Off-road Macgyver Style in Honduras
- Timon van den Berg
- Jan 10, 2019
- 11 min read
Many travelers going south over the pan-american highway skip Honduras, except the stretch of road between El Salvador and Nicaragua in the South of the country. We decided to make a loop throug the country to actually explore the country.
The morning before crossing the border to Honduras, we enjoy a breakfast at the deck of our Hotel with again the great view over the Rio Lempa. The drive to Honduras ain’t that far, but we start with a quick stop to mail a postcard to our family. There is quite a lot of cargo traffic on the road between El Salvador and Honduras. Fruit is going to the harbors on the Pacific side, so that it can be shipped to the East Coast of the US and Europe. The border crossing itself is fairly easy, and quick. In total it takes us about an hour and a half I think that’s a record. Our first stop in Honduras is Santa Rosa de Copan. It’s nothing special, but it’s conveniently located on our route to Copan Ruinas. The route on the Honduras side of the border is quite a challenge. Some potholes are as big as our car. It takes us hours to reach Santa Rosa, one of the reasons is also the slow driving truck traffic. Eventually we reach our AirBnB, and we do our tour through town where we drink a coffee in one of the fancy coffee joints. Overall, I have to say that these countries are well developed, and especially the cities are meeting western standards. That's something I didn't really expect of these Central American countries.
We leave for Copan Ruinas on time, the road promises to be a challenge since its marked as off-road. As we make the turn on the unpaved road, we are pleasantly surprised by the quality of the road. It's very well maintained and its actually a lot of fun to drive :-)! Way quicker then expected, we reach our destination that day. Just before turning back on to the main road we run into a partly collapsed bridge, not willing to drive all the way back and since our car isn’t equipped with snorkels to drive through the river, our only option is to maneuver over the bridge. Eventually we manage to get across. In the early afternoon we arrive at the hostel. Copan Ruinas is a touristic city, and many backpackers visit this town. It might come as a surprise, but there are ruins from the Mayan period. But, there is also a Hot Spring not to far from town, as well as a couple other smaller tourist attractions. We decide to visit The Tea & Chocolate Place in the afternoon. Here you can try multiple different types of healing herbal teas and local chocolates. I decide to try a traditional, Mayan style hot chocolate (mixed with water instead of milk) with chili powder, quite a famous drink in the area. To be honest not really my thing. From their terrace we had a nice view on the sunset. At night we enjoyed a good steak in a local steak house.
Since the Hostel we stayed at doesn’t offer breakfast, I’m heading out to find us some food. As a real hunter, armed with my wallet with cash I’m heading out. Again, to my surprise, you can find coffee stores more fancy than you will find in the States or Europe. They prefer cards instead of cash, except for the tip of course. Anyway, my adventure of finding us a local breakfast died and I simply bought 2 coffee and some bread at a Starbucks look a like store located near the main square. That afternoon we headed for the Spa. Until now, we did most of our navigation using Google Maps, pretty stable and solid solution especially if you load the maps on to your device. The problem with Google Maps is that it doesn’t know when the bridge has collapsed :-). But some friendly locals were more than happy to guide us in the right direction, and with a small detour we were able to find ourselves another route. The Spa was about 20km via off-road from the town. The good thing was that again this road was very well maintained, so we managed to do it quickly. At the parking of the Spa we had to explain a couple local taxi drivers that we really drove all the way from NYC. When I started to comment on their taxi vans, especially on their tires, they told me that they would be more then happy to switch vehicles. Uhhh well no gracias! The Spa itself was very nice, they had a hot spring heating up the baths and mud. Hester decided to cover herself in mud, I decided to skip that part. After a couple of hours we decided to head back. We try to stick to our rule of not driving in the dark. So full power back over the off-road route! Fun!! :-)
The next morning we intend to leave early, we have a 200km route a head of us, but the road is fairly slow due to the amount of traffic and road work. Surprisingly enough when we decide to head out, we meet two friends we met in Guatemala, so we decide to go for breakfast together. The route does indeed take hours. We are heading for lake Yojoa, and the last bit of road has so many potholes that it would have been better not to build a road at all. Anyway, we arrive at a US style resort with brewery attached. Since they offer a good place to camp, we decide to sleep in the tent for two nights.
