Not many photos from this stint in Honduras. If you read my earlier blog about our ill-fated run to Costa Rica, you'll know that our initial impression of the country was not very good because of the experience at the stress of El Salvador-Honduras border and then the corrupt cops. However, this time we were determined to have no problems!
Sadly, this was not the case. As we came close to the border we were surrounded by the usual flocks of people looking to "help" with our paperwork. Dan refused their offers at first, but when a border guard looked at the van's registration and declared it "no good", confiscating it along with Dan's passport, we had no choice.
It took an hour for the dude who was our rep, to convince the young border guard to accept a bribe. Dan had thought about trying to complain to a superior, but then realized that the superior seemed to be completely aware of the situation - maybe he was getting a kick-back. 40 or 50 USD later we were ready to start the paperwork to get into the country.
The young guard who was responsible for our delay let us know that he was being "nice" to us, because if he wanted he could have us impounded for 3 days while they cleared our paperwork. And the kicker is that he's right, we could have easily been subject to that kind of delay. So we swallowed that bitter pill.
In retrospect, Dan's theory was that the guy who was helping us, probably ran ahead to the border guard and told him to hold us up so that they could make some money off us. Wouldn't be surprising.
Above, I sit in the van and wonder, "Where is Dan?" Meanwhile the border's traffic flowed in and out. Truckers, mostly. It looks placid enough, but that belies the stressful situations that can arise at boarders for anyone, but more often those who are foreigners.


Drained from another crappy experience getting into Honduras. Dan and I found a motel in the first town we stopped in, to relax and shower. It was at this place that I tried my first bag of water (above). Good idea for reducing waste, I guess.


In the courtyard of the motel, there happened to be a whole bunch of folks from the United States. We found out that they were missionaries down here to do development work through a local church. As always, many projects revolved around getting people medical attention for simple problems that we have almost forgotten about in Canada and the US. Such problems as diarrhea, can easily spiral into a life threatening ailment.
Anyway, these folks were very friendly, and invited us to their parting dinner at their host's house. We accepted gratefully and piled into a large van that ferried us to his family's home. There we were treated to a wonderful spread of dishes: pork and chicken prepared in a couple ways, salads, and would you believe lobster tails? Seriously! Opulence for a couple van-bound drifters!
Above, the vultures are circling the delicious platters prepared by our host's family.


That night we had some good conversation with some of the group. Above, the following day, early, they set out for the airport to return to their homes in Atlanta.
Looking at the roll played by all development organizations down in Mexico and Central America it is obvious that the process can be a fractured and under-informed response to very serious issues. Meaning, money and the efforts of volunteers like those above can pretty much just go down the drain without making a lasting positive impact. That said, when a group like these good Christians can become connected to a community, they get to know better the needs of a specific region, and maybe can provide more effective help than simply throwing money and capital resources at problems.
Dan and I discussed the negative stigma that we have in our minds when we think of the term "missionary". Likely, this is just a product of our adverse feelings to the kind of religious zeal and paternalism that has been associated with the many Christian sects and missionary activity around the world, in the past. This is an unfair prejudice, because we have seen other world aid groups (secular groups) screw up in the past too.