Welcome to the Banana Republic !

Well, after a very short stay in the eastern part of Guatemala, boating down the Rio Dulce into the interesting but very trashy town of Livingston, I took up travelling again with Tom, the Canadian police officer I met in Antigua. We just ran into eachother at the dock in Rio Dulce, again...how surprisingly ironic travelling can be! I had been in doubt about how to get out of Guatemala for awhile, and there he showed up, with a really interesting travel scheme to the island of Roatan! So we made it down the river, certainly impressed by its natural wonders, but the weather was (again on the Caribbean) not really cooperative...pissing rain in Livingston didn't give the impression we would stay there for a long time! Furthermore, the town was really a dump if you can call it that : the Rio Dulce just spits out all the sewage water of eastern Guatemala in this place, leaving the beach very contaminated. You wouldn't think that the beautiful coral reefs and turquoise waters of Belize are just around the corner...So, after just a day in Livingston, we hopped on a boat to Puerto Barrios, which was possibly even more a dump than Livingston already was, still in pissing rain... Welcome to the Caribbean! Puerto Barrios once used to be the major port for all the big cargo boats transporting bananas and other fruits out to the US, but now it just looks like a very much run down place. And getting there at 6am wasn't really much more comforting either!At first I was thinking of maybe getting a spot on sailboat to Roatan there, but hey I don't know how to sail! And it would probably take a lot of time and money too. So we just got on a mini-van to the border, and from there the muddy adventure continued on three local chicken busses, bumping or way into the cool beach town of Tela at 4 'o clock in the afternoon. Passing through immigration at both sides also was an adventure again, involving some unclear 'travel tax' of a couple of euros, but hey...we were already glad we got our stamps and didn't get hassled over on exchanging Guate quetzales in Honduras lempiras (which are worth even less). So pretty beat up after a day of hassle, rain, heat and backpacking (well I shouldn't complain that much...), we made it into Honduras, and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised! And that, taking into account the poverty and the fact that the country was virtually run according to US 'interests' for more than a century : first by two major bananas companies, both picking sides for one or the other dictator (giving Honduras its name of Banana Republic), and then by the Reagan administration which used Honduras as a military outpost and training ground for the Contras, fighting the Nicaraguan Sadinistasts in the 80s. Almost as amazing is that you wouldn't tell that this country nearly got washed off the map by Hurricane Mitch, just over 5 years ago. Most of the beach roads are repaired or back under construction, and the area around Tela has some very attractive and charming beaches and nature reserves. We did a kayak tour into the jungle mangroves off the coast, seeing turtles, baby alligators, cool butterflies and lots of birds...hitting the beach afterwards...well that was another highlight! So people, especially if you can get the bright sunny weather we got today, make it to the Honduras' coast one day! The seafood here is delicous, and the presence of black Garifuna culture gives it some interesting flavour as well! And for the women lovers out there, I must admit that the señoritas here are a lot better looking then in Mexico and in Guatemala. It must be something in the coconut milk.So, tomorrow we're off again, first getting a shave at the local barbershop (I figured it would be time with a beard of 20 days...) and then catching the ferry to Roatan! We hope and pray that the weather keeps up our smiles...because nothing sucks more then a Caribbean beach in the rain! Ya man, hasta luego!