We caught the ferry to La Ceiba, and after some fustrating and humorous conversations trying to get some of my insurance documents notarized, we went to catch the bus to Comayagua. We got on the bus, and 5 minutes later, the bus was boarded by policemen in fatigues carrying machine guns ordering everyone off. As we got up, one of the men informed Kerry only men needed to exit. Why only men, I never found out. As I got off, all the men were lined up facing the bus, hands on the side, legs spread and being searched. Not necessarily gentle searches - quite thourough ones. I too placed my palms on the side of the bus facing it, and waited. Once everyone was searched, they opened the luggage bay, and had people remove their bags for searching. There were only 3 people with bags and I was the last searched.
I hate to unpack and pack my bag as it is, but I wasnt looking forward to doing it here. My bag is a top-loader, which means that to get to (or see) the stuff in the bottom, the stuff in the top needs to come out. So there I was, taking out everything I owned, I had to put my clothes on the dirty bus parking lot with a crowd of about 50 people looking on, and a guy with a machine gun inspecting everything. I have small nylon bag which I keep my underwear and socks in, and as I pulled it out of my backpack I threw it on my pile and said 'ropa', meaning clothes. He grabbed the bag and opened it and found a tightly packed small black plastic bag, which I guess from what you see in the movies could look like a pound ro two of drugs of some sort. Well, I simply use a plastic bag to keep the dirties separate from the cleans. My machine gun toting friend was sure he found something. He held it up, looked somewhat proud, somewhat triumphant, and somewhat inquisitive, as to say 'what have we here??'. Trying not to laugh, I looked at him and in plain english said 'I have no idea how to tell you in spanish that you´re holding my dirty socks and undies, but rock on with your bad self and open it up.' He opened it and handed it back to me, and I just said 'uh, yeah.' He didnt smile. We all got back on the bus and that was that.
We just missed the connecting bus to Comayagua by minutes and had to spend the night in San Pedro Sula, which is a bit of a rat-hole of a town. Even the guide books say theres not much worth seeing, and its dangerous. We spent the night watching people from the balcony of the hotel.
Comayagua seems pretty cool, although we just got here, and are using it more as a stopping point on the way to Nicaragua, where we should be in a couple days.