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Published: April 11th 2006
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What is this, kids?
We saw lots of these plants growing on the way to Tegucigalpa. We got to the capital of Honduras yesterday, after 12 hours of buses! The first bus was an experience: we had booked first class with reserved seats out of Rio Dulce, but the bus company guy shoved us (literally) and our bags onto a bus that was already completely full. Bill and I were on the steps and my bag was being held into the bus by the guy who hangs out the door! Luckily, we only had a 20 minute ride on this bus which met up with the reserved seat bus in the next town, something the ticket seller had never mentioned!
We next changed buses in the second largest city in Honduras, and were lucky (so we thought) to connect with a first class bus that was late. It turned out to be over 2 hours late, and then broke down on the side of the road about an hour into the trip.
During the trip, we watched two movies (one was the Mummy), had a snack and beverage served by the on-board hostess, and finally made here about 9:30 at night....having missed many of the scenic parts of Honduras in the dark...
It was really
Leaving Rio Dulce
The traffic in this tiny town was getting worse by the minute as we waited for what we thought would be our reserved seat, air conditioned bus! This is the main road north to Tikal. Men were shining shoes and women selling fruit literally in front of the wheels of trucks and buses. I still don't know why more people aren't run over here. hard to leave the paradise of Tortugal and Lago Izabal, and this city, Tegucigalpa, is pretty dirty and ugly, so we are not feeling like we have before, when the next stop is wonderful...but we have to be here for Semana Santa since all of the fun places are booked full for the week. Also Bill has to deal with the paperwork for the house closing, and needs to be where Fed Ex can deliver, and where there is a US embassy to have documents notarized.
So we decided to make the best of it and are staying in the best hotel in town for the week...it is only $60 a night....It has a gym and sauna and restaurant (which has come in handy since most of the restaurants were closed yesterday and more will be closed later in week as we approach Easter). There are many American fast food places though, if we get desperate!
This afternoon we went into the main square area to shop for pants for Bill and to make a call and get the photos copied onto CD. We went into the brand new department store ("Carrion"), and I watched kids ride an
Palm Sunday
Many people were gathered in and around the cathedral in Tegucigalpa on Palm Sunday. Vendors were selling various patterns of woven palms for 1 limpiera ($.05). Inside this cathedral is a giant floor to ceiling carving in gold and silver, behind the altar. escalator for the first time.
On the way home tonight we ended up getting farther from our hotel than we realized, and in a quite poor area. We were the only tourists in town today...and I got a bit nervous..when a dirty white pit bull appeared and escorted us almost all the way back to our hotel...occasionally running ahead and frisking around..the first happy dog I've seen on this trip! He laid down outside a shop we stopped at by our hotel..and didn't come any further with us, somehow sensing we didn't didn't need him any more!
Tomorrow we will try to take public transportation to a village up in the mountains not far from here. Maybe I'll have a more positive blog to write soon....
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Sabia
non-member comment
:)
Am glad to hear you're being watched over while you're traveling.