Advertisement
Published: December 18th 2008
Edit Blog Post
29th November - 5th December
When did Saturday become so like Sunday? A very difficult day. We began early, catching a chicken bus from the main road to La Libertad. There, we alighted and ran onto the bus behind which was headed to San Salvador. I was last on and consequently spent the first 20 minutes of the journey straddling a basket of fish (their beady eyes very disconcertingly looking up at me), while desperately holding up the precariously balanced backpacks which were threatening to ruin the livelihood (or at least the day) of the fish basket’s owner, who - like the fish- also had her beady eyes fixated on me. I was also carrying another large fragile object (which I will leave to James' soon-to-come contribution to the blog to explain) and consequently was rather flustered, not much helped by the gallant men who were continuously pointing out free seats to me, not understanding that there was no conceivable way that i could balance the bags, myself, and said fragile object while the bus bumped its way along the potholed windy roads. Eventually I managed to do the necessary balancing work, and took a seat (backpack still on back)
and large fragile object on lap. It was very uncomfortable to say the least! An hour or so later I managed to remove the backpack from my back and reposition said object to a more comfortable position. Just as I thought things had improved, a large man came and stood beside me and I think (though this could be a product of an overactive imagination mixed with the lonely planet and travellers horror stories), attempted to rub his crotch against my shoulder. I thus spent the next half hour leaning forward, slightly twisted, to avoid further contact.
At San Salvador we found a bus to the border town of El Poy. The journey was long but happily we got there with most of the afternoon to spare. As we crossed over to Honduras we were pulled over by an immigration official who plonked me in front of a TV and took James to fill in some 'necessary paperwork' which they later charged us for. We then went off to find some money and a passage into the town. We soon discovered that ATM's don't work on weekends in this particular part of Honduras. Were we crazy to imagine that
we could retrieve money from an ATM on a Saturday afternoon? The people of El Poy certainly seemed to think so. Unfortunately, as El Salvador's currency is dollars, our emergency dollars had been spent so we couldn't even utilise them! We changed up our remaining $8 with one of the rip off merchants who change money for desperate tourists at the borders and paid for our passage into town (after being assured by the immigration official that we would find a working ATM in the main town). He was wrong. So, to the emergency traveller’s cheques!
These were changed up at a very new hotel (furniture still being loaded) on the condition that we spent the night, and that we did. Hot showers, a hard bed with clean sheets, cable TV, the absence of unpaying guests and a free breakfast were very much enjoyed! The original price offered to us was 950 Limpira (about $60) but somehow, after a great deal of negotiating, we got it down to 420 Limpira ($24). Over budget but you have to pay for luxury.. and it wasn't like we had a choice!
The next day a long, hot and uncomfortable bus journey to San Pedro Sula (the second largest city in Hondurus and thus likely to have loaded ATMs) was endured. There, James reconvened the hunt while I stayed with the bags. Several circuits of the giant bus station and three cash-points later, he returned bearing snacks.... a sure sign that the hunt was successful. Elation ensued, and then another bus. This time to the beach resort of Tela. We arrived late afternoon, found a hostal, pitched the mosquito net (with due difficulty) and went out to eat a delightful American diner style dinner of subs and fries with licuados (basically milkshakes) to wash it down. It’s amazing what the taste buds crave when travelling but I’ve craved that meal more times than I care to recall since!
The next couple of days were rainy (as is typical of Tela at this time of year) and were largely spent seeking comfortable dry areas to sit and read, write, or study. James even had his beard trimmed... much needed as everyone we met proceeded to ask him if he was Israeli.
Tela itself is a friendly enough place, though generally, we weren’t overwhelmed by the friendliness of Hondurans (especially after Guatemala). The lady who ran/looked after the place we were staying, for instance, randomly switched our room on the second day to a room with a built in mattress bed, making it impossible to pitch the mosquito net again. Consequently we had to move rooms again... She was unapologetic and generally rather miserable, but so would I be if I lived on the Caribbean coast and it rained every day I suppose.
We gave up on the weather after two days and on the third headed back to San Pedro Sula from whence we took a bus to Lago Yogoa. There we took a room at ‘D&D’s’ which prides itself of beer and birds (of the winged variety). It is actually a micro brewery and makes interesting fruit beers which we tasted on arrival.
The following day we got up early-ish, had a coffee and some rolls which we had bought in Tela (mistaking them for Pan Coco) and made our way down to the lake. There we rented a dug -out canoe and I perfected my rowing skills while James (the self-proclaimed ‘paddler’) complained about the (excuse my French) bollocks rowlocks. It was a pleasant peaceful morning and we would have liked to stay out for the entire day, but our stomachs and calloused hands had other ideas and we headed back to the land to buy snacks and rest. The afternoons activity was decided to be a walk through an eco reserve (private property but D&D residents were permitted) to a waterfall. We didn’t get very far before I was pounced upon by a very vicious looking dog which proceeded to bite my leg and then snarl very menacingly at us. The bite itself was superficial but we thought it best to get it checked out. Back at the ranch I enquired about the likelihood of rabies, its symptoms and where the nearest doctor was. It so happened that the woman who owned the property where the evil dog resided happened to be a doctor and ran the pharmacy in the town. Consequently I spent the next 45 minutes walking to the town convinced that my tired legs were the beginnings of rabid cramps and not mere tiredness, and my thirst evidenced my impending death by rabid dog.
Annoyingly the doctor didn’t even go through the drama of giving me a rabies test and instead assured me that all dogs on her property had had the appropriate shots (though I wasn’t the first that the evil dog had bitten) and gave me some antibiotic cream for free. Well at least I got a freebee out of it.
We had a nice (we thought) meal in town and then walked back to D&D’s for our last night’s sleep in Honduras.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.192s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0536s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Browntown
Sam Brown
keep rolling
just want you to know I like the style of your blog... last winter I did a trip trhough central america to lots of the spots you guys are hitting... Los Angeles is making me stir crazy so I'lll read along you guys I guess... check out Zopalote ecological farm on Ometepe...