April 25, 2010

We spent all of a day packing our apartment and the restaurant, getting ready to hit the road to Belize. Although we came with very little and we acquired very little, our packs are feeling mighty heavy and awkward. It only takes a little here and there to add up to pounds – heavy pounds – when you’re carrying them on your back.

We have been told that a guy that used to work at the restaurant would be there on Monday to take over our responsibilities. Not surprisingly, we never heard from the owner to confirm this. Communication with us – you know, the poor saps running his restaurant – was never on the top of his priority list this entire time. We would hear most things through our neighbors, whom he seemed to keep in constant contact with. Not much we can do at this point but hope they were right. We’ve made up our minds, and the ferry to Belize leaves on Monday mornings!

We head out Sunday morning and catch a bus to San Pedro Sula from La Ceiba. We decided to not jump right into a 3-hour trek on a chicken bus quite yet, so we splurge on a half broken down luxury bus. No a/c, but the seats are actual seats and some of them recline. A pretty darn good deal for $4.50. We end up getting dropped off in some random bus terminal, even though everything we read about San Pedro was that all buses go downtown near the central market and the buses are nowhere near each other. Imagine our surprise when we’re surrounded by dozens of bus companies, large and small, and it’s all set up in this huge building with mall-like features. We weren’t sure that we were even in San Pedro, but we assumed since no buses were going to San Pedro – we must be on the right track.

We find a mini-bus going to Puerto Cortes and decided to head straight there, since it was fairly early still. It’s probably only 20-30 miles away, but of course it takes over an hour since we had to go downtown and ask everyone standing on the side of the road if they wanted to go with us. The bus driver’s assistant (who’s job is to collect money and try to “sell” the bus route to you by yelling our destination city loudly over and over while hanging out the bus door) informed us we needed to hold our backpacks on our laps so they didn’t take up a seat. Since the bus wasn’t full, we stacked the two of them on top of each other, taking up one seat, but damn if we were going to hold those things the entire hour and a half. As people loaded on and off and on and off the bus throughout the trip, he continued to give us dirty looks – even though no one was without a chair for more than 3 minutes and I gladly would have given up my seat before holding that bag on my lap anyhow.

We arrive in downtown Puerto Cortes, book a room at El Centro and head out to Pizza Hut for dinner. Yes, another romantic Pizza Hut dinner. But it’s 100º, we’ve been on buses all day and we know for a fact that they have air conditioning! Plus, it’s Sunday and the entire town is shut down, except for the plethora of fast food restaurants. It’s like a mini La Ceiba, filled with Wendy’s, Burger King and more. They do have an Espresso Americano – their version of Starbucks and one of my most favorite things about Honduras. Nothing beats a Granita de Cafe – frozen coffee slushee for $1.15.

We spend the rest of the evening taking cold showers and lying in front of the fan in our hotel room, sweating our butts off and wishing we had splurged for air conditioning. Oh well, a penny saved is a penny earned, and we’ve got to get used to cutting corners and getting back on a fairly strict budget now that we are traveling.

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