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May 23, 2006
Transportation in Honduras
The rule of the road is, the bigger the vehicle the more right of way you have. That's why we drove a 1984 Chevy Suburban in Honduras. Big, strong, and no one wanted to mess with us.
The downside to our Suburban was that the glow plug (it was a diesel) would not arc without some assistance. This means the truck wouldn't start unless someone lifted the hood, held a screwdriver or other piece of metal to the spark plug while someone else started the engine. Well, of course this gave a bit of a spark to the holder of the metal, but that's the point! The engine needed the extra spark to get started…every time.
DH and I got quite good at this method of starting the engine. Sometimes, though, we would leave it running with someone staying in the car while someone ran into one of the numerous stops we made when we did get into town for errands. Saves the sparker's fingers.
A Honduran driver's license is required to drive in that country, however, knowledge, skill or any type of no-how is not required to obtain a driver's license. Only money. Money talks in this country. You pay someone to verify that you can drive and, VOILA, a driver's license will be issued to you.
Driving required slalom type skills. You must learn to dodge huge, car swallowing pot holes, buses, trucks, people, horses, cows and of course, other cars. All going everywhere all the time. Driving at night is not advisable because you can't see the aforementioned items in time to avoid any type of collision.
The rule of thumb in the city is that North-South traffic stops at intersections and East-West traffic does not (or was that visa/versa?) There are not many stop signs. You must just remember if you are driving N-S or E-W. And pray the on coming traffic remembers which way they are driving too.
And did you every wonder what happened to your old yellow school buses? They are shipped to third world countries and used for public transportation. Yellow buses are everywhere and they are NOT transporting children to school (school is not required…we may talk about that more later). Also there are no bus stops…well, make that EVERYWHERE is a bus stop. If you want to stop the bus, the technique is to just wave from the side of the road just seconds before the bus is there and they will slam on the brakes and stop for you. So you must also be on the lookout for stopping buses and waving pedestrians while driving. There is no maximum capacity for a bus either. People will be standing in the aisle, squeezed into seats or hanging out the doors.
A lot of people own pick-up trucks and they are hailed as 'free' transportation. You can get dozens of Hondurans in the back of a pick up truck. Something like this:
Although this seems to be only one family. I couldn't find a picture of an overcrowded bed of a truck. Must not have taken one.
Whew, lots of info about transportation here. I'm sure I left out other issues you would need to know if you ever drive there. Just don't...that's my advice.
~Betsy
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May 25, 2006 - Untitled Comment