Things We Take For Granted

As we live our daily lives, there are so many things we take for granted! Living through the Covid-19 Pandemic has made us aware of many things we take for granted. Visiting our friends, going out for dinner at a restaurant… these are just a few things that we have not been able to do regularly for the past 7 months. To me, the worst is not being able to visit my Mom at her residence in assisted living in Mexico City. Although I know that she is extremely well taken care of, and that because of her dementia she does not really know who I am, it still takes a big toll on me not being able to visit her.

After Hurricane Eta in Honduras disaster, there are many more other things we take for granted that come to mind. For one, not being able to drive into town to buy supplies is very trying. I had considered that we might lose the road if we got as much rain as predicted. Fortunately, I got ahead of the storm and bought the supplies I knew we would need. Fuel for the power generator, gas, food, booze, etc.

It is common for us to lose power in our little piece of paradise at the Cangrejal River Valley. But it usually is just for a few hours. As I write this, we have been without power for over a week now. Talk about things we take for granted! The good news is that the road is now open. There is still a lot of work that needs to bring it up to pre storm conditions. But the fact that it is open, means that we can now expect that power company to get their crews up here and do their job. As a matter of fact, I am happy to say that power came back on earlier today!

I did not expect to lose communication. Having telephone communication is an important aspect of daily life. Losing cellular phone communication and internet service is a bit overboard! Unfortunately, when the river took part of the road, it also took several posts with the fiber optic cable that provides our internet. I expect that the internet company will begin to work today on getting our service back.

Being without internet sucks. I have not been able to track hurricane Eta. I have not been up to speed with all the damage the hurricane has caused to the country and its infrastructure. But another one of those things that we take for granted are airports. The San Pedro Sula airport runway is under a foot of water. This only happened once before, during hurricane Mitch in 1998. After the flood waters went down, the runway was shut for 30 days, to allow the underground to dry enough to support the weight of planes as they land. Opening before risks severe damage to the runway. No flights into San Pedro Sula means no tourists coming our way. At least we still have the Roatan International Airport that offers good connections into La Ceiba when using it with the ferry.

The current update on the conditions in the Cangrejal River area is that the road is open. I suggest driving a pickup truck or an SUV with plenty of ground clearance. I would not drive a low sedan up this road right now. The water level in the Cangrejal River is way down, and you could certainly enjoy some World Class rafting if you are up to it!