Honduras in 48hrs or less

Honduras border on a Sunday. Hmmm. Didn’t plan that one very well. As it turns out, the research I did prior to leaving was helpful but not complete. The “helpers” started about 3km from the border, by started I mean chasing us down the road, waving for us to stop, flashing their ID cards, pretty much anything to get us to hire one of them.


The usual steps needed to be followed, first hit immigration for our passport stamps, then Aduana for the bike importation, assuming I could cut through all the helpers. I finally settled on one guy named Ron Garcia, but a comment was made by another guy that “you already have a truck” then he more or less resigned and this other guy took over. He later said it was something about being a Honduran so he could cross the bridge. So back to the process.
The first step turned out to be the exit Aduana for the bikes. This also gave the helpers a chance to swarm, yelling and barking all kinds of promises about speed through the border and low cost services. Pretty much all bs.
The second step was to stand in line to get the passports stamped or at least checked as El Salvador does not stamp the passports, only scan the barcode into the computer. This took longer in line than to actually get processed so, second step done.

PS> So far the helper has done nothing but explain the obvious.

Now across the bridge to the Honduran side and the start of total chaos. The first thing required was 4 copies of all documents, I had 2 copies already so only needed a couple more. Then things got a little strange, we had to go to a small office to get the passport data entered into a computer and pay $45US each for the visitor visa. Then go across the street to another Administration office and pay another $37US each for the bike Permit. The strange part was that we walked back and forth between these two offices about 4 times to get this accomplished and the receipt for the $45 was stamped “cancelled”. I later assumed this was not a legitimate fee. So this all took place in about 90 minutes. Then after all that, we still had to get the bikes fumigated, which happens down the road about 500meters. So for $11US each we got a receipt, but the bikes were not sprayed or even looked at. Total scam, but we were done. Total cost $190 plus the $6 bucks for the helper, he quoted $2 but I don’t think I would have gotten through the process alone due to the regular offices being closed on Sunday, the main thing was we were rolling again, and I learned how to get through the border, on the way back I will not be hiring any helpers.

The scenery again changed dramatically from the other side of the river/border. The biggest change was that there were some very large properties that must be cattle ranches. I say this because there were cows everywhere, including on the road. They look like Brahma’s, light grey, big floppy rabbit ears, and hump on the front shoulders. The road also went to complete crap with potholes all over both lanes causing trucks and cars to swerve wildly across the lanes to avoid the big holes. This gets somewhat annoying after about 2 minutes because it is impossible to look around at the countryside and watch for holes and oncoming traffic at the same time. Brenda managed to snap a few pics while riding, my little camera had a dead battery. We spent the night in Choluteca, the hotel had a/c so that was a nice change from the previous couple of nights. We didn’t feel like conquering the town in search of food so we made a light supper out of the supermarket across the road and ate on the patio area at the hotel. It seemed weird to be in Honduras eating supper and looking across the street at a Pizza Hut sign. Obviously they are a worldwide company, it just seemed odd somehow.
The next morning it was another border crossing as Honduras is very narrow along the Pacific Coast. We are expecting to turn in our visa/bike papers once again. This time I am not hiring any “helpers”, I figure we have lots of time and if I make some mistakes no big deal.

The Honduran exit was unexpectedly quiet, we pulled into a large parking lot with no other vehicles, I thought at first we were in the wrong area. Then a nice littlye lady in uniform came up and asked for the bike info and our drivers license and $12 each. She gave us our receipts and pointed to the immigration office for passport stamps, boom boom through the line and another $12each, then over to Aduana. Nice fellow who was patient with my Spanish or lack thereof, a couple of signatures and we were done. They did not take any of the photocopies like the other borders???