Honduras

26 January 2008
Honduras / El Salvador Border, Honduras
                As we walked across the bridge we realized we didn’t have a single photo in El Salvador.  So we stopped on the bridge and took a photo of the river that separates the two countries.
                Across the border a gentleman told us we could catch the bus toTegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras, called Tegus for short).  The total cost for each of us was $5 for transportation all the way to the capital for $5 each.  Our ride there was long (3 ½ hours) but nice.  The driver was crazy, passing people on blind corners and what not, sadly we’ve grown accustomed to it.  The country side in Honduras was beautiful.  The road climbed up into the mountains and really reminded Doug of Northern California (real Nor Cal not San Francisco) with the mountains and evergreen trees.
                Upon arrival in Tegus we walked to the bus station that would take us to La Ceiba the next day.  Tegus is pretty large and this has unfortunately led to a number of bus stations scattered about town.  We purchased our “executive” class bus tickets to La Ceiba for 10:30 am the next day.
                With tickets arranged we took a cab to the Hotel Granada 2 (apparently there are 3 of them, one of them is literally across the street).  Our room was a nice $18 per night.  After getting cleaned up we decided to hit the town.
                As we left we had a destination in mind that had live music nightly, but as we approached one restaurant a security guard asked if we were looking for the Mayan Restaurant (the place he was guarding).  “No,” we told him, the place we were looking for was nearby though.  He took the time to give us directions.  Just as we had the directions we noticed that a live band was tuning up inside his place, which was enough for us to change our plans.  The table we got wasn’t too close to the band, but we still had a good view and actually our distance allowed us to talk without yelling.
                When it was time to order we found they had a special for a bucket of 5 beers with a few chicken wings for $100 Limperias (about $5 USD)…sold.  When our bucket of beers arrived they were all capped.  Doug started to open one with his Swiss Army knife when the security guard arrived and showed us that the bucket actually had a bottle opener on the pail where the handle attached.  The band had fired up and had a great mix of American classic rock and Latin artists.  While listening to the music Doug began to get frustrated with our table being unstable.  He stuffed a napkin underneath one leg in an attempt to level it out.  About 20 seconds later the security guard showed up again, this time armed with a piece of cardboard.  He tore it into pieces and started sticking them underneath the legs until the table was rock solid.
                Just as soon as we thanked the guard we saw two young men (locals) walking quickly toward the front door trying to ignore our waitress as she followed right beside them giving them an earful about something we couldn’t hear or understand.  The guard made it back to his post just in time to stop them.  A few more of the servers came to talk and watch as the two young men pleaded their case.  Ultimately the cops were called and about 15 minutes later they were handcuffed and thrown in a transport truck and taken away.
                At the end of the meal we paid the tab and as we were walking out the front door Doug tipped the security guard 50 Limps (about $2.50 USD).  The guy had gone out of his way to give us directions, show us how to open beers and then fix our table.  Back at the hotel we called it a night.

