Tegucigalpa and visiting a friend in El Zamorano!!

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The morning after volcano boarding / partying may have been the hardest so far, and I failed to make it out of bed until noon. A nice german girl, Marcella, was nice enough to put a bucket and a gallon of water next to my bed and not laugh at me too much when I finally dragged myself out of bed and into the freezing cold showers. I made plans with another American headed toward Honduras to meet up the following morning and make our way to the border. The rest of our group was headed south to Granada. Running fairly (ok, really) low on cash, we decided to take the local chicken buses and cross the border on foot. Everything went fine and well, and I got some good quality thinking time in on the 8+ hours busing.

Stayed in Choluteca for the night, which was a tolerable town I suppose. We noticed that even though we arrived on a weekend night, there was absolutely nothing going on! Got out early the next morning on a bus for Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. I stayed on my own at a hostel, the American-owned Tabacco Road Inn (do not recommend it), while the American dude went on somewhere else, who knows or cares. I was the ONLY person at my hostel, which let me know that no one comes to (or stays) in Teguc. I was there to visit a friend from home, Bill, who is teaching English at an orphanage 25 miles SE of Teguc.

Bill is volunteering at Jovenes en Camino, or Children on the Way, is a Christian-sponsored orphanage in El Zamorano currently raising 65 boys. El Zamorano is located in a beautiful valley outside Teguc. After a few phone calls to Bill that got cut off, I made it out by local bus in time for afternoon playground time. The kids were VERY excited to have a visitor and I spent the rest of the evening playing with them and testing their English. That evening Bill and I got in a great chat... he hasn't been in contact with any native-English speakers (or very many people over the age of 10) for a month and seemed relieved to hear a Virginia accent!
The next morning I sat in on Bill's English classes that were quite hilarious... trying to keep a dozen boys from ages 3 or 4 to 10 paying attention and learning is tough stuff! He a lot of patience and does a great job though.

I stayed another night in Teguc, then caught a series of buses the following morning to Omoa, Honduras, right on the Caribbean coast. Omoa is supposed to have the "Best Hostel in Honduras" as of 2005... well, Roli's Place appears to be in shambles and I was the ONLY backpacker once again. Omoa's beaches have all been washed away and/or polluted by a gas company.

Oh, it was on this bus ride that my driver decided to, for fun, drive onto the oncoming traffic lanes on a 4 lane divided highway. This lasted for about two minutes (from one retorno to the next) and during this fun and dangerous ride a woman fainted and everyone on the bus went insane. I maintained my cool and kept my eyes on the driver instead of the oncoming traffic. I imagine it is boring being a bus driver and he must have felt the need to spice things up a bit.

The next morning I took a beautiful bus ride to the Guatemalan border on the "jungle route." We forded rivers and nearly got stuck in the mud a few times... very fun.

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Comments

[Tocho]

Question
Hi, sorry for writtin you, I just want to know if when you where on Zamorano, ou know a German girl, I must be at december 2007? Again sorry, love to read your page, Tocho

[La Desaparecida]

Sorry
Why, are you Marcella ?