The road trip begins

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I woke up to the sound of rain teeming down. 'My umbrella is in the car' was my first thought- the car which was already shipped over to La Ceiba. Fortunately by the time I got up and had breakfast, the rain was already done. I sent a quick message to Sylvia and Cherry, making sure they were both up, then finished getting myself ready to go. I got Auri up to say a goodbye, then got a message from Cherry that the taxi had arrived. I headed down with my backpack and purse, and we had the taxi take us over to pick up Sylvia. Once we had Sylvia, we had to double back for a minute to grab her spare car key to have, 'just in case', and then we were on our way.

The ferry procedures haven't changed to much since covid times, other than wearing a mask, and then embarkment. Previously, everyone just got in a line to board, but now they call you up by groups. As Sylvia's now classed as a senior, she got to board first, so she went to get us good seats. The ferry ride was uneventful, nice calm seas, and despite leaving about 20 min late, we made good time and arrived at 8:30.

None of us had checked bags, so we just waited for some of the crowd to clear, and then got off the boat and went to find out where the Bambino was docked. We had been told that they would arrive to port at 8am, so the timing was going to be perfect to grab the car and head out. Bump in the road #1.

We asked one of the port workers where Bambino was, but he said it wasn't here today. I explained that we were shipping our car and had been told it would arrive at 8, so he said it must have been delayed. We took a seat at a little comedor, ordered some baleadas and coffee, and I called the boat contact to get an update. Because of the heavy rains during the night, they had been unable to unload their cargo in Roatan right away, so had been delayed, and now wouldn't make it to Roatan until about 1pm.

We decided we'd taxi into town to spend the next few hours looking through shops. We headed to Diunsa, a department store, where they have a baggage check, so we could leave our backpacks. I got the taxi's number so I could call him when we were ready to go back to the port. We wandered around the store for a bit, and then walked over to the mall to look at more shops, and then met back up at noon to discuss our agenda. Our planned drive for our first day was a little over 7 hours, to Santa Lucia, a little town outside of Tegucipalpa, and if we had left la Ceiba in the morning as originally anticipated, it would have been good timing, to arrive late afternoon. With the delays in getting our car, we were going to have to re-think that plan. We really wanted to avoid driving in the dark whenever possible. We looked up the map, and saw that Sigatepeque was about 4 hours away, which seemed like a better alternative as a destination for the 1st night. It would make the 2nd day longer, but doable. Cherry found a decent looking option on Airbnb, but I suggested that we not book anything until we actually got the car and got closer to there, in case there were any other delays. Thank goodness for data plans on phones, to do all this on the fly research!

We decided we'd grab something for lunch so that we'd be ready to drive without having to stop as soon as we got the car. Of course, as soon as we'd ordered food, we got the message that the boat had arrived. We quickly scarfed down our lunch, had the taxi stop us back by Diunsa for our bags, and then off to the port to pick up the car.

Getting the car was pretty hassle free. It had already been paid for in Roatan, and was already off the boat and waiting in the parking lot. I just had to sign one paper, and then as we were leaving the dock area, go into an office to pay their fee for parking and port fee, around 300 lemp. We headed out of town, and came to bump in the road #2, grid-locked traffic.

We spent about 2 hours barely moving as we headed out to La Ceiba. It was now getting close to 4. and it was obvious we wouldn't be getting as far as Siguatepeque by dark, according to GPS, we wouldn't get there until after 8. We searched on the phone for options a bit closer, but didn't find anything that looked great, so we decided we'd drive until it was dark, and then if driving got uncomfortable, we'd start to look for a hotel along the side of the road.

We took a bathroom break, and kept on driving. The sun went down, driving in the dark wasn't great, so we started looking out for a restaurant. We saw a sign and pulled in, but they no longer had a hotel, just a restaurant. We kept driving, and driving. Finally, we saw a sign for Camelot Motel. We had a brief discussion about motels, and how they are sometimes a bit sketchy in North America, but not always, and maybe in Honduras, they weren't the same. We decided to turn the car around and take a look.

We pulled into the drive, and Sylvia commented on how there were individual garages at the motel, and that might be a safe option for the car. We didn't see any kind of reception, just a sign on the wall that said Cuarto (room) 400 lemp, and then we saw a room that had a bicycle in it, so thought there must be someone around. We really wanted to find a place to stop for the night, so Cherry and I got out of the car and called out.

A man came out, we said we were looking for a room for 3 people, and he said he'd show one to us. He opened the door, and we walked through a little living area, I was just looking ahead to the bedroom to see what kind of beds were in it. There was one enormous bed, so I turned around to ask him in there was a room that had a couple of beds- as I turned, that's when I noticed the sex cross on the wall with bondage straps! I said we'd have to check with our friend in the car, and we hurried out, right past the sign (that I had also missed on the way in) that said 4 hour max. We jumped in to the car and told Sylvia 'drive!'. We all learned an important lesson on what motel means here- we won't be stopping at any more of those along the way!

Fortunately a few minutes longer up the road, we spotted a Hotel Casa Blanca sign. We pulled in to check it out, it looked good, parking lot was pretty full. I went in to talk to reception, but before committing, we asked to see the room- just wanted to make sure there were no bondage straps here! It was perfect, so we checked in, and then went across the street for pizza, and then to bed. Tomorrow will need to be another long day in order to make up for some of the distance that we missed out on today, as we'd like to get across the border and to Leon.

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