The President, Mrs McAleese, toured the still-devastated capital of Honduras, drawing cheers from a crowd of nurses outside a hospital in central Tegucigalpa. "You can hear about devastation but when it is in front of you it is the magnitude of it that looks completely different," Mrs McAleese said after an early morning tour through the city.
"I was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness as I saw people trying to create normalcy in their lives. The nurses told me they had no medicines, not enough to treat people. But I was so moved by their hope and their passion."
The country is still reeling five months after Hurricane Mitch killed 5,657 people, leaving more than 8,000 missing and 30,000 people still homeless.
After following a now familiar dignitary route through the city, past downed bridges, buried homes and the mountains of dried mud that remain, she spoke for over a half hour with Honduran President Carlos Flores. The two leaders chatted comfortably in Spanish and emerged from the private talk with a clear warmth between them.
"Her programme here is so intense," Mr Flores said. "It is the most complete programme that any international figure has carried out in Honduras. She has chosen to go to the most isolated parts of this country."
He thanked Mrs McAleese for the efforts of Irish aid agencies Trocaire and APSO, and said the Irish presence in Honduras had been a inspiration.
After the talk, Mrs McAleese said she and Mr Flores discussed the Honduran debt burden.
"I was impressed by his knowledge of the need for transparency," she said. The international community has pushed Honduras to be strictly accountable for how and where aid money is spent. She said she felt Mr Flores was responding to that pressure responsibly.
"This debt is more than a millstone. Its a tombstone," Mrs McAleese said. Honduras had recently completed a plan for recovery that would soon be presented to the international community in Stockholm.
Today, she is to continue a tour begun yesterday of Trocaire and APSO aid projects as well as visit the headquarters of the Irish Army in the north of the country.
Tomorrow the delegation will travel to Mexico for the beginning of an official State visit.