The wheels of the jet hit the tarmac with all the force they could muster. The tail moved quickly from
left to right and back again. We had landed in San Pedro Sula. It had already been long trip and we were not meeting the client until
after 10:00 PM local time. On the last leg of the trip, we had shared the company of a sales person from Charlotte, about 85 miles from
Greensboro. He invited us to join him at the Intercontinental Hotel. It seemed better than the airport so we got into the private car with
him and about 20 minutes later we arrived at the hotel. We showered and it didn't take long before Falcon was asleep on the floor and JD in the chair.
We found ourselves back at the airport in time to meet our client and his client. We packed our gear into the Toyota Land Cruiser and quickly
fell alseep in the back. We awoke from time to time to see a military check point or a large cow in front of us. When we reached the Hotel
Christophero Columbo, we were asleep in minutes, despite the humid air and the absence of air conditioning. Not many hours later, we were
back in the Land Cruiser and on our way to work. There was a small runway outside the hotel. Soon, we turned right and the pavement ended.
The streets of Trujillo were nothing more than dirt and often rutted.
There was a sense of contentment in the city. Not that everyone was happy or had everything he or she might have wanted. No. It was that they didn't
want any more than they already had. They couldn't conceive of wanting any more. Life was fine, just as it was. Just as it had always been..... People
Still bathed in the river, still washed clothes in the river, just as they had since before Columbus arrived. Falcon was profoundly affected by
what he saw and even now remembers the impact that realization has had on his life. "I had always assumed," he said, "that I could rise about
whatever was handed to me. If I had been born in Trujillo, I don't know if I would have."
