Day 2, November 1, 2010

Today we are traveling from the capital, Tegucigalpa, to a town on the northern coast, Puerto Cortez, to pick up the container that was shipped from the US almost three weeks ago.  Apparently the port is being investigated for corruption so everything is taking longer than usual – even by Latino time standards.  I helped load it in the US and now I’m here to help pick it up and load.  I’m glad it was late because it gave me an opportunity to go to the coast so soon.  (Note from the future: This trip would eventually take 2 full days.  Getting access to the container took about 35 phone calls.  We met up with a local pastor there, Hmo. Juan Carlos Garcia, pastor in San Pedro Sula.  He handled all the phone conversations.  Bro. Schreckhise could have easily done that but when port officials see that an American is involved they want more money. J  We spent a lot of time waiting in the truck over those two days.  We eventually got the container and got back to Tegucigalpa after midnight on Tuesday night.)   

Contrast

Honduras is about 80% mountains.  Tegucigalpa itself is built in the middle of a bowl that is surrounded by mountains.  I don’t think there’s a flat piece of ground in the whole city.  The drive was constant turning and constant ups and downs. 

The drive to Puerto Cortez was a strange mix of beauty and poverty.  The countryside is amazingly beautiful – more than I’ll be able to describe here and in some ways more beautiful than any I’ve seen in the US.  It’s rainy season now so the mountains are covered with green.  It makes for some really beautiful sights.  On the mountain roads you can see so far, can look down over cities.  It’s really relaxing on the eyes.  You can feel the stress melting away.  It’s been my favorite part of the trip so far.

All along the way there are little shanties built in groups along the mountain side.  They are extremely small and poorly constructed with whatever is available.  They are built right on the side of the mountain.  Often the people who live there are squatters.  They just build wherever they find a spot.  The contrast is that the people who live there are in EXTREME poverty but they have the richness of a natural beauty right out their window.  Land with views like this would go for mega-bucks in the US. 

Driving

Driving (or riding in my case) is quite an experience in Honduras.  I am not exaggerating when I say that it seems that there are no traffic laws.  Everything that I would have thought would be a traffic law I’ve seen broken many times in one short trip.  (The concept of traffic cops doesn’t really exist here.  The only time I’ve seen police so far is when a truck full of armed policias passed us to retake the main exit out of town that had been taken over by protestors.  They have more important things to worry about than traffic laws.)  Mainly it seems people just try not to run into each other and everything else is fair game.  The concept of lanes is pretty fluid.  We were coming southbound down a mountain and we turned two lanes into three on a mountainside today.  We were passing another southbound 18-wheeler on a mountain road when we met another from the north.  The two southbound trucks moved to the outside and the northbound truck went in between us.  Nobody seemed to think it was a big deal.  Although the driving here is insane, there’s no rage or indignation like in the US when someone breaks the “rules”. 

Bro. Schreckhise is a master at this kind of driving, cutting all sorts of corners, passing in crazy situations, etc.  I pointed this out to him and asked if everyone drives as aggressively as him.  He said, “Well, I’ve got a bigger vehicle than them, so . . .”  It kinda’ sums up the attitude about driving here.  Just don’t get hurt or hurt anyone else.  Make up the rest as you go. 

More about the drive

The sights along the roadside were interesting.  Much of the road was carved thru rock, leaving long stretches of flat, high rock walls along the way.  People paint billboards on the rock.  Mostly political.  “So-and-so for presidente”.  I even saw “Jesus for Presidente” a few times. 

There’s a lot of selling along the roadside – oranges, bananas, plantains, some fruit I’ve never heard of, honey, freshly caught tilapia on strings and other fish.  Cows and horses are all along the side – sometimes tied up sometimes not.  We almost hit a cow driving at night.