Peenie Wallie

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November 30, 2017

Day 18 [Thr 11/30/17] - Cucuyagua, Copan, Honduras to Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Update: I am alive and well and resting peacefully in the Excelsior Hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Starting Odometer: 9,241
Ending Odometer: 9,512
Distance Traveled Today: 271 miles
Distance Traveled This Trip: 4,909 miles [9,512 - 4,603]

0......Cucuyagua, Honduras
216 Tegucigalpa, Honduras (5h 48m)

My trip today looks something like this.

I'm not clear how accurate the time estimates are on google maps, but it shows the first leg as 5h 48m, and the second leg as 2h 16m. So, maybe I can compare my time at the end of the day.

In the morning, I wake up at the hotel, and the guy next to me is playing something really loud. It always sounds like some guy on meth talking 100 miles a minute and who knows what he's saying. Noone knows and no one cares and I've about had enough of this shit. I go knock on his door and yell "silencio! silencio!" and after about 30 seconds, the racket stops.

And I go get back in my bed. I got enough sleep this morning. I woke up early, but was able to go back to sleep a couple of times. I need a lot of sleep. Not too much, mind you, but more than I have been getting.

I do my expenses in the morning, and then I start packing up to flee the scene. I look outside, and it's wet and rainy.

"Does it always rain like this?" I ask her.

"It's supposed to rain for 5 days," she replies.

LIke...great. I mean, it's not like I have any rain gear or anything. I really don't. Usually, when it rains, I just stop for lunch or drive up to a stranger's house, etc. But since this isn't the rainy season, I really hadn't planned on rain. Also, my Garmin Montana is waterproof, but my cell phone certainly isn't.

At approximately 11:20 a.m., local time, I'm driving through the mountains of Honduras and I see all of these trucks are stopped. Now I've seen this before. Just this long line of parked 18 wheelers, and who knows why this is? It's not my country. I have no idea what goes on here.

So I just start passing all of the trucks parked on the side of the road. As I get closer, I see National Guard types of soldiers with machine guns. Local police. I'm still thinking that what we have is a car crash. And, if I get up here to the front, I'll get some good photos.

I have my helmet cam rolling. And I'm getting closer and closer to the cause of this traffic jam.

Finally, I get to the heart of it. There's a civil protest under way. There's a fire burning in the streeets. People are marching about. Chanting. Waving flags. It's a fucking revolution, and I'm right in the heart of it.

I'm filming, of course, with my GoPro.

Someone notices this and screams, "hey camera...camera"

And I just keep riding. Like...I never stop. I just keep going.

But, I think that, at any second, the mob is going to turn on the gringo. Like...I was clearly bypassing their spontaneous roadblock.

But I just keep rolling and I think....what in the fuck is going on down here? I guess that, I always heard that the mountains were sort of where the revolutionaries hung up, but these people are stirred up, and they have me rattled in a huge way. I've never seen anything close to this in my life.

So I just keep rolling. Like...nothing is stopping me now. I'm seriously in fear for my life. So I just keep going, praying that I'll get away from this mob, and that no one has called ahead and said "stop the guy on the motorcycle with a helmet cam...don't let him off the mountain"

I'm seriously thinking this as I'm flying down the moutain, trying to escape this revolution that's unfolding around me.

But, after I've ridden for some time, I decide that I'll stop for lunch. I dunno where I am. In the middle of nowhere. And I stop and tell the woman...I don't what what I want...what do you have? And she ends up serving me some fried chicken with noodles. I didn't really like the noodles, but the fried chicken was delicious.

Also, she only had Pepsi to drink. So this is my lunch. Then, I get back on my bike and take off again. You understand that I'm still afraid for my life.

I'm still running in fear.

Now, the road to Tegucigalpa is pretty clear. I'm supposed to be following the highway.

But at some point, Waze tells me to turn around...I'm going the wrong direction. But I'm pretty sure I'm going the right direction. And, sure enough, Waze has fucked me again. It's routing to me some other Tegucigalpa (I'm not making this up), so I just turn it off and follow the road to Tegucigalpa. Fuck Waze.

Now, I come to a toll road, but the police wave me off, and won't let me enter the toll plaza. I assume that they're wanting to search me. Maybe someone called ahead from the revolution and told them to stop me. This is not fun. It's very scary dealing with these armed contingents when you're not used to dealing with them in the USA. Very intimidating. I pull over to the far right, and prepare to be searched. Why am I not wearing my money belt?

But, eventually, I realize that they just want me to ride on. The problem is that, in Honduras, the toll roads are free for motorcycles. But they don't want to you enter in one of the car lanes. You're supposed to just go around on the far right. OK. Got it.

Now, as I'm driving by this large lake, I see two other motorcycles stopped with saddle bags (panniers), which is extremely rare in Central America.

So, I immediately turn around and go back and look at the bikes. 2 BMW's with New Mexico license plates. WTF? Like...seriously...what are you people doing here?

So I just go into the restaurant and sit down and start talking to this couple (Michelle and M'hamed - mjebb@yahoo.com). They seem nice, and they've sort of dropped out and are doing an long slow ride through central america. I'm very surprised to see them. This is a gem. As rare as hen's teeth.

I explain to them about my experience with the near revolution this morning. Apparently, there was an election in Honduras this week, and it was very close. So close that the election results are being contested. So that's what I was seeing. They were protesting the election results this morning up in the mountains. That's why they had the road closed down.

They seem nice so, after lunch, they say they're heading to Tegucigalpa and I'm like..."Mind if I tag along?" Like...if you don't have a plan, then following people who do isn't a bad start.

So we leave, and when we come to the next toll booth, I just go around it to the right like I own the place. It takes them a minute to catch on, but eventually they follow me. Easy peasy.

We ride for some time...an hour or two...and the sun sets and now we're riding in the dark. Descending from the mountains into Tegucigalpa. But now there is a problem. The police have closed all of the roads into Tegucigalpa, except for one. Somehow, my riding comrades determine this from talking to a taxi driver. But he says he knows where the hotels are, and will lead us there.

There is a God.

So, we are now following this taxi driver through the streets of Tegucigalpa, towards some hotel, with fireworks going off. and police everywhere. Streets are shut down.

Finally, we pull up to this hotel....The Excelsior Hotel, and this place is fancy. Crazy expensive. Like $60 a night. Insane.

We park our motorcycles in the valet parking section at the front fo the hotel and they tell us to move them, but my new buddy says he's not moving his. Like...this is how he plays it. They tell him to move it and he never does. So, I go down and move mine so that it's not blocking any vehicles, and then we just leave the bikes there all night.

"Y'all come get me and we'll go for dinner or drinks...I'm in room 123," I tell them. And then I start getting cleaned up for dinner.

Posted by Rob Kiser on November 30, 2017 at 7:10 AM

Comments

Posted by: Kevin Ponis on November 30, 2017 at 6:04 PM

Posted by: Steven A Baldwin on November 30, 2017 at 6:22 PM

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Posted by: Steven A Baldwin on December 1, 2017 at 12:17 AM

Posted by: Nevada Joe on December 1, 2017 at 4:47 AM

Posted by: Rob Kiser on December 2, 2017 at 7:02 AM

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