Since we spent the night in the tent we really start to feel like being a part of the jungle. We awake from the jungle sounds, especially birds in this area. When we arrived we met two fellow Dutchies around the campfire, and today we decided to join them during a kayak tour on the lake. The lake is famous for the many species of birds, so we expect to spot many of them. But first breakfast, Hester decided to order a local Baleados for breakfast, its good! In the late afternoon we leave in our kayak. We do see many birds, but don’t ask me for the names, since I have no clue which once we have seen. The temperature is good so we decide to swim multiple times, its quite a hassle to get back in the kayak, but we manage, right Hester? ;-) (Sorry inside joke). After three hours on the water and seeing the sun drop behind the mountains, we head back to the docks. Attacked by mosquitoes we are awaiting our pick up. After half an hour waiting, a call to the office learns us they forgot about us. Fairly pissed and covered under mosquito bites we take a taxi back. The manager from the resort is excusing himself for the fact that they did forget about us, so dinner on him that night.
Today we travel to La Ceiba From there we will take a boat to Utilla, one of the cheapest diving locations in the world, and not because there is nothing to see :-)!
The drive is again fairly long, and Hester isn't feeling well, so I deal with the five hours driving myself. Eventually finding the hostel is a little of a challenge, but we manage. The host asks us to join him to the river for a swim, and on the way we buy some chicken. The river is cold, but its a nice place to end the day. We eat the chicken and return to his house. There he mentions that he invited some friends over for a BBQ, and we are invited. Kilo’s of meat are taken from the freezer and the BBQ is lit. The music goes on volume 10 and a Caribbean BBQ is born. Around 11:30 we decide to call it the night. I’m not sure how much beer our host has been drinking, but he decides to give everyone a personal ride home in his car. Lucky for Hester and me that we don’t have to go anywhere anymore tonight.
The next morning the weather is changing, the wind starts to blow and in the late afternoon some rain starts to fall. We are heading towards the boat which is supposed to bring us to the island. First we make a quick stop at Walmart to stock up supplies, since we were staying in an AirBnB on the island and need to bring everything ourselves. At the port it's quite a process to park the car, but in the end it all works out. When we arrive at the dock, the lady behind the counter tells us there are no boats for the next 90 hours. The weather had indeed changed during the afternoon and as we have been told it became pretty rough at sea. Since it was already quite late, we quickly started looking for another place to stay. Lucky for us we found ourselves a hotel in the jungle,just behind La Ceiba. Its' a quick drive from the port, but prior we need to go through the process of getting our car back from the parking lot. Luckily for us the guy managing the lot understood the problem and he got us out in a couple minutes. The road to the hotel was off-road and not a really common route. For the first time during our travels we are stopped at a policy/army checkpoint. The guys, who were not very friendly, wanted to check our whole car. But, after opening the trunk they had seen enough. I guess they thought that was to much work, and I’m not really quick with offering money or so. I usually just wait, and let them look at our passports for as long as they want. This usually works. After they made their threatening trip to the office, we are good to go. The hotel we stayed at that night was fine and the dining room had a great open view over the jungle, but due to the weather conditions it was a little cold.
