Heading back to San Pedro Sula, Honduras

The news from my family was still in debate, although all my sisters were rally around me and made me feel very special and cared for, which was enough to encourage me to stick it out a little longer and see what would happen in a few days time.

I checked with the hotel staff and they said that there was no buses going down south across the border, not from Copan at least, but a bus was leaving at 5pm for San Pedro Sula which is considered the transport hub for Honduras and if anywhere I could find a bus going to El Salvador it was there.

5pm was a few hours away, so I spend it leisurely walking around the city centre, taking more photos and reading some of my recently aquired book in a room with the door open for light and ventilation after the power in my room dropped out a little after lunchtime.

After so many days of nothing but rain it was nice to have the glorious sunshine again, but equally so I had lost all the suntan and bulit up exposure to the sun so when the 30 plus degree heat beat down solidly on me for the first time in weeks I was caught gasping.

When it came to 4:30 I headed on down to the bus terminal, which was nothing more than a bus stop where all the through buses pass when they go through Copan and it was here than I was told my direct bus was actually not so, and would cost 45 Limperas just to get as far north as San Carlos.

I debated for awhile, as I couldnt quite unerstand what they were tyring to tell me, but in the end I gave in and after entrusting my bag to the roof yet again I sat in the back, privately still fuming after having to leave after I had paid for the second night but mainly cos I was worried that I would have to buy a ticket home and thus end my RTW trip before it really got going, or at least change it to a simple travel diary.

The trip to San Carlos was not too bad, and as it got dark almost onthe stroke on 5:30 it was hard to see what was going on and feared that I might miss my stop of my connection, but luckily even as one bus was pulling away I was pointed in the direction of across the road where a bigger and more modern coach was arriving which with another 80 Limperas took me all the way back to San Pedro Sula.

I could not remember the full address of the hostel Dos Molinos and it so I spoke tothe taxi driver who was hassling me at the terminal in San Pedro Sula to give me a minute, but he was in no mood for waiting and bundled me into the car along with another passenger before I could get myself all sorted out. I would have done so earlier, but it was dark and also the printout of the details for the hostel were packed in my bag and so I gave what I thought was the address, but the taxi driver was useless and after giving me the run around increased his price from US $3 to $4 for the confusion before he finally arrived at the right hostel.

Only thing was, it wasnt the one I stayed at the other day, and for the life of me I cant see how both hostels had my booking down for the same time, as the hostel owner was expecting me a few days ago ... something definetly screwey with hostelworld and hostelbookers, thats for sure.

Anyway, after a few minutes of chatting with the owner and a english speaking guest, I checked in and was able to get on the free wifi for a bit, but with all the fuss, the heat and the tiredness I just could not find the energy to write much for the blog.

I went to bed after having taken a trip to the local cash point and realised that it was only a few blocks away from the other hostel, but of course it was too late to do anything about that now.

I woke in the morning to receive lots of good news emails from my family, and the only thing that put a slight dampener on the day was that by the time I found out that I didnt have to return home to the UK just yet I had also already missed the only bus that left San Pedro Sula for El Salvador today, at the crazy early time of 7am.

So instead of being on a 7 hour bus ride I had to make do with spending another day and a night in San Pedro Sula, but without spending any money, as the extra night plus the delays were all costing me money that I would prefer to spend on other things.

Someone had anonimously left an address for a Lloyds Bank here in San Pedro Sula, so I figured I would go and check it out and see if they could finall put to rest all my problems, only to find though anexhaustive walk along the entire road that the address must be an old one as certainly there was no sign for a Lloyds bank when I went looking, so it was back to plan A and just hope that things go smoother than in recent days.

During the day I did try a local ice cream ( tasted foul ) a local chinese ( which I foolishly filled up on gassy coke so couldnt eat even half of ) and the local cinemas but all the films that I wanted to see were not out yet, so I just took a long route back and passed what could be just the local night life area, and maybe even a mini red light district as there were a few gentlemens clubs with 500 Limpera entrance fees, which is not high for European standards but again are way over the top for the locals and you can imagine it only being for rich tourists.

The heat and the release of stress worked their usual magic on me and I was yanwing by around 6pm, though I struggled on til around 9pm just so that I could get a full nights sleep before setting my alarm for 6am and much awaited bus ride to El Salvador.