Trip to the Coast

Last week we ventured to the mainland to get a few things done. Bine needed her two month vaccinations which meant finding a pediatrician in La Ceiba. Luckily we had gotten some recommendations from Utilian parents.

Also, it was time for another massive shopping spree. JA says one of the secrets of being happy on Utila is not being without essentials. The little island stores carry most everything we need when it comes to food and daily household items, but they are more expensive than the coast and if there is a storm the cargo boat doesn't run for a few days and the shelves empty fast. As we are in rainy season right now, it is a particularly good idea to have a stocked pantry.

We also decided it was time to get a bigger refrigerator, a baby bed, and an ice cream maker. (While we were abroad, the gelateria, the only place that sold home-made ice cream, closed its doors because their electric bills were hilariously high.)

I am not a big shopper in general. Internet shopping has always been my favorite way to go for many reasons: 1) You can do it whenever you want and immediately stop and sleep whenever you want, 2) You don't have attendants on your heels asking if you're finding everything okay, 3) You can comparison shop without having to go to a bunch of places. But internet shopping isn't possible in Honduras. Websites are creaky and don't serve any purpose other than that the store can say it has a website. (They remind me of movie sets because they look real but there's nothing back there.) Or if there are a few pages to the site, you can never tell if they actually have any of the items listed, though they might have at one point or may hope to one day.

The only exception to this is the grocery store. I adore the grocery store. Even more these days, since we have wee places on the island with little selection. I now completely understand why JA used to come to Chicago and almost burst into tears when confronted with the breath-taking produce section at Whole Foods. And even blog about it.

All of this meant we had to go to San Pedro Sula, about a three hour drive from coastal La Ceiba. And San Pedro Sula is host to PRICESMART! I might not like shopping that much (especially in Honduras where, in a year of looking, we have found ONE lamp we like) but I looooooooove PriceSmart. It used to be Costco until it became its own Latin American chain, and it still feels exactly like a Costco, down to the pizza and soft serve stand at check out. It is bulk heaven.

So we took the morning ferry to La Ceiba last Tuesday. Diana and Linda were on the boat. Linda is our neighbor and Diana is her best friend from Germany. (Linda lived in Germany for a long time. They met while working at a restaurant. Linda also did modeling for Benetton, fyi.) Diana had been here for a long stretch but was headed home that morning and wasn't sure when she was coming back.

Linda and her husband, Kurt, were en route to San Pedro Sula as well. When I asked Kurt why he said, "To buy a Halloween costume for the king." That would be their five year old son, Hayden.

Linda held Bine the entire one hour ferry ride to both their delight.


At the dock in La Ceiba we found a taxi that appeared to actually have a seatbelt for the car seat. But then of course we realized it was only half of a seat belt.

Off to Molinari Rent A Car to get our pick-up. We had arranged for it to be ready for us at 8 am.


This is Merris. She's a delightful woman, which helps when we're dealing with this rental company.


The car was there but hadn't been cleaned yet and the previous renter had stolen the spare tire, so Merris wanted to know if we could wait a little bit for them to fetch a new one and freshen her up a bit. (The other two trucks they had were rented out, so they couldn't offer us a replacement.)

As we were discussing this Merris' assistant came over and said, in Spanish, that the car washing guy had shown up for work completely drunk. Merris turned to me and translated this fact and that her assistant would clean the car. I said just the inside would be alright, since we didn't need the outside to be that pretty. (They cleaned the inside, but, if it is any indication as to how well, JA put hand sanitizer on the steering wheel and stick shift when we finally got the car.)

We left Molinari Rent A Car and took a taxi to the pediatrician's office. Amazingly, the first cab we saw happened to be our driver from our last trip to La Ceiba. JA liked him, and his car was well taken care of (meaning that it didn't sound like anything was going to fall off), so JA had written down his cell phone number so we could call the next time we needed his services. His name: Adonis. That's a pretty big name to live up to. He said, "Amazing that with 1,500 taxis in La Ceiba we run into each other again!" We couldn't believe there were that many. We see them everywhere, but this is a quaint-feeling city of only about 250,000 people... Anyway, this is Adonis:


We got to Doctor Moreno's office and were told we were third in line, which turned out to be more like sixth or seventh. Bine didn't mind the wait.


Doctor Moreno was a very nice man in a fairly antique but clean and professional office. He said that in Honduras the vaccines she needed (polio, whooping cough, etc) came combined in one shot. This was problematic, since the injection included Hepatitis B and she had already gotten two of those, with the third not required for another four months. After some research into other options, Dr. Moreno found one that had everything we needed, without the Hep B.

This is it:


Great! we said. One problem, he said. The box is empty. So a few phone calls were made and the vaccine was located at a pharmacy nearby. Trouble was we had a rental car to pick up and a long-ish drive to get underway. JA, very wisely, doesn't like doing the three hour trip to San Pedro after dark (about 5:30 or 6:00 pm) because everyone (adults, kids, donkeys) walks in the road which is completely unlit. Dr. Moreno agreed to get the shot and we would come back by his office early on Thursday before catching the morning ferry back to Utila.

