HONDURAS December 20, 2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 1

Hola —

We arrived a bit exhausted, following two very intense and travel-packed weeks (which ended about 52 weeks that were pretty busy, in and of themselves). Anyway, our flight (on TACA – The Central American Airline) left SFO a little after midnight (on schedule — although for the life of me I cannot possibly understand why they only have red-eyes to Central America). We had been upgraded to business class, although there wasn’t any food until morning. I think they hope everyone sleeps the whole way. The flight was fine and we arrived on time in Salvador around 8 a.m. this morning (Monday).. and easily changed planes to arrive in San Pedro Sula at about 10 am. Immigration and security was a piece of cake.

Then the fun began.

Without signs for the rental cars.. we sort of meandered for a while, and decided to exchange dollars to Lempiras (19 to the dollar, so we now have very fat wallets)… We saw a bank (no cambios at the airport)… and went to the end of the line. Everyone else was depositing money; we were the only ones trying to exchange dollars. Mike had Travelers Checks (which all the guidebooks advise) and of course this “bank” didn’t take them. I had cash, so I was fine.

Then we started the search for the auto rental… and were directed to a hallway behind some doors, where the image for the day was one of those red circles with the slash through it (Don’t) … telling us that no knives and no guns were allowed in the airport. That made me happy and secure (at least it didn’t have the hand grenade that we saw in Cambodia’s airport.)

The car rental woman was sweet.. she sat behind a desk in a little cubicle that was about the size of a half of a single bed. It took what seemed like an eternity, but finally the paperwork was complete … and then she took off to fetch the car (she’s a little one-woman operation)… We went to get some bottled water and then waited for her to appear with the car. Now we have a little Hyundai.. that looks like it’s been around the world and back again — dented, scratched, trim missing… but I think that’s good, because we’ll just fit in and not look so much like tourists!

Getting out of San Pedro Sula was tricky.. lots of traffic; many accidents; difficult to see signals; kids on horses very close to the road… but once we got out of the “urban zone”, driving was a lot easier and we headed without incident to Lago de Yojoa — a really large lake in the center of the country that supplies a lot of the water to the country. It’s at about 2,000 feet altitude. En route, we were famished and decided to stop at a little roadside “cafe”.. (there are little grocery stores – pulperias – about every half kilometer– sometimes much closer than that.. they are all called Pulperia + a woman’s name… like Pulperia Maria… or Pulperia Ana… Often right next door is a little four seater place to eat with — you guessed it — Ana or Maria doing the cooking. We safely ate chicken and avoided the salad.. we also passed on (but kept looking longingly at) the salsa.. since the Travel Doctor in Oakland said over and again, not to eat salsa on the roadside.. It was day one, so we thought we should be good.

Got to the Lake around 2:00 pm… and settled in.. We’re in a little posada with about 6 rooms. They first offered us the “suite” — not sure if there are any other guests.. which was large enough to house a family of about 8.. they are clearly very proud of the suite, but we opted for the upstairs room so we could have a “view” of the lake.. actually more like the wetlands of the lake.

Eventually we crashed for a 2 hour nap.. and then had dinner.. fish – naturally, and quite good.. but nothing really on the side.. salad again, which we declined.. and then French fries… But the fish was clearly fresh (probably fished a few minutes before dinner – tilapia).. and that’s it for me..

Buenas Noche.. Mas manana.
We may go out on our little “deck” to see if we can view the eclipse.
Fern

By the way, Honduran Spanish is very fast, so I feel like I’m at about the five-year-old child level of conversation.