day 12-playa el tunco, el salvador to choluteca, honduras-4-25-17

The 4-5 hour ride across El Salvador went well but reality finally arrived. It is very hot and humid at the lower elevations. Today gave us much of what we expected for much of the trip.
Driving through El Salvador made me a little sad. A guy at the border told me that he went to the states in 1989 because of the civil war in his country. El Salvador probably wasn't a jewel back then either but it is apparent the country hasn't recovered. You see signs for resorts along the ocean, but at least for an American, there are so many better and easier choices that they don't stand a chance for our dollars.

Had 3 hours to kill getting through the El Salvador/ Honduras border. You see a lot of people working very hard just to subsist.
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I made the comment today that driving through Latin America is like experiencing a mash up of 1880, 1931, 1971, 1989, and the present all at once. You can see someone sitting next to the road on their smartphone, waiting to be picked up by a tricked out 1989 bus, with cows and pigs grazing on the roadside nearby while a farmer heads up to his fields in a horse drawn cart.

Honduras has been a bit more wild you might say. There are some oxymorons all around. The poverty is palpable. There is trash everywhere. That isn't exactly a new experience as we travel but it is everywhere here. Weirdly, the houses themselves look larger and better constructed but there is nothing but dirt, trash, dried out vegetation as far as the eye can see.
There is money coming in from somewhere though. We must have rode through 60 miles of highway and infrastructure upgrades.

My friend Mike Kurtz said this in a post, "As Wild West and as fun as Guatemala was, El Salvador seemed like the snooty little sister, little up tight, people seems to follow some laws when driving and took more pride in their appearance of themselves and their country. Of course we stayed out of the big cities that might change there.
Honduras is like the lazy uncle that has his hand out all the time looking for a little money for doing nothing, and we gladly pay just so we can cut through his backyard."