Tour Of Tegus

Iglesia de Suyapa

Iglesia de Suyapa

Iglesia de Suyapa

Iglesia de Suyapa (altar)

Iglesia de Suyapa

This weekend was filled with "little" adventures. Saturday was the Tour of Tegucigalpa sponsored by the US Embassy. Karishma, Kelsey, Stacey, Keiko, Amanda, and I went to visit a whole bunch of places around the city! It was great because we got to visit some cool places that we wouldn't be able to visit on our own. Twenty-one of us drove away from the embassy followed by two security escort cars and probably our bus driver was secret service or something. I could hardly help but laugh, considering we have survived this long without body guards. Our tour guide regaled us with Honduras history as we drove out to the Iglesia de Suyapa (1749) where Our Lady of Suyapa, the patron saint of Honduras, resides behind the altar. The more dominating presence is the enormous Basilica de Suyapa (1958) built in her honor and where the statue is on display during the Festival in February. 

Basilica de Suyapa

Basilica de Suyapa (altar)

Basilica de Suyapa

Basilica de Suyapa

la Catedral (altar)

      Next, we drove to El Centro (downtown) to visit the Museo de la Identidad Nacional. It is inside a 125 year old building which was originally built to be a hospital. It was very clean and well kept, but everything was in Spanish so I didn't get much information out of the exhibitions. Thankfully, our tour guide told much of what was going on as we wandered through the museum. Then we walked down the street to the main square in front of a beautiful church called la Catedral. The officially named Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel (1782) is an amazing building decorated inside with gold and silver altar pieces. It is named for San Miguel, the patron saint of Tegucigalpa. Here, we were in the Colonial Center, though most of the old colonial buildings have been replaces with much less interesting concrete office buildings. The security guards were always forming a square around us, and there were service men in civilian clothing. Though this felt quite strange and conspicuously like we had "AMERICANS FOUND HERE" splashed across our chests, it did allow us to have our cameras out and take pictures! After walking several more blocks, we passed Iglesia de San Fransisco, which our tour guide said was the oldest in the city. Unfortunately, it was closed so I will have to come back to peek inside. We finished the tour with a drive in the rain to El Picacho.


la Catedral (prayer chapel)

      For the evening, my roommates convinced me to go to Club 360. Now this isn't really my atmosphere, but the club is on the top floor of a tall office building so it offers clear views of the entire city. Or it would have, if it hadn't been pouring down rain!
      Sunday, I went back to Union Church where the service is entirely in English and the church filled with teachers from different schools. Karishma, Kelsay, Abigail, and I went to El Picacho to hike some of the back trails. On this trail, the views were so beautiful and the atmosphere so peaceful. The best part was the I DROVE my own CAR! I am still pretty excited about that! We even finished our hike ahead of the rains that comes in everyday. 
 

Basilica de Suyapa
Keiko, Me, Karishma, Stacey, Amanda, Kelsey