So last night, a few of us went out and met up with a girl named Erin, who brought along her friend Jose, a 23-year-old bird expert from Spain. I won´t bother to get into how at about half-way through the evening, we switched into Spanish mode and how I´ve come to the realization that I finally have the confidence to launch into pretty much any story I want to tell in Spanish, and can do so with relative success. This first week of Spanish classes has given me more confidence than the last two years combined, but this is not the point of today´s blog, so I´ll shut-up now on that end...
Anyway, we hung out last night over drinks and he shared that the next day (today), he was going to be helping release five sheltered macaws (relatively endangered here) into the Mayan Ruins/park to live with, and begin breeding with, the native macaws that already live there. I also had the option to go to a coffee plantation, but at the last minute, decided to head to the ruins to watch the event. Plus, we heard that the vice president was going to be making an appearance, so that in itself was worth the trip!
After getting there, we chatted with Jose for a bit and then waited around with everyone else for the actual ceremony and the arrival of the VP. After about an hour, we noticed the heavily-armed military/police guys show up and knew that this person was getting close. A few minutes later, I´m standing there talking to Erin and we notice a very nicely dressed woman surrounded by people. She asks me, ¨Do you think that SHE´S the VP?¨ I responded that I wasn´t sure how progressive the Honduran government was, but that she definitely looked official and ¨vice presedential¨enough to fit the bill. Sure enough, it was her. She gathered with a number of officials, dignified guests, etc. for the presentation and about 15 minutes later, they opened the doors to the enclosure to let the birds out. They didn´t move at first, but after about two minutes, they all took off together as the crowd oohed and ahhed. I had gotten tired of waiting, so had put down my camera just as they began to take off. I quickly fired up the movie feature of the camera just in time to catch them taking off from the enclosure. It was a really cool thing to watch, and the crowd went wild! Apparently, this project had been in the making for years, so the final release was really a pretty big deal.
As if that wasn´t cool enough, afterwards, the VP (now identified as Maria Antonieta de Bogran: http://www.laprensa.hn/especiales/multimedia/Toma/ministros/bogran.html) started going around posing for pictures with the mucky-mucks which allowed me to get some good shots. After a few minutes, I worked my way close enough over to her and also the courage to shake her hand. I said to her, ¨Hi, I´m nobody special, just an American, but I wanted to shake your hand and tell you how much I love your country. It´s a pleasure to meet you.¨ I was nervous as hell, but I got the handshake while my two friends snapped pictures of me! Following in suit, they then each took a picture. It was really cool, and she was incredibly cordial and happy to oblige my request. If I had thought about it, I would have had them take a picture with my camera, but it was so spontaneous that I didn´t think about it. However, they have the pictures and I´ll have them in a week or so when they´re back at home and can email them to me. It was funny, because when I was taking a picture for the girls, my hand was totally shaking. I later told them I felt like a sixth grader asking a girl to dance with me. Smooth? No. Did I get the picture and handshake? Hell yes!
From there, we spent the next hour touring the ruins themselves, which were obviously spectacular. It was....wait for it...an amazing morning. :)
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