Visit To The Finca

I have a Honduran friend, Jorge, who lives on a farm north of the NPH ranch. The farm is primarily a dairy farm and he makes his money by selling the milk to a large Honduran dairy company, but also occasionally butchers a cow to eat and sell the meat. He has been bugging me for months to visit the “finca” to have lunch, meet the cows and see the small pueblo where he grew up. This Sunday, I finally gave in.

When we arrived, I was surprised to find that he has quite a few employees who live and work on the farm. His home is very simple and typical Honduran, but spacious, clean and comfortable. The farm was positioned on a large, fairly flat piece of land, but surrounded by lush green mountains. I am not a farm (or even outdoor) girl, but even I will admit that it was beautiful.

For lunch, we traveled down the road to the home of a man who occasionally works on the farm, but also has his own small tilapia farm. His house, which he built himself, was very simple. It was made of concrete block and consisted of 2 rooms. One with a wood burning stove, counter top, sink and small table for eating. Another room with one double bed and one single bed was the bedroom for him, his wife and their 5 year old son, Diego (who, when asked, told me he was 10). The bedroom had one window that was covered, but the windows in the kitchen were just open spaces. There was not one toy in sight (although, I am sure they own a soccer ball) and Diego played with a stick and the dog the entire time we were there.

The man led us into his backyard where he had 4 small square ponds that Jorge claimed he dug himself while Jorge drank beer and slept in a lawn chair. He told us each pond had about 1000 fish and as he threw food into one of the ponds it bubbled like a Jacuzzi as all of the fish mouths opened and closed against the surface. He tossed a net into the pond and within seconds removed about 8 fish. With the help of Diego, he untangled the fish from the net and put the good sized ones in a bag and tossed the little ones back into the pond. After 3 cycles, our lunch was picked out and they began skinning the fish. As we each sipped on cold beers, his wife floured and fried each whole fish. (I actually made a special request to have the head of mine removed. I just can‘t eat him when he is looking at me.) The fish were obviously very fresh and delicious.

After returning to the farm, Jorge and I went for a tour of the near by pueblo on his 4-wheeler. Driving that big machine up through the mountains was not easy and I can still feel the little muscles in my arms that got a workout that day. The ride was amazing and there were several points where we had great views over looking the valley towns and even an old mining sight outside of Tegus. As I drove through the cobblestone streets of the pueblo, Jorge pointed out all of the antique Spanish buildings and even an old water purification system built by the Spaniards that is still used by the people living there. The town was so cute and very well maintained by the people there. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera to capture the sights.