After staying at the House near the Hotel Brinkley for a few days, we moved down to the eastern outskirts of Trujillo. For $300 a month, we rented a large, attractive, airy apartment. The apartment consists of a large living/dining room. The kitchenette area is divided by a bar. Just three electric heat coils, but there is a toaster and a fully functioning refrigerator. The sleeping quarters are as large as the living area and comes with a double bed, a single bed and three additional floor mattresses, should they be needed. Plenty of room for all. Laurenn and I pushed the two beds together; now we have a king-size bed. To complete the decadence, there is a color TV that picks up no less than four channels - all Mexican - and if you don't mind watching dubbed movies, it's a good way of picking up some Spanish.

Downsides?
A small puddle - the water for which seems to come out of thin air slowly develops on a section of the bathroom floor. However, this puddle is faithfully removed once a week by the cleaning lady.
Other small puddles occur in various places around the apartment when it rains. However, these do not seem to manifest themselves in any tactically important places, and since this is the tail-end of the rainy season, we don't really care.
We DID have to declare all out war on the wooden bar which divides the kitchen from the living/dining room. On the first day we discovered to our horror and dismay that a veritable eco system

had evolved in that ominous structure, which for the most part consisted of an ants nest and their dependents - a brigade of very large cockroaches. We bought a can of insect killer and sprayed various strategic locations in the interior of the bar. You could almost hear the bar rumble - and suddenly the entire ants nest burst forth, the majority of them heading for the door which they leapt out of with a speed that was astonishing. All that was left was a few thousand confused ants which spread across the apartment and threatened to overwhelm us. However, after three quarters of an hour of continuous foot stamping brought us victory. Our first battle was won.

Upon waking on the third morning, Laurenn spotted a scorpion - our second in Trujillo - on the door to our bedroom. We killed it. Despite all our trials and tribulations, it would appear that we have triumphed, at least temporarily over the animal kingdom in our apartment. Within our first week of staying here, no further trace of beast has been seen.

A washing lady does takes our clothes and scrubs them on the roof every Sunday; our floor is mopped, linen sheets and towels are changed once a week. We feel spoiled rotten. When the weather gets hot, there are whopping large fans in the ceiling and if it gets unbearably hot there is air conditioning in the bedroom.
We are very pleased with our accommodation.

As I mentioned earlier, January is the tail-end of the rainy season in Honduras. Consequently, there are periods when it rains several days in a row. It's at times like this when one is for the most part stuck inside, that a pleasant apartment is of inestimable value. With its exterior garden of blossoming flowers, this place has good atmosphere. We packed a small short-wave radio which we have come to love. It picks up "Radio Catolica", which is an FM station based in Trujillo. This station presents a lively mix of music, our favorite being Garifuna and Reggae. It also attempts to empower the local culture and reports on controversial issues, which gives the station a thumbs up from us. In the evening we listen to the BBC Home Service for news and hope that the rain will stop.