We entered Honduras from Las Manos, Nicaragua. This border crossing was relatively painless if not a little bit more expensive than it should have been due to crossing on a Saturday (not actually a thing but something that they can make a thing if they feel like it…and you can’t really argue with the people with the stamps now, can you?!). It was all made easier by the fact that the extremely stern Nicaraguan customs officer totally broke his macho act when I accidently told him I was a hospital instead of a nurse…damn Spanglish!! We paid our $6 USD ($7.90 AUD) to the Honduran officials, got our stamp and wandered down the dusty road to the bus waiting on the other side. We had started our journey into the unknown and so far it was going well. The bus quickly departed for El Paraiso about 45 minutes away from the border where we were to pick up a connection to Tegucigalpa (locally known as Tegus). There was an extremely friendly older gentleman who helped us find the quicker minivans once we arrived in El Paraiso and it wasn’t long until we were on our way to the capital. Both of us were quite apprehensive about this journey but it turned out we needn’t have worried as it was simple, smooth and comfortable and by 12pm we had arrived at our hostel, Palmira (210 Lempiras/$8.90 USD/ 11.75 AUD pp/night) housed in the former Ecuadorian Embassy building. The taxi journey should have only cost us about 100L ($4.25 USD/5.60 AUD) but we were charged 150L ($6.35 USD/8.40 AUD) and felt that it was best just to get to the hostel in as quickly and easily as possible without messing around too much. The hostel was safe and secure and exactly what we needed for the night we were going to stay in Tegus. On arrival we found out that they ran a daily free walking tour of the downtown area and felt this may be the only way we would explore the city in our short time there, so we signed up. This turned out to be a great experience. It only cost us the price of the museum entrance (100 Lempiras/$6.35 USD/8.40 AUD), which included a guide for about an hour and a half. He was excellent and gave us a full run down of the history of Honduras and it’s political turmoil over the last 100 years. He had a special interest in gay rights, which of course we found the most interesting. Overall, Tegus felt a lot safer having a local with us and we’re not sure we would have gone out (other than to get food during the day) on our own. Having said that, it didn’t actually feel particularly unsafe and in hindsight I’m not sure we felt Tegus was as dangerous as it is made out to be. The following morning we had a cab (100 Lempiras/$6.35 USD/8.40 AUD) called for us to get to the bus station and we were whisked onto a bus (150 Lempiras/$6.35 USD/8.40 AUD) as soon as we got there. We had written down and explained to the bus conductor where where we wanted to go, as we were heading to Lago de Yojoa, which was not the final stop. This all seemed to be going well until we were suddenly ushered off the bus only to discover we were a full 12km from the turnoff we needed to be at to get to D&D Brewery and essentially in the middle of knowhere!! Slightly delirious from panic we managed to get directions and flagged down the next bus that came past to get us to the La Guama junction. In our panic we forgot to negotiate the cost of this short trip and ended up being charged another 100L ($6.35 USD/8.40 AUD) for the 2 of us to actually get to where we were originally supposed to get to. At the junction a bus was waiting to take us to Peña Blanca, which cost 15L ($0.65 USD/0.85 AUD). Only one leg left to go, we caved and took a mototaxi (instead of waiting for the slightly cheaper local bus) straight to D&D with the wonderful Manuel for 40L ($1.70 USD/2.25 AUD). D&D turned out to be an absolute dream and we would both say that it is definitely high on our list of ‘must-dos’ if you are visiting Honduras. It is a little complicated to get to but the location is amazing, there is loads to do, both paid for and free and everything about being there is pretty idyllic in terms of a relaxed and beautiful natural surroundings! The room we got for $15 USD ($19.75) was the best deal we had in all of Honduras. Set in a beautiful tropical garden filled with hummingbirds, we had a private room and en suite bathroom that we were sharing with only one other room. The best thing though…HOT SHOWERS!!! We were in heaven and our first decision was to extend our stay from 2 nights to 5. Having checked in and seen the prices of food in the restaurant we decided to head out and see what local food was available. We were lucky enough to be guided to the pupusa woman by Al who was staying at our hostel for the third time that year! These pupusas (a cornmeal tortilla stuffed with beans and cheese) were delicious and piled high with salad and salsa. They only cost 40L for 2 ($1.70 USD/2.25 AUD) and were enough to fill the satisfactorily fill the gap. After a great night’s sleep we decided to head down to Peña Blanca for breakfast. It was a pleasant stroll down the dusty road and a man even stopped his pickup truck to offer us a lift (we weren’t quite ready for that so we declined). Everyone we walked passed smiled and offered a friendly “Hola” and slowly our apprehensions about Honduras started to ease. It was in Peña Blanca that we got to taste what was to quickly become our favourite breakfast, baleadas. Baleadas are a large flour tortilla filled with refried beans and cheese and for meat eaters you can add chorizo or chicken. We tracked down a great little place making them fresh outside and having ordered one each we were back there minutes after finishing them for a second round. Peña Blanca didn’t have much to offer other than a market and some fried chicken shops so we headed back to D&D to chill and think about what we wanted to do while we were at the lake. It was that afternoon that we met the