Honduras overall only needs to be given a nutshell. It is not a much traversed place by travellers and is still fairly dangerous. Once we left our friends on Utila, we made our way on the aptly nicknamed ´vomit comet´ ferry. We decided to treat ourselves to a bit of white water rafting down the Rio Cangrejal. We stayed in a little eco lodge where they actually ask that you put toilet paper down the toilet. This sounds like a weird luxury, but after 3 months of having what has been dubbed the ´shit bin´ (the bin for your dirty toilet paper) staring you in the face, it really was refreshing. We had a crazy Irish guy as our head rafter, and we definitely had the most fun out of all the groups. We got pummelled by water and Dave went overboard, just excellent fun.
We then decided to head to Lago De Yojoa to stay at a micro-brewery. It was a lovely little place and Honduras is chock full of beautiful butterflies and birds and the beer was on draft and great. But as you can imagine with birds come bird watchers. I have since realised that bird watchers are a unique crowd and there is a reason they keep to themselves. We spent a couple of quiet days there and decided to take the advice of the owner on a different route to travel into El Salvador. Most of the way the road is unpaved, but we thought, sod it, we´ve come for an adventure. We took 3 different chicken buses to get to La Esperanza, where were told that we could get a bus to El Salvador. As it turns out, we got to La Esperanza and they said there was no way were going to make it to El Salvador today, we would have to stay in ´Colo´ for the night and get the bus at 5 the next morning direct to San Salvador. This was at 12 in the afternoon. We got on the bus to ´Colo´and by 4:30 we had reached Colomancagua, the farthest of the gringo trail I have ventured yet. The road to it was dusty and unpaved as was warned so we were more than happy to get off. I went into a little shop to find somewhere that did accomodation and we found ourselves a little room. The shower and toilet were in the room with us, shielded by a shower curtain over each. And yet, it had cable TV. The owners were lovely and despite our limited conversational skills they were very accomodating. Unfortunately, we found out that the bus to San Salvador doesn´t run on a Sunday, so we would have to spend an extra night. It started to chuck down with rain, but we went out anyway and bought a bottle rum and a bag of crisps to tide us over til dinner. As it turns out, places shut down quite early on a Saturday and we ended up going without dinner, but at least not without rum! The storm worsened and the electricity went out, so for the rest of the night. But we had a candle and an amazing electrical storm to watch. I´ve never seen lightening like it - every 5 - 10 seconds for hours. We woke up the next day and the electricity was still out, so we went for a walk and discovered it was market day. It was obviously the social event of the week and wasn´t much frequented by foreigners as I have never been stared at so much in my life. We actually had one drunken reveller (very drunk I might add) ask why we had come to this village. I think more by way of ´Why would you bother?´ than a get lost statement.
The next morning we deaprted at 5 in the morning with our hotel owner waving us good-bye. As we left we realised we had been staying in Hotel Dios, God´s Hotel. Again we got stared at quite intently as it was obviously a worker´s bus and mounted more unpaved roads. We got to San Miguel in El Salvador without having any form of real border crossing, just a couple of gaurds who stared malevolently at out passports. We were told here to get off to transfer to the capital, San Salvador. The thing I love about buses here is people come on and sell you everything you could possibly need. Hamburgers, fries, vegetables, fruits, crisps, water, juice, medication - I honestly wish we had this in England. So we were duly entertained for the hour bus journey to San Salvador by people selling us all sorts of stuff. Once there, we realised San Salvador was a horrible, sprawling place and headed straight to Playa Del Tunco, a nearby volcanic beach littered with surfers. So another 2 buses later, again around 4 in the afternoon, we landed at the beach. I was so exausted I could hardly speak and bedtime was swift upon me. Playa Del Tunco was nice for a couple of days if you don´t mind the narly man surfer dudes who think they are god´s gift to women. The beach was beautiful as I had never seen a black sand beach before, and tumbling around in the waves, even without a surf board, is much more fun than lounging in the Caribbean sea. Despite a bit of a run-in with the tourist police, it was fairly uneventful. Don´t worry, no prison tales yet, just a waggle of the finger and an óff you go.´
We had our fun with beaches, rum and coconuts there and headed straight back out of El Salvador, acutely aware that we had no stamp out of Honduras. We were about to chicken bus and chance it when a guy stopped where we were waiting for the bus and asked where we were going. As it turned out he was heading the same way, and I´d rather travel in a lexus than an old bluebird school bus any day. He managed to convince us to take a swanky bus as it was an 11 hour journey, called up, made arrangements for us, dropped us at the terminal and went on his merry way. We could not believe how much he did to help us out, and the very expensive bus journey was so unbelievably worth it. More leg room than I could shake a stick at, burger king lunch and dinner included in the cost, and 3 border crossings dealt with for us. Apart from the Honduran border. We were asked to get off the bus and talk to immigration. Here they insisted that Honduras has no lapse in their border, but for a small fee of $20 each, we could get our passports back-stamped. This day was my most expensive day to date, but I still reckon that bus was worth it. No one sitting in your lap, or an arse in your face, or a child being sick into a bag. Bliss.
This brings me almost up to date! We are now in Nicaragua, much safer than Honduras or El Salvador, and very beautiful. We stayed in Managua when we first arrived for 2 nights. Don´t ever bother doing this. Not much to see but a huge polluted lake that you run the risk of being mugged if you go to look at up close. General muted hostility from the locals and bloody hot.
We moved on to Leon where we bumped into a couple of guys we had chilled with in El Salvador who are cycling through central America. Nutters. Leon is lovely; colonial, friendly and laid back. We did volcano boarding at Cerro Negro, where you basically hike up a volcano and throw yourself down it on a board. Awesome fun! Unfortunately, there was a guy on the same tour who I had come across before. He is the typical hiking 'I´ve done everything and want to tell you all about it´ kinda guy. It provided amusement as Dave instantly picked up on this guys ultimate ego trip. It was greatly amusing at least.
The water is calling my name yet again, so I'll leave it there for now. There is more to tell, and grand plans to tell, mañana mañana!
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