Playing for Pizza

Not just a Grisham book anymore

For months I had no idea that the owner of the best pizza joint in town was a rock/blues lover with a selection of guitars and amps to boot. Having eaten there many times (during our Tortilla and Beans Acclimating Period TBAP), we knew Jim (see picture: man on the right) and his place pretty well and later caught wind that he liked to play guitar, but it wasn’t until February when I finally decided set a date to jam.

It was incredible, a true win-win. I went over to the shop around 10AM, a few hours before people started coming in. He had several really nice guitars (Gibson SG, Strats, Tele…), and he let me play whichever one I wanted. I played through a really high tech Line 6 amp(which made me sound pretty good). We then just strike up a jam track and go. I then started trying to play weekly, and sometimes a familiar Copaneco named Saul (see top picture: the person on the left) would jam with us. He played the keyboard and was more or less the rhythm section, playing chords while the piano track supplied the bass and drums, and Jim and I soloed over top. Sometimes we actually sounded pretty darn good if I say so myself. Well, I was getting my guitar fix big time, and to top it off, Jim gave me a pizza/dinner every time we played. Talk about a real deal.

I continued to jam with Jim regularly until we left, which came in handy towards the end because we got lazy and stopped wanting to cook, but it was OK because we could eat there for free!

Bottom Line: Jamming with Jim is just one of the many things I’m going to miss from such a unique and wonderful experience in Copan. Ahhh, what a life it was!