I Like Honduras...Mostly

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We shared a cab to the bus station and caught a bus to San Pedro Sula. Wait, you may be thinking, isn't that the murder capital of the world? Why yes it is. That being said the city is much nicer looking than many others and the bus station is amazing! I believe it is the largest bus station in Central America and it has lots of stores and food stands and it really is nice. Unfortunately we stand out like sore thumbs with our huge packs on our back so many people are yelling cities at us, trying to get us to buy tickets but I'm getting pretty darn good at ignoring salesmen.



We found the terminal we needed to be on and hopped on the bus which was leaving just then. We were the only gringos on this bus which has been fairly rare on this trip. They told us when we needed to get off because again we have no idea what our stop looks like most of the time. I marveled at how smoothly our travels had gone that day, it was most definitely the smoothest travel day we had had to date. We walked 300 meters down a dirt road to D & D brewery where we stayed for the next 3 nights. It was a cute place with multiple buildings. There were little paths between them and it was like we were in the jungle. The private rooms were surprisingly nice! There was a huge tree with beautiful purple flowers that made the walkway smell delicious. There was a fire pit, with a local dangerously hacking away at wood with his machete 😉



Dan was excited to find the first dark beer since the states. They had a blueberry, raspberry and several other kinds of beer and homemade soda. The food was quite tasty as well. We hired a guide to take us on a hike to a cloud forest. The hike was steep and a bit tough but it was fun. I was a little bummed that we didn't have more time in the clouds but we were not quite high enough to spend all of our time in the clouds. We saw coffee plant after coffee plant, a lemon or lime tree, not sure which because they call both fruits the same thing that had lemons or limes the size of grapefruit, it was incredible! There were raspberries and some other kind of berry , melons and at one point we came across some farms of corn, radishes and herbs. There were many trees that were hundreds of years old. Dan climbed one of them after the guide demonstrated for him. Our guide also brought us each an orange to snack on and they were the best oranges I have had. When we got back to the guides house his wife made us coffee which was also the best coffee I have ever had. It didn't even have any milk in it either. I would drink black coffee in the states if it tasted like that! We caught our shuttle back to the main road and by shuttle I mean the van that locals ride in. Then waited quite a while for a bus back to D&D where we were thankful to take a seat and relax.



It is my opinion that the people of Honduras are generally speaking very friendly. I'm not basing this on Utila because that doesn't really count, everyone speaks English. I think I had a different image of Honduras in my head and am happy to say that I like Honduras =) It is on the US don't travel list as of recently but I encountered nothing that would make me advise family or friends not to visit. There are plenty of Europeans traveling there as well. As with any travel just use common sense. Bobby who is the owner of D&D suggested that I may have found the Hondurans more friendly than Guatemalans because tourism is newer to Hondurans and they aren't fed up with tourists as people in Guatemala can sometimes be which makes sense to me.



We got up at 5:30 am so we could be to the road by 6 where a direct bus to the capital would go by, they said between 6 and 6:45. We waited with 4 other Americans, the bus never came so we jumped on a collectivo to another city where we were able to get a direct bus to the Capital. As we drove thru the capital which I believe is #5 in the world for murders, I thought how crappy it looked. We soon were let out and I was so confused, we weren't at a bus station. There were cabs everywhere and people yelling to us to see if we wanted a ride. We didn't know where to go, we assumed we would be at a bus station but as it turns out they don't have one. There are multiple companies who are located all over the city. We had not done our research well. Long story short, our cab driver totally overcharged us and didn't take us to the right place. There were no more buses leaving that day from the company he dropped us off at which seemed ridiculous because it wasn't even 11am . After some research we figured out the name of a bus co we needed to get to. Took another cab ride and were surprised to see 2 of the American's from D&D who also were not able to get the bus they anticipated at their station. I had time to use the bathroom and that was it, we hopped on the bus only to find that there were no seats and this was not a bus meant for standing . They ended up sticking me in the front seat which I actually loved because I could see really well. They gave Dan a bucket to sit on and up front there was another woman sitting on a bucket. I traded the woman about half way because it didn't seem fair that she should have to sit on a bucket the whole time. I'm pretty sure I just got the front seat cause I was the female gringo without a seat. I was amazed as we entered countryside that looked like places in Washington, we weren't in jungle anymore and there were so many pine trees! It kind of made me miss home but mostly I just took in the scenery and laughed at the ridiculous thought of Dan having to sit on a bucket in the back and really just at the situations we often find ourselves in.

We finally reached the border, the exchange rate was good for once with the money changers. We got thru the Honduran side easily but the Nicaragua side took a while and we were surprised to find out that it cost $12 US to get into Nicaragua, doesn't sound like much to you I'm sure but on our budget that's a decent amount and far more than we paid to get into any other country. While we were in line Hans (a guy we met at D&D) came and said hi. He and his wife Maureen drove from Texas and were held up at the border trying to get their car cleared. They were headed to Somoto, as were Dan & I so we asked if we could hitch a ride and after moving some stuff around they said yes. With us and our packs the car was quite packed! It was a short ride to Somoto thankfully because by this time it was past 3 pm and all I had eaten all day was two small packs of Ritz crackers with cheese. I thought to myself that we had this day coming after the terrific travel day we had a few days prior.

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