A Day At The Museum

We spent today at the “Museum” in Trujillo, totally speechless the entire time. No, not the Spanish Fort and Museum at the city plaza overlooking the Bay. When you ask anyone about the museum in Trujillo, you invariably get directed to the Spanish Fort, which in its own right has lots of history and interest. It is an icon in Trujillo.

Actually, there is another museum, and I dare you to try to find anything like this anywhere else in the world. We heard about it and decided to track it down and figure it out.

We drove slowly up the hill from the city center, winding our way along the pot-holed, muddy ways that pass for streets in this part of town (and, OK, Hurricane Richard was forming over our heads as we snaked our way), asking anyone we could find how to get to the “Museum”, and kept getting directions to turn back around to go to the Spanish Fort. Undaunted, and fixed like a laser beam on our goal, we kept on, street by muddy street, until finally a young boy asks us, “oh, you mean the museum and pool?” “Museo y Piscina?” It turns out most kids know the place more for its pool than for being a museum.

So we finally found it, an old concrete block warehouse structure, about 50 feet by 150 feet, built around 1952 at the edge of town halfway up the hill, along the Rio Cristales, and surrounded by various artifacts rescued from recent history.

Leaning up against the white washed walls are parts of the wreckage of a US military plane which crashed in Trujillo in the 1980’s, killing all on board. To get to the front door, you pass through the old iron gates which once served the British Consulate when Trujillo was the capital of Honduras.

Large iron gearshafts from some major machinery lay end to end along the side of the building. And the howling of the monkeys at the back of the building goes on continuously.

50 lps (about $2.50) to get in, and we’re in another world. Never saw anything like it. Arranged basically by category and era, starting with the most recent (I think), we survey rows and rows of ship’s bells, sewing machines, typewriters, muskets, bullets, street lights, bombs, mirrors, desks, canes, iron gates, well, you get the idea.

The building seems much bigger once we are inside, and the collection just keeps going. Think of a huge garage sale, where things were brought in continuously for 70 years, but nothing ever got sold.

By the way, the building has no air conditioning or climate control, so it’s hot and humid in here on most days, and much of the collection is showing signs of advanced rusting.

The building sort of slopes along with the hillside, so gravity naturally directs us down to the past. The lower we go, the older the stuff. Finally our expedition arrives at the lowest level of the giant warehouse. We have been fairly speechless until now, but at this point our jaws just drop to the floor.

Spread out before us are rows and rows of mayan and other artifacts, dating back thousands of years. Statues, grinding stones, axe heads, more statues held up on steel posts by electric wire, pottery, stone tables, it just keeps going. Trying to describe this is not possible. There is nothing I can say, or even show you (but look at the pictures!!!!!!!!!!) which can adequately prepare you for this experience. Here we are, sitting and kneeling in the midst of thousands of mayan and other ancient artifacts, arranged kind of by type, size, and whatever else may make sense.

This museum is a result of the passion of Rufino Galan, who started it in 1952, and has single-handedly kept it up ever since. We got to spend some quality time with him, and it quickly became evident that the information in his head is a unique treasure trove in and of itself.

For instance, he was here in Trujillo when the “gringos” bombed Cayo Blanco to below sea level, and some of the ordinance used in the bombardment is sitting on level 2 in the warehouse. We asked him if he would appreciate any help in organizing and preserving the collection, and he told us that some decades ago the World Bank gave Honduras about $300,000 to do just this, but the money never left the capital. This would be a great project for someone. We left after a few hours, but felt like we had just emerged from a time warp, not really sure how long we had been there.

I’m still not sure exactly how we got there, or if I could find it again, but if you want to find one of the most intriguing “museums” you may ever see, just start working your way up the streets and alleys of Trujillo and ask the kids where to find the pool.