Entering Honduras - our 7th country
This is a newsletter from Family on Bikes. The family of four is currently cycling the Pan American Highway from Alaska to Argentina as the 11-year-old twin boys attempt to break the world record as the youngest cyclists to bike the entire Pan Am. See a slide show of cycling Central America here.
April 15, 2009
Gosh! We’re now in our third country since I last wrote! How has time (and miles) flown by so quickly? We are now in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras. In the past month, we’ve cycled through both Belize and Guatemala and had a bunch of great adventures.
We had heard quite a few not-so-nice things about Belize so, when we pedaled into the country from Mexico, we vowed to make a beeline to Guatemala. Our beeline came to an abrupt halt a few hours after we crossed the border.
That night we pulled into a resort by the river to find a spot for our tent, and were immediately welcomed by Jack and Stacy – cattle ranchers from Oklahoma and Britain. Within a few minutes they had us comfortably nestled into a hotel room and had arranged for us to take a tour to the Lamanai Mayan ruins the following day. What a pleasant surprise!
Our journey to Lamanai was absolutely delightful – the guide was knowledgeable about the flora, fauna, and history of the area and we learned way more than we could have on our own. The river was beautiful with crocodiles, iguanas, and many varieties of birds. The ruins were fascinating and all four of us enjoyed climbing the temples since the temps were reasonable for once.
A few days later, we arrived into Spanish Lookout where we were greeted by a Canadian family with six kids whom we had met in Mexico. We camped near their RV and spent a couple days hiking in rivers, swimming in swimming holes, and exploring caves with them. Davy and Daryl enjoyed the mayhem of having so many kids around and were sad to say goodbye, but we pedaled away looking forward to adventures yet to come.
When we reached the border with Guatemala, disaster struck. Well, not really disaster – but yuck nevertheless. Both kids straggled into the border town sick – for the first time in our ten months on the road. We checked into the first hotel we saw and stayed put for three days. Three long, hot, waterless days. The plumbing system in the hotel was messed up, and we didn’t have water. Needless to say, three days of intense heat with sick kids with no water was not a whole lot of fun!
As tends to happen, the kids eventually got better and we pushed on. The first 23 kilometers of Guatemala, however, were on a dirt road – a long, hot, dusty dirt road. Every time a truck passed by, it sent massive clouds of thick, soupy dust billowing into the air. And then the final climb came and all four of us pushed the bikes through the dusty air. Yes – that was one day I would like to forget!
Seeing as how we had blown our mad dash through Belize, we vowed to make that dash through Guatemala instead, but a couple relapses of sickness showed us that we are not in control after all. We stopped our forward motion once again to let the sickness run its course.
And so it was that, two weeks later than we had hoped, we crossed the border into Honduras and met up with the Verhage family. The Verhages – Ciska, Michael, Jessie (12), and Sammy (11) – have been waiting for us to arrive for quite some time and we were all more-than-a-little antsy to actually meet them in person. The day we crossed the border, they rode out to meet us on the road and we had a joyful reunion at last!
The next week the eight of us hung out in the Honduran beach town of Omoa for Holy Week, and the boys took full advantage of the festive atmosphere. They rode on the ferris wheel and played midway games. They swam in the ocean and jumped off the jetty. They worked together to flip the ‘banana boat’ as it was being pulled behind a motorboat. In short – they had a blast.
Now we are in San Pedro Sula, 75 km from Omoa and are taking advantage of the air conditioning, unlimited internet access, and luxurious surroundings of the Microtel Hotel. We are so grateful for the respite from the intense heat of the city!
We’ve run into a bit of a problem here - John’s shifter lever broke yesterday and we can’t find a replacement locally. We’re exploring options as I write this – have one shipped in and risk enormous amounts in duty? Or fly to Miami and pick it up? It’s beginning to look like it might be cheapest and fastest to simply hop on a plane and pick it up – but who wants to fly to Miami? We’ll get it sorted out in the next couple days and get something figured out!
The good news is that we hadn’t planned to ride the bikes for the next couple of weeks anyway, so the shifter problem won’t set us back in that way. From San Pedro Sula, we plan to make our way to La Ceiba by bus and then take a ferry out to the Bay Islands for a bit of snorkeling on the coral reef. We can’t wait! I’m sure all four boys will really enjoy that!
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Read our other newsletters here:
Read y for takeoff: June 6, 2008
Dalton Highway in Alaska: June 28, 2008
Alaska Highway: August 3, 2008
Crossi ng into mainland USA: September 10, 2008
In Montana, Wyoming, and Utah: October 17, 2008
Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico: November 19, 2008
No rthern Mexico: January 25, 2009
Yucatan Peninsula: March 14, 2009
Belize, Guatemala, & Honduras: April 15, 2009
Ni caragua & Costa Rica: June 25, 2009
Costa Rica & Panama: July 21, 2009
Made it to South America: August 16, 2009
In the Colombian Andes: September 18, 2009
At the Equator: December 20, 2009
Southern Ecuador: February 7, 2010
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