We’ve been in Honduras about 10 days now and finally our budget has stopped taking a beating! Honduras is much cheaper than Belize, Cuba and Mexico. however it wasn’t at all fun getting here. “Oh look!” I said as a realised that there was a boat from Placencia in Belize straight across the nay to Puerto Cortez in Honduras “and it only takes 2 hours” how foolish I was to believe the guide books.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been travelling with Phill and Sue, a lovely couple we met for 90 minutes during the Trinidad and Tobago game when we were in Mexico. We met up again in Belize and are planning on getting down to Nicaragua together. Now then, we boarded the boat together at 9.30am, Phill and I loosely planning that we’d be in Honduras by 12noon, and get on a bus to the coastal town of Tela, arriving by tea time. Oh how wrong we were. After setting off from the jetty with 10 people on board we stopped in another small town and picked up 55 more, plus luggage. We didn’t get off the boat, and then we waited, for immigration, then we waited some more, and then a bit more. We didn’t actually set off for another 4 hours.

On our overloaded 3 engine ferry (engine number one was out) so our handicapped ferry that was carring too many people and too much luggage took 4 hours to make the crossing, rather than the standard 2. Then guess hat happens 5 miles from Honduras. We ran out of petrol. great. So now we are rolling around in the ever increasing swell, at least 15 people throwing up over the sides of the boat, the captain franticly waving a large flag at the coast line and constantly trying his (probably broken) radio. Eventually after 30 minutes we were informed that a boat was on its way with petrol. Then guess what on its way out to us, that broke down as well, finally one made it too us and we were on our way. We arrived in Honduras marginally before nightfall after another hour wait for passport control.

Although it was such a nightmare of a journey, someone pointed out, that we were in the third world, and this is what we should expect. However, Dolly kindly pointed out tat we weren’t paying third world prices at 35quid a person, and that was the local price!

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