Los Tumulos: the Obsession with Sleeping Policemen

They come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are fat, others have really protruding bellies.  Some have decayed a bit with age and are crumbling around the edges.  Still others are double-breasted.  A few are quite bright but most tend to be quite grey and blend in with the surrounding.  Central America, and Guatemala especially, seems to be obsessed with sleeping policemen. They appear everywhere, whether it’s on a dirt road or on a highway.  Sometimes they appear from nowhere, other times they prefer to stay in groups and slow your progress every 100 meters.  Their most common characteristic is that they are insanely annoying.

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Honduras: Cost Breakdown

The daily total in respect to Honduras is quite deceptive and not very accurate if you are planning to visit this country and not dive. Honduras was in fact one of the cheapest countries I've been to in Central America.

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Copan Ruins: Remains of Mayan Grandeur

Once again travel in Honduras proved to be quite the expedition.  I left Utila by the 6:20am ferry and didn’t get into Copan Ruinas until around 6pm.  This included a 1 hour hold up between La Ceiba and San Pedro Sula supposedly because of a teacher’s strike.   With no breakfast and not much for a lunch, I must admit that my first priority upon arriving in Copan was to look for food.

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Utila: Kayaking is painful, in more ways than one

As planned, I decided to hang up my scuba diving gear and swap it out for the kayak and some paddles.  Utila is a relatively small island with two main streets, one intersection and roads only on a small part of the island. Its eastern end has two lagoons, with the second and larger one marking the end of the paved road that leads out of Utila Town. From this lagoon, a narrow canal leads all the way to the northern shore of the island.  This is the destination that I set myself for my little kayaking excursion.

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Utila: Where the Whale Sharks are to Abound

Utila, one of the three Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras, is a scuba diver’s paradise.   The reefs are spectacular and seemingly endless.  The added bonus is supposed to be the nearly daily sightings of whale sharks. 

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Transit Woes

One would think that getting from point A to point B in Central America should not take long.  The distances are short and the bus services are quite regular.  So the logical conclusion is that times should also be short. Unfortunately, this would be a grave misconception. 

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Gracias: The Cobblestoned Town with No Cobblestones

After my bad experiences in El Salvador I needed a change of pace and a small and hassle-free town where I could simply recuperate for a few days.  Gracias seemed to fit this bill perfectly.  The Lonely Planet book describes it as a small, tranquile, cobblestone town that used to be the capital of all Spanish-conquered Central America and where the pace of life along its cobblestone streets rarely moves much faster than walking.  They were right on the last point.  Not much moved faster than walking.  However, the town in no way resembled a former capital, nor were any (?) of its streets cobblestoned (well, maybe two).

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Chicken Buses #2

Were you late getting up and did not have time to have any breakfast?  Did you forget about your nephew’s birthday and are now rushing there empty-handed?  Are you feeling a bit under the weather?  Did you have to stay at work late and now need to head home in the dark? Or maybe you missed your Sunday service?  Well, no worries.  All that you might desire will be provided for you.  Whether it is a cold Fanta, a breakfast snack, a meal comprised of chicken with rice, a kid’s toy, a flashlight, some vitamins and even a 20 minute sermon, all of this can be found on your local chicken bus.

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Off to El Salvador. No Scratch that. Off to Tegucigalpa, Honduras

When you realize that you have a choice between 10 – 14 hours spent in transit on 6 – 8 different buses/taxis, or 4 – 5 hours spent on 3 – 5 buses/taxis, the decision becomes much easier.  Our original plans were to head from Somoto to the border with Honduras ½ hour’s drive from town.  From there we wanted to catch a bus

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Chicken Buses

If you ever wondered what happened to our school buses after they had seen their share of years in service, I believe I have the answer for you.  They all get shipped to Central American countries, get repainted, and get put back into service for another 20 or 30 years.  Who cares if a window doesn’t close, if the padding from the

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