I Am Not A Killa.... Things go sideways in Honduras

Stevie and I talked about whether or not to write about certain events in our travels. On one hand we prefer not to worry our families back home and it would be easy to omit things. On the other, we feel obligated to tell all, good and bad. If we censor our experiences there would be nothing but fluff on the blog. Yesterday was anything but fluff.

Our caravan left Copan in the morning. Our destination was a B&B on a lake in Central Honduras. So far we only had one incident of the cops trying to extort a flashlight from Dave. I had just told Stevie how mellow Honduras was turning out to be when we pulled into a gas station so Dave and Chad could fill up. I had plenty of gas so I pulled aside in the parking lot. The first thing I noticed was a 14 or 15 year old kid with a machine gun standing in the lot. Having seen nothing but private security guards toting guns for the last 3 countries I didn't think anything of it. I walked over to where Dave was pumping gas to point out how young the security guards were getting. Dave just looked at me and said "Tree, take a look around". There was a jacked up blue 4x4 truck surrounded by kids. All of them had 9mm glocks tucked into their belts, in plain view. They were staring at us. I barely had time to register what I was seeing when another man walked toward us wearing fancier cloths and gold chains. He had a nickel plated 9 tucked in the front of his belt. The kids were bodyguards and I was staring at a narco boss. He was holding a beer in one hand and his other hand extended toward me. He said in a slurred voice, "I am not a killa" and smiled, showing gold teeth. I looked down at his gun. I looked at the kid with the machine gun standing next to him. I extended my hand and said "mucho gusto senor". He took my hand and did not let go. I took a breath. Dave stopped pumping gas and moved toward his vehicle. The man said some other things in broken english that I honestly can't remember. Again I said "mucho gusto senor". I looked toward the Sprinter and saw Stevie walking Kiki. I felt the mans grip loosen and I slowly pulled my hand away and started back toward the van. I told Stevie to get in and turned the van around. I left the engine running and for the first time looked back toward the men. Dave was pulling around behind the Sprinter and the men had surround Chad's windows.  A moment later Chad was getting out of the van. The Boss was holding his arm and showing him photos. The others surrounded them. I waited. I knew the leader was drunk and the kid's were young and armed. Even though they weren't showing aggression, the situation felt very volatile.  I caught Emily's eye and said "we need to leave NOW". She got into the drivers seat and turned their van around. Chad was still surrounded. The boss still had his arm. Nobody knew what to do. A few minutes went by and Chad managed to exit the situation and get into his van. We drove away and didn't stop for 2 hours. We later learned that the narco boss was showing Chad photos of helicopters, his sister, his wife, his time in the army. It must be lonely being a drug lord. Chad, his new best friend, was doing his best to exit the situation without provoking him or appearing rude. Looking back on it, it was crazy how flagrant those guys were with their guns. They were obviously not concerned with the real gas station security guard who had a shot gun, nor were they worried about the police checkpoints. We were in an area that they clearly controlled.

We all had quite an adrenaline rush going. I felt bad for Dave and Ann. After being robbed last week by 3 guys with machetes, this was the last thing they needed. Then the next card fell. About 45 minutes from our destination white smoke started flying out the back of the Sprinter. The van went into a computerized "limp mode", meaning it would only go 20 miles per hour. We made it to our destination and with a weak internet signal and the help of my Dad back in the US determined that the Turbo Resignator was blown. Our friend Duncan had already warned us about this known Sprinter problem over a month ago, so I had already ordered the spare part which is at Outdoorplay in Oregon right now waiting for me to pick it up in April. We just weren't planning on ours dying before we had the replacement.

The good news is that my amazing crew at ODP is sending the part down via Fedex today (thanks Jason!). We should have it by the end of the week. The bad news is that the Sprinter vans down here do not use that part since they don't have emissions controls. That means they won't install. That means I get to do it. So what's the difference between a wrench and a socket again?

Dave and Chad walked me through a hypothetical installation and made sure I had all the tools required for the job. The installation does not look too difficult. I think I got this one! Anxious to get out of Honduras, our friends will be heading for Nicaragua tomorrow. We will be on our own. We're gonna miss their company for sure. After we get the van fixed I think we will also head for Nicaragua instead of heading to the other side of Honduras. We'll see how things unfold. Should be exciting. TREE