Return to La Paz

20. August 2009 by Fortunato Velasquez.

My early morning Linea Cristina bus rolled through the northern coast’s fecund green carpet of tropical forest, banana plantations, pineapple fields, coconut trees and palm oil stands from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula where the two-lane  highway turned south and edged into the mountains toward the interior.  The country only has a smattering of four-lane highways in its two largest cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.  Its third largest city, La Ceiba, has none and nowhere else that I have traveled have I seen any.  Nonetheless, Honduras’ network of paved two-lane roads criss-cross its mountainous terrain in every direction providing public transport cheaply and efficiently.  As we lifted from the coastal plain the forest morphed into a coniferous expanse of pine, fir and spruce trees and the clammy humidity gradually became a thing of the past.  The three-hour trip wound its serpentine way steadily up and around mountain after mountain until cresting just before reaching the rim of the Comayagua Valley on the other side of the range.  Once we reached Siguatepeque on the downward plunge about 15 kilometers from Comayagua I felt that I was almost home.  La Paz is a mere 30 - 40 minute ride from Comayagua.  In my next post I will describe my homecoming and the orphanage….

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