Central America!

Hard to believe that time goes by so quickly, but it has been almost 6 months since I have returned from South America, so it seems like a great time to be heading to Central America! I meant to finish up my blog posts from the end of my trips in Peru and Southern Chile, but I guess that can wait a little longer- hopefully I will be better this time around!

I arrived in Honduras today, after a long but (luckily) uneventful trip. 3 hours to Houston, 3 hours in the airport, 3 hours to San Pedro Sula, 3 hours waiting for the bus, 3 hour bus trip to La Cieba, which is where I am staying tonight. Tomorrow I will take the early ferry over to the island of Utila where my sister has been living for the last 9 months! She is a scuba diving instructor now, and I fully intend on taking advantage of the perks that come with that! The plan is to spend a couple of weeks there and then travel through mainland Honduras, down through Nicaragua and finally a couple of weeks in Costa Rica before flying back home from there.

Not a lot to report so far. My first taxi driver of the day became very chatty after I said I was from California. He had a lot to say about Arnold Schwarzenegger's infidelities, and then asked about the other senators who solicit sex online and Tiger Woods and all his disasters. He explained that here that is unconscionable, but upon further reflection shared that a lot of leaders here are caught stealing money or misplacing funds, and locals don't always see that as a deal breaker. Pick your poison, I suppose.

I opted for the expensive bus today after doing some online research and discovering auto accidents are a huge problem here, and this company apparently has a much better safety records than the others. That seemed worth the $12 ticket compared to the $5 the others cost! Plus it was gloriously air conditioned and they gave us free snacks. We drove through a lot of agricultural areas, mostly palm and banana plantations. Things here are lush and green, though the livestock are all on the emaciated side. Everyone I have encountered so far has been very nice and helpful (except for all the people working for Continental Airlines in SFO! So unnecessary!). The first person I met at the hostel is from Chile and we had a nice chat about what has been going on there.

It is humid and sticky here. I bought an ice cream and a pineapple juice for dinner. Am really looking forward to making it to Utila tomorrow and seeing my sister!