Travel, travel, travel

So this was a pretty busy week. Last weekend was one of our two three day weekends, so a group of 8 of us decided to go to El Salvador. It turned out to be great fun. We left Friday right after class, and just barely made it in time to catch the bus to the border, the first of our many fun bus rides that day. Because we couldn’t make it on time for the Tica Bus- the nicer, direct to Sal Salvador bus, we ended up taking chicken buses all the way there. The bus to the border was supposed to take two hours, and ended up taking about 4 ½ (when will we learn?), and was incredibly hot and very full of people. These chicken buses stop every few minutes to pick up and drop off people, so they can take forever. It is, however, a very cheap way to travel and you always meet interesting people. Well we made it to the border, realized that there was no way we would be able to make it to San Salvador that night, and changed up our plans a bit. We ended up spending the night in San Miguel. So a few bus trips, taxi rides, arguments about whether to stay in a cheap or safe hotel, and some unsavory characters, we ended up a nice hotel. We were stressed, irritated, and wondered what we had gotten into. We went out for a nice dinner and then went to bed early. The trip was uphill from there.
We took a luxury bus to San Salvador the next morning, watched Fireproof in Spanish, and arrived in the city before 9 am. We found a bus that would drop us off right at out hostel, so that was nice. Our hostel ended up being fabulous, and the beach was gorgeous. It is apparently a great surfing beach, so it was full of foreigners around our same age. The water was wonderful, and though none of us surfed, we had a terrific time.
I would say that one of the highlights of our trip was the hostel we ended up staying at. It just so happened that the day we arrived they were having a birthday party for the owner and his son in law, and they invited us. We had a blast. They gave us great food, lots of rum (which was mostly drunk by a German who was staying at the hostel) and made us feel right at home. El Salvadorians really know how to throw a party. They made us feel right at home. They had dancing and karaoke. Lots of karaoke. They were singing until about 7 o’clock the next morning, and the karaoke machine was about four feet from our room. We all had a difficult time being angry since we had had such a fun time.
The next day we pretty much just bummed around the beach and relaxed. We met some really interesting backpackers who had been traveling all throughout Central America for several months. It was interesting being around foreigners after just being around our small group of Americans for such a long time.
We decided, after the difficult trip to El Salvador, that we would take the Tica Bus back home. That was nice and easy. It ended up being about 10 hours to get back to Tegucigalpa, but was significantly less stressful to not need to change buses.
We got back Monday night, and then had to immediately pack up again for our class trip to San Pedro Sula and Copan the next day. That trip ended up being really fun too. We first went to a maquila (clothing factory), and saw the conditions there and heard some speakers about that industry. It was really interesting to see a factory. We had some difficulties getting in, even after everything had been Okayed the day before. Someone said that we needed authorization from the US government, which we clearly did not have, but it ended up working out fine. The maquila we went to was one of the nicer ones. It had air conditioning, and many different services for the workers. They told us that this factory was also unionized, which was surprising, but there were no union representatives there, so who knows how it actually is. After leaving the maquila we met with a workers rights group for maquila workers, so we heard a bit of the other side of the story from them. The clothing industry here is really in a hard situation. The US buys the majority of Honduras’ clothing, but Honduran clothing exports only make up about 2% of the total clothing imports in the US. Honduras then is easily replaceable in the eyes of the US, but Honduras needs the US to import their clothes. This puts Honduras in the unfortunate situation that they need the US to stay happy with them so they continue to buy their clothing. But back to the workers rights group. Maquila workers work in horrible conditions many times. Most of the factories are not air conditioned, and they workers are forced to work overtime without being paid. The workers are trying to form a union, but as soon as the companies find out they are trying to unionize they are fired and blacklisted. They had some great success stories though. One maquila in particular was closed after trying to unionize, and they got the support of university students all over the US and Canada and stopped buying that particular clothing brand, and the workers got their jobs back and got better working conditions and pay for overtime.
The next day we went to a Chiquita banana plantation. That was super cool. I have never actually given that much thought as to where my bananas come from. So they explained the process to us, showed us around, etc. One thing that I found interesting was how strict the regulations were for bananas going to the US. The bananas had to be completely without blemishes or anything unattractive, as well as a certain size and shape. The man who was taking us on the tour said that Americans are getting increasingly more and more picky with our bananas. The banana that didn’t cut it stayed in Central America. After the plantation we went to a banana workers union, which was similar to the maquila workers right group.
After San Pedro Sula, we left to go to the Copan Ruins for a few days. It was quite fun. The weather was horrendously hot while we were there, and the drive there (in our retired school bus without air conditioning in 100 degree plus weather) was a little rough at times, but we managed to keep hydrated and in fairly good moods. The ruins were so much fun, and the town was great. We just kind of took it easy and enjoyed ourselves. We went to a bird sanctuary one of the days, that was pretty neat too. I will be going back with my parents when they come down in May.
So now we are all back in Tegucigalpa, and happy to not be on a bus for a few days. We have a week here, and then a week and a half of spring break. The semester continues to fly by, as of today we only have 62 days left in the semester. Once we get back from spring break it will be a race to the end. Hopefully we can manage to get everything done that we want. Tomorrow we are going to do some picture sharing, so I will try to finally put up some pictures here.