I met Kim outside of her house at 5:30am as planned and she took me in to town to make sure I got on the right bus. Anita came along to get familiar with where the bus does its "pick up" so that when she heads out in 2 weeks, she won't be as nervous. It was a 2-hour ride to Teguc and a very short taxi ride to the Hedman Alas station.
I read this weekend that Tegucigalpa comes from the Nahuátl tribe. I didn't realize they came this far south as so many cities near México D.F. are also derived from the Nahuátl language.
This time I got a window seat on the Hedman Alas bus, so was able to enjoy God's beautiful creations on the way...for a little bit anyway. Just outside of Teguc, the bus broke down and we had to wait for the 9:00am bus to come by to pick us up. I went all the way to the back, so still ended up getting a window seat (which was great, since I didn't get a window seat when I came in to Honduras).
I saw a small waterfall among the many mountains we went through. Although a mountainous country, there are no volcanoes or earthquakes in Honduras. The rural people here plant cornfields into the sloped mountain sides. It's quite the sight to see if you're used to our flat fields in Wisconsin. I also saw many rural houses put together with plywood, metal sheets, loose boards, big tree trunks...even plastic sheets (for walls). Many of these houses were the size of my bedroom...or smaller! Due to the poverty here in Honduras, there are many houses for sale and many more houses that have had construction on them started, but never finished.
We stopped for a 20-minute break in Siguatepeque (another Nahuátl name). There was no bathroom on this bus, or refreshments...so this bus generally stops here as a 1/2-way point on the 4-hour trip. As you are riding between San Pedro Sula and Teguc, you'll notice many horses and donkeys standing alongside the highway eating. This is perfectly normal as their owners ride them to work and then let them graze while they work. Occasionally you'll also see cows alongside the road as well (although I don't believe they ride the cows in). The government in Honduras sounds just about as corrupt as in México, because if a police officer feels like taking a horse on the side of the road for himself - he can.
Many people have cell phones down here. There are 2 companies you can go through - Tigo and Claro...both of which operate off of calling cards which you must purchase. Tigo (the less expensive of the two) sells their phones for about $20USD and calling the U.S. costs about $1 Lempira/minute, however I was told that these phones will ONLY work in Honduras. Claro phones and service will work anywhere in Central America, however calls to the U.S. cost about $2.5 Lempiras/minute.
The international airport in San Pedro Sula is about as small as (or smaller than) Outagamie Regional Airport in Appleton. The plane to San Salvador seemed to have a sort of "dry ice" substance being sprayed from above the luggage compartments. I'm not sure what this is for...perhaps a cheaper way of cooling the plane down? I was in a seat all by myself (2 empty seats next to me), so a stewardess asked me to move to seat 14E. That seat was next to a many from Fort Lauderdale, Florida who had his 20-month old son, Dillon, with him. He said his wife was from Honduras, so they travel there about 3 times/year. They own land and are beginning to build a house so they can retire there. When I had mentioned my interest in retiring in a Spanish-speaking country, he had lots of good advice to offer such as:
- Get to know the area years in advance and bring donations down with each visit so that the community can get to know me.
- Most Americans are getting a 99-year lease on a piece of land in Honduras rather than to trying to purchase land. It's easier and there's a lot less paperwork (red-tape).
- Visitors to the country (non-citizens) are only on Visas, which expire every 90 days, so they need to leave the country for at least 3 days before coming back in. This gives "retirees" to go back to the States every 3 months to visit children/grandchildren...or they can simply cross the border into Belize for a short 3-day vacation as well.
Although I didn't catch his name, this man was SO nice and informative that the hour plane ride to San Salvador flew by (no pun intended). When I came out of customs in San Salvador (it costs $10 to go into the country), Patti's son found me right away. He approached me and asked, "Es usted la patrona de Patti?" I'm not sure I like being called her "patrona", but her family was SO nice. I was thinking we were going to spend the night in a hotel in San Salvador since my flight was supposed to leave at 12:47pm the next day, but when we stopped at a hotel (and it cost $140USD/night), Patti's cousin (who flew in from the States at 9:00pm) suggested we travel the 2 hours back to their house to spend the night. He assured me that we'd get up early enough to head back to San Salvador in the morning. I agreed, and that made Patti's mom (Berta) extremely happy.
We all (Berta, her husband, her son, Patti's son, Patti's cousin & I) all had a "cozy" ride back to her house in Chalatenango. We got there around 12:30am and went to bed at 1:00am. She lives in the country in a simple 4-room cement house. If you'd like more details on what "simple" means, please ask me personally, since putting that kind of information all online would still not be completely comprehensible to most Americans.
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