Today we decided to take the short drive out of Tegucigalpa to the beautiful and tranquil town of Ojojona. Ojojona is a easy way to escape the hustle and bustle of the capital and we all had a great time. The first picture is of one of the main churches off the central square.
On our way out of town there was a security checkpoint... Of course none of us remembered to bring our passports. The police officer asks us to pull over and asks for our identification. I gave him my California drivers license, heck it was worth a try. He asked for my Honduran drivers license, I counter that we have only been in the country for a short time and that we have 3 months to get one. Oh yeah? He says... well where is your "Triangulo"??? He's got me... Que es un Triangulo? I ask. He makes a small triangle shape with his hands puts my drivers license in his pocket! He then explains to me that in order to get it back I have to go to some place in who knows what part of the city to get it back and pay some crazy fine... "Isn't there any other way that we could take care of this?" I ask him... Next, he asks/commands that I get out of the car, we go over to his little office by the side of the road. Turns out, I can pay the "ticket" right now... we haggle and agree on two hundred Lempiras (about $10). This is when it got good, for some reason I started to thank him. I thanked him for protecting the great country of Honduras, I thanked him for keeping us safe on our drive, I even thanked his buddy for helping him take money from me. Funny thing is I wasn't even upset about the whole thing, actually it was sort of cool. It will certainly happen again, next time I will try to get out of it for one hundred lempiras.
By the way... A triangulo is a reflective safety triangle that you are supposed to have in your car if you have to break down on the side of the road. We have probably seen close to one hundred broken down or parked cars on the highway and most people just but big rocks in the road to warn other drivers, never seen a "triangulo".
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