dare2go

West Honduras


West Honduras - Lago Yojoa

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The small colonial city of Comayagua was definitely worth the detour of 30 km each way and, had we been able to find somewhere quiet to sleep, we probably would have stayed more than one night. It was the capital of Honduras from 1821 (independence) until 1880 when the then president transferred it to Tegucigalpa. In the last decade a lot of money and time has been spent renovating and rebuilding the historic centre and, although there is still some work to do, it is looking really good. The cathedral is well restored and the Parque Central in front of it is a truly beautiful place to sit and watch the world go by. As part of the renovation work, the paving in front of the cathedral incorporates an exact shadow of the cathedral's façade.
When, on arrival, we went to the Palacio Municipal (City Hall) to look for tourist information, we met Hermes who works as a guard there. He also seems to be a sometime tourist guide, and took us to a hotel with a parking lot big enough for our truck. We drove him back to the centre and he then walked around the town with us, pointing out places we should go the next day. His English is quite good and he spent considerable time with us both that afternoon and the next morning. Imagine our surprise when he not only didn't ask for a tip, but also appeared not to expect one. He is very proud of his newly restored city and just seemed to want to share it with us. While there we visited the Archaeological and Historical Museum. It contains a lot of artefacts of the indigenous people of this part of Honduras, who are not Maya, but Lenca. It was interesting to notice both the similarities and differences between their work and all the artefacts we have previously seen of the Mayas. The museum has descriptions written in both Spanish and English, which is not often found, so all of it was very accessible to us. We also discovered some interesting facts about Honduras, one being that the national tree is the pine - we were definitely not surprised about that after all the pine forests we had past through so far. What we are a little surprised about is that pine trees actually grow in the tropics!
Hermes also took us into the City Hall building and offered us coffee. While there he introduced us to a colleague who started asking me about Bill Mollison as soon as he realised we were from Australia. I was quite stunned - for people who don't know, Bill Mollison is the founder of the process called permaculture and comes from Tasmania, if my memory serves me correct. This Honduran man was lamenting the fact that not enough of the information is translated into Spanish. I am always amazed when I meet people whose knowledge of Australia is more than kangaroos! Reluctantly we left this beautiful and friendly city and headed off in the direction of Gracias.
This led to our first adventure on the secondary highways of Honduras. From Lake Yojoa to Comayagua we were travelling on the highway which runs between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula - the capital and the second largest city in Honduras. Near the lake the road appeared to be quite new and was in very good condition, and the only problem was the many large trucks crawling up the steep hills and passing each other in impossible places. But the closer we got to Comayagua, the more the road deteriorated, mostly with water damage, including landslides, blocking half the road in places, and surface damage to the tar. We turned off the highway at Siguatepeque in the direction of La Esperanza, where we thought to spend the night. This road was actually an improvement on the major highway. The town, however, was really nothing special so we decided to drive on, thinking that we might even get from there to Gracias that day.
Just out of town the road suddenly changed to dirt and seemed to be nothing more than a dirt track, but we stopped and asked and we were certainly on the road to Gracias. A couple of kilometres later we arrived at a police check point just before a 'Y' intersection and asked them which road we should take. They consulted with each other and came to the conclusion that the left one would bring us to a paved road more quickly, even though both roads would take us to Gracias. We drove for almost half an hour on the worst road we had yet encountered - even worse than the road into Semuc Champey in Guatemala, except that this one was wider. Along the way, to make matters worse, it started to rain. We arrived in the small village of Yamaranguila and once again stopped to ask directions. This time I was answered in English by an American who obviously lived there. Just as we were about to drive off in the indicated direction, we were stopped by a pickup coming from that way. It held a couple of tourist police who informed us that there was a bridge out on that road and we would have to drive back to the outskirts of La Esperanza and take the right hand fork of the 'Y' instead. So we had to drive that particularly bad road twice.
