Visa everywhere you don't want to be, aka how to survive in San Pedro Sula on $0 a day

So as the guys mentioned my little vacation is over and I arrived safely into Chicago. Things have been kind of hectic as I have nowhere to live and am still sleeping in random hotels, but at least I'm getting paid to type this blog entry. Chicago looks like it should be a good time and I even found a Pollo Campero that I dined at for dinner yesterday. I think Jose will be excited to hear that I found out they have some located in Ecuador as well. So far so good with the new city and the new job, but I'm sure people would be more interested in hearing about my Honduran adventures.



When last we heard from Todd the guys had just dropped him off at a sketchy hotel in a shady neighborhood in sleezy San Pedro Sula. The one thing San Pedro Sula does have is the best airport in Honduras and thus is the location where the majority of tourists fly into. Since I had a day there before my flight I decided to head to the ruins of Copan, the most popular tourist attraction in Honduras. I figured it would be no problem booking a tour from the most popular airport in Honduras to the most popular tourist attraction. I couldn't have been more wrong. All of the tour agencies in San Pedro Sula were only interested in helping you get out of Honduras, not a good sign. Now I had been travelling around Central America for a month and had grown fairly street savvy so I decided I could just bus it down to Copan and take care of things on my own. Wrong again. I had no Honduran money and the buses did not take credit cards. Or at least do not give them back. Rather than take that risk and since it was still relatively early (~7:00am) I went looking for an ATM. Around 10:00am I eventually gave up. Another abysmal failure. Not that there weren't ATMs around, it was just that they only worked on the Visa network and I was stuck with a Mastercard ATM card. I tried over six different bank ATMs and none worked. Poor showing for Honduras and I don't think I was the only one having difficulties as the lines to get into any given bank rivalled Disneyland as people waited anxiously to access money that people in other countries would get at an ATM.

So Copan apparently wasn't meant to be. Too bad as I hear that it is really amazing. That's okay though as it gave me all day to take in the beauty that is San Pedro Sula. This lasted 5 minutes. It has a decent church and the chicks are reasonably hot, but in both cases no pictures are warranted. With the rest of my day and no money to spend I did the only thing I really could do and went back to the hotel to finish reading Wuthering Heights (much better than I thought it was going to be) and watch some TV. Luckily the hotel had numerous stations and so I was able to catch up on world news and watch Point Break twice. "We'll get'em when he comes eeen!". The hotel took credit cards and so far no strange charges have shown up, so that was a relief. Although I was forced to eat at Pizza Hut since they were one of the few places that took credit cards. I ordered the Canadienese pizza which we normally call the Meat Lovers. Apparently Hondurans perceive Canadians as being meat eating socialists. I think they pretty much nailed it. At least it was much better than the Canada Burger at McDonald's in Liechtenstein.

After my uneventful day in San Pedro Sula I woke up early the next day to catch an 8:00am flight to Miami. I spent my last $10US on the cab ride (actually quite a good deal as it was a good 20km ride). Much to my chagrin Honduras is one of the those unfortunate countries that has an exit tax and doesn't take credit cards (can't someone look into incorporating these into the price of the airfare to avoid the added inconvenience of paying at the airport. If only I knew someone that worked for an airline). I tried to sneak by with a blank expression and my pockets pulled out to show they were empty, but they pointed me in the direction of an ATM that worked on the Mastercard network. Where were you when I needed you yesterday ScotiaBank? So if nothing else, that is my helpful advice on Honduras, get all the money you need at the airport or else bring a solid supply of greenbacks to exchange.

After a long layover in Miami and a delayed flight to Chicago I eventually got into O'Hare airport at 1:00am on last Thursday and hit the road back to Michigan to visit the family for the weekend. Had a nice visit with my cousin Michelle who was in town with her adorable little kids Joseph and Caroline. Also got a chance to meet my best friend Josh's first child, Hannah. She was a little cutie and the proud parents, Josh and Beth, couldn't be happier. So far work has been good although I'd rather still be with the guys in Central America.

So this will be the last you hear from Andon, except for the occasional comment. The beard is gone and fun has ended although the memories will live on forever.