hondurush

It's crazy to think that even though we have given ourselves 10 months to travel we are still continually rushing, we ended up crossing the whole country of Honduras in just two days!

On the way to the boat in Plancencia on the southern coast of Belize

So we were off to Honduras from Belize by boat, the Belizean immigration was probably the most inefficient in the whole world. Rather than getting us all off the boat one lady got onto the crowded boat and insisted on taking the fees from each person in the order of the list provided. This meant that everyone had to push past one another, while others sat still even though their names were called because they couldn't hear.  This took 2 hours, then it was 2 hours travelling time and we arrived in Puerto Cortes on the north coast of Honduras where we were welcomed by a pod of porpoises.

A young American lad on the boat was wearing this - He thought I was taking the picture because I was impressed rather than because he was a complete tit.

The shore of Honduras

This is where we landed

We shared this cab with an American couple, the girl had been teaching in Honduras for over six months and almost unbelievably had even less Spanish than Ralph (she blamed it on sharing a flat with four other Americans, presumably who also couldn't speak any Spanish). Her boyfriend worked in Iraq for Blackwater

not known for being particularly good eggs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8371746.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11071717

Although he seemed like an OK guy, he had been in special ops for the marines before going to a private firm. When we stopped at a petrol station I quietly mentioned to to Fiona that there was likely quite a high probability that he had killed a few people.  Strangely this was kind of reassuring as we had heard San Pedro Sula, where we were going to catch the bus, was quite a dodgy place. Luckily no unarmed combat skills were necessary and we safely caught the bus to Comayagua.

Sampling the traditional Honduran cuisine! We looked all around the bus station for something authentic and the gave up, only later to find all the food stalls outside the station at the departure gates, doh!

Walking to the highway to catch our next bus. The previous evening, having had a horrible and massively overpriced meal at our hotel of spam egg and rice (identical to what we were also given for breakfast) we went to the square in Comyagua and watched a small outdoor theatre production outside the cathedral

Tegucigalpa was our next destination, its the capital of Honduras and also apparently dodgy.  The bus ride was made more entertaining by the screeching of a ladies pet parakeet which was travelling on her shoulder. The city was pretty polluted as you can see.

The journey on form the outskirts of town was really hectic with every car horn for several miles around being blow in the traffic jam caused by roads works.

A lot of deliveries were being made by horse, like this milk

We got a a taxi across the city with a driver who told us he had worked illegally in the States for 5 years having walked for days to enter the US illegally under the fence.  He dropped us off at our next bus - this time bound for Nicuaragua.

Not the clearest pic, but check out the number of people in the back of the red truck. There is a strange habit among taxi and bus drivers in central america - they all only put their seatbelts on when they see a police car (not so unusual) but always remove it again once they have gone past, this means that they often end up fastening and unfastening their belt several times a journey, why don't they just leave it on?

Honduran customs, for a second time in 2 days

Bye bye Honduras

no-mans land

Nicuraguan customs

 Moments before Fiona shouted at the border policemen who tried to con us out of a dollar (an extra tax despite the fact we had just paid our fees at the office) - I have never seen here so enraged, it was brilliant and she saved us 2 dollars!