We completely cancel our plans to visit Utilla. The boat is indeed cancelled for 90 hours and later during our trip we spoke to people who got stuck on the island for 3 days and there was really nothing to do since the main activity on the island is diving, and all those trips were cancelled as well. So instead, we decide to travel towards the capital city Tegucigalpa. Not expecting to get there in one day we mark down some hotels along the route for the day. The first two hours of the trip is “Dole” country. Left and right of the road just Bananas, Bananas, and more Bananas. It's also where we see the first accident happening on our trip, nothing special, just a truck driving off the road hitting a power line. Everyone seems to be fine, so it's not really a delay for us. After 2,5 hours we need to take a left and pretty soon I notice, no asphalt! With all the rain we had during the past hours I’m not sure how handy this is, but anyway, the detour is way longer. 1 km in we stopped again at a police and army checkpoint. Also here, they give up as soon as we open the trunk. There is simply to much stuff in there to check I guess. The beginning of the route is fine, also the bus connecting the capital and the Caribbean coast takes this road, but a couple hours in we are challenged with a couple major mud pools. We check the depth of the pool with sticks to judge whether we are actually able to cross without doing some digging (until now we always managed). At some point there are three mud pools behind each other. There is a big truck in front of us and I can already see its going to be a challenge. I think the guys in the truck agree because when they pass through the pools they decided to come out and help. Weighing our options, I decide to make the cross. First pool down! That went ok, but the second one is a bigger challenge, the guys from the truck claim straight through the center is best, but I’ve seen how deep that is so I decide to go along the side again choosing the deeper mud, but trusting we won't drown the engine and trusting the 4x4 capabilities of our car. With steam coming from the car from both the left and right we manage to go through the second pool, but going through the third one we go so deep in the mud that our passengers side front wheel completely blocks. At first we think we bent the brakes, going through the cold water with hot brakes might have caused some problems. We drive a couple of meters, but the wheel isn’t really turning, the guys from the truck leave, they figure we are good :-)! Anyway 30km from the closest town we weigh our options. In the middle of nowhere we decide to detach the wheel and clean out the breaks. With water found in the stream we manage to clean the brake discs. We reattach the wheel and luckily for us, all good! It took us just under an hour to cross three mud pools but we made it! I guess my advice is, buy a car with slightly higher bottom clearance when you want to do this kind of driving. And since I’m giving advice, buy a Toyota. It's easier to maintain, and get parts for here in this part of the world. We decided to skip our back up hotels and drive all the way to Tegucigalpa. This means we don’t stick to our rule of not driving at night, but the towns we cross by aren’t really appealing to us to spent the night. From the car I make a reservation in the ambassadors hotel, one of the nicer places in town, but still reasonably priced for western standards. Before reaching the hotel we are challenged with the evening rush from the capital city. At some point it feels that we cannot go forward or backwards anymore. Luckily for me Hester is driving so I can just enjoy the view. Both covered in mud we arrive at the lobby of the hotel, next to us a guy in suit checking into his hotel room. Not sure what he thought when he saw us.
Since the hostel which we booked for the other nights didn’t have space yesterday, we stayed one night in the fancy hotel. If we wanted to use the parking of the hostel we had to be early, it’s first come first serve. But since its only two houses down the road of the current hotel it's the shortest drive so far switching sleeping places. Funny as well for the guard at the Hotel. He guides Hester out of the parking of the Hotel to see her enter the parking next door. Slightly surprised he asks Hester on her way back, do you need to re-enter the hotel? Anyway the Hostel next door is nice. It's not recommended to go just anywhere in this city and we did hear some shooting (not sure if was for fun or real), but this area of town is fairly quiet. There is a ton of private security and the presence of police is high. In the afternoon we join the city walk, which is organized by the hostel. We are the only two attending, but it's nice. Eventually we get a tour of the old presidential living and from the viewing point over the river the girl who provides the tour explains us which parts of the city we should and shouldn’t visit.
We decide to stay another night in the capital. There is enough to do in the surrounding area, but we take a day off from traveling. We watch some Dutch TV and relax. Also here in Tegucigalpa the weather ain’t great, so it's a good day to relax.
With the intention of just crossing through, since there is negative travel advice for Nica, we head of to the border. Its a short two hour drive before our next adventure starts. The major downside of traveling Central America with the car is that you cross a fair amount of borders within limited amount of time, all these border crossings add up, since it isn't free to cross with the car. Also typically you can only purchase insurance for 90 days, so for many countries we have to pay for the insurance for way longer then we actually use it. But we shouldn’t complain, I do realize that :-)))! By the time we reach the border it's the 18th of November, today is travel day 145 and we are still not bored. But, I tell you honestly Honduras isn’t one of my favorite destinations. I would choose any prior country we visited above Honduras.
Comentarios