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Honduras - Diving, Drive-by shootings and three-in-a-bed
When we began our travels no one mentioned that we would be spending the majority of our time waking up at some ridiculously early time in the morning as all public transport seems to leave at 4am! The most basic mode of transport in central America are old American school buses, affectionally known as "Chicken Buses" and people do actually bring chickens on the buses as well as pet rabbits, goods to trade across borders, car batteries etc. They basically stop every 100m to pick up/drop people off - most of the time they don't actually stop - they just drive slowly - probably because they wouldn't start again if they did!! They're not the most luxurious form of transport but quite an experience all the same. However, where possible we've been upgrading to the luxury 1st class coaches - they might not be as authentic but they're a LOT more comfortable and usually 2-3 hours quicker!!! (Paddy also likes the fact that you get free biscuits!)
Our first stop in Honduras was Copan Ruins - one of the major Mayan cities which is famed for its carvings. As a site it's very impressive and the main plaza it very picturesque although not as impressive as Tikal. We stopped off en-route to the Bay Islands - another Caribbean island renowned for it's fantastic coral reef and cheap diving. Debs took the plunge and also completed her PADI open water diving course - thankfully before Paddy told her he'd seen a fish as big as him whilst out on a dive otherwise it's doubtful she would have got back in the water!! After 4 days here it was time to move again, this time to the capital of Honduras - Tegucigalpa, en-route to Nicaragua. We arrived in Teguci just before nightfall and had the delight of passing a drive-by shooting on entering the city - not a good sign! The night got progressively worse as we were forced to eat at a dodgy cafe - the closest to our dodgy hotel as this was NOT an area to be going exploring!!! At 1am we woke to find a massive cockroach on the wall and a few minutes later we found it's friend under our mosquito net. Debs did a mighty impressive dive onto the floor and a lot of flapping. Paddy freed the offending roaches (and their several friends) and peace was restored. Definitely not a travelling high point though!!! The final insult was that Paddy got food poisoning from the dodgy cafe's dodgy kebabs! Not great before a day's travelling on chicken buses!! All part of the experience I suppose! Anyway, we were VERY glad to leave Honduras and on Sunday 1st July we crossed the border into Nicaragua.....
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