I got the truck back from the shop and it's running like a dream. She shifts great, runs smooth, and it's an all around good time to drive her around.

So, the first trip was today after school where my roomate Ted and I went to the Morocelli Cigar Factory so we could stock up for the Christmas party (that is really just a poker party. I like this kind of Christmas). It's about a 45 minute drive east up a side road. You go over a range of hills then up to the next valley. When you pass the skinny cows, then three asses in the road, just after the pavement ends, you know you're there. The factory is the biggest building in town and the front has about 40 bicycles parked. After asking permission, you go in to see stacks of dried tobacco and a dozen people loading it carefully into wooden crates. Eyes burn from the amounts. Upstairs are rows of women at tables handrollong the cigars. There isn't a machine in site. After asking to purchace some, we are taken down to the bodegas filled with thousands of cigars, all different colors and sizes. They lite up cigars and talk about Churchills and candalabas. These are all going to the states for $10 or $12 each. Here you buy direct for less than a dollar.

It's 4:30 closing time. The employees head out to their bikes. All up and down the streets are women riding home with brooms on their bikes. A man on a horse gallops by. Unlike a lot of Honduras, the employees of the factory have the entire weekend off. They have a job, too.

And now I have a car, to get to see.