Santa Lucia

For approximately 50 weeks out of a year, many small pueblos (villages) lay dormant in their small town charm and excitement. But for those other 2 weeks out of the year, these small pueblos have a town fair, or feria en espanol, that brings life and celebration to the town in a way that really captures all of its beautiful red-tile qualities and charm. This beautiful little town, named Santa Lucia, lies about 15 minutes outside of Tegucigalpa, the capital city. Santa Lucia is located approximately 5,000 ft above sea level, and is surrounded by pine forests, the same forests that actually surround Academia Los Pinares. When going on our hike after school up the mountains, you can actually see the little white dots of the houses in Santa Lucia from our mountaintop view.
During Colonial times, the mountains around this town were mined for quite a time, and the town became important to the Spanish crown because of this. During the late XVI century, the king of Spain ordered a crucifix of Christ built for the local church. Today, although the church suffered many modifications and expansions until its present building, which was finished just prior to the independence of Honduras in the 1800's, the figure of Christ donated by the Spanish crown in 1574 still remains. The thing more noteworthy about this crucifix is not the the king of Spain donated it, but rather that it was thought to be a black Jesus. The black Jesus of Santa Lucia became somewhat of an icon, and it wasn't discovered until later that it was not truly black, but rather just in need of a good cleaning after several hundred years of grime.
This past Sunday Melvin and I along with Leah and three girls from church all went to Santa Lucia to visit the feria and to take opportunity of a beautiful, sunny day to walk around a darling little town, eat Honduran fair food (which some can be quite excellent) and enjoy the mountain view. In the last picture posted, you can see the nightlights of Tegucigalpa from the overlook of Santa Lucia's coffeeshop. Enjoy!