa, an American expat, gives a free outdoor yoga class there.  It´s a great way to experience a breath of fresh air combined with one of my favorite activities.  I introduced Augusto to yoga there for the first time – it was a funny reminder of how difficult yoga is if you´ve never tried it before!

Having an omm moment

The view from El Picacho

Discovering our own hiking paths in Valle de Angeles:  Valle de Angeles is about a half hour outside of Tegucigalpa, and is a tourist hotspot for artisan arts and crafts.  It is also nestled in the valley right below La Tigra national park, and so is surrounded by (mostly) forested lands (the pine beetle, called the gorgojo, is steadily munching through all the pines, and much of the park is now bare).  Instead of paying the entrance fee, I, Augusto and a group of friends decided to wing it, and just started walking on a road that lead out of town.  We lucked out, the road wound in a big circle and ended up leading us back into town about 8km later, so we got a good walk out of it and didn’t get lost.

There is a small theatre in Tegucigalpa’s center called Teatro Memorias where we have seen a couple of plays – one of them was ‘The Vagina Monologues’ which I’m sorry to say I had never seen before!  It was a great show, and I realized happily that my Spanish has progressed to the point where colloquialisms and rapid speech no longer trip me up.  

A bar that is just around the corner from my house has just opened up, after having been shut down a year ago (technically for being in a residential area, but the word is that it became a meeting place for los indignados , and that was the real reason for it being forced to close) and they offer a variety of live music, art and poetry, which is a nice change from the reggaeton  and 8-inch heels one finds in the other bars.

My biggest adventure, however, has been internal, as with Augusto’s encouragement I am learning to enjoy each moment for what it is, and to be pleased with small accomplishments.  I have stopped feeling guilty for resting if I feel tired, or staying up talking past midnight if I feel inspired.  My dreams are now almost all in Spanish, and it’s only when I get really tired that I lose my fluency and start speaking mangled Spanglish which Augusto gamely tries to follow. Previously, I had considered that I had a completely different personality in Spanish than I did in English, but I guess I´ve reached the point where the two personalities have melded, because I´ve never had felt so truly myself.