Tegucigalpa "Silver Hill"

From the port of La Ceiba we had an 8 hour bus journey where we had to change at San Pedro Sula. We arrived quite late and took a taxi from the bus station. Well the capital of Honduras, once famed for its richness in silver and gold, seemed to me to be a dirty hole. On the taxi ride people were just wandering on the road and would not move and rubbish piles burned at the roadside.

Myself and one of the American lads ventured out to try and find a sports bar or somewhere to watch the footie as the World Cup was just starting - Everything around the main square was closed and the only sign of activity was some strange looking prostitutes which we declined. A taxi driver pointed us up a side street to a "locals" bar - well we walked past it twice before we went in. It consisted of a minibar like someone from Only Fools and Horses would have, a big fridge and a TV with a V shaped aerial with bad reception. A trip to the toilet involved sliding back the plastic curtain (nice!) and going in to the family bathroom (complete with toothbrushes)- there was a bucket of water next to the pot for a DIY flush. By this point we were getting some strange looks from some 80s style heavy metalers who had been arguing amongst themselves all night and decided it was time to leave.

I was pleased it was really only a one night stop off on the way out of Honduras which I'm afraid apart from Roatan did not seem to have much to offer.

We were all up bright and early next day to Taxi it (escape!) to the bus terminal. We managed to see the first half of the England game at the bus station and what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

We crossed the border into Guatemala before stopping at the Capital - Managua but supposedly just to change from a bus to a Collectivo (Public mini van taxis). The taxis claimed there were no such collectivos and took us to the chicken bus terminal (joy) - the guide spent about 20 minutes arguing with them - the police even got involved which was quite funny - I got bored by this point and found a chicken bus to Granada which the rest of the group promptly got on as it started to rain and we were blocking access to the terminal. The guide did eventually strike a "deal" with the driver and his crazy assistant to drop us at the hotel. The bus journey was quite amusing as at one stage it looked like we were never going to make it. The bus stopped and the driver and assistant dissapeared underneath - a big slick of oil appeared however they assured us that they had patched everything up and off we drove.

Well we were all very relieved when we got to the hotel..