Honduras and the Bay Islands

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So Honduras was the next stop and as time was limited we decided to head straight for the Bay Islands; straight meaning a 4 hour bus from Rio Dulce to San Pedro Sula and then changing for a 2 hour bus to La Ceiba.

There are only 2 boats a day from La Ceiba to the Bay Islands so we set off on the usual task to find a bed aided by our guide book which by now is looking a little worse for wear! We headed to the highly recommended Banana Republic hostel but were informed on arrival that there were no private rooms left only dorms! Declining the opportunity to sleep in a room with 7 strangers, we headed off in search of an alternative and luckily found a local hotel a couple of blocks away with pool, bar etc! There was also a resident geico in the bathroom which Pol took a dislike to and decided to close the door in the hope that it would escape through the window but he somehow managed to lock the door from the outside! We ended up with the guy from reception and the security card in our room trying to break into our bathroom with a plastic card and looking for one of our credit cards to open the door! The security guy had a gun (although we were soon to find out that so does everyone in Honduras) which Pol helpfully suggested be used to open the door!!!

Anyway drama averted we headed to the port the following morning to get the early morning ferry to Utila only to find that it was fully booked so we bought tickets for the afternoon one, put the designer luggage on the early boat and headed back to La Ceiba for the day! Went to the supermarket and picked up some supplies only we both couldñt go in as no bags or guns are allowed in??; and to the internet where the door was opened by a security guard also carrying a gun! we met some of the nicest people so far in La Ceiba and we were exceptionally nice in return (nothing got to do with the fact that they were all carrying guns).

Anyway we made the afternoon ferry to Utila which was the worst experience ever; the very second we left the port we were hit by huge waves and honestly thought the boat was going to be turned over and that continued for the hour long journey. Loads of people were sick and we both had plastic bags at the ready!

Utila is a lovely island with a nice beach at one end and some good snorkelling but it´s completely overrun with motorbikes, quads and golf carts especially as there is only one narrow road running through the island. We stayed at the beach end in a nice place with a big balcony full of hammocks overlooking the sea.

We stayed on Utila for 3 nights, we did some snorkelling, visited the Iguana station ( a volunteer project to help save Iguanas as apparently the locals like to eat them!) and generally relaxed for a bit! We tried to book flights back to the mainland but they were booked out for the next week so we had to face the ferry again but decided on the early morning one (6.20am) as we were informed that it isñt as rough as the afternoon sailing!

We were up at 5am to get down to the port for 5.45am only to find that there was something wrong with the ferry and that they were going to try and fix it so it might, or might not, be going at 9am!! With all our luggage in tow we had to sit around for hours just waiting and being told every hour that it would definitely be going in an hour! We eventually found out that it was possible to charter a plane and decided that this would be money well spent as even if they "fixed" the ferry there was every chance it would break down en route! So we managed to get ourselves on a charter flight for 3.30pm. Another great flight on a 1 seater plane that took all of 15 minutes!

We spent another night in La Ceiba and yet again our lack of forward planning let us down on the accommodation front but let´s just say we got a bed and that´s the main thing!Up at 4am the following morning to get our 5.15am bus to Tegucigalpa (Capital of Honduras), a mere 7 hours; we arrived in Tegu at 12pm and had planned to get a taxi to another bus terminal and get the 2pm bus from Tegu to Managua (capital of Nicaragua) only to discover that the 2pm bus is the last bus of the day and it was completely full!! This was clearly not the news we were hoping for and Tegu was not somewhere we had any desire to spend an hour let alone the night. We tried to book the bus for 6am the following morning but this was also full! Eventually I managed to put my "Spanish" to good use and asked about the possibility of a cancellation and after a 2 hour wait we landed on our feet again and got ourselves 2 seats on the bus! A success story except for the fact that the bus to Managua took 11 hours! A LONG day! We definitely weren´t looking, feeling or smelling our best by the time we got there!

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