19 October 2010

When I left Costa del Sol in the morning all my clothes were laid out inside the car because they had not yet dried. The road to Honduras led through the winding mountains around San Vincente past the volcano through the city and up more steep mountains. The road led past incredible vistas of San Vincente and farmlands and valleys. In San Miguel I stopped to get my oil changed. The guy in charge spoke good English because he had lived in Joplin Missouri for three years. He only left because his girlfriend cheated on him with his uncle. El Salvadorans rake out long patches of corn on the side of the road for reasons I do not know.

At the border in El Amatillo I stopped behind a long line of trucks and my car was immediately swarmed by five or six men clamoring to help me cross the border. Flashing their badges and shouting in Spanish. One man spoke English and told me to follow him past the line of semis. He hopped in the back of a pickup and we headed toward the border. The trucks weren’t moving or being waited on at all. I showed my papers to customs and proceeded to the immigration then across the border to Honduras.

I was led to customs where the guy who took me across the border left, vanished and another guy appeared. It was this guy who led me to where I needed to go and helped me photocopy all the documents. The Honduras customs agent needed several copies of everything he handed to me in addition to the photocopies of my documents  I already had. I am glad I made copies of everything in the U.S. but they are still not enough. I did not want to hire a tramitador but I would not have known where to go as each office was in a different building so I happily gave the guy L200 which is $10. Then the guy that disappeared showed up wanting money too. After a long back and forth hassle I begrudgingly gave him L25 or $1. After getting my vehicle sprayed for insects, handing my paperwork to the police, and having the police inspect my vehicle again, I was able to drive into Honduras.

The road is very good and there are not many potholes. Twice I was pulled over by transit police. Each time they wanted money or a gift but they let me go without me giving them either.

In San Lorenzo I spotted two Mormon missionaries and did a sharp u-turn to ask for directions to the nearest ATM. The missionary seemed surprised to see me but gave me directions to the grocery store where the ATM is located.

After withdrawing enough money I headed south to Cedeño which is on a large bay surrounded by mountains. The hotel here is bare minimum. The shower and bathroom are separate from the rooms and instead of a shower I will have to scoop water with a bowl and pour it over myself. Along the beach I found  dead sea-turtle. I asked for directions to the internet cafe but the man was wrong. There is no internet cafe here. But there are two video game cafes. In one of them children were crowded around a Super Mario Bros 3 arcade machine. For dinner I had camarones and huevo tortugas which were served as a spicy drink and not cooked in any way. Very slimy and disgusting but I was able to down two of the three eggs.

There is a man here who lived in Charlotte, Connecticut, Texas, and other places in the U.S. for ten years. Eating dinner and watching the sunset is beautiful and relaxing. Cedeño is on the Golfo de Fonseca. There was a tiny frog in the bathwater. At the border many people called out “Osama Bin Laden!” So I won’t be getting away from any stereotypes or laughs about my beard. I hope this does not turn into a problem.

I played pool next door to the hotel for about two hours. I did not realize how early it was. We played American pool and nine-ball and Honduras pool which is like nine-ball but with all the balls. They set up the balls like this:

(the handwritten journal has a drawing here)

and you shoot them in in order. I paid for every game but it was real cheap so I didn’t mind. One of the ladies who works there used to live in Memphis in the early eighties. I had to wake up the owner of the hotel to get back in and I asked here for another, larger blanket. There was a huge toad in the room where the blankets are kept. Earlier the parking attendant offered me a girl to sleep with but I declined. There is no way to lock the room from the inside so I placed a chair against the door.