From the 'Y' onwards the road didn't improve for another two hours, but the rain increased... I think we travelled about 40 kilometres on these terrible roads and it took us close to 3 hours. The rained eased a bit and we were driving down a rather steep hill which gave us a view of a village below, and of something that looked like it might be a paved road. We didn't want to get our hopes up, but when we arrived at the bottom we found that we had reached San Miguel Guandapla and the road was indeed paved. By this time it was getting close to 6.00 and we began looking in earnest for somewhere to spend the night - we don't want to be on any road after dark, even a perfectly smooth paved one. We drove to the next town, San Juan, on an almost perfect surface and found a hotel with a parking lot just as the road turned to dirt again on the outskirts of this village. We were relieved to stop because at about 5.00 that afternoon we had started looking for a level place off the road where we might be able to park and sleep if the need arose - and we are not really happy with the idea of camping by the side of the road in these countries. It makes one a bit too vulnerable in countries where the have-nots outnumber the haves by such a great margin!
The next morning we set off on a very poor road once again. We had gone maybe 3 kilometres when we were stopped by a line of trucks and various other vehicles. On walking up to the front of the stopped vehicles we discovered a mud wrestler's dream - a huge hole filled with water where the road should be and the surrounding area was almost pure mud. One truck was well and truly stuck. There were a couple of trucks full of rocks standing there and some sort of excavator that seemed to be trying to do something with the hole, and in between trying to drag the stuck truck free. Eventually one of the rock trucks dumped its load in the hole - the hole was so big it didn't seem to make much of an impact. The excavator returned to push a bit of dirt around.
We were there for 3 hours. Another load of rocks were dumped and somewhere in the middle of things a grader turned up - that was marginally more effective than the excavator. Of course, all of these efforts to get the road in some sort of usable state were constantly hampered by impatient drivers who just had to try and drive through. They would then get stuck and have to be pulled out by something larger and stronger. Not all the pickups have 4 wheel drive, so they were really getting their capabilities mixed up with their possibilities!
I got bored watching and spent a lot of the time sitting in the truck and reading. At some stage a group of Hondurans started talking to me. It was quite interesting to have a conversation in broken Spanish - one of them had some English as well. I was playing them music that I had with me because they were interested in hearing some Australian music and I ended up swapping a Yothu Yindi CD for some Merengue performed by Hondurans. They also wanted to look in the camper and were amazed that we had a bed, kitchen, bathroom and table in such a small space.
Finally the grader got the surface semi level, even though it was still very muddy, and several large 2 wheel drive trucks started to warm up their engines, so we decided to try our luck before these trucks turned the mud into a real mess again. We went through quite easily, although the last bit on a kind of sideways slide, and were very thankful for our high clearance and 4 wheel drive. We drove on hoping for pavement and it was there a few kilometres later - but not for long. For the next 10 km or so it alternated paved with unpaved until we finally hit a paved road with a good surface and even lines marked on it. We arrived in Gracias less than an hour after getting through the mud and were most relieved to find what appeared to be a very pleasant and tranquil place to stay.
The worst thing about these roads is that we didn't know far they extended and therefore had no way of knowing how long we would be on them. We have 3 maps of varying detail of Honduras and they don't seem to agree on even where the roads are, let alone what the surface is like and how many kilometres between towns. There also seems to be no logic in the choosing of pieces of road to tar. Fortunately there's very little traffic in Honduras, away from the 2 main highways, so one can mostly use both lanes to veer around the worst holes...
We had expected a bit more from Gracias. Most people come there in order to visit the Parque Nacional Celaque, which has the highest mountain in Honduras. Rain season is not really the time to visit a national park, but we had thought that the town might be more interesting. It is one of the oldest towns in Honduras and has a couple of interesting churches. The Parque Central is pleasant and the tourist information office in the middle of it is very helpful. We did climb to the Fuerte San Cristobal, which is an old fort overlooking the town, and it does give one some good views of the town. But the fort itself didn't seem to have much to offer and was apparently in the midst of restoration.
Finca Bavaria, where we were staying, seemed promising and after the first night we thought to stay a few days and relax before moving on. Unfortunately the resident dog decided to spend much of our second night whining and barking, so after 2 nights we were off toward the border, along paved roads this time, but these too had huge potholes you could almost lose a small car in! We stopped one night along the way, in a large parking lot behind a service station, and then crossed the border into El Salvador yesterday morning.
We are pleased that we decided to drive a bit further in Western Honduras because the countryside is so nice. Other than Comayagua, we were not overly impressed by the towns we visited, but the driving - even of the adventurous kind - made the journey worthwhile.


 
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