Hotel Plaza del General Tegucigalpa

... Utila, is "I&#8217;m leaving tomorrow." <br><br>Drugs<br><br>The second night I was there, there was a shoot-out with a suspected drug trafficking plane which was brought down. However, when the authorities turned up there was no evidence of drugs, pilot or any passengers, but judging by the crowd on the Wednesday night at the Bar and the Bush, the only late night venue on the island, most of the drugs ended up there. Cocaine is rampant on the island, there ...

... we paid the gringo price to get to the hotel we thought was near the bus terminal we needed for the next day (as it turned out we had to cross town again). <br><br>The hotel was probably decent enough although it was hard to tell with no lights and no electricity. There was a fan and TV that sat idle in the corner. The manager told us one hour but there was still no life in the appliances in the morning. We woke up at 4.30am to find the 6am bus...

... to a screeching halt in the dense traffic. I honestly love experiences like this because you just don't get this kind of flavor back home and that is why I travel.<br><br>The driver kept cursing and hanging his head out the window to see what was going on when things ground to a halt every three to four seconds. He would then back up and go down a side street trying to find a shortcut around a mess where there were no shortcuts really. Actually, the ...

... traveler. There were more shops and more colonial buildings to look at and feel "transported." The girls went in and out of souvenir shops and stores for local crafts. I mostly took pictures and walked around the town. It was nice. It was evening by the time we drove back to the city. After dinner at El Patio, we hung out in a Cafe Mania with fancy pastries and fancy city views. The Hondurans sure knows how to kick it.

... couldn't hurt Then he wanted to talk. He seemed to be on about a 6th grade level, hitting me with a constant barrage of questions about where we were from, why we were here, why doesn't my husband like to talk, and so on. He was nice, but a little odd. When he told me his name he declared proudly that he is called "Arnold el Pobre! El que no tiene dinero!" (Arnold the poor...he who has no money!). Other passengers looked back and tried to contain their laughter ...

... chicken bus. To be honest, on the road was a big word as literally there was no actual road but a winding dirt mountain path on which I was very surprised the chicken bus dared adventuring. It took us two and a half hours to drive the 26 km to the entrance to Honduras. This border was by far the easiest and fastest crossing. The bus pulled over on the side of the road next to a little house outside of which two officers were loitering. The bus driver ...

Well we are in Honduras. We arrived in Tegus (shorter for Tegucigalpa) in the evening. The border crossing was very easy and out of nowhere we got a ride for free again to the place where we had to catch the bus. The people are very friendly around these countries. The capital has not that much to offer, we went to a big market but ...

... instructor had failed to show up on Sunday morning; in fact, it turns out that that failure was mine. Let me explain... As I settled down to watch the Spain vs Italy match in a local café, I was somewhat surprised at the brevity of the interlude between the players' arrival in the tunnel and the subsequent kick off - they seemed to have skipped the usual fanfare of singing the national anthems and shaking the hands of every man, woman and child in the stadium. I was even more ...

... on seeing Spain reach the final...versus Germany. That will be a big event between Vero and Marcos next Sunday, and will test our nationalistic views... :-) Apart from that, its been raining misereably all day long so our long walks are out of the question. We have decided to pull the plug on this town a day earlier and move on to lower heights tomorrow (Comayagua). No pictures today...

... say that I have drank that much tap water given that most of my drinks are at restaurants or from stores, but I was drinking tap water for those middle of the night drymouths. So far so good, although this has denied me the pleasure of photographing skanky toilets of necessity. Now, I am returning to the tourist trail and conversations more intriquing than "How many time stay you in Honduras?" and going to: Roatan, Honduras (The Bay Islands)