| Mar 31, 2006 - Some days are better than others
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 | | Home for tonight | | Yes, another frickin sunset |
| Hola from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Today was one of those days where ordinary travel morphed into adventure. We expected to be in Honduras this evening, but the boat we were supposed to take this morning from Placencia, Belize to Puerto Cortes, Honduras was cancelled because of rough seas. This caused us some concern, as the next boat was scheduled to leave in a week. Not being easily deterred, we figured out an alternative route: water taxi from Placencia to Independence, bus from Independence to Punta Gorda, boat from Punta Gorda to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, then possibly another bus into Honduras. Aside from the waiting times, the water taxi and bus portions went fine. The boat trip was another story, however.
Our boat was about the same size as the 12 foot lanchas we rode across Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, but this time we were going to cross open ocean. The folly of this became apparent when they gave us lifejackets and insisted we wear them. After we boarded the boat, they gave us large sheets of blue plastic with which to cover ourselves. They turned out to be very important. The seas were very rough. As soon as we left, we began to get doused by increasingly larger splashes. We had a very bumpy ride. Even with the plastic sheet, I got very wet, although I managed to keep my daypack dry. The turbulence eventually got to a woman sitting behind John. She vomited in the boat about two-thirds of the way through the hour long trip. My only moment of panic came when I looked to my left and saw a wall of water that dwarfed the boat. Luckily, that wave missed us and we arrived in Puerto Barrios safely. We decided to overnight here in Puerto Barrios rather than continue on another bus - wet, hungry, etc.
I think this town sees few tourists. We got a lot of stares as we walked around tonight. It is also obvious that this town is long past it's heyday. It is a dirty, smelly, rundown old port town with more brothels than decent hotels. We found a cheap place to sleep but it has the same character as the town itself. Not that it was all bad here. We found a restaurant on the bay and had one of our better meals of the trip. Regardless, I think we will both be glad to get out of this place tomorrow. |
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