Montezuma and Honduras

Hiya,

I'm in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I spent most of last week in a hotel on the border of Guatemala and Honduras, recovering from a nasty bout of stomach trouble, I think the result of something I ate or drank the same day I had the puncture trouble. What a day!

On Monday morning I finally felt well enough to attempt the border crossing into Honduras, which I'd read in many books and Internet sources would be the toughest crossing of the trip, with the possible exception of the Honduras/Nicaragua border. Basically Honduras is pretty much the only country with no defined fees to enter the country. It seems to vary depending on who you are, what day of the week it is, and how bent the official you are dealing with is. I'd done plenty of research and spent a long time trying to formulate an entry plan, something that is kind of tough for someone who'd lose a battle of wits with a piece of wax fruit.

My plan was basically to choose a crossing away from the main Pan American highway, and from various reports I decided to drop El Salvador as a border crossing, and go directly from Guatemala to Honduras. There was a truck crossing at Agua Caliente that my guidebook suggested was faster, cheaper and more efficient than some others despite being busy. So I headed for Agua Caliente, which was all of 10km from the hotel.

The frontier came as a little bit of a surprise, basically it just materialized without warning as I rounded a corner. There was a barrier and a border official. Down the road I could see customs marked with a large ADUANA, and beyond that somewhere was Honduras. I was immediately leapt on by a tramitador, which is basically someone who will assist you for a fee with the necessary mountain of documentation you need to enter Honduras with a vehicle. I was planning on leaving that until the Honduras border, but he was persistent so I relented. First job was to find a copier and get a copy of the bike permission for Guatemala, then I was allowed through to customs.

The tramitador hopped on a bus to the Honduras border whilst I got my exit stamps and exit stamps for the bike, a total of about 15 minutes. Then I rode out of Guatemala towards Honduras. The entire length of the road between the borders was covered with lorries, some had hammocks slung under them, the drivers sound asleep. I wondered how long they would be held at the border. No one seemed to be going anywhere in a hurry.

Arriving at the Honduran border I met up with my fixer and parked up the bike. The whole place was heaving with people looking to make a living, shops, black market sales people, cash changers, tramitadors, police, border officials, beggars, kids with firecrackers. It was absolute chaos. Firstly we went to immigration and stony faced officials stamped my passport, charging me US$3 for the privilege. As I didn't have US$3 I had to deal with one of the currency changers, and at something of a dodgy rate changed up US$20 into Lempira. As I handed over the cash I ruefully wondered whether Honduras charges for a stamp at an airport if you fly in, you can imagine how well a country must do for repeat tourists if they get charged just to come in! But of course that was just the beginning.

Next we had to get the bike "permiso", and for computer data entry charges that was just under US$10. Then it was off to the bank round the corner to pay Honduran road tax, effectively a toll road scheme. That was just under $30. All the time duplicate copies of all the forms had to be made, along with the copies I had brought of my passport, and the bike's registration document. The paper was piling up! Finally with all the paperwork and receipts and copies in hand we had to go back to customs to get the permiso signed, unfortunately it was now five past midday and the senorita was at lunch. So I spent fifty minutes waiting outside her little window, slowing stewing to death in the sweltering humidity whilst she ate and chatted. All the time my fixer was telling me the permiso would cost, first I think it was 1500 lempira, then it was 700, then he suggested if I was to offer a "propina" (tip) of maybe 120 lempira my form would be completed quickly. I told him I was in no rush. In the end when the customs official finished her lunch she signed the form and told me there was no fee for the permiso at all.

That completed proceedings other than to pay my fixer, and despite his at times dodgy advice it was money well spent, I think I would still be there now going back and forth between all the offices on my own. I showed the border guard my permiso documents and rode off into Honduras.

It had taken a total of just over two hours to get through the border, not bad time wise and I had receipts for all the charges, no one had hit me with any unofficial fees.

I climbed into mountains almost immediately, heading north and east into green lands that could quite easily have been the Lake District in the UK, except for the occasional palm trees. Cows grazed and farmers wandered around with machettes the length of one of my legs. Outside the town of Santa Rosa de Copan I was stopped by a policeman for the first time since Bellingham in Washington state, presumably for looking suspiciously non Honduran.

He wanted to see the bike permiso and my driving licence, so I handed him a fake laminated copy of my licence just in case he attempted to pull anything funny on me. He seemed to be fine with everything though, and waved me on my way. I'd decided to get to San Pedro Sula, a big city in the north of Honduras, and made it literally as it was going dark at 5.30pm.

I can't decide whether I like Honduras as much as Guatemala. Honduran buses are dull after the hippy, trippy, 60's throwback Guatemalan buses painted in colours Mungo Jerry would have loved. The people seem just as friendly though, staring and waving. It seems very, very American here, with the burger chains, Subway, Radioshack, and other US corporations. A few more people speak English.

I'm heading south from here towards Nicaragua, and no doubt another interesting border experience!

More soon.

Frase.

PS My card reader has been on the blink - something to do with electronic equipment and rain, I suspect - but I have a replacement so will update my photos on my Smugmug site.