27 January 2008
Tegus/La Ceiba, Honduras
                The bus to La Ceiba (the city where the ferries leave for the islands) was to leave mid morning.  There was plenty of time to get ready, being the early risers we are.  The taxi dropped us off at the bus station around 9:30.  Arriving at the bus station we were talking about getting snacks and a Canadian couple overheard us talking.  The suggested a convenience store across the street, and offered to watch our bags.   Returning to the bus station we introduced ourselves to Stephen, and Rachel.  They were traveling all around Central America, from Toronto.    The four of us got into traveling conversations.  They mentioned going to Utila, instead of Roatan (the bigger of the two Bay Islands).  After chatting with them about the islands, we changed our minds, and decided to go to Utila instead. 
                The bus to La Ceiba was very nice, it was the Executive class.  After boarding the bus, the bus attendant brought everyone a drink, and snack, it was the nicest bus we have traveled on so far.  Then the movie was turned on.  It was nice to have more legroom, and cushier seats. 
                The bus arrived in San Pedro Sula at 2:00.  This is where we were to get off, and change buses; the next bus for us to leave for La Ceiba was at 3:00.  We unloaded, and went into the bus station.  As soon as we entered the station looking around, there was Mic.  The Australian we met in Antigua.  Mic was on our Pacaya volcano tour.  This was cool.  We had met two really nice Canadian’s, and met up with the Australian we had met a couple days earlier.   Mic joined us for a food search.  We had about 45 minutes to look for food.  We had only eaten a bag of chips, and the complementary cookies. 
                San Pedro Sula was a very empty town.  Or at least from seeing the town the few blocks we walked, the impression of the city was very quiet.  Doug went inside a pizza restaurant, and ordered a hamburger to go.  Anna walked down a couple blocks, and found a venue with chicken, and rice.  Anna walked into the pizza restaurant to Doug, and Mic drinking a couple beers.  After Doug’s food arrived it was back to the bus station.  The bus left promptly at 3:00. 
                We arrived in La Ceiba around 6:30.  The five of us shared a taxi to a cheap hotel the book recommended.  The hotel only had two rooms available.  One room had three beds and one with four beds.  The five of us looked at each other; it is only for one night.  We all decided to share a room for the evening.  The bill was only $76 limps ($4 USD) for each of us.
                It was Sunday, and we wanted to check email, and make a few phone calls.  So we left the room, and said we would be back in a bit.  We walked around the area for a while, and found nothing open.  After asking someone where we could go he said we would have to take a taxi to the mall.  We caught a taxi to the mall.  The mall was pretty normal, but it had a grocery store attached to one side.  We soon found a place with internet, and long distance phone call usage.  After making our calls and such, we went to the grocery store for some food items.   Anna wanted to make a least one meal on the island.  After the chores were done, we took a taxi back to the hotel, and hung out with the new roommates.  The five of us ended up chatting until 1:00 in the morning.  This was the latest we had stayed up the entire time of our travels.

28 January 2008
La Ceiba/Utila, Honduras
                We all woke up around the same time.  The ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30, and it was suggested to be at the ferry terminal a minimum of 30 minutes before it left.  After waking up, we went with Rachael and Stephen to a nearby grocery store, and an ATM.  We all went back to the room, to get ready to leave for the ferry terminal.  We ended up taking our own taxi, while Stephen, Rachel, and Mic shared a taxi.  The taxi drivers here charged per person, not per fair. 
                The ferry was $15 per person, for the one hour ride.  While standing in line for tickets, Mic met a girl from Germany Anuksha.  We all boarded the ferry together, the 6 off us.  The ride over wasn’t too bad.  Anna took a last minute Dramamine to calm her head for the ride. 
                The ferry arrived at Utila an hour later, 10:30.  After getting all of our bags together, a girl Rachel and Stephen knew approached them about a dive shop, Underwater Vision.  The dive shop offered reasonable prices for diving lessons, which included accommodations.  The 6 off us went to check the Underwater dive shop out.  After listening to the prices, and accommodations we all decided to go with this place.  Doug wanted to take diving lessons.  They were able to start is class that afternoon with videos. 
                After we all settled into our rooms, the 6 of us went to a local restaurant called the Bundu café for lunch.  This was a cool place with a variety of things on the menu.  It was nice to hang out with a group of different people from different parts of the world.  Everyone was friendly and very easy going.   After Doug finished his class for the afternoon we decided to call it a night.  It had been an eventful long day.