famous Walter we had read so much about in the reviews of D&D online. Expecting a middle-aged expat (with a name like Walter and being described as the very passionate resident ornithologist) we were stunned to find out he was a 28-year-old Honduran guy and an absolutely shameless and outrageous flirt. He spent the whole afternoon and early evening laughing and joking with us, so we swiftly booked in with him to do the birding tour on the lake the next morning ($18 USD + 10% service charge/23.80 AUD). This turned out to be a great decision because not only was Walter a lot of fun but he was an incredible wealth of knowledge on birds, and could spot even the smallest bird a mile away. We were able to see some beautiful birds skimming along the water and perched on branches near the shore of the lake and I finally had to admit…I think we really might have been becoming amateur twitchers. This was what convinced us to do Walter’s extended tour to a local private reserve as my special birthday treat from my mother in law. This would involve being guided for the day by two very experienced bird watchers and learning about what twitchers really do. We found it harder than the lake tour as we weren’t as adept at spotting, but we managed to see 81 different species that day with some major assistance from our guides, so that certainly wasn’t to be sniffed at! Other than the immense bird spotting and citing of rare treats like toucans and green jays, the best thing about this tour…we were fed three square meals, which we hadn’t had since leaving Nicaragua! It’s funny the things you really learn to appreciate when you’ve been on the road for a while. Three square meals in one day and a hot shower at the end of it and we thought all of our Christmases had come at once!! Our extended time at D&D was coming to an end but having met another long-term traveller Megan, we decided we would all head to Walter’s friends hostel in Gracias for my birthday. This would involve another complicated journey of returning to the La Guama junction, waving down a bus to La Esperanza and then getting on a bus from there to Gracias. This didn’t turn out too badly and we were there within the predicted 5 hours. Walter’s friend Angel turned out to be exactly that…when he found out about my birthday he promised to fire up his real wood-fired oven to make me one of his famous pizzas the following evening to celebrate! Another major plus was just how beautiful his hostel was. Awesome chilled out vibe and really nice rooms, with all basically brand new fixtures and fittings as he was building it up from scratch himself ($10 USD/13.20 AUD for a dorm bed and $35 USD/46.25 AUD for a double with en suite including breakfast – which was a good hearty affair). Possibly the most exciting bonus of this place which we didn’t discover until we arrived…MORE HOT SHOWERS! I’m not going to say that Gracias is the most happening place nor was it quite the ‘jewel’ the Lonely Planet made it out to be, but I had a great birthday hanging out with Dani and Megan, wandering around the colonial buildings and cobblestone streets of the town and then delighting in a fabulous margarita cocktail and a huge vegetarian pizza with a Angel and another guest from the hostel. Up early the next morning we were heading to the Copan Ruinas. This journey only involved 2 buses, one to Santa Rosa and then another to Copan. On the bus to Santa Rosa we were sat next to a highly intoxicated young man who decided that he needed to help the gringos get to Copan. Giving us updates every 5 minutes about how long we had to go (this was in between him conducting and air driving the bus from his seat in the back). Although he was really drunk he very sweetly followed us to the next bus to ensure we got on and then waved us away with a cheery “adios” before stumbling away and nearly knocking himself out on a lamppost . The next journey took 3 hours, getting us to Copan comfortably in the mid afternoon. The bus dropped us off at a small dusty layby between the ruins and Copan main town. As soon as we got off the bus we were greeted by hoards of taxi/tuktuk drivers offering to take us to the centre that was supposedly…”very far, too far!”. We had already been told that this was not true and so happily decided to go it alone on foot. This turned out to be a perfectly acceptable decision as we were a mere five minutes walk away along a flat (albeit slightly dusty) road from the entrance to Copan town. We got there without any problem but were not really up for hiking up the hill that greeted us as soon as we crossed the bridge and entered Copan. On that basis we decided to check out the first place we saw at the bottom of the hill, Hotel Patty. An initial offer of 400L ($16.80 USD/22 AUD) per night in a private double with en suite was quickly reduced to 350L ($14.70 USD/19.25 AUD) when the proprietor discovered we planned to stay for more than one night. We knew for a fact that the best deal in town was at ViaVia right in the centre, which offered a private twin/double for just $10USD a night. While there was no doubt that this was a great offer the requirement of us to schlep our bags up the hill to get there, coupled with the fact that we knew this particular location had a bit of a reputation as a party hostel meant that this guys offer at Hotel Patty was too good to pass up, so we took it! And just to sweeten the deal, once in our room we discovered that once again we had the added luxury of hot water…three locations in a row and we were starting to get used to this again!! Having dumped our bags we then hiked up the hill to the main square and found a selection of women selling wonderful looking baleadas for 10L ($0.42 USD/0.55 AUD) so we got 3 each before wandering around the charming little town that was Copan Ruinas. The plan for the next day was to get to the ruins before the 11am bird feeding when the