Tegucigalpa
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2007
1
58
120
Trip End
Dec 24, 2007
Tegucigalpa,
Honduras
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
We arrived in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa after 7 hours on two buses - although we were lucky to get the first one!
Woke early, knowing we had to get a 7am bus, or wait until 2pm for the next one, so as we sat in the dining room of our hotel, about to enjoy our free breakfast, and saw the bus trundling up the road at 6.40, we were a little concerned. Thankfully the kitchen staff were very understanding, and packaged up Sam's pancakes as we flew out the door, and hailed the bus as it came back from its little town loop.
Feeling very relieved to have caught the bus, and a little aggrieved it was early and we weren't able to enjoy our breakfast, imagine our consternation when we stopped 500m down the road and waited for 40 minutes, for no apparent reason - **insert angry sound here**
Once we did get going again, we were on a gravel road for the next 4 hours, sometimes crawling up not-even-moderately-steep hills in first gear in our old dunga of a bus
01. Tegucigalpa
. The scenery was magnificent though, with huge mountainous pine forests hiding small hamlets along the way. When we eventually changed to another bus for Tegucigalpa, the road from then on was fast and smooth, and we covered about 3 times the distance in the same time.Descending into Tegus, it struck Sam immediately from the first that it looked like the most stereotypical Latin American city ever - an impression that only got stronger over the few days we spent here. It seems very much like a more compact version of Bogota or Caracas from photos we have seen.
Tegucigapla is set in a bowl of mountains, and as it spreads outwards, it spread upwards, with ramshackle housing and shanties extending for miles up the surrounding hills, with only footpaths between the dwellings.
The city centre is a mix of old churches and plazas, and a great number of 5-6 storey buildings with 60's and 70's architecture - a sign of more prosperous times perhaps, with big smoke belching buses winding their way through the narrow streets. Newer, grander high rise buildings extend along the valley floor, toward the airport, from which jets regularly take off and roar low over the city. And in the middle of it all, an enormous soccer stadium, where the locals get their weekly fix of sport and violence
02. Tegucigalpa
!As in San Salvador, we ate far too much cheap fast food - Pizza Hut, Wendys, Burger King and Macca's - trying desparately to get our fix before we head back into egg and bean territory!
Spent the first day, Monday, wandering around the city - taking in some fine views from a scarily remote hilltop in centre of town, and visiting the art museum, which reminded us both of all we don't get about modern art....
Tuesday we went to a small, touristy colonial town about 30 minutes from the centre of town, which was nice (not much else to say really), and visited the new Museum of National Identity (a very grand title you'd have to agree). Set in a grand old government building, we were at confused at first, as the Honduran National Identity seemed to consist of displays by Nicuraguan artists, and signs pointing to the exit everywhere - where was this national identity??
Thankfully we found the displays on a unmarked corner of the second floor, and it was very interesting, despite the fact there was far too much Spanish to read, and our brains numbed very quickly. The most interesting part of the exhibit, was a globe that had a movie projected onto it from the inside, showing the supposed formation of the continents of time - extremely clever.
Later that afternoon we tried to visit a former presidents palace, but arrived 10 minutes after it closed. So instead we spent far too much time on the interenet and took advantage of crazily cheap calling rates to give home a bell.
Until Nicuragua!
Comments
Belching buses and Jittering Jeepneys
Must say that your collection of bus journey stories compete fairly well with Kay's jeepney (et al.) and Philippine road stories. What would they have in common I wonder! Glad you made it safely.