Only 500 kilometres round trip. It can’t be all that hard ... can it? And, on top of that, we are talking about the main artery in the country. All paved.
I am sure that you have asked for directions at some time in your life and been given the answer, “You can’t get there from here.” Well, I felt like that a few times in the last couple of days.
Wednesday, we went to the AVIS office in downtown SPS and reserved a car for the next day. Easy. The girl behind the desk spoke very good English so all was in good shape.
Thursday. Left Santa Cruz at 1.00 p.m. so that I would be sure to get to the office before it closed at 5.30. The bus ride was incredibly short. Not too many people to pick up and drop off. Made it downtown with time to spare. Went to Guamalito Market (a large craft market in one half and a few aisles of tortilla makers in the other half). Went up and down to each shop seeing what is new and different and what might make a good Christmas present. Didn’t spend any money there but had a lovely time.
Walked back the kilometre to the Rental Office and was in time to check out the little car. That was good news as we were scheduled to have to take a pick up. Cheaper and more fuel efficient. Great.
After checkout – a lengthy procedure of going over every square inch to make sure that all current damages are accounted for (I find that nerve wracking because ... “What if I miss something?”) – I adjusted the seat, mirrors and steering wheel and headed out into traffic. Missed one turn – followed the sign but found out there wasn’t a second one pointing to the Airport turn off – and so took the long route to Manuel’s house.
Stefan and Manuel were ready to go and we headed to Santa Cruz. The idea was to get an early start on Friday morning. We were in S.C. by 8:00 p.m., had a supper of baleadas and came to my apartment for the night. By spreading out the top mattress, the foamy and the box spring, we all had a place to sleep. My box spring is a bit more box than spring but it didn’t take long to find the right place to lay.
Manuel’s alarm went off at 3:50 a.m. so we were up, got bathed and dressed, had a drink of hot ice tea and were out the door by 4:40. It was foggy on the roads but there was not much traffic. We were ready to pick up Chepe at his stop by 5:00 a.m. He wasn’t there as we had said 5:15. A quick phone call and he appeared in a few minutes.
The road to Tegucigulpa is twisting and turning with about ten different small mountains to wend up and down. The big trucks that carry containers from the port use this route as well as the gaudily painted wooden sided trucks piled high with oranges, bananas and sacks of maize and beans. Long lines of traffic collect behind these vehicles in the steep parts and then the challenge of passing them begins.
We covered the first 100 km in just over two hours and stopped for breakfast. The roadside cafe had breakfast all ready in warming pans and so we quickly got beans, scrambled omelette with tomatoes and peppers, a slice of ricotta type cheese, a big scoop of butter (to go with the beans – new one for me) and a few tortillas. Fresh orange juice and it was all there.
With only seventy km or so to go, I was cheerful about the rest of the trip. The approach to the city was uneventful and we were ready to tackle the ring road – map in hand. Alas. The ring road has three sections, each with a different name. However, none of those three names from our map appeared on the green signboards at each exit. Manuel did a masterful job of trying to spot anything alongside the road that would give us clues as to where we were on the map. Despite that, we took three wrong exits and had to do some inventive turning to get back on track. Asking taxi drivers wasn’t always that useful as they tend to stick to one route and ply that route without ever really knowing the rest of the city. As well, most people standing by the road don’t drive so only know which bus to take.
We got to the bottom of the high hill (mountain) and began the climb up to the office where our meeting was. There is a large Christ figure on the mountain – we’ll stop for the photo next time – but we missed that turn off. With fifteen minutes to spare we made it to the office. 4.5 hours for 200 km. Don’t do the math. It’s too discouraging.
After a productive meeting we wound our way back down the hill. We caught up with a flat bed carrying an old box from a big semi. It hung out over the back at an angle and, regularly, a young man with a wooden stick had to carefully lift the electrical and telephone wires that swooped over the road. I got by them as quickly as possible – didn’t want to be behind the fireworks.
We went in to the city centre to look for a GPS unit. The streets are narrow and shops crowd the narrow sidewalks. Traffic is one way and moves at a snail’s pace. Again, the street signs – painted, sometimes, on corner buildings, did not correlate with our map (who drew the thing?). Despite that, Manuel and Chepe found the store we were looking for. Amazing.
We almost stopped for lunch at one street because we could see a small truck on fire and it looked like reasonable entertainment. Certainly the stores were emptying out with customers carrying plates to enjoy the free road show.
Getting out of the city was only fraught with one wrong turn off – 25 minutes of stop and go traffic to get back the four blocks. The double negative in English gets in the way when you are trying to communicate and translate at the same time as drive in heavy traffic in a strange city. Sigh. Good news – no bumps – the really important thing.
Supper/lunch was along the road again. We left Comayagua just as dusk settled and, unfortunately, the rain began. Fortunately, it was only a light rain but it still slowed things down considerably. The car had to be back before 10 p.m. at the airport in San Pedro Sula and I kept doing the math in my head and it got progressively tighter as we crept along at 30-40 km/hour. Occasionally we would break through and have a mind boggling stretch of 60-70 km and my hopes would soar. The first 100 km section after supper was not well marked so it was a challenge to see the road when meeting traffic. What a relief to hit the well marked section close to the Santa Cruz area. Traffic picked up and the clock slowed down. We dropped Chepe off and headed for the last 80 km. There are two routes into SPS and we took the one that is a bit longer but has no traffic. Phew. We buzzed along and were at the airport with plenty of time to spare.
The lady at the airport was nice but was going to charge me for an extra day because I was two hours too late. I had told the office that I would be late and nothing had been mentioned then. With some pleading the lady just put down that the car had arrived at 6:00 p.m. and all was well. Phew.
We took a taxi to Manuel’s house and within ten minutes I was asleep on a mattress in the living room. At 6:30 a.m I was on my way for the final leg – rapiditos and bus back to S.C. Home with hot chocolate in hand by 10:00 a.m.
You can get there from here.
Bryan
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