Random things and thoughts

Loved the ice cream bicycle!  Instead of a truck, people ride around on bicycles with ice cream. There is generally only one choice but when it’s 90 out who cares.  Aaron says that he’s set a policy of always buying it when he sees it.  The cone costs the equivalent of 25 cents so Aaron figures any time he can get ice cream for that price he’s going to take advantage of it!

Not surprisingly the fruit there is delicious.  There are stands everywhere you go with fresh fruit.  I tried some very interesting fruits that I’ve never seen here.  One is a lechee which has an ugly spiky exterior that you peel off to reveal a delicious interior.   I also bought a slice of fresh watermelon from a street vendor for 15 cents.

Like the school buses (see more on that in transportation), lots of the clothes in Honduras are recycled down from the US.  This leads to seeing a variety of unusual clothing items.  Sometimes they have things written on them that the people there don’t understand.  Aaron’s favorite is one that he bought for $2 that says “So Sexy Hot” on it.  As with the buses, I found it somewhat unsettling.  While it’s great that the people have access to these clothes it bothered me a bit that our leftovers are what they have.  I saw a whole rack of NYC shirts and thought the people buying these will likely never set foot in New York.

I was constantly reminded of how much we have.  Life in an underdeveloped country is eye opening to say the least.  In Honduras you can’t flush the toilet paper as the pipes can’t handle it. So there is a trash can next to the toilet.  You can imagine that this adds a unique odor to the bathrooms.  I went in a few bathrooms where you have to get your paper before entering the stall from a central roll.  I didn’t realize this at first and went from stall to stall trying to find paper.  Hot water and air conditioning are not to be taken for granted.  We were fortunate to have several hotels with hot water for showers.  Rarely did I find it in public bathrooms.  Most of our hotels didn’t have ac.  There were some shops and restaurants with it but you don’t have that retreat to cool air from the hot day.  While waiting at the airport to head to Copan, we were told that frequently the power goes out there.  We hadn't thought to bring a flashlight (a must on any future trip!).  Within about 10 minutes of checking into our hotel and as the sun went down, the power went out.  Obviously it wasn't an unusual occurrence as the hotel staff immediately arrived with candles for us.  We hadn't eaten dinner yet but were assured that it wouldn't be a problem to find an open restaurant.  They're used to this and can still cook without electricity.  So we headed out on ancient cobblestone streets fortunately by the light of an almost full moon in search of food.  It actually made for a really cool first night!  The power went out the second night too so I guess it really was the norm!

All of the banks have armed guards outside of them.  We saw this also at some of the larger stores and at least one of our hotels.  I will admit that, while I was never nervous there, I did find the guard outside the bank somewhat comforting when walking away from the ATM with cash!  And by the way when I say armed guards, I mean with big guns, not some little thing in a holster!

The Ferry Ride from Hell

I have mentioned the “ferry ride from Hell” already so some of you may know a bit about it but I couldn’t really not include it in my reflections on transportation!  When arriving in Honduras you receive a 90 day visa.  At the end of the 90 days you must leave Honduras for a few days, then you receive another 90 day visa upon your return.  It’s sort of crazy because there are a ton of volunteers down there working like Aaron and they all have to leave every 90 days.  You would think that the government could make some accommodation but they haven’t.  We had to go through customs upon leaving Honduras and returning and clearly these officials know what’s going on.  They can see from Aaron’s passport that he’s left and returned a number of times but I guess they accept that it’s part of the system. At any rate, this gave us a great excuse to pop over to Belize for a few days!

I knew from Aaron that this wasn’t going to be a typical ferry ride but I have to admit to being someone taken aback when I saw the boat.  It wasn’t exactly what I would call a ferry and the thought of three hours on it wasn’t particularly appealing.  All I could think of was the horror stories you hear of ferries crammed with people capsizing.  However it was the only way to get from Honduras to Belize so I didn’t have a lot of choice.  They told us to be there at 9:00 but we ended up not boarding until almost noon.  During that time someone arrived with gas to fill the boat up.  They arrived in a pick-up truck with big tanks in the back and used a hose to siphon gas from the tanks on the truck to the tanks in the boat.

