Accomodations

If I had to guess I would say our apartment here is about 800 sq ft.  We have five people.  There are times when it seems small.  But we had the opportunity to go on sort of a road trip the other day.  We spent a few days driving thru the country and visiting other churches.  We made stops in Siguatepeque and San Pedro Sula.  While on this trip we stayed in motels.  Now Honduran motels are basic to say the least – certainly more basic than a Motel 6.  There are some US brand hotels here like the Marriot, but they cost usually above $100 per night.  The places we stayed are not chains.  They are just motels owned by a Honduran family (for example El Almendro – it means the Almond Tree).  The cost is usually around $35 per night.  There are places that are cheaper than this.  $15 per night for example.

$35 is about as low as you want to go.  It’s reasonably clean (I think my wife would argue that I’m being generous) and reasonably safe.  Any lower and you start to jeopardize those two things.  Here’s a pic of one we stayed in in Siguat.  5 people, 5 beds, $35.  A tile floor is a mark of a good hotel.  They pretty much have the bare minimums: beds, sheets, pillows, sink and shower, towels, no rags, maybe a fan, no extras like pictures or anything. 

Anyway after staying for several days in rooms like this, we got back to our apartment on a Sunday night.  We had 10 people and one dog in our vehicle on the way back, a 6 hour drive.  The vehicle was a Toyota Prado, a diesel mini-SUV that they don’t sell in the US.  It’s about the size of a Jeep Grand Cherokee.  After getting out of that vehicle and out of those hotel rooms, I felt like our 800 sq ft apartment was huge.  I mean we have two bedrooms and a living area.  My kids may have to share a bedroom, but at least it’s only two in the room, not five.  We all felt really great to have so much room to move around. 

After this, my wife was flipping thru pictures that were tagged as her on facebook.  We came across a picture of the living room of our house (see below).  She showed it to me and we just stared at it for a few minutes.  I kid you not when I say I felt like I was looking into the house of a king.  Carpet, matching furniture that is soft and stylish, sheetrock, colored walls.  You don’t see any of that in Honduras.  We hadn’t really been thinking about the house, but when that picture showed up it was really amazing.