Honduras - The Rocky Road to Nowhere

October 21-22

Hello everyone!

El Salvador is bordered by two countries. Having gone north to Guatemala earlier in the year, this holiday was going to be spent going ‘south’ (which is actually to the east). The main destination is Nicaragua, however to drive there you first need to pass through El Salvador’s other border: hello Honduras!

The Gulf of Fonseca

El Salvador and Honduras have a somewhat chequered history. They once briefly went to war in the aftermath of a football match, and don’t really see each other in the friendliest of lights. Nonetheless, they are part of a regional association (which also includes Guatemala and Nicaragua), allowing people easy travel between the countries. 

The war lasted about 5 days

El Salvador is over there!

We have seen Honduras before. In December, we visited Conchagua and slept atop its eponymous volcano. From there you have a fantastic panorama across the Gulf of Fonseca, which has Honduras on the other side. Our target for the weekend, partly to break up the otherwise long drive to Nicaragua, was a Honduran section of the Gulf of Fonseca.

Our visit to the area in December 2022

The land way in the distance to the left, which
looks like a haze, is roughly where we are now

Even so, this was quite a long drive. Getting from Santa Tecla to the border took the best part of four hours, even with little traffic to navigate on a Saturday mid-morning. We arrived at the border at around 2pm. The crossing itself was swift, taking about twenty minutes to both exit El Salvador and enter Honduras.

Spoiler: it took longer than what Google suggests

The Honduran border

From here it was a surprisingly smooth drive to a town called Choluteca. The roads were flat and of a good quality, not what I had been expecting (we’re always told that El Salvador has the best roads in Central America). From there we headed south to a village called Monjaras. Then we turned right…

Lovely, smooth roads!

Not lovely, not smooth excuse of a road!

We had been told the last section was off-road and that it would be useful to have a 4x4. Though it is the back end of rainy season, we didn’t expect enormous puddles to start submerging our Suzuki. 

This is what they were like the next day

We were bumping and skidding along reasonably slowly and noticing that people on the side of the road were pointing at the front of the car. Initially we assumed this was because of the El Salvador licence plate. Eventually, feeling a little bit nervous about so many people doing this, we pulled over to have a look. We didn’t spot it at first. I’m not sure how we didn’t…

Luckily, not a vital part of the car

Yes, we had been dragging part of our chassis along the floor. Probably for quite a while. I got down and realised that it wasn’t a vital car component - all we needed to do was remove it. This eventually happened with the help of an old man with no teeth in the middle of his mouth. He had told me he was going to cycle back home to get a machete. He came back without one and was able to do what I couldn’t - fiddle enough to yank it off. 

Pedro was able to help us

This meant that we were now very much chasing daylight. The off-road drive (which Google Maps claims should take about 50 minutes) took well over an hour-and-a-half, with me trying to simultaneously drive carefully and drive quickly so that we weren’t having to traverse mini lakes in darkness. 

Accommodation seems expensive in Honduras - this fairly basic
place is more expensive than anywhere we were staying in Nicaragua

We arrived in darkness, meaning that we couldn’t initially find our accommodation and that we couldn’t see much around us. Turns out even in the daytime, there isn't much around in Playa Punta Raton. We were staying in the middle of nowhere. 

A pig sitting in the mud to cool off

The main beach area: deserted until lunchtime

I knew that we weren’t heading to a particularly hopping spot. I didn’t realise how little there was in Playa Punta Raton. One church, a couple of little shops mainly selling crisps, one ‘restaurant’ which only seemed open at lunchtime and when they’d caught some fish (delicious, mind). We were lucky that the wife of the guard in our accommodation was happy to cook for us for a small price. 

The local church

A Honduran tipico dinner - the breakfast
we had was remarkably similar

There is a charm to this, of course. There was nothing touristy about the place. Only two times were we really ‘accosted’. The first was when a little girl ran out of the church and hugged Hannah. The second was when an obese man called Douglas showed us where to sit to get the fish and then chatted at us whilst sipping a beer he made me buy for him (his accent was thick - he made ‘Gareth Bale’ sound like ‘hamburger’). They were both funny and positive experiences.

The police station

Enjoying a cerveza with an amazing view

It meant that we had this incredible view pretty much to ourselves, save for the locals who were swimming in the tepid waters lapping the shore. 

The big island I think is called Tiger
Island, also belonging to Honduras

A fishing boat skimming the warm water

It meant that we could sit on an abandoned and crumbling veranda to take in a stunning sunset.

To the left of me were a lot of broken tiles - this
balcony must have gone out further in the past

Stunning

It meant that we were able to switch off from the world to an extent. Admittedly, with Hannah needing to do a lot of digital work, this wasn’t ideal. We got around that by me standing on the beach next to the water, which meant that I could get signal from El Salvador to access my data (mobile internet doesn’t work regionally for a pay-as-you-go customer) and then hotspot her to access the material she needed. When that expired, we were able to switch off and enjoy the view.

Loading lessons from a hotspot off my phone
which was getting signal from across the Gulf

A short walk away from the beach found an equally lovely sight. One possible reason for the underdevelopment of this area is that it is in what I think is a protected reserve: Reserva de Vida Silvestre Los Delgeditos. I ended up running - then later walking - through a wetland area which oozed tranquillity. 

Plenty of birdlife in the reserve

I don't know whether I was allowed through the gate - I'm glad I ran in!

Once we’d arrived, Playa Punta Raton was a peaceful and beautiful spot. Isolated and hard to get to, it was a world away from the hustle and bustle of a major city, and a lovely place to start our latest trip. The car probably didn’t appreciate it as much, though…

Beautiful nature reserve

Beautiful shoreline and view

Beautiful...I'll let you fill in the rest :-)

Love you all,

Matt