July 18: At Marta's house

Hola, All! Yesterday Carmen, Javier and I drove to Marta's house, about 45 minutes away. When we finally found their 'driveway', it was a challange to get up. When the road was put in, it was two long skinny strips of concrete. Now it is alot of broken concrete, potholes, and buckled places, which reminds me of our sidewalks in Carrollton. Javier's Japanese car wasn't meant to be driving on such terrain, which was all uphill, since Marta lives on top of a mountain. At one point we had to get out of the car and fill a crevice with rocks. I felt like we were climbing the Rockies in a covered wagon! But once we got to the top, WOW, what a view! They are surrounded by mountains with valleys inbetween. Marta's husband and 3 boys built their house 4 years ago. It is made of logs, with small 3 bedrooms upstairs and the kitchen, dinning, living room and bathroom downstairs. I don't know how many acres they own, but it's alot. This morning I went for a walk down the 'driveway'. Alberto, Marta's esposo (husband), was working in the chicken house. There are 2 large buildings that house 2 thousand hens each! The set-up is crude but effective: there are 36 'buckets' with food and 18 'buckets' with water in each house. He had already put food in the buckets and was washing the buckets that contained water. I tried to ask about when they lay eggs, and he said something about 5 months so I don't know exactly what that meant. Obviously they do lay eggs someplace, although I don't know where unless it was on the floor, because in the garage next door were stacked cartons of eggs. (In case you don't know, alot of people in Central America don't refrigerate their eggs.) It was certainly an eye opening experience.
Chao for now!
Dawnie