The best laid plans of Chris and Joy

We got up early that Tuesday morning to catch a 6 a.m. bus from Somoto to the border in Honduras. Our goal was to make it to Copan in Honduras at around 6 p.m. that night. Our travel plans were SUPER aggressive and pretty unrealistic, but we had been lucky so far. Maybe our luck would continue.

The first leg of our trip was from Somoto to the border of Honduras, only 20 kilometers away. No way that would take more than 30 minutes, right? Wrong! Our bus driver left 15 minutes late and then decided to pick up every single person on the side of the road, which added another 30 minutes to our ride. Ugh. We needed to get to Tegucigalpa by 1 p.m. at the latest in order to catch the last bus to Copan that left at 2 p.m.

It was already after 8 a.m. when we crossed the border in to Honduras. Now we needed to catch a shuttle from the border to our next destination: San Marcos, Honduras, where we had to then catch a bus to Tegucigalpa and then onward to Copan.

We saw the shuttle we needed to take parked about 100 yards from where we crossed the border. The driver was enjoying a leisurely breakfast on the hood of the van while about 20 people were waiting for him. I have really tried to be more patient on this trip, but this was about to make my head explode!!!

Finally, after about 20 minutes, Our hombre hambre finished his breakfast and decided to pick up our group. BUT after he shoved us all in, he decided the shuttle wasn´t full enough, so he waited until a couple more people ... and then a couple more people showed up before we could leave!

So, after the driver shoved half the population on Honduras on to the shuttle, we were off on our hour trip to San Marcos. We still hoped we could make it to Copan by 6 p.m.

We made it to the cute little town of San Marcos at around 9:30 a.m. We hopped off and immediately headed to the bus station to catch the next bus to Tegucigalpa. The next one left at 10 a.m., which would get us to Tegucigalpa at around 2 p.m. Our dream of getting to Copan at 6 p.m. that day was crushed. :(

We came to terms with staying in Tegucigalpa for a night. We would just catch the first bus out of the city the next morning and get to Copan before lunch. ¡Nunca problema!

The bus ride to Tegucigalpa was long and stressful, but we were at least on a big bus with A.C. Lots of questions raced through our heads... What if there was no bus to Copan for the rest of the week? What if we had to stay in Teguc for all of Semana Santa??

We had heard that Tegucigalpa was crappy place, but it was more than crappy. Smog ominously settled over the haphazardly built city as we drove down through the surrounding mountains. Traffic at mid-day was like L.A. but scarier Our bus pulled into what looked like a street but there were so many buses, cars and vendors scattered every which way, who knew if it was a street of parking lot.

We grabbed our bags, hopped off the bus, and looked for the oldest cabby we could find.

We found an elderly gentleman with a limp and barely any teeth to take us to the big bus station. We asked about buses to Copan and he just kept asking if we had a reservation. Uh oh.

So we get to the bus station and there was no line. Yes! We headed to the counter and asked for two tickets to Copan early the next morning. The kid selling tickets tells us there is no bus. Okay, no bus in the morning we think. We ask him if there is one in the afternoon. Nope. Okay. Panic is setting in. When is there a bus, we ask him?? There is NO bus to Copan for the rest of the week! Crap. It was happening!

We scrambled to come up with plan B. We decided to buy tickets to San Pedro, Honduras, and once in San Pedro, we would try and buy tickets to Copan. There was no guarantee that tickets to Copan would even be available, but we had to try. Oh, by the way, San Pedro has the title of being the HIV/AIDS capital of Central America, and has one of the highest crime rates and gang problems of any city in Central America. Sounds like a swell place to spend a few nights, no?

We bought our over-priced first-class tickets to San Pedro and walked out of the bus station, heads down, and nerves shot, into the terrifying streets of Tegucigalpa.

I love cities. Really. I want to give every place I go a chance before I judge it, but the area we were in in Teguc was terrifying, dirty, and ugly. Even in broad daylight I felt vulnerable walking around. People starred at us. We stuck out like terrified white sore thumbs with giant backpacks.

We scurried about looking for a decent place to stay, and settled on a hotel based on the recommendation of a local coconut vendor. The place wasn´t bad, if you could get past the bars on the window and bullet proof glass surrounding the convience store next door.

We hunkered down in our room after making a run for a diner two doors down the road for dinner. It was only 7 p.m. but we just wanted to go to bed, wake up and get our stressful journey over with.

We made our way out of our hotel room at 7 a.m. to head to the station for our 8 a.m. bus, when we opened the hotel door, we were greeted by hundreds of people waiting for buses that were crammed onto the street in front of our hotel. People were yelling, cars were honking, it was getting ugly. So much for it being Holy Week! We put our heads down and plowed through the crowds.