Scarlet Macaws as well as a variety of other birds descend for their breakfast. We found it difficult to find food in the morning, which is how we stumbled across the local market and found a stall with the best 7-year-old waiter you have ever met (he was on school holidays). He was excellent and had the most amazing gappy grin. They served a great breakfast of rice, beans, avocado, eggs and tortillas fresh from the pan for 40L ($1.70 USD/2.25 AUD). After filling up, we were off to the ruins (Entrance: 345 Lempiras/$14.65 USD/19.25 AUD). It’s an easy walk from town (15-20 minutes, downhill and flat) so no need for a tuktuk or taxi. We arrived in plenty of time for the birds and it was an amazing sight seeing all the scarlet macaws out around the crumbling ancient structures. The complex is small in comparison to many other Mayan sights in Central America but what makes it so unique and subsequently unquestionably worthwhile are the intricate carvings that adorn a huge amount of the sites ruins. They really are quite spectacular! We spent a good 3 hours slowly wandering around and exploring the different areas of the excavated site. There are options to buy an additional ticket to the museum or to get an upgrade to explore a set of recently opened tunnels. Having done our research prior we decided against both of these as the museum was apparently entirely in Spanish and the tunnels were quite literally that, tunnels…not much to see and very little extra to explore. We had also chosen to explore the site without a guide as we preferred to do these kinds of things at our own pace. We did however see and hear some of the guided tours as we walked around and they seemed interesting and informative, so may be worth considering if you wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the history of the site but by no means necessary. After a lovely time spent exploring the Copan ruins we headed back to our rather fancy abode to get along with sorting out the plans for our move out of Honduras the next day and into El Salvador! Overall Honduras had been wonderful and had pleasantly surprised us at almost every stop. Tegus had felt a little bit shady in parts, but was by no means the gang and gun filled murder centre that we had it pegged as being in our heads! It’s clear that it is a city with a high crime rate as many of the buildings have very high walls, bars on windows and barbed wire. Almost all businesses come complete with stern looking armed guards attentively standing watch outside and there is an air of tension that pervades when walking through busy streets. In the downtown area it’s a different story, it just like any other downtown in any other city, normal people doing normal things. Lago de Yojoa (in particular D&D Brewery) was idyllic! A truly beautiful location with incredibly friendly people and an almost endless stream of natural wonders to keep you entertained. Gracias, while being a little under-whelming in terms of the expectation set by it’s description in the Lonely Planet is not without it charms. Perhaps not a location worth going out of your way to visit, but if it is on your route or you have a spare day or two it certainly isn’t an unpleasant place to be. For us Copan was an absolute highlight, and not just of Honduras. A lovely little town, really friendly people, great balance of local culture and tourist convenience and some of the most beautiful and well preserved ruins either of us had seen anywhere in Latin America. So many people miss out Honduras and put it into the ‘too dangerous’ category! This is a huge mistake and a total misunderstanding. It is honestly no more dangerous as a tourist than any other country in Central America and as long as you are a smart traveller you will have no problems here at all. All you will be achieving by missing out on this country is an opportunity to explore a wonderful place with a huge amount to offer the relatively few who choose to pass through! Do it now before the word gets out! LGBT: : What surprised me the most about Honduras was the accepting attitudes and the interesting conversations we had about sexuality and gender with locals. Honduras has a terrible reputation for violence against gay men in particular but we found that at least those we discussed this with (they started the conversation) really were accepting and wanting to learn more about the LGBT community. This being said it is not the safest country to travel and be openly affectionate. I felt the most comfortable here and the least closeted which I was not expecting. Officially it is illegal to discriminate based on sexuality but there is a long history of political leaders who encouraged homophobia (and racism) so exercise caution. Budget Time $$$In terms of general spending, Honduras really isn’t a particularly expensive country. We had a $25USD/person daily budget and that was comfortably enough for the trip. Over the course of our time there we stayed in a dorm, an ex-pat run lodge, a boutique local place and a budget hotel and these averaged out at about $20USD/night. Longer distance journeys cost on average $2USD/hour and local buses cost absolutely nothing! In terms of food, local places are cheap and cheerful and tasty. Pupusas, baleadas, rice and meat are available pretty much everywhere and you’d find it hard to pay more than $3-4 for a good feed! Entrance fees to local attractions (museums, ruins, churches) are totally reasonable, ranging from $1-5USD, countrywide. We didn’t visit the islands while we were there but we do know that this is some of the cheapest diving anywhere in the world and is absolutely wonderful!
What it actually cost: $596.39 AUD Accommodation: $251.57 Transport: $87.32 Food: $78.81 Miscellaneous: $70.64 Entertainment: $49.50 Souvenirs: $39.65 Drinks: $18.91 This works out at $29.82 AUD per person per day
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