We leave his office, pick up the pick-up, and start off for San Pedro Sula. About halfway, in a town called Tela, the brakes are almost gone. We were on this stretch of road when JA pushed the pedal almost completely to the floor with little result and announced that we had no choice but to get the car fixed.

This was particularly annoying because the last time we rented a pick-up from Molinari Rent A Car we had to stop and replace the windshield wipers. Now, with a two-month old baby in the vehicle we discover the brake pads are entirely worn out. That's quality.


After a few phone calls JA determines that it will be faster for us to get the car repaired ourselves than to wait for a Molinari Rent A Car representative to deliver us a new truck from San Pedro Sula. So we go to this place:




Here is our sickly truck being worked on. JA had to give the guys money to go buy the new parts at the store before they could proceed.


Meanwhile Bine and I watched the chickens pecking at bugs and trash in the ditch.

John Arne pointed out this beauty:



The whole repair process took about three hours, so there was plenty of time for hand sucking.




John Arne conferences with the guys (and Ugly Chicken) about the price of service. If you ever have car trouble near Tela, Honduras we can easily recommend El Aguila Car Repair. Nice and hard working guys (one of which was fourteen years old).

By the way, Merris was unable to give us the entire rental free but we ended up using three days and only paid for one. She said she'd give us a free day next time, as well, and of course refunded us for the repairs. I told her that, after all her effort to get us a new spare tire, when we were getting the car repaired we discovered that the jack didn't work. She bet that one of the renters switched out the good jack for the broken one. She said that recently someone took out a good battery and replaced it with a worn-out one, so now she has to mark all the batteries and check after each rental to be sure the original is still there. People will steal whatever they can think of, she said.

Back on the road.


Not too far out of Tela we get stopped by the police. Three of them were standing in the middle of the road and waved for us to pull over. Once we were stopped one of them asked, very nicely, if they could hitch a ride in the back. This has happened to us once before and we have agreed both times so I am not sure how politely they respond if you decline. I doubt we'll ever find out since they have big guns.


On a happy note, John Arne's favorite fruit, mangosteen, was being sold on the side of the road. We bought three bags of them.

Our unexpected stop in Tela meant we got in to San Pedro Sula too late on Tuesday evening to do any shopping, but Wednesday we managed to get quite a bit done and drove back to La Ceiba that evening with the truck completely full.

We spotted this at Diunsa, the Honduran equivalent to Target. Don't often see plantain slizers at Target.


The next morning Bine got her shot.


Which she didn't like at ALL.

When we went to the dock to unload are boxes onto the cargo boat to Utila we learned that the ferry was not running due to bad weather. No planes make the trip on Thursdays, so it meant another night in La Ceiba. Merris said we could use the truck another day so we went to JA's favorite breakfast place to get some food and figure out what to do with ourselves.



Bine got to try some more fruit. Really cute with the tongue, so I have to include this:


We decided to head out of town, since it isn't very pretty. I hadn't ever been east of La Ceiba so we took off that way. Stopped in Garifuna villages on the coast where pigs are as common as dogs along the side of the road.


Then we went to check out the fancy Palma Real resort.


This guy met us at the gate.


Got to say, we weren't impressed. Palma Real was big and the pool was cool, but it had a very worn down Disney feel to it.


So we found something a little more cozy and authentic feeling. And only $25.




The next morning we called neighbor Kurt and found out that the ferry wasn't running again. We returned the rental and started making plans to charter Selim, a pilot with a small plane who JA has used to skydive in Utila. A few minutes after booking him Kurt called again and said the ferry had just left Utila and would most likely depart La Ceiba around 9:30 or 10:00 am. We cancelled with Selim, picked up some produce and yogurt at the grocery store, and grabbed a cab to the port (no Adonis this time).


The ferry was delayed because of weather again. I passed some time by talking to Doo Doo.

Doo Doo is a Utilian. She often passes time by sitting at the (only) intersection in town observing and commenting on the passers by. Doo Doo predicted that I'd be having a girl based on the shape of my belly. She says she doesn't understand why people pay to get ultrasounds when she can tell them what the sex will be. And she could use the money, she says.

Doo Doo tells me that she has also been stranded in La Ceiba for the last couple of days. She went over for a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning and when she got back to the port that afternoon the ferry wasn't running. Didn't have enough money to get back into town, just had her round trip ticket. Luckily Doo Doo ran into a friend who works on a shrimp boat that was also stuck at the dock. Her friend told Doo Doo she could stay on the shrimp boat and sleep in the captain's quarters. It was heavenly, said Doo Doo. She had hot showers and ate shrimp for three meals a day and snacks in between. They even sent her home with six pounds of shrimp. "And if the ferry don't leave again today I ain't scared because if the ferry can't leave then the shrimp boat can't leave. As long as the shrimp boat is here I'm okay."


This is a picture of the ferry from under the covered waiting area. Usually they use a newer catamaran but since there were so many people waiting to get to the island the owners were running the older, bigger, diesel guzzler.


Bine and John Arne waiting for the signal to board. We made it home just after lunch on Friday. Good news is we have 1,000 diapers (no joke), three gallons of olive oil, and plenty of box wine. Come on over!