It's 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 17. This time tomorrow, I'll be making a layover in Panama City on my way to Tegucigalpa. In most of my traveling experiences, some pre-trip planning is required, but concrete itineraries are tough to pin down when you don't know what to expect or what you'll find. Although I generally get stressed in the days or hours leading up to the trip, I eventually find a way to relax (I call this way "wine"). Point being, I'm in the stressed out part of my trip.
The irony here is that I'm writing for a travel company that's geared toward 40 to 50-year-olds with steady incomes and presumably ample savings. As for me, my last year's income didn't reach the U.S. poverty line - which, strangely, put me on par with most middle-class Mexican heads of families. When I'm not being graciously afforded a free night's stay in a hotel or (hopefully...please God hopefully) on a packaged tour, I'll be traveling like a smelly hippie backpacker with a limited budget and three changes of clothes.
I've mapped out my itinerary for the first three cities along my Caribbean coastal route, but I didn't realize until now that just getting to the coast could be tricky in itself. After flying into the capital city's airport, I'll need to take a cab or a "colectivo" to the bus station in Comayagüela, a notoriously dangerous district in Tegucigalpa (yay!) From there, a 4.5-hour bus to San Pedro Sula, where I'll be spending the night in a hostel before taking a bus to Omoa and beginning my journey.
Money-wise, it's good that my schedule is restricted by my already-booked trip home to Ohio on July 15. I'm heading back out of Tegucigalpa on July 13, so I need to cover as much as I possibly can in this time frame. Dysentery, malaria or any other time-consuming illness is not an option, as I can't afford to lose any days (that and I don't want to get malaria).
It's now 9:50 a.m. Is it too early to start on that wine?
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