for as much traveling as we did today, we didn't get very far....

We were on track.
Well, we were late for school, but at least we had our clothes, toiletries, and some food.
We got more minutes for our phone, our schedules planned out for the days we were gone, and money on our person.

We left with Marco after school. Though he was going to San Pedro, to the east, and we were headed west, we all had to start at the same place.

We boarded a packed van/bus, that I'm pretty sure was meant for about 10 people, that was over capacity by at least 33 percent. It made it fun at first though. We were on our way to Guatemala, a new country, where we'd face new challenges. The excitement and anxiety was all bubbling to the surface, making even the simplest things fun (i.e. I saw cows in the road and started laughing... I see cows in the road almost everyday.)

When we got to the main road, a bus was waiting. Marco said, oh, that is your bus! A boy ran up to our incoming bus and started yelling "Ocotepeque". He was in a hurry, but we were stuck behind the elderly people climbing out. We retrieved our bags from the top of the van/bus and ran across the street to catch our bus.
Part one complete.

Once we arrive in Ocotepeque, we are instantly asked where we're going. We say Esquipulas, but they know we mean Agua Caliente (the last town in Honduras on your way to Guatemala). We get on the bus, and nearly an hour later, we are at the border.

When we get off the bus, we are bombarded by about 5 guys. We didn't know if we were just supposed to change buses or what, and they wanted to change us money. We had stashed our money in various places (money belt, pocket, wallet, socks) and we knew that we needed to get all of it out in order to change it. It felt awkward revealing all of our hiding spots. But, I knew that the exchange rate was fare (1000 lempiras = 400 quetzales), so I didn't feel too bad.

Then this guy started speaking English to us. He asked us where we were from, and if we knew a lot of Spanish. Then he told us he was going to help us out. We didn't really know what that meant because we can really handle our own, but he insisted and took us over to the border patrol.
He asked for our passports. Then he asked us if we had the little yellow pieces of paper that we got when we arrived in Honduras.
Turns out, we didn't have them.

The English speaking fellow tells us that he's going to try to help us out. He said that we might be able to work out a deal to get us in for a price. Well, of course there is a price!

At first, he tells us that it's going to be about 2,500 lempiras each (about $130 each). Then he said he might be able to get it down. The next offer was 2,500 lempiras for both of us. Well, that was better, and we definitely did not want to go all the way back home, but we didn't bring enough.
We tell him that it's too much. He tells us to give him a number. I tell him the most we could do is 200 lempiras ($10). He said, oh, well the guy is going to want at least $50 usd from each of you. We tell him that we can't, and that we'll just go home.

All this time, the guy is trying to convince us that our papers at home might be missing, or thrown away. I assure him that we know where they are, that we have an apartment and no one has moved into it or thrown it away. In between negotiations, he would go talk to his posse of fellas while smoking a cigarette.

We finally decide that it's too much and that we will just go back to San Marcos to get our papers. They didn't seem too happy, but relented. Then we asked to exchange some of our money back, and the kid who helped us in the first place was trying to be difficult. He was speaking fast, and mumbling, and wasn't too helpful when we asked him to talk slower.
Finally, we got were able to exchange our quetzales for lempiras, enough for the bus back home and then back to Agua Caliente, and then left.


We are happy that we did not get scammed, though a little irritated that our travel plans were set back a couple hours. Tomorrow, we are leaving between 5 and 6am to try to make it to Puerto Barrios as early as possible. Hopefully there will be no problems then.