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The Shock of Shops
It was time for us to finally say goodbye to Utila, once the parcel had arrived. A sad farewell of the Kulak Gustavo was had and a farewell to Charlie and Antonia. The kulak looked fit to burst into tears but Lisa’s and Charlie’s concern was reserved for the criminal getting on the ferry with us. He was sandwiched between two police officers, which might have diminished our fears had they been similar to British police officers; they weren’t. The police sat contentedly talking to other passengers and laughing and joking with the handcuffed prisoner, and leaving their station to mingle around the boat. We were glad when the boat docked at the mainland and we escaped from the prisoner and the somewhat corrupt police. We took a collectivo taxi (with other people) and went straight to Banana Republic Guesthouse on the outskirts of La Ceiba.
The guesthouse was pleasant and we took two beds in a spacious dorm with giant personal wardrobes and an ensuite, which to our surprise contained the first bath we have seen on our travels. We eventually met the only other person in the room, who was a Canadian with more time than brain cells and had no idea what he was doing there but was going to be there for the next 6 months.
We only had one night here and so spent the day avoiding the town and walked to the industrial estate on the outskirts. To our delight there was an extremely large, modern and clean shopping centre. Here there were many shops, coffee shops and a food hall. We were amazed and spent all our time browsing one shop called ´Carrion´, which spanned 3 floors and had a shoe outlet and factory outlet separate. This shop was like a poor person’s Debenhams and sold almost everything you could ever desire and all the stuff you would never let pass into your ownership. We treated ourselves to a little bit of Burger King just to make us feel human again. Adjacent to this shopping centre was an extremely large Supermarket, which stocked so many varieties of fruit and veg we almost passed out. The shock we experienced from coming from a small island, where the very limited fruit and veg was wrinkled and a little bit old, to a large supermarket with seemingly endless supplies of bright shiny delicious looking fruit was incredible.
We decided to return to the Shopping Centre before we departed for Tegucigalpa the next morning. Lisa decided to phone home as it was her Dad’s birthday that day. Unfortunately the lazy Kulaks conspired against us and wouldn’t open the shops before 10am on a Saturday. This meant Charlie couldn’t buy a lovely 80s style lilac mask and matching snorkel set that he had his eye on the day before! We couldn’t risk turning up late at the bus station so we decided to leave and continue the shopping adventure in Panama.
Final thoughts: We never saw the real La Ceiba but we enjoyed the civilization of the shopping centre but the experience was marred by lazy kulaks.
Mark out of 10: 6
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