Tegucigalpa, Honduras
09 April 2009 | Kim in Colonia Lara where He Lived as a Child
As explained earlier, our main reason for visiting Tegucigalpa was to visit the places where Kim lived and spent time with his family while his father worked as a diplomat in the US embassy. This was Semana Santa (Easter) and the city was nearly desolate which was great for driving around but not so good for visiting places. We stayed at the Clarion Hotel near downtown and near the places we were to visit.
After spending some time getting the car rental sorted out (the rental office where we had made the reservation was closed and we had to go to the airport), we drove to where Kim lived as a child. The neighborhood was called Colonia Lara and there were only 3-4 streets that were plausible as they ended at the edge of a cliff. Kim had forgotten the name of the street so we spent time going around the streets. After asking around and walking some of the streets Kim finally found the place where he thought his house used to be - but what was there he could not recognize as there was a wall covering the house. After we were satisfied that we had exhausted all the possibilities, we drove around the other areas he remembered - the asylum that haunted him, the church that ran its bells so loudly on Sunday it was almost annoying to hear them, the country club where he and his family spent some time, and other neighborhoods where his friends used to live.
We also walked around the US embassy where his father worked. The embassy's buildings had expanded and it was gated. No one was around except for some guards. We took pictures of the embassy as we walked along the side facing the main street but as we turned back and continued to take pictures a guard approached us and told us pictures were not allowed! We explained our reason for being there which led him to ask us to register with the security office. After about 1 hour and taking our name and passport information we were allowed to go. We figured this was so that they could show that they were busy at work!
On the second day we drove 35 miles west of the city to an all-white town called Ojojona where we were to visit briefly with one of Kim's childhood friends. His father was Italian American and was a close friend of Kim's father. His family was very successful in Honduras and remained in the country. The visit was short but it allowed us to see the country side of Honduras, meet the wife of a former president and some of the country's movers and shakers that were visiting Kim's childhood friend.