Honduras- Traveling during a military coup
Trip Start
Apr 28, 2009
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37
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Trip End
Mar 26, 2010
El Zapote, Valle, Honduras
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
few hours) so there wouldn’t be much to write about. Uneventfully, we thought, boy were we wrong!
Now, looking back on our two and a half hour drive through Honduras all I can do is laugh! At least it’s with laughter and fond memories that I think of this country that is currently unstable and not with fear or termination.
The boarder from El Salvador into Honduras was our worst yet. It was
time consuming (about 3 hours), confusing, and very unorganized. Think the US DMV! We whizzed through the immigration but importing the car was another story. Of course we had several guys rush our car trying to help us (for a fee) but we said no, as they usually rip you off (so we have heard) and we can figure it our for ourselves. After much back and forth, from one office to another, filling out crazy paperwork, and struggling to understand the irritated official, we made it through.
Into Honduras, a little fearful and unsure, we went. After 2 minutes
of driving we were pulled over by our first Policia checkpoint. They
checked our paperwork and let us pass.
The next checkpoint, 5 minutes down the road, wasn’t as easy. Three
Policia, one of which was obviously very drunk (or worse), tried to get a bribe out of us. By now, we are very familiar with this game. Devin just tried to play stupid and it was hilarious. They told us we needed
permits for our bikes and Devin answered them by saying the bikes were great, we take them to the beach, la cuidad, all over! Of course he is saying this with a huge smile on his face and I am trying not to laugh! This confuses them slightly but they continue, saying them are going to write us up.... Devin responds, with his huge smile, Great!!! That’s wonderful!!! Needless to say, they didn’t know what to do so they just let us go. I laughed for a good five minutes over that one!
We passed through two more checkpoints with decent cops. All of them
just asking where we were going and checking our paperwork. They all
asked if we were going to Costa Rica. It’s as if they forgot (or
didn’t know) that Nicaragua was on their Southern boarder...
The last checkpoint was the best! I can’t even write this without
laughing. The Policia pulled us over, yet again (yes that’s right,
five times in total), and this time the military were across the street as well. The Policia asked us if we had a fire extinguisher and hazard triangles in the car. This is a common bribe tactic. They say these items are necessary, although they are not. We do happen to have a fire extinguisher since we have a kitchen in the VW. So we get it out to show to the Policia and of course Devin is still playing dumb (and I am doing my best to do so as well). The young cop, he can’t be over 22, starts to look at the extinguisher as the other cops start to circle the car (no doubt looking for other ‘infractions’ they can write us up for). Before I know it there is an explosion sound and HUGH white cloud of powder everywhere!!! I can’t even see!!! Once the cloud clears I realize the stupid cop has set off our extinguisher! Inside the car! Devin, the cop, and the dashboard are covered in white powder! What a mess.... and I can’t stop laughing! At first I try to control it, but I can’t! And all of the other cops that were circling our car saw it happen. The poor guy is embarrassed so he takes out his American Confederate Flag bandana for us to wipe down the car and Devin’s lap. Unbelievable. Of course, now he can’t possibly ask us for a bribe so he lets us go. Although, I’m not sure it’s the best idea for us to be driving around an unstable country with constant police checks with white powder all over the place! It really was one of the funniest moments of our trip and I’m still laughing over it!
And there is still some white powder that I need to clean up!
It took us 2 and a half hours total, including all of the checkpoints. The people seemed a little more aggressive then other places. Everywhere we go we get stared at but here all the men seemed to have very beading eyes and looked at us as if they were trying to stare us down. It was a little unnerving but who knows if it is usually like that or not. They are a country and a people in very unsettling times. I wish them the best and hope they can settle everything without much turmoil.
We arrived in Nicaragua just as the sun was setting. We usually don’t drive at night but luckily we only had 20 kms. to go into the city we were staying at for the night. it was interesting see the main highway at night. Of course it wasn’t very well lit but it seemed to be the place to hand out at night. People were everywhere, sitting on the road, laying on the road, talking on the road... crazy. Luckily, we drove the 20 minutes into town and parked for the night without hitting anyone!!!