When it was time to board unfortunately we ended up at the front of the boat.  There was no cushioning behind us, only a cushion to sit on.  We were sitting with a group of about 8 medical school students on vacation from Scotland.  All started out well.  It was rough and the ferry was bounding over the waves but for a bit we all joked about it.  I said that you wait in line for an hour for a roller coaster and then it’s over in three minutes so we should just consider this one long roller coaster ride.  As we continued, though, we were getting banged around more and more.  Because we had no padding behind us, we were getting thrown against the back of the seat.  I was trying to brace myself with one arm but literally thought my shoulder might get broken so finally tried to just hold onto the seat.  I can’t describe how bad it was.  People were literally screaming in pain with each pounding on the waves.  One of the medical students crawled to her luggage and dug out sea sick medicine which we passed around.  Unfortunately it was too late for most of us! 

Then to add to the misery the engine kicked out a number of times.  This had the benefit of giving us a reprieve from being thrown around but just sitting sloshing in the open sea doesn’t do much for people who are already sea sick!  Aaron said that once when he was on it they had to wait 3 hours until another boat came and got them. Fortunately that didn’t happen to us. During one of these lulls I pushed my way to the back of the boat and found another seat.  No one seemed to be interested in letting me in but I threatened to throw up on them and they made room for me.  The back was definitely better.  As we were pulling into the dock I said to the girl next to me, “I generally always say thank you when I get off of a ride but …..” and she said, “Don’t you dare thank them!”  The whole way there all I could think was that I had to do this again on the return.  We even briefly considered flying back but it just wasn’t practical.  Fortunately we took the ferry back from a different location which was a shorter ride with less time over the open sea.  I carefully staked out a seat at the back and it was a totally different experience.  I commented to Aaron that I didn’t think that boat would be licensed in the US and he agreed! 

Taxis

We did end up taking taxis at various times.  As with many places you do feel that you’re taking a bit of a risk riding in a cab!  They tend to pass in areas which aren’t really passing zones and travel at a speed which was a bit faster than I like!  Many of the doors don’t open so the driver has to get out and open it for you.  One driver had to bungee cord the trunk after putting our luggage in.  The law is that you have to wear a seatbelt in the front which no one does.  However they all know where the police checkpoints are and always fasten the seatbelt right before going through the checkpoints.  I never did get a clear answer on the purpose of the checkpoints.  I don’t know that there is one!

The "regular" people's bus

One interesting thing I learned on my first trip to Honduras is that apparently Central America is the graveyard for retired US school buses.  When districts up here are done with their buses, which of course means when they are no longer considered suitable for our children to ride them, they are shipped to Central America where they become part of the public bus system down there.  On the one hand this is great as it provides them with buses to use. On the other hand there is something somewhat unsettling about a whole society riding around on buses we’ve now rejected as unfit for our children.  Most of the buses have been painted over so that you can no longer see where the bus originated from but I couldn’t help looking every time one of these buses went by just in case it was from somewhere I recognized.  In fact on the last day of the trip while walking down a street, a bus went by from Show Low School District which amazingly enough is the small town in Arizona where my niece recently landed a math teaching job!  I went running down the street to get a picture of it to send to her.

There were two things that fascinated me most about the “regular people” buses.  The first one we took was a “direct” bus from San Pedro to Puerto Cortez.  Direct presumably means it loads up in San Pedro and then stops in Puerto Cortez.  This is more or less the case.  However rather than just having a bus that leaves San Pedro bus terminal at a specific time, the bus goes from stop to stop trying to get as many passengers as possible before leaving the city.  In addition to the driver, there is a man I’ll call the conductor who stands at the door of the bus.  The driver pulls up to a stop and the conductor yells out the door calling for passengers.  Aaron and I assumed that the driver and conductor must get some additional money based on how many people are on the bus as they seemed very intent on filling the bus up before leaving.  In fact they charged us for 3 seats because our luggage wouldn’t fit in the luggage area and took up a seat which meant one less passenger for them.  Once they had filled the bus, we headed onto Puerto Cortez and at that point it was indeed a direct bus!

The other interesting thing on this bus occurred at several of the stops when the conductor was trying to round up passengers.  Various people would get on the bus and try to sell us stuff.  They would ride the bus to the next stop trying to sell their wares, then get off and get on another bus to sell to them.  These people would get on and start talking about whatever they were selling.  Most fascinating to me was that everyone immediately got quiet and listened!  I couldn’t imagine that happening on a bus in the US!  One man was selling a pill that apparently would cure whatever ails you (reminded me of the old elixir of life sold in the Wild West days).  Another man was selling a folding toothbrush and assured you that if you didn’t buy it you would have cockroaches and ants climbing all over your toothbrush (Aaron said this was a very good point and bought one!).  Sometimes people were selling good or water.  We bought some delicious homemade rolls that were still warm from a girl who got on. 