29 January 2008
Utila, Honduras
                After getting up we decided to go looking for some food.  We wandered back down to the Bundu café.  After eating it was time to go back to the Dive Shop.  Doug went in and went over homework with his other classmates (Steve and Rachael).  Shortly after our instructor, Dave, took us over to start checking out gear and getting us ready for our first scuba experience.
                We got all dressed up in spring suits (wet suits with short sleeves and cut off legs like shorts) and we had to do a couple laps off the dock to prove that we weren’t going to have a heart attack.  Then we put on all our equipment and went into the water off the dock and did our first breaths underwater.  Doug had some training with underwater breathing devices in case of a helicopter crash in the water, but this was different.  After they realized we weren’t panicking they took us into water that was a little deeper to go through our training.  We had to do a lot removing and replacing our mouth pieces (regulators).  We had to use a partner’s alternate air source, do some buoyancy techniques and Doug’s favorite, removing your mask and putting it back on again.  The first couple times he ended up taking in a bunch of water and had to surface.  The rest of the drills weren’t too bad though.
                At the end of our practice we decided to cook up dinner.  We had bought some pasta and sauce back in La Ceiba and decided now was a good time to make a home cooked meal.  We ran into Steve and Rachael and invited them to join us and they gladly accepted and even brought some peppers and carrots to throw into the mix.  While we were eating our dinner we met one of the locals there who was a fisherman/dive shop handyman.  He mentioned he would try to go get us some of his fish he had frozen from a couple days ago.  We decided it would be nice to be able to give him some beer as payment since he refused any money we offered.  When we got back it turns out he didn’t have any fish to give up and that he doesn’t drink beer, so we had some extra beer. 
                It was time for Doug to do some homework after that so we called it a night.

30 January 2008
Utila, Honduras
                We got up at 6:25 because Doug needed to be at the pier at 6:45.  Thankfully we had worked out a system that allowed Anna to ride along and do snorkeling off the boat while Doug did his dive class. 
                Around 7:30 the boat shoved off with Doug, Steve and Rachael for our first dives, Anna and Mic for snorkeling.  There were at least an additional 10 divers on the boat doing fun dives, or classes.   Dave our instructor was joined by two other divers, Pierre a dive master from France and Ryan, a dive master in training and fellow American from Maine.
                Doug submerged with the other divers and did a couple quick drills before doing our first dive along the reef.  Honduras and Belize hosts the second largest coral reef in the world (the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the largest).  It didn’t disappoint with beautiful coral and amazing fish all along the path we took.
                Anna and Mic were looking at the reef, and were surprised to see Doug, and his class down at the bottom.   Mic decided he wanted to scare Doug.  Mic dove down, touched Doug on his back and shot right underneath Doug, looking up with a huge smile on his face.  Putting two and two together Doug looked up and saw a waving Anna just up on the surface.
                At the end of the dive we surfaced excited about our first dive.  We loaded back up on the boat and headed off to the second destination.  Along the way we got a couple a pointers from Dave and Ryan about ways to be more efficient with our swimming to conserve air.
                At the second location we went under again and did a couple more drills and we were off again.  This particular area was even prettier than the last.  The visibility was a bit better and the fish and reef were made that much more beautiful. 
                At the end of the dives we went back to the pier and got cleaned up and adjourned class long enough for some food.  Upon return it was back to class and we watched a couple more videos and called it a night for school. 
                It was time to do some exploring.  We decided to go see if we could find this place called Pumpkin Point on the north end of the island.  We started walking east towards the water so we could follow the shoreline up to the point.  We passed some amazing ocean front properties and bunch of lots for sale.  One of which was 9 acres large and a second was 24 acres, both with ocean front property.  These lots were pretty nice.  The only big drawback was the shore line is rock, not sand.
                We walked for a long time eventually going through some jungle.  There was probably near an hour of time where we didn’t see a single person.  Eventually we worked our way back to a paved road and we followed it back on into town.
                Once we were back we met up with Mic and his brother Amos.  Amos and Mic had separated for a bit on their travels and had rejoined back in Utila.  They decided to play hosts to us and took us a bar right on the water where we put back a couple beers and watch the sunset.  Then it was off to Evelyn’s BBQ where the guys all had T-Bone steaks and Anna had some fantastic garlic shrimp.
                Amos peeled off after dinner and Mic took us to one of the strangest and coolest bars we’ve ever been too.  The bar was called “Tree Tanitic.”  After getting our drinks Mic took us for a small tour of the seating behind the bar.  We quickly discovered we were only in one little corner of an amazing garden.  It is hard to put into words, and photos are only fraction over just how overwhelming the garden was.  The person that put this place together spent 18 years taking every sea shell, marble, plate, cup, beer bottle, wine bottle and anything else they could get their hands on and form it into this crazy garden.  We spent about an hour exploring before heading back to our rooms.

