The day starts with coffee and bread at 4:30am. We board the bus in front of the house at 5:00, ready for the hour and a half ride through the pine covered mountains from Linaca to Potrerillos for their annual New Years Eve fair. We are one of many buses arriving from all around the department of El Paraiso.
The air is chilly but it is going to be a beautiful, sunny day. The town center is beginning to fill with excited and hungry visitors. So the first order of business is breakfast. Why not french fries and sausages?
Many people attend mass as they arrive. The Catholic church also has the only available bathrooms for the event, although for a charge.
A popular spot is the game table where you can place your money on a number or picture and hope the ball lands on what you chose.
A game popular with the future soccer stars is where you kick the ball and knock over all 5 metal cups only 4 feet away.
Simple, right? Wrong! No one can ever knock down more than 4. So many macho guys walking up thinking “I’ll show you how its done” but walking away shaking their head.
Also popular is the food … so much food! Fried chicken, avocados, oranges, apples, mangoes, french fries, sausages, candy, pastries, tortillas, yucca, cotton candy.
There are souvenirs, toys, clothes and trinkets to buy.
And don’t forget the chocobananos.
Sadly, its time to go so we head back up the hill to the bus. We get home and find the neighbor has put el viejo out along the road on a chair. At midnight “the old man” will be blown to bits with fireworks to welcome in the New Year!
Happy New Year!!!
Rural Honduras 