Camp Raided by Niños, Talgua Cave, Drive from Catacamas to Danli, Brief Chat with Illegal Immigrants – 20220729

I woke up from camping like a million times throughout the night. Dogs barked on the hour every hour with one dog running right up to my tent and barking directly at my tent for a full 15 minutes. Chickens started screeching at midnight and then again at 4am. Around 2am my camelback which I was using as a pillow decided to leak out all at once and I spent the rest of the night soaking wet.

I got up around 5 or so and laid down until 6. I then pulled everything up and tried to set up some things to dry. I went to a hammock near my camp to read a little and after a while I heard the distinct sound of little niños yelling, “gringooooo, donde estaaaaas gringooooo?”

My little buddies that I made the night before came to check to see if I was still alive. I then hung out with the little kiddos as they grilled me with questions and ran around with my gopro.

I finished packing and headed to Talgua caves around 8 or so and arrived before they had officially opened. I was talking to the guides outside for a bit about the same things as usual. How big the bike is, where I came from and such. Then they started talking about the fact that I couldn’t ride around with another guy on the back. I had no idea what they were talking about so pried a little bit. Turns out that in most of the big cities in Honduras it’s illegal for 2 guys to ride together but not a guy and a girl because there were too many teams of guys going around shooting people and stealing things. Pretty damn interesting. I had never heard that as a rule before.

I did the cave hike which cost 230 lempiras($9) with a guide and I’m pretty sure a guide was required. I walked through in about an hour with Mario and we talked about some stuff and the caves. I’ve never smelled anyone in my life who more successfully put on deodorant. I would trail 20 feet behind him and still smell nothing but deodorant.

They were pretty neat caves but kind of ruined by the construction through it. It would be a much better experience without all the concrete and lights on the walls. After recently doing the hike through the caves in Semuc Champey I felt rather unimpressed.

After going through the caves I set a rough course for Danli and aimed to take the less traveled road there. It was a pretty rough road and would end up taking me all day and a ridiculous amount of energy. I stopped once for lunch and the people weren’t too friendly. It seems like the easiest meal to find here is just fried chicken with some salad on the side. It’s much more difficult finding places to eat here than it was in Mexico or Guatemala. I can go hours without seeing a restaurant.

It’s also pretty sad to see the dogs here. They are all starving. Really raggedy and no one seems to feed them. I had the idea today to carry around some treats and maybe some apples for horses as I see horses absolutely everywhere here.

I finally arrived in Danli and checked into Hotel La Esperanza for 230 lempiras($9). I used iOverlander to find it and I’m finding it to be an amazing resource for finding hotels on the motorcycle. Way easier than sifting through google and previous travelers will mention the price which is almost impossible to find on google.

I checked in and the front desk lady was super sweet. The room was alright and I went to fill my water bottle. I ended up talking to this girl for a bit and she is trying to travel to the US as an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. She was talking about how awful the passage was, especially through the Darien Strait or whatever it’s called. The area between Colombia and Panama.

Apparently, it takes 8 days and the “Indians”(their words) there kill and rape people for their things and for pleasure. Pretty awful stuff. I wanted to ask more about it but she got distracted by her friend and disappeared. I am hoping to ask more people about it but I have a feeling they won’t really trust me with much either, even though they seem way more open to talking about it than I would have thought.

Ride from San Esteban to Catacamas, Camp Raided by Ninos – 20220728

I woke up at the hotel in San Esteban(Middle of nowhere Honduras) and started driving towards Catacamas. My plan was to stay with a family member of a friend there in Catacamas.

There was a little bit of rain on the way, but I’m pretty used to it now. I just let myself soak through and it’s warm enough here that I don’t freeze.

I arrived in Telica and was waiting on my friend to get back to me about staying with their family member, but it didn’t work out. So I started driving aimlessly to Catacamas and once I arrived I went to a hotel but it was way too expensive so I continued the aimless drive to Dulce Nombre de Culmi. On the way I saw some gorgeous ranch houses and I started getting the idea that I should just stop at one and ask to camp in their yard. I pulled over once but got some bad vibes and angry stares so I kept riding.

Eventually I stopped at a restaurant outside of town that had a lot of open green space. I ate a calzone and asked the waiter if there were any areas around here I could camp. He said he’d ask the owner if I could camp there. Super nice guy. The owner said yes and I started to set up the campsite as the sun went down.

Within a minute 5 kids had swarmed me and were asking me all kinds of questions. It was a little hard to understand them but they were super excited about everything. Asking me how much everything costs and how I would keep away from the mosquitos. They set up my entire tent and loved doing it.

I grabbed a whiskey at the bar until the lights got turned off around 8pm and I headed to the tent.

I’m thinking this little act of kindness of them letting me use the yard to camp will lead to me making much more bold requests as such in the future. I really would like to camp about once every 3 nights or so. To save some money and to mix it up a little bit. I would love to ask random people if I could camp in their yard. What better way to really meet locals.

I really like Honduras. Everything feels much more put together than Guatemala. The roads are in better shape, the farms are nicer, places are cleaner. But it feels like they’ve embraced capitalism way more than Guatemala. So maybe it’s a double edged sword. But it just feels much less impoverished. Even though the GPD per capita is lower in Honduras, it feels like more of the money ends up with the people.

Drive from La Ceiba to San Esteban – 20220727

I woke up around at 8 Jungle River Lodge and felt pretty deathly from all the jumping in rivers. I ate a típico breakfast and the damn macaw kept trying to eat my food.

The river was overflowing from the downpour the night before and there was no electricity in the place.

I packed up and said goodbye to the owner and the 1 other traveler staying at the hostel.

My plan was to take the road less traveled. I would drive East into the mountains to way less populated areas rather than head west to the big dirty cities.

I started driving down the dirt road and saw the 5 or so places where trees had fallen and taken out the electrical lines. Amazingly there was already a crew working on it.

I was almost immediately stopped by police and was a little frustrated. I was pretty sure they were going to ask for bribes but they didn’t. It was a pretty nice female officer.

I then continued on and was stopped again by other officers who again checked my paperwork. They again didn’t want bribes or anything. They were pretty interested in my trip and were asking me a lot about it before letting me go. I went on and was feeling pretty lousy. There’s no reason to feel frustrated being pulled over here. They just want to check your documents.

I finally stopped to eat and started seeing signs for hotels at San Esteban and it seemed like a good place to stop. I stayed at Hotel Hernandez and it costs 700 lempiras($28) and it’s run by a nice old lady. There’s really nothing going on in this city though. I walked around everywhere and it was pretty empty and chill. I plan on waking pretty early, buying a couple bolts from the hardware store in the morning and heading further down the line.