31 January 2008
Utila, Honduras
                The day began at 6:20 again, to be on the boat by 7:00.  Today they were going diving on the other side of the island.  We were all told to bring 50 limp for lunch.  The boat was going to one of the Cay islands for lunch.  (The Cay islands are a set of small islands off the south west side of Utila)  Anna decided to once again join everyone to go snorkeling.  The first location was not much for snorkeling.  For Doug this was the first of the two deep dives where we would go to maximum depth he would become qualified for, 60 feet.
                After all the divers were on the boat, the captain called in all of our lunch orders to the “Fishburger” restaurant.  The menu items were:  Cheeseburger, Fish burger, Chicken burger, and fries.  The Captain docked the boat, and everyone got off for lunch.  The island was very quaint; it was connected to another island by a small bridge.  The Fishburger was a small plain restaurant.  The waitress would bring out two burgers at a time, yelling out what she had.  Everyone would raise their hand if what she called out was what they ordered.  We all had lunch, and then off to the next location. 
                The next location was close to the lunch spot.  This spot was shallower then the first spot for snorkeling.  Anna was able to see more of the reef, and a few schools of fish this time.  After the divers loaded back up, we headed back to the shop.  This was Doug’s last dive, he had a couple things to demonstrate including one last removal and replacement of his mask underwater (during which the water he inhaled was minimal) and he was now to receive his Open water certification.  Anna went back to the room, to read until Doug would join her. 
                We almost bypassed the Bay Islands altogether because we had heard some bad reviews from other travelers.  There were stories about divers not treating the reef with the respect it deserved and that the island was over crowed with tourists and new divers that were improperly trained.   We were pleased to see that Underwater Vision and the instructors, Dave, Ryan and Pierre didn’t fit that stereo type.
                There was a wireless company on the island.  We wanted to take the computer to the company, knowing the majority of the people on the island speak English, and hopefully get our wireless issue figured out.  It turned out the wireless company closed in the afternoon for a couple hours.  We had about 20 minutes to kill until it opened back up.  The post office was close by, Doug mailed off his Diving completion paperwork to PADI.  Then we went to the ferry office to buy our ferry tickets for the next morning.  This was our last evening on the island.  By the time we got our errands done, the wireless shop opened up.  We explained the wireless issue.  Anna waited outside at the most five minutes, and the issue was fixed.  We knew there was just a small setting that neither of us knew how to fix, and sure enough the gentlemen there fixed us up and then refused payment of any sort.  Furthermore he said we could use our new connection to check our email if wanted.  We sat outside for about 10 minutes checking, and replying to email before returned to our room.
                Anuksha had asked Doug what our plans were earlier in the day.  We wanted to go to a nearby beach, and possibly do some snorkeling.  She wanted to join us.  We went to grab her from her room, and ran into Mic.  He didn’t have anything going on, so he joined us as well.  This beach cost us each 60 limps ($3 USD)  to use the amenities.  This also included an hour of kayaking. 
                Anna and Anuksha got in a double, Mic got in a single, and Doug went to rest in one of the beach chairs provided.  It became very difficult to use the kayaks, because of how shallow the water was.  The water didn’t really become deep enough to kayak in until past the boat buoys.  If you go past the boat buoys this means you are competing with fast boats, and big waves…not something we wanted to get into.  So we went to join Doug at the beach.  Now it was time for Doug to do his thing, he went snorkeling, Anuksha followed shortly after, and Mic went for a swim.  It was nice to just sit, watch the waves, and listen to the air. 
                The four of us hung out at the beach for a couple of hours, and then returned back to the place where we were staying to have a beer, and watch the sunset.  After the sun went down, and Anuksha took a bunch of photos with Doug in front of the sun, we decided to get cleaned up for dinner.  Stephen, and Mic wanted to go next door to an all you can eat/drink barbecue.  So it was going to be Rachel, Anuksha, Anna, and Doug for dinner. 
                The four of us walked until we found a place open for dinner.  The restaurants on the island are all in sequence with the days they are opened.  Most restaurants are open Mon, Wed, and Friday.  Then the other restaurants are open Sun, Tues, Thurs, and Saturday.  We couldn’t figure this out, but, we settled on a pizza restaurant with bad service, and shared two pizzas.  After dinner we wanted to take Rachel, and Anuksha to the “TreeTanic” bar we had been at the night before. 
                We escorted them into the bar, and ordered our drinks.  As soon as we entered Rachel, and Anuksha’s mouths were open at the décor.  The four of us spent an hour going through the bridges, and the walkways looking at all the decorations.  It was beautiful to see everything.  In the midst of looking, we saw a scorpion, and reanalyzed the spiders.  By the time we finished it was 9:00, and had been a long day.  We went back to our rooms.  Since Doug, Anna, and Anuksha had to be up by 5:20 to catch the 6:20 ferry it was time to call it a night.

