It’s a Long Walk From Guatemala to Honduras

Unless you’ve read my About Us page, you may not know that I lived in Mexico & Guatemala from July 1985 to July 1986. That means I lived in Guatemala in during its Civil War. I learned Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala, too.

In the course of the year, I traveled quite a bit. I love history and archaeology, so I was able to visit many Mayan ruins and other historical sites. And I have many fond memories of Latin America.

This morning I read Shannon O’Donnell’s article A Little Travel Guilt…Copan Ruins, A Necessary Third? which got me thinking about my own trip to Copan, Honduras.

I have always been a cheapskate – that means I got to see even more out-of-the-way places (like Iximche) due to my desire to save money on certain modes of transportation. In other words, I walked a lot more often than I had to.

One of those extra walks involved leaving Guatemala and entering Honduras. It was about a mile between the Guatemalan and Honduran border posts. There were drivers who shuttled people back and forth for $.25 a ride, which I was happy to pay.

Unfortunately, the price for an American male was $3 which I didn’t want to pay. It started at $6, but the lowest I could get them down to was $3. I was at a disadvantage because of these things:

I wasn’t Guatemalan nor Honduran
I had a 40 pound backpack
The mile-long dirt road spanned a valley so I had to walk down a half mile and back up a half mile
It was a hot and dusty day in April 1986

So I walked. And as the drivers passed, they heckled me for being too cheap (which strengthened my resolve). I eventually got to Honduras where, to my surprise, the drivers bought me an ice-cold Coke and lunch. We chatted and laughed for about 30 minutes and they made sure I got on the right bus for Copan.

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