Bumpy ride to Hondurus

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  Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Wednesday, December 12, 2001

We stayed another night at San Salvador, walked around some modern shopping malls, watched a movie, and mostly resting my wound. This morning we booked a Tica bus to Hondurus. Tica specializes international bus travel in Central America. No longer do we have to take the local buses and change buses at the border. This was a plus for me physically due to my weakened right leg. Juliette was also kind of sick of chicken buses, so we paid a little more for an air-conditioned 'executivo class" bus. It wasn't full, and we had reserve seats. We were not used to this kind of comfort and it was first time since Mexico we were riding in a air conditioned bus. The rest of El Salvador just flew by us as the bus speeded towards the border. The landscape was mostly farms and occasionally dotted with Volcanos.

It wasn't long when we arrived at the border, the exit and entry stamps went very smoothly. We had to walk across the international bridge though, and my legs were tested for the first time for such a long distance, fortunately my backpack was not heavy. We hopped on the Tica bus again and headed towards Tegucigalpa, the Hondurian Capital. Unlike the El Salvador side of the Pan-American highway, the Hondurian side's road was in extremely bad shape. Every 30 seconds, the bus would come to a near stop, the driver would maneuver the bus over the HUGE pothole, then speed up again. The repetition must have gone on for about 100 times. So much for "Executivo Express" bus. I was worried that arriving in Tegucigalpa after dark may not be a pleasant event. But the bus driver continued the slow pace until we started to climb into the highland. [I always wondered whether the potholes were caused by lack of maintenance or perhaps there was a war between the countries recently and we were not aware of. There was this so called "soccer wars" in the years past where San Salvador and Hondurus went to war for a dispute of a soccer match.] Anyways, my imagination was running wild and probably not thinking logically.

The highland was another pain in the ass. The bus swerved and twisted up and up. The Panamerica highways was only a 2 lane road, so traffic was very congested on these mountain roads. Every time we came up behind a huge truck with bright big labels that reads CHIQUITA we had to follow the truck for half an hour before the drive can find a clean space to pass. I was amazed to see how many banana trucks we passed, probably no less than 20, I guess this is why Hondurus is a truly "Banana Republic". The sun was beginning to set over the hills, it was beautiful, Juliette took a picture with her camera, while I didn't have mine.

We arrived in Tegucigalpa after dark around 7pm. A total of 9 hours, (3hrs behind schedule) but, I reminded myself, this is Central America, time is just an arbitrary number that really has no meaning. We walked to our hotel from the bus stop, I was exhausted when we arrived. The room was very clean and nice, similar to any Mexican Hotel, but very different than the ones we stayed in the last few weeks in Belize, Guate, and Salvador. Me and Juliette went to the city center to grab something to eat. It was Juliette's first taste of Burger King, what a place and time to taste your first Whopper, in Tegucigalpa, Hondurus!

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