Sopa de Mondongo

We stand in line, container in hand, waiting to buy the family lunch. Large clay surfaces with wooden fires below sustain heavy cauldrons of burning soup. I look around and exchange a grin with a little girl in a faded pink dress, shuffling from one foot to the other. She smiles at me coyly as she retreats behind her father's legs and then peeps one eye out to look at me again. Sonia greets the people that she knows - a warm exchange between extended family - and friends that have been absent for a while. Queuing up at this little business with red brick walls and a corrugated iron roof is a Sunday tradition in Choluteca.

An extremely overweight lady with thick folds in her arms and neck, has a ladle in her hand, an orange tunic covering her large form and a vibrant violet T-shit underneath. She dishes up large servings of sopa de mondongo (tripe soup). Beads of sweat form on her forehead, as she wipes her brow and rubs her hand across her apron. It's brain drainingly hot-35 degrees of heat with a humidity that literally sucks you towards the earth - and this awesome lady is standing above a cauldron of piping hot soup.

Enormous vats of this elaborate dish simmer and spit from the fire underneath. Her face lights up as she greets every new customer in line, reserving a special hug and kiss for Sonia. It amuses her and her helpers that I take photos of what is for them, the most normal event in the world. They stand back so I can snap a shot of the bubbling pot in its entirety, giggling between themselves at this curious foreigner with pale skin and a camera in her hand.

There are flocks of people patiently waiting to collect their lunch and the seamless coordination and agility of service is impressive. This is a well-run business with each and every ration carefully complemented with an extra cob of corn here; a handful of spicy vegetables there, or a pinch of salt and pepper atop the slippery texture of the intestines. Sopa de Mondongo, bubbling hot. Just another Sunday in this sleepy corner of the globe.