La Ceiba and Tegucigalpa travel diary

By now we had given up on the aim of finding white beaches and crystal-clear sea and just wanted a bit of rest and tranquillity, since we had been wandering aimlessly for two weeks. For La Ceiba too we had the name of a little place to sleep, and so, getting into a taxi, we had ourselves driven to our destination. The place was called Amsterdam and once we arrived the spectre of the Roatan chicken coop reappeared: this time it was too much, we could no longer put up with living conditions like those. Fortunately next door was another hostel that offered something more like a dwelling in the true sense of the word, and so we decided that the time had come to return to a more dignified life. We were about ten metres from the beach, to which we gave a fleeting glance since we already knew it would not be worthy of note.

We trusted that the city could offer us something better, being one of the largest in the country... this time our expectations were not disappointed. We found ourselves in an adorable and quiet seaside resort, just what we were looking for to recover from the odyssey we had left behind us. La Ceiba, famous for its carnival which unfortunately we missed by a few days, is a pleasant little town, lively during the day and rather peaceful at night with some delightful little spots along the main road. Don't imagine a place where you can go wild, but more simply a welcoming place where it's easy to feel at ease. We spent a couple of days in this city, although we would have spent a few more, but time was running out.

We had in fact decided, in the grip of despair, to bring forward our departure from Honduras by a week, and we had only a few days left to visit the capital, from which we would take the plane to Peru.

We left La Ceiba for the capital, aboard a tourist bus that took us to our destination in about four hours. Actually the terminal was in a small town on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa and given the time, the only useful means to reach the capital was a taxi. So sharing the car with another English tourist we arrived in the city centre and set off in search of accommodation. Thanks to a little booklet in the possession of our taxi companion we found a hostel right in the centre and that offered prices that suited us. Having rung the bell we were welcomed by a suspicious gentleman with a marked American accent who, opening an endless series of padlocks, showed us into the lobby.

The place suited us: it was a sort of prison-house barricaded everywhere by iron bars that even ran along the upper part of the inner courtyard: a fortress! Having dropped off our bags we went to take a first look at the main square with the intention of withdrawing some cash. It didn't prove easy at all, so much so that in the end we had to give up and explain to our landlord that we would only be able to pay the next day. Fortunately Johnny Padlock (as we nicknamed our landlord given his fixation with locks) proved accommodating and we were able to enjoy an excellent dinner with the little money we had left in our pockets. We stayed in the capital for four days spent visiting countless little markets and the main streets of the centre, the inevitable cathedral and one of the most important commercial streets of the capital where we went to spend an evening.

As in La Ceiba, our stay in Tegucigalpa also proved pleasant, partly reconsidering our negative impression of this country. The premises had by now matured for leaving Central America and making a big leap further south with destination Lima, Peru. Having left the prison-hostel early in the morning we headed to the international airport where our flight was waiting for us, which we nearly risked missing.

Despite the large advance with which we had presented ourselves at check-in, the bureaucratic delays of Taca (the airline chosen for our flights in Central America) held us beyond the boarding limit: a scandal! Even when everything seemed by now to have gone well, suddenly a further mockery: paying thirty dollars each to leave the country: what a rip-off! With our wallet lightened by another ninety dollars we boarded our plane which shortly afterwards took off bound for Peru.