- The Adventure Begins
- Getting There is Half the Fun
- Triunfo de la Cruz
- Triunfo de la Cruz II
- Lancetilla Botanical Gardens
- Christmas in Triunfo de la Cruz
- Fishing
- Copan Ruinas
- The Mayan Ruins at Copan
- Final Thoughts
- Wenyao's Photos
(Winter 2003 Albums » Honduras)
Getting There is Half the Fun
Wed, Dec 17
Warning: Rambling account follows...
Come Wed Dec 17, we were up early to catch the 5am 28X bus to the airport for our 7am flight. Who could have forseen the snowstorm that morning? Not the airport staff; despite boarding and leaving the gate ahead of schedule, we spent a mind-numbing 2 hours waiting for our turn at what seemed to be the only deicing station.
No way we were going to make our 11am connection at Miami, so we turned to a great invention of the modern age: the Nokia 6610. Called Jianyun who had arrived in Miami the night before and told her the good news. She would go ahead and meet the guides while we would try to catch the next flight in. Sounded easy enough...
In Miami we were rebooked on the 5pm flight to Honduras. Everything seemed to be fine, but with half an hour to go we realised that we didn't have assigned seats! One of the nice but very harried ladies at the counter informed us we only had standby tickets. After standing around for a while we decided (in desperation) to play our only card:
Our friend is all alone in San Pedro Sula and we were supposed to meet her hours ago! Please get us on this flight!
I'd like to think it resulted in us getting those tickets. You never know! Althought it more likely had something to do with the conversation I overheard between the two counter agents about "what to do with all the UN people who didn't show up for the flight"...
San Pedro Sula
We finally cleared San Pedro Sula customs around 8pm. Wenyao was very happy to find his bag had made it, after worrying all the way about whether it had been loaded. No trouble picking out our guides, Miguel and Mario from the crowd thanks to the sign proclaiming "Honduras Coco Tours". The flight delay meant an itinerary change again and we would spend the night in San Pedro Sula, departing early the next morning for a jungle excursion in Cozuna before hitting the beaches and Mayan ruins.
First look at Honduras: The city of San Pedro Sula has all these American institutions like Payless Shoesource, Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc. A little disconcerting for a primarily rural agricultural country.
The Adventure Begins!
Thu, Dec 18
We were awakened at 6.15am by Miguel banging on our door. Goodbye Gran Hotel Rosa, Cozuna jungles here we come! Along the way a policeman stopped us but Miguel had all his papers in order. Corruption is rampant within the police force and almost no one pulled over actually pays the full fine or goes to the station. At some point we crossed the "Bridge of Democracy" built after Hurricane Mitch 2 years ago; one of the engineers was from Singapore, according to Miguel!
2 hours of driving took us through Tela where Miguel lives (in the village of Triunfo de la Cruz). That's also when I gave up and took a nap like the others, only to wake up a little later to bad news: a bridge on the only road to Cozuna had collapsed and no vehicular traffic could pass! Yes, that was the only way to Cozuna. Near the bridge we saw long lines of trailers and pickups with families. Got out and walked a kilometer to the bridge where we found out it hadn't collapsed. One of the piers had sunk a little causing a section in the center to sag, that's all.
The policemen were waiting for The Engineer of Honduras to certify the bridge safe for use. That's what they called him, I kid you not.
To salvage the rest of the day we headed to Triunfo de la Cruz, the Garifuna village where Mig lives with his wife - Mario's sister.
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