We had no problems getting our expensive bus to Copan. I guess sometimes it does pay to buy the more expensive bus ticket.

We tried to enjoy our 4-hour luxury ride in our bus with AC, movies and snacks along the way, but we were troubled by our unknown traveling future.

As we headed into San Pedro we became more anxious. Time to put on our game face.

The San Pedro bus station was HUGE and intimidating. Hundreds of people were waiting in large masses that were apparently lines to buy tickets. Everyone was shouting and trying to shove closer to the ticket window. We were the only gringos in sight, too. This was not looking good.

We finally found a ticket window selling tickets to Copan, and thankfully, there were NO people! We bought two tickets to Copan before the woman behind the counter changed her mind and told us she was sorry but buses to Copan were all sold out.

We grabbed our tickets and held on to them like Charlie held on to his Golden ticket. We had two hours to wait, which gave us a small taste of Sand Pedro. Glad we were leaving!

We posted up by the area where our bus would be arriving about 30 minutes before our departure. We met a couple of terrified young guys who were traveling to Copan as well. They were very thankful to find some other backpackers! We stuck together and waited to see what kind of bus we´d be riding in. We prayed for a tourist bus but knew better. A chicken bus rounded the corner toward the station and everyone around us surged toward the waiting area. Chris and I were not messing around. We were getting a seat, damnit. I didn´t care who I had to push out of the way!

We had strategically placed ourselves at the front of the group and the minute the bus doors opened, I pushed my way through. I sadly had to push and old woman holding a kid out of the way, someone elbowed me in the ribs, but still we pushed. Everyone was laughing, which made the whole scene comical rather than troubling, fortunately. As I finally made my way up the bus steps, the girl in front of me fell and couldn´t get up. I grabbed her and picked her up and pushed. She scrambled up, and grabbed the nearest seat. Chris was way behind me, but I pushed my way through, grabbed a seat, and through my bag down to save a spot for Chris. Yes! I did it. We didn´t get screwed out of a seat like usual.

After all the pushing was through, and everyone had made it on the bus, we looked around and ... everyone had a seat. Everyone. Why the hell were we pushing?! Hilarious.

So we had made it over several hurdles and were on our way to Copan. FINALLY. We didn´t care that we were on a crowded sweaty school bus, at least we were on our way.

Spirits were high and the scenery was beautiful as we made our way into North Central Honduras. Chris and I had almost forgotten that we had NO place to stay when we actually got to Copan. Shit. We grabbed our guide book and picked out a few promising places to stay. One of them had to have availability even during Semana Santa.

About an hour away from Copan the sky turned black and clouds started to churn. A light rain started to fall. After about 30 minutes the light drizzle turned into a down pour. As we pulled up to the bus stop in Copan, it was a full-on torrential down pour.

It was pouring down rain, we were in a strange town at night, and we had no place to stay. Perfect!

We grabbed bags and started to run toward the center of town where all the hotels were located. As we approached the town center, our stomachs. dropped. People were pouring out of hotel doors. Everyone was trying to get a room. Now things were really bad. Were we going to have to spend the night in a park??? As we were running around frantically, a small man in a poncho approached us and told us to follow him. The poor guy had barely any teeth and managed to emit and odor even during a rain storm, but still, we followed him. What other choice did we have?

I was a little freaked out when he took us down a dark cobblestone road, but as continued we headed toward a building with large wooden arched gates as an entry way. We ran through the entry way, and were greeted by a row of perfectly nice little hotel rooms. Two other girls were trying to bargain for a room. The owner new he had the advantage. They sadly couldn´t afford the room, but Chris and I didn´t care what he was going to charge, we were gonna pay!

The owner asked for $35 but bargained him down to $28 a night. We grabbed the key, through down our bags, and fell onto our bed. YES. We made it!!!

We were starving and the owner recommended a good restaurant down the road. We happily ran out to grab money and some food. As we walked down the road, suddenly everything went dark. A power outage... very typical, but not ideal at this time. We had $2 to our name and needed cash badly. Of course now none of the ATMs would be working without electricity. I wanted to sit and cry.
We continued to scurry about trying to figure out what to do, when finally the lights came back on. We grabbed cash from an ATM and headed out quickly to grab some grub. By the time we made it to the restaurant, the electricity had gone out again, but no worries. We enjoyed a nice candlelit dinner that first night in Copan. Our traveling adventures to Copan had wiped us out, so we headed back early to our hotel for a hot shower, clean bed, and cable t.v.