I had a really fun trip to Tegucigalpa yesterday.
In training our security officer scared us to death about the dangers of Tegucigalpa. And I do think it was for good reason – its a place where you need to be on guard. But since it is the closest place to my small town where I can do shopping/banking/anything I have to go there.
After a few trips it is feeling more familiar. I am learning how to get around (Peace Corps prohibits city buses and taxis get expensive after a while) and also getting a better sense of direction.
As I already mentioned, the buses are always an adventure. Lately there has been a ton of rain – and the mountain roads are muddy. Some days the roads are so muddy that the buses can’t pass – and we are cut off from the rest of the country – at least for 1 day. Other days 1 bus drives up until the particularly bad part, drops you off, you walk through the muddy part and meet another bus on the other side to finish the trip.
More fun is the suspense of a bus trying to make it through a muddy part. When the wheels start spinning the bus driver floors it and tries to keep the forward momentum going. The engine is super loud but you are only moving like 1 mile an hour. And in the really bad parts the bus fishtails. It is a really weird experience sitting in the back of a school bus and moving side to side while the front stays put. Everyone stops what they were doing or any conversations they were having and concentrates really hard – like they were willing the bus through the mud. And sometimes the bus driver actually stops ahead of the bad part and asks everyone to move to the back of the bus to get better traction.
When you finally make it through everyone has a coke and a smile – you know you will be getting home that night and that you won’t have to do it walking.
