Hotel Mandarina

9-13-10


We are no longer HOBO. We are still at the Salvdoran/Honduran border. It will be great to be on the road again. We found out about 3pm that business would not be possible to be done yesterday, and we would have to stay at a local hotel. We gave in to the inevitable and went to look for the hotel. We hooked up with a family from Tennessee moving to Bolivia. They looked Mennonite, but were from a community there similar to Amish. They decided to go to the countryside in Bolivia where they had a farm available to them to grow vegetables and live a country life there with there 2 daughters. Very nice folks with lots of their own adventures under their belts.

We passed the Hotel Mandarina without realizing it and had to turn around. It was the best hotel available. When we turned around to look for it again, we found out why we had passed it. It didn’t look like any hotel we would stop at. We did pull in with the family (their name is back at the van) Kristie , Kindra, Kacie and David. And found out we could have 2 rooms between us. We gave them the one with the bathroom. We had church together in their room. It was a very sweet time of comparing stories, prayer, and praise. We were glad that they had two big dogs who are protective. We noticed many guys coming and going around us and were a little nervous that some had nefarious intents. Even though the rooms were just a bed with fairly clean sheets we slept most of the night.

We had eaten at the Mandarina restaurant attached to the hotel. It was odd to hear American music in a Latino-Chinese restaurant. We ordered plates of rice and chicken and chop suey that were platters heaped as high as you can heap rice. It was filling, but we couldn’t finish even half the food.

In the morning we were grateful that no one had tried to break into our vehicles. We were just not sure of the danger level as we are on the border here. People were coming from all around to use our public bathroom and take showers and fill water jugs. That explained why so many coming and going. We didn’t care to stay in the bathroom long enough to shower.

Right now, we are at a internet café still waiting on our paperwork getting finished. We hope the computer is fixed, and Clint will be able to get us on the way.

David told us that they said that last night they lost his paperwork that they had paid $150 for . We prayed that the Lord would be able to get that straightened out too.

I don’t think that I will be able to send pictures here as there is no wifi and they may not upload well.