Still more feathered friends

A few days ago we heard a more raucous than usual squawking coming from some trees near our home. Upon investigation we caught a glimpse of a flock of some sort of bird just before they flew away. 

A couple of days later we heard it again and I got out the binoculars and camera to try to get a better look. 

Well, both the binoculars and the camera's zoom have their limitations and our vocal visitors were quite far away. But...I did manage a couple of shots. Bear in mind that these were taken with the zoom and even the digital zoom at their max. But the long and the short of it is that we're pretty sure they're parrots. Parrots in our backyard. Who'da thunk?

Which may explain another of Ellyn's recent finds.

Feathered neighbors

Since moving to Honduras I have become far more attentive to birds. This is in part because the range of bird song even in a neighborhood as urban as ours is often astounding. It is also because the birds here are so colorful. My experience of birds in the places I lived in the US is that neighborhood birds come in two colors: light brown and dark brown. This is unfair, of course. Some neighborhoods have cardinals. But birds in Honduras are so colorful compared to the species I tended to see in the states.

Here are some species that we have seen just in our neighborhood. Maybe in a later post I can show some of the species we've seen out and about. (The pictures are taken from various websites; they are not our photography.)

Bushy-Crested Jays

Great Kiskadee

White-eared Hummingbird

White-Throated Magpie Jay

And a species of oriole. I'm not sure it's this one, but it tends more orange than yellow. It might be this one, the Altamira Oriole. 

Have "helmet" will travel

Motorcycles are ubiquitous here. And by ubiquitous I mean really, REALLY annoying. There appear to be no rules governing motorcycle traffic patterns.

There must be rules requiring helmets, however, because virtually all motorcyclists and riders are seen wearing them. The type and use of the helmet seems not to be very regulated because I have seen all of the following serving as motorcycle headgear:

The standard motorcycle helmet. Many of these are seen to be in less than stellar condition and even more frequent is to see riders with the helmet tipped back on their head so they are not looking through visor but rather under the chin of the helmet.

The standard bicycle helmet. This is especially common on motorcycle passengers which I just can't figure. First, passengers tend to be children or girlfriends/wives. Wouldn't you want to give them the superior protection? Furthermore, the driver has something to hold on to and is more likely to know when the accident is going to happen. Give him the chintzy helmet! (By the way, a common passenger arrangement is smallest child in front of driver, medium child behind driver, and wife behind that.)

I have also witnessed the following as helmets:

The Batting Helmet

The Hard Hat

And for the first time today...

The Equestrian Riding Helmet

Greenery

One of our supreme delights here in Honduras is the wide variety of beautiful flora. It seems that something has been in bloom since we arrived in August. Often the colors are just eye-popping to us.

We recently have acquired a few plants by various means.

This one was on the patio when we moved in but has recently blossomed. We find its blossoms humorous (see close up below).

This little guy started growing in the drain in our pila (read: laundry room). We're not sure what he is yet, but we thought we'd at least give him a better home.

Recently a friend bought us a tree. We have long found members of family araucaria. We're not sure exactly which species ours is, but we like it nonetheless. (In the picture below you can also see a recently acquired aloe plant and our latest attempt to get avocado pits to sprout, or "spout" as Ellyn says).

Some snapshots of recent daily life

Just some random bits from life of late.

First, elsewhere I have commented on the cheese situation around here. This was a felicitous find!

Though we don't think we need 2 vehicles full time right now, a friend who is in and out of the country has generously offered to let us use his truck when he's not around. Given that it's a truck and standard (or mecanico as they say around here), only Stephen drives this one.

Here's proof of the mirror replacement.

Bougainvillea blooming in the tree at the end of our cul-de-sac. (The picture doesn't do it justice).

Our doorbell and the delivery of our electric bill.

I guess I'm good either way

As far as cultural icons go one slight difference between Honduras and the US is that this...

...is a far more common sight than this:

For the uninitiated, the former is the crest of the Fútbol Club Barcelona or, more crassly the Barcelona soccer team. One hopes the latter needs no similar explanation.

As it turns out, I happen to be a fan of both clubs so the iconographic eclipse of the one by the other is of no great moment to me.

A little cultural oddity

Growing up in a church that used the King James Version there were many an archaic phrase that my young mind struggled to understand.

One in particular came to my mind the other day upon observing a cultural oddity here in Honduras. The verse is Psalm 22:7.

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip...

 That phrase "shoot out the lip" always struck me as odd.

I was thinking about this the other day because Hondurans point with their lips. I'm sure that sounds strange but they do, even in the middle of a sentence. In the case in question, a sales lady at an electronics store indicated a stack of inkjet printers in answer to a customer's question by "shoot(ing) out the lip" while speaking. It's the sort of thing that is kind of hard to imagine until you see it.

No, it doesn't have anything to do with Psalm 22, and no, I don't intend to take up the practice.

Sight of the day

A lot of cast-off clothing from the US finds its way to Honduras. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of those t-shirts printed for the World Series losers end up here.

This means that it is quite common to see people roaming the streets with clothing sporting brand names or English text. The wearer's grasp of English being what it is (or isn't), this can create some humorous pairings.

Like the portly, middle-aged Honduran man I saw at the auto mechanic shop the other day sporting a sweatshirt labeled thus:

Same name, different face

As long-time residents of Racine, Wisconsin, home of S.C. Johnson company, we have developed a preference for their products. After all, can you really beat Windex for cleaning windows?

We were pleasantly surprised to find Windex when we arrived here, but don't remember this cleverly (or cheesily, depending on your perspective) named fellow featuring on the bottles in the states.

Colorblind?

Most Hondurans are brown. Like most people groups there is a range of pigment in the population. They are not as dark complected as other Latin Americans, and are darker than others.

I don't bring this up just as a ethnic curiosity. My actual curiosity is in how much of the advertising I encounter here seems oblivious to the ethnic reality choosing instead to portray very Caucasian looking models. And it is not just a matter of North American companies duplicating their ad campaigns here. Even the advertising for exclusively Honduran (or Central American) businesses like my bank tend to use very anglo-american looking models.

My curiosity with this is in part due to the excessive political correctness observed in much American advertising. Who hasn't chuckled at the absolutely improbable groups of fresh-faced ethnically diverse young people gracing the web pages of colleges and universities. (If it is a Christian college, at least one of the young people will be holding a guitar as well.)

But more importantly I wonder about the message that is being sent. Why are white people the standard? To whom are they appealing? Are the advertisers appealing to what they believe is a wide tendency to regard the European/American model as the image of what is desired? Are they trying to create that image? Are they heedless of their audience? Or, if the ads target the rich and the rich have North American tendencies, what messages are being sent to the rest of the people who see these billboards?

I honestly don't know. But it niggles at me.

Suppose he's house broken?

We discovered this furry little fella in our patio area the other day. He was softer than he looks. A few hours later he was gone and we're not sure where he went.

Things I see everyday in Tegucigalpa

Many things are very similar to other places I have lived. But there are a few things that one sees everyday in Tegucigalpa. They are just part of the scenery.
Like taxis. All taxis in Tegus are white with the yellow registration number. They are all styles, models, ages and conditions but identifiably taxis.

Or power lines. This is a pretty standard display.

Lots of these...(double cabs are particularly popular)

And often like this...

And this, for when your solid metal gate just won't do...

And guys equipped like this...

...outside stores and so forth. That doesn't really bother me that much except that most of them look like they're barely 17 years old.

And these. Two of the major cell phone providers. They are as ubiquitous as Verizon stores are in the states if not more so because most people are on pay as you go plans and every corner store sells minutes.