The "Rich" People's bus

There are several coach bus lines which cater to the wealthy Hondurans and tourists.  These are very much like American bus lines with ac, reclining seats, video screens, a bathroom, etc.  There is one notable difference though which perplexed us.  After arriving at the airport we booked a seat on this bus to Copan Ruinas.  A few minutes before boarding, someone from the bus line came around with a digital camera to snap pictures of each of us.  Ginny and I had no idea why – we figured they were going to try to sell them to us later, you know, a picture of you embarking on your Honduran adventure.  I figured I would get in the one with Ginny since we were traveling together but the man waved me off and insisted we each have our own shot.  We never saw the pictures and pretty much put it out of our mind.  Two days later when we were preparing to return via the same bus line we started mulling over why they had taken the pictures and wondering if they were going to take them again on this trip.  We came up with two possible theories.  One, the last hour of the ride had been on steep, hilly roads that are clearly not built for a coach bus so we thought the pictures could be so that in case we went down the ravine they could identify who had been on the bus (yes, a cheerful thought I know!).  Two, perhaps the bus, being the one that caters to the wealthy folks, is a target for kidnappings and those pictures would be the ones that would use to identify who was on the bus.  We discussed how all of you would be seeing those lovely shots on the evening news.  “Pam Lavender of New Milford, CT, seen here shortly before departure, is one of the Americans being held for ransom.”  Obviously neither of these scenarios was very appealing and we just hoped they wouldn’t take our pictures again on the return.  Lo and behold though, right before we got “wanded” through the security check they snapped our mug shot again!  By now it was a bit disconcerting!  Aaron said that he thinks it’s all part of the illusion of safety they want the wealthier Hondurans to have.  He said that the upper income people (who are a very small part of society there) are constantly worried about being ripped off by the poor Hondurans and that they are constantly trying to do things to make themselves feel safer.  Who knows! 

Transportation in Honduras

During our trip I was able to experience a variety of types of transportation, each of which provided some interesting experiences.   One thing to note is the road system in general.  There are very few roads between locations.  The best road is from San Pedro where the airport is located to Puerto Cortez where the docks are located.  This is basically due to Chiquita and Dole wanting to make sure their products get to the ports!  All roads pretty much radiate out of San Pedro so that in order to get from one town to another you have to go back to San Pedro and start out again in a different direction.  Therefore we took one bus ride 3 hours out to Copan, then 3 hours back.  Then we took a cab 1 ½ hours out of San Pedro in a different direction to get to the lake where we were meeting Aaron.  We then had to return to San Pedro and take a bus down to the coast.  Upon returning from Belize we wanted to visit another coastal town but you can’t get from one to the other so we had to take a bus back into San Pedro and then another bus out again to the town of Tela on the coast.  All in all we were in San Pedro 5 different times and only spend one night there before flying out.  All other times, we were there about an hour while arranging different transportation to the next location.

Mayan Ruins at Copan

Our first stop was at the Mayan ruins in Copan.  We were told to definitely pay for a tour as it’s the only way to really know what you’re seeing.  When leaving our hotel to walk over there we hooked up with a group of 4 other Americans figuring it would be cheaper to get a tour for 6 than just for 2.  It was definitely a good move.  There was actually a bit of jockeying to see who would get to take us. We were fortunate to get a guide with excellent English.  He told us it would be $25 for the group.  That’s $25 for 6 people to tour for almost 2 hours!  We of course ended up tipping him more than that.

It was amazing to tour the site and thing of people all those years ago building these communities and carving such intricate statues.  There were so many interesting things on the tour and I won’t try to repeat them all.  My friend, Ginny, who was traveling with me, would say that I was most fascinated by this story.  Apparently being sacrificed to the gods was the highest possible calling.  Therefore at the end of the ball game which they played (something akin to volleyball), the best player on the winning team was sacrificed.  When asked why they didn’t sacrifice one of the losers, the guide replied that you wouldn’t want to give a loser to the gods!  I found this a little disturbing.  Imagine your pitcher throws a no hitter and then is sacrificed.  I suppose it would be much harder to have a dynasty in sports if the best player on the winning team kept getting sacrificed!  I tried to put myself into their mind set – that being sacrificed is the highest thing in life – but I kept thinking there wasn’t much incentive to be the best player out there.