With every bad situation there is always something good ...

When last I left you I was complaining about the difficulty in getting from here to there  -- or there to here I guess it is now. But you know what I mean.

But even when I thought I had it figured out there was still another glitch. From my June trip I knew that one, Belize dollars could not be exchanged at a bank in Honduras. They could only be exchanged right when you get off the ferry and you don't get the best exchange rate. Trust me, in June I lost about $200, the moment I stepped off the boat. Water under the bridge as they say. But, the banks in Belize will only exchange limited amounts of Belize dollars for US dollars, $250 USD to be exact per day.

So this time, thinking ahead, smart cookie that I am I decided I only really needed about $400 US to get me where I needed to be and give me some cash until I could get to a Honduran bank to get money. And, based upon my June experience, I knew I could get a ferry ticket, on the ferry, the day I traveled.

Off to the bank I went, got cash from the ATM and went to the window. I explained I wanted to exchange Belize dollars for US dollars. The very nice woman behind the counter explained to me, again, that I could only exchange a limited amount. I explained that I understood. She then went off to talk to another person behind the counter, her supervisor I assume. Then she comes back and says they don't have the ability to exchange any more Belize dollars that day, that their central banks decides how much they have to exchange and when they reach their daily limit they can exchange no more. Huh. This was on Wednesday, giving myself some wiggle room just in case there was a problem, I asked if Thursday morning I could then exchange money. She said, she wouldn't know until Thursday morning when the central bank told them.

I quietly left the bank and headed down to the other end of the main street to a different bank. I didn't just fall off that turnip truck. I stood in line and when I got to the window I explained I wanted to exchange Belize dollars for US Dollars. Here the teller tells me that I can only exchange the dollars if I am leaving the country. Hooray, I have the right answer here, I am leaving the country. She again explains that I can only exchange the $250 USD amount and that I need my passport and my ticket to leave the country. Well wait, I tell her I don't have a ticket, I'm taking the ferry, and getting my ticket on the day I leave. Nope, sorry, gotta have a ticket and she proceeds to tell me that I can go to one of the tour operators on the sidewalk and buy my ticket today.

Breathe.

So I head down the sidewalk to the appropriate tour operator. Surprise! They are closed.

I decide I have a better idea.

I think a beer is in order. It is really hot and I am really tired and really really frustrated. I walk to the Pickled Parrot, and visited Eugene and Lynn and had a Belikin. I told Eugene my troubles and he asks how much money I'm trying to exchange. I tell him I want to get $400 USD and he says, wait a minute, goes inside and comes back out and hands me $400 USD in 20's. My savior. I drink two beers then head for home to finish packing.

I got all my belongings -- well almost all, a few items I just could not find a way to stuff into one of my suitcases but I could not bear to give up, and left with someone in Belize to be picked up later --  into three large suitcases. Friday morning my friend Cruz drove me and my luggage first to Above Grounds Coffee for my last cup and donut and then to the ferry, I buy  a ticket and they load my bags.

I'm off! At about 9:30 the ferry leaves Placencia, and after a 15 minute ride we stop in Independence where we wait for Immigration. The schedule says we leave Independence at 11. At about 10:45 the Immigration officer finally arrives and it takes about 45 minutes to stamp all the passports and collect the exit fee. Now we're off. It is a reasonably uneventful ferry ride to Puerto Cortes, Honduras but because we left so late I already know my chances of making the afternoon ferry in La Ceiba were somewhere between slim and none. But I knew I still didn't want to spend a night in San Pedro Sula and if I wanted to take a bus I would have to take a taxi to San Pedro Sula then a bus and wouldn't arrive in La Ceiba till rather late. My plan remained to take a taxi and make the trip as quickly as possible.

So the title of this post ... clearly things were not going as planned but there was a bright spot.

While on the ferry ride to Puerto Cortes I chatted with three people. One was a young woman from Australia on her "gap year" -- the year between high school and college. So I figure that likely made her 18 or maybe 19. How was she spending her gap year? She was spending seven months traveling, alone, through much of Central America and volunteering at different places. She had been in Guatemala for a month, volunteering with kids. She was in between assignments when we met, had spent some time in Caye Caulker in the north part of Belize and a couple days in Placencia, was on her way to Honduras where she would stay in Puerto Cortes a couple of days and hoped to get to the Copan Ruins, then would be headed to  Costa Rica where she would be volunteering for a few weeks. I kept looking at her with such awe. She was so self assured, confident but still a fun-loving young adult. Then I also looked at her as a mom, I don't know that I could have let my daughter go off alone to Central America with just an general idea of a plan but without family or friends for support in each different country she would visit.

The other two people I chatted with were a couple from Holland. He, Rogier, is in his final year of residency in Amsterdam as a Urologist/Surgeon. She, Kelly, was a nutritionist/dietitian but then went back to university and got her masters degree and now works in Senior Health Care Management. They just got married and are on an 11 week honeymoon. They traveled to Canada and Alaska, then to Isla Holbox in the Yucatan, then spent about 4 days near  San Ignacio in Belize. They were traveling to Utila. Turns out Rogier is a huge music festival fan and the weekend we arrived was Sun Jam and annual music festival held on one of the Cays off of Utila.

We decided that Rogier, Kelly and I would share a cab to La Ceiba. With the delay at Independence we didn't even arrive in Puerto Cortes until almost 3, then the half hour with Honduran Immigration and we got into a taxi about 3:30. Last ferry leaves La Ceiba at 4:30 and it was a 3.5 hour drive. But we were enjoying each other's company, Rogier speaks pretty good Spanish and we headed off. We decided if we could talk the cab driver into it we would stop somewhere that had wi-fi, on the way and choose a hotel from Trip Advisor. There was a minor problem in that we now were going to hit "rush hour" on the way which would delay us even more.

We stopped along the way at what really was a bar, we used the facilities but they had wi-fi and we found a hotel.We all planned to catch the early ferry, and were tired so we decided the three of us would share a room to save some money. We chose the Hotel Partenon. We finally arrived a bit after 8 p.m., had dinner at their outdoor restaurant next  to the pool and on the ocean. Not bad. A really nice and comfortable hotel, and our room included Breakfast in the morning.

Next morning started with a taxi ride to the Utila Princess the ferry to take us to the island. We arrive and there is a very long line waiting to buy tickets. We get in line. Interesting thing about Honduras; making things run more smoothly or more quickly is not really high on their priority list. They have one person selling tickets and for each ticket they must scan your passport as well. It is not necessarily a quick process. When we get to the window to buy our tickets we learn that the early ferry has already left because it was full. It is about 10:00 now and they said there would be another ferry very soon. So we sat to wait.

My new friends and travel companions, Rogier and Kelly

And we waited. They said the ferry would be there by noon, but noon came and went. The lady at the ticket window told me that there was a problem with the ferry in Utila and they had to fix it but it was now on the way. Finally about 2:00 p.m. the ferry arrived, we got on and headed to the island.

I got a tuk-tuk (taxi) from the ferry to Pirates Bay Inn where I got a lovely room and signed up for several days of diving. More about that in the next post.

Despite all the problems with trying to get from  Placencia to Utila, I was so thrilled to meet Rogier and Kelly and they were wonderful traveling companions and I hope we will stay in touch. I'm considering it all a positive experience. Not one I really want to repeat any time really soon, except the part about meeting new friends.