Honduras.

 Honduras 05/01/2012.

 The border crossing at El Florido/Copan Ruinas was quite easy and straight forward. As I left the rain started, and I just made it to Copan Ruinas before the light faded. I hoped to find money and accommodation for the night. The approach to the town was less than encouraging, with a mix of dirt and cobble stone road full of large pot holes filled with water, along with the greasy muddy cobble stones. I slithered in to town, stumbled across a bank and now had money. Out of the bank with my money, I had a piece of paper thrust in to my hand. It was the scout from a nearby hotel; he knows how to spot a Gringo in town.

Outside the Hotel. I had a watchful audience from the restaurant opposite.The slope was very steep and wet.

Streets of Copan.

The night light gave it a medieval feel

Copan Central Plaza.

 He promised me a good deal, but I was unsure what a good deal was as I have not looked around yet. I said I want to look around town, so he lowered the price. OK, I said, but for one night only. For £7.00 I did not have too much to loose. It was just right; I stayed a second night as I wanted to visit the Copan Archaeological Site, one of the most important of all Maya civilizations.

The ruins  Copan

A tomb within the pyramid.

The Tomb.

 I also had the good fortune to stumble out of the Sol de Copan. This is a micro brewery owned by self made Thomas Wagner; he built the brewery and brews the German beer from imported ingredients from Germany. The first beer in twelve days, it really did go down very well. 

Nice wheat beer. There were other brews too!

 Two days was not really long enough, but the pressure to move on nagged, don't want to miss the boat.

Lovely natural pasture.

Beautiful Largo de Yojoa.

 There was apparently another micro brewery here at the lake, but I failed to sniff it out, buy the given information on the card. I was on a roll, and had a high mileage day, the roads were good and fast most of the time. I made it to the the Capitol City of Tegucigalpa by dusk. I hoped to find accommodation on the west side of the city, but there was nothing roadside. The suburbs were fairly grim in appearance, very poor roads, with many manholes exposed with no covers, and open sewers flowing by the road. There were many road works and long traffic jams. It was very hot, the air was sticky and thick with fumes and dust. The light here diminishes very quickly, the roads are hazardous at night. Cars often drive with out lights, and locals take amazing risks.I found a hotel,up a very steep approach with a very steep off camber parking area. I could not make the bike stand up safely, and there were many yapping dogs in a fenced enclosure. I did not stay, and continued in the darkness. I left the city behind, and eventually found a hotel about 25 miles out of the city. The sign did most defenatley say HOTEL, and not AUTO HOTEL or AUTO MOTEL,as the latter are all seedy little rooms where you take a Tart from the street and pay by the hour. You have the benefit of a garage under the room and high doors to conceal the vehicle, so no one knows who is shagging in there. The price was £12.00 a night,a little more than I expected, so I asked to see the room first. I also had a garage too, some place safe for the bike.. High doors too, hmm, I am wondering. It was seven pm, the TV was switched on an playing. Coronation Street looks a little raunchy here I pondered. Don't think I want it, I said, he dropped the price a little, but not enough. It is safe and secure though, I thought. You can have one free beer from the fridge, he offered. Common sense kicked in and I said OK. I necked the beer and slept in my sleeping bag. It was a quiet night in the knocking shop, I did sleep quite well considering.the surroundings, but I was up early and gone.

 Not too far from the border to Nicaragua, Danli was the nearest town, so I planned to spend a day and one night there, research the exchange rates and the border crossing. I was there by 10 am and I found a hotel in the town centre. I parked my bike in the street, covered my sat nav with my scarf and helmet and nipped in to the hotel. It took only minutes, but some low life nicked my crash helmet in that time. Lucky for me they left the sat nav, but the strange thing is that no one wears a helmet here. I obviously had the hump about the theft, but I was going to buy a new one before I left. I struggled to justify the £300.0 cost, so I did not buy. It was after all , 7 years old and passed its best. Who ever stole it will be disappointed, as it was the smallest you can buy and the visor mechanism was worn out. I scoured the town, all I could find was something that resembled a bucket that did not fit.I pounded every side street and found just one that fitted,it cost me £39.00 after a bit of bargaining. As it was Sunday a lot of shops were closed, no internet here, and all the food stores were closed. So I opted for bag of milk and made porridge. It's not good all the time! I was up early,and got to the one and only internet cafe first. Did what I had to do, and ran for the border.