Our flights are uneventful and after waiting a long time to clear customs and again to claim our suitcases and go through the X-ray machine in order to leave the airport, we rendezvous with Mike and Liliana. Mike looks the same but Liliana has grown a foot or two since I last saw her! She is shy and quiet at first but it won’t be long before she loosens up!
After stopping by one restaurant and finding it closed we go to a second one, passing by “the black wolf’s” house. (He is a drug lord who has been caught and is in jail.) Feels a lot like driving by the head of the Camorra’s house (Neapolitan mafia) in Naples.
The restaurant is called La Pedrada. They serve typical Honduran food which today was roasted chicken or pork chop with a side of beans, rice and plantain chips. We decide to pass on the salad although it looked very inviting. 
After lunch, we hit the road and drive though San Pedro Sula. We pass a woman that Mike knows about who has a VERY disfigured face. She has a sort of growth or cancer, which makes her look like she is wearing a scary Halloween mask. It makes me think of what lepers might have looked like. Mike stops and hands her some money. All she can do is beg. We also pass a man sitting on the sidewalk with disfigured feet who is also begging.
I point out the power lines to Annie. People tap into the lines and steal power. It’s a wonder that ANYONE gets any electricity. It makes me think of my friend, Gerri and our last trip here together.
We get stuck in a traffic jam. After a long time (an hour?) Mike turns around and goes a different way. We pass squatters’ shacks; they’ve settled in the easement along the sides of the road along the road. Finally we reach Villanueve and make the turn that will lead us to the dirt road that takes us up the mountain. After a half hour drive we reach El Venado La Esperanza, the hamlet where the children’s home is located. After moving in and claiming our beds we walk around the grounds, admiring the changes and improvements that have been made since we were last here four years ago.
We have a dinner of baleagas- tortillas with refried beans, scrambled eggs, cheese and mantequilla (a kind of creamy cheese sauce). Dessert is fresh papaya, watermelon and cantaloupe. After a quick meeting we all get ready for bed and crash. Wake up was really early for subtle and we are bushed!
