Arrival in Honduras – February 21, 2015

After what seemed to be an unending fight, I finally touched down in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The last time I was here, the airport was under construction and there was no clear way of gathering luggage or going through customs.

This time, my only fear was that my luggage had not made it and I would be heading to Buena Fe with little more than a computer and camera. My luggage was there and I quickly cleared customs to begin searching for a recognizable face.

The waiting room of the airport was not as busy as I remembered, so I can assume I was overwhelmed with my previous experiences or that this was still early in the day. I quickly found Al Wigood (World Accord) and Megan Gilbertson (World Accord team leader.) With them were a number of people from Buena Fe, all knowing that by going for the ride they would get a meal in San Pedro Sula. At this time I was also introduced to Charity, Adrian and Doug; all were volunteers for PRR and World Accord.

The last time I was in San Pedro Sula, there was a lot of development taking place. It has since become the primary manufacturing region for Honduras. Now it looked Americanized. Of all the possible places we could have stopped for lunch, we went to Pizza Hut, to me it didn’t seem special, but to the people from Buena Fe it was a real treat (and part of the reason they went for the ride to the airport.

Following a hearty lunch, we were on the road again. Al told me of an earthquake that hit a few years back, which knocked down two bridges. These bridges still stood as tangled piles of concrete. We crossed smaller parallel bridges on the road to Buena Fe.

As I recalled before we always stopped to pick up fresh fruit, and this was no exception. In the most competitive looking market, more than 20 vendors sold the same product. Al had always gone to the same vendor, as she was like family. The bus was loaded with banana, pineapples and a large watermelon before we were on our way again.

Our next stop would be the gas station, we would pass Lake Yojoa and within a short time we would arrive at our home for the next few weeks.

Not much has changed in la Buena Fe since 2008, though the neighbouring town shares little resemblance with what I remember.