El Salvador to Honduras: Three buses and a frisk

We ran out of cash in Tacuba, and there's no cash point there, so the owners Mama y Papa kindly loaned us some money until we were ready to leave and then drove us to Ahuachapan to take cash out to pay them back!

Then it was time to begin our epic journey to Utila, off the northern coast of Honduras. We started by taking an 'especial' bus to San Salvador, which is basically just a coach instead of a chicken bus. We then had to spend the night there before taking our luxury bus to San Pedro Sula, the capital of Honduras.

San Salvador is the first capital we've spent any time in and it was... OK. Perfectly safe to travel round on chicken buses, although we also did a fair bit of walking round and for sure, it is one dirty city. My feet were black from all the dirt and smog and when we went to the malls here, I actually felt embarrassed by how grubby I was! The LP struck again and it's restaurant recommendations were all shut/nonexistent, so we ended up eating Chinese at the mall.

The next morning we had a very early start for our bus to San Pedro Sula with the 'King Quality' bus company. King Quality is no exaggeration. We had a hostess in our bus who brought round pillows and blankets just after we set off. This was followed by a cooked breakfast of omelette, sausage and frijoles (refried beans), which was later followed by more drinks and some 'King Quality' branded crisps! Totally fancy! It was like being on an aeroplane! When we got to San Pedro Sula I didn't want to get off, not least because it's the city with the highest murder rate in the world. Luckily, we were only passing through the bus station, although even there, every single shop or stall had an armed guard with an AK47!

First bus done with, we then needed to get to La Ceiba, which is the port town from which the Utila ferry departs. We got on a shuttle, which ended up being a slightly smarter chicken bus - it was supposed to go 'directo' but stopped for pretty much everyone. As we left San Pedro Silva we came to a checkpoint where the khaki-clad militaries indicated to our bus to pull over. Then, a guard came on board and told all the hombres to get off, although at first I thought we all had to. Everyone who got off, except Ciaran, proceeded to spread 'em against the bus, while the guards frisked each one of them and checked all their bags. So, it seems that either only men can/will carry weapons or it's simply OK for women to do so, as none of the women's bags were checked and thank god, we didn't have to be frisked!

Luckily there were no issues and our bus carried on... Until it broke down an hour later. The driver spent a good half hour trying to fix it and just about managed to get it moving enough to drop everyone at a comedor at the side of the road. At this point it's getting darker and darker and we're thinking about how much we do not want to be stranded at the side of the road in the dark and in Honduras (nothing against it but a lot of people warned us not to come here because of how dangerous it is). I think some of the locals on the bus might have been able to sense our anxiety, as they started talking to us and reassured us that there was another bus on the way, and we would all get to our destinations, no problem. Even with their kind words it was still very reassuring to see the replacement bus rock up 40 minutes later!

Two hours later we were in La Ceiba, hurrah! After a night there and a forty minute ferry, we are now in Utila and are going to get our scuba dive ON!