1 February 2008
Utila/Tegus, Honduras
                The alarm went off at 5:20 in the morning.  After getting packed up we meet Anuksha on the way to the ferry.  After the hour long ferry ride to La Ceiba we said our goodbyes with her and took a taxi to the bus station.
                The next bus for Tegus was leaving in about an hour so we had a chance to grab some empanadas for the bus ride.  This bus probably had the most cramped seats of all the buses we’ve been on yet.  The bus did make one stop for lunch at a fairly new rest stop.  Inside they had two 7-11 type stores and a buffet line.  We got a couple pieces of chicken, rice and some cheesy bread.  The chicken was surprising good.
                When we got to Tegus we walked down to the Tica Bus station to get our tickets into Nicaragua.  Then we crossed the street to a hotel where we found some nice rooms for $8 USD a night.  We got caught up on our journal entries (about 5 days overdue) and settled in for the night.

2 February 2008
Tegus, Honduras
                The street noise below woke us around 7:00.  The bus to Leon was to leave from the Tica station around 9:15.  We had time to gather our things, and find some Desayuno (breakfast).  The lady at the front desk said there was a restaurant about 2 blocks down.  After walking 3-4 blocks, turning around we found the small restaurant, and decided to just wait it out.  Neither of us was extremely hungry.  Once reaching the boarder there would be vendors to buy from for lunch.
                Arriving at the bus station we checked in, and did all the formalities.  This bus company was nice because they did the immigration stuff for us.  The bus left around 9:20 for Managua.  We were to get off of the bus at a small town, then take a local bus to a city called Leon.  Leon was supposed to be one of the prettiest cities in Nicaragua.  About 45 minutes into the bus ride the attendant started gathering everyone’s cards, passports, papers, along with the entrance fee of about $10US.  We were a bit hesitant to let go of our passports.  This would be one of our first real trust tests.   Well everyone else was doing it, why shouldn’t we. 
                This border crossing was different from the others.  The bus driver stopped right at the border, and everyone got out.  Then the bus drove across the border, while everyone else walked the 100 yards where the bus stopped.  Everyone waited about 15 minutes for the formalities to become completed.  We treated ourselves to some helado during the wait. 
                The bus attendant gathered everyone near the bus entrance, and began giving back everyone’s passports, and cards (whew, we had them back). With the paperwork finished we crossed into Nicaragua.

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