While in Tegus at the end of November 2006, for the Discovery School Conference, Jon Barber and I took a minibus up to Picacho Park, which occupies a vast plateau above the broad, hilly basin that the city sprawls out across. The main highlight of most visits is the above statue of J.C. the Redeemer, which is not nearly as tall as its counterpart in Rio atop Sugarloaf Mountain. The sweeping urban view that Jesus sees every day was wonderful, and helped us to better understand the immense scale of Honduras' much-maligned capital, which seemed to meld into an endless horizon of dust-flecked aluminum-roofed slum dwellings. We took advantage of the penetrating sunlight to focus on many details down below, where pedestrians seemed like marching ants and cars were the size of Matchbox vehicles. Que panoramica!
The sign at the entrance to the park pointed to the range of offerings available to visitors. There were soccer fields and shaded picnic areas, an appealing lagoon, and seemingly miles of trails that wove around the lightly forested plateau like soily veins. There was a small section dedicated to Confucius. The wise old bugger, eternally frozen in a rather tall dark bronze statue, was a gift from the Chinese government.
