Guatemala to Honduras for Christmas

Our unofficial slip of paper.

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Rio Dulce

We had been assured that the direct bus from Rio Dulce to El Florido (border post for Guatemala and Honduras) is never fulll and that we didn't need to prebook and reserve seats. So when the bus pulled in packed to the gills, we realised that we had been given a bum steer.

Anyhow, the conductor put our backpacks on the bus and we climbed on, resigned to standing for most of the journey! Meanwhile the conductor passed down the bus asking people where they were getting off and returned to us and informed us that after about 5 kms we would have a seat!

The bus set off with about 20 people standing and chugged up over the big bridge spanning the lake, with us as the only tourists on board.

Sure enough after about 5 kms some people got off and the conductor pointed us towards the back seat where there was one free space. People on both sides tried their best to make more room, but we ended up both perched with one *cheek* on the allocated space, sitting at a rather oblique and uncomfortable angle.

After a little while when our backs were feeeling the ill effects we realised that neither of us was benefitting from this set-up so Barbara perched on Dave's knee - much more comfy for both of us plus straight backs too.

After about another 30 kms another seat became free and we settled down for the rest of the journey.

Just as we had experienced on our other bus journeys in Guatemala this far, as soon as some people got off, many more seemed to get on. Some kids who had already been on the bus when we boarded in Rio Dulce were still standing 200 kms later.

Bus journeys here are never boring or dull as you can just enjoy the scenery and have the chance to people watch. This journey was certainly not going to be dull with so many people on board.

The roads were at times winding and the driver seemed to enjoy speeding around the bends. Being at the back of the bus also meant that every bump was magnified. One result of this was that a little girl standing about 1m in front of us threw up over her brother's back. Then a young woman sitting across from the little girl (and in the seat in front of us) proceeded to vomit out of the window while the bus sped along so you can imagine the "spray" left streaking across the glass. About 10 minutes later the little girl's elder sister was vomiting too (and proceeded to do so intermittently for the rest of the journey, irrespective of whether we were speeding along or stopped at a bus station).

The bus stopped at several villages en route and always seemed to have to manouevre through narrow streets crowded with market stalls and cars parked at random. At one such village, a man got off our bus and offloaded four large sacks of grain. we looked up and on the flat roof above where he was standing were a little boy and girl, probably about 4 and 3 years old (there was no barrier on the flat roof to stop the children falling off). Then totally unexpectedly the little boy whipped out his willy and standing near the edge of the flat roof proceeded to pee over the edge as far as he could, just narrowly missing the man, his bags of grain, and passers by! His performance was really remarkabe for one so small, and his sister and he found the whole thing really amusing.

At the same stop a large family (8-10 kids) boarded the bus and sat in the just vacated seats in front of us. Ten minutes later the mother was openly breastfeeding her toddler on the bus, while everyone around carried on chatting. The toddler was clearly very hungry as it later went back and demanded "seconds".

Eventually we reached the end of the line, and border number 3 for us.

El Florido

We were immediately approached by money changers and since the bank at the border was closed (it was Sunday) we changed a few dollars, but not before Barbara tried to get them to bid for the dollars. They weren't playing ball and all quoted the same rate.

We then approached the border posts, and it's a strange set-up here as it is a long low building with 4 kiosks numbered 1-4, where 1 is nearest Guatemala and 4 is nearest Honduras. However the logic of the system seemed flawed. You first go to no. 4 which is the Guatemalan Exit post. We told the official that we would return to Guatemala in a few days time, paid our 10 quetzals each, and were given an unofficial piece of paper with "2 touristas Copan Ruinas" written on it by hand, and he did not stamp our passports.

Then we moved to kiosk 2, Honduran Immigration, (seemingly on the Guatemalan side of the border) paid 3 US$ each and got a stamp in our passports. The colectivo minibus was waiting to transport us to Copan Ruinas village - it can be confusing as Copan is the name of the archaeological ruins and Copan Ruinas the name of the village.

Copan Ruinas is a sweet looking little village with stone cobbled streets and colourful houses although the least Christmassy village we've stayed in so far. It only has a few lights strung around a tree on the main square and a few more lights around the trunks of trees. Surprisingly everything will be open including the ruins themselves, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.