The Tica Bus from Managua, Nicaragua to Tegucigalpa, Honduras leaves at 5am daily and takes 7 hours, plus 1 hour for border crossing duties. The border crossing on an express bus is really quite simple: get off the bus, do your part, get back on the bus to go to the other side for their process, then continue on. Much smoother than walking across and finding connections for local buses on both sides, faster, but obviously more expensive. Honduras also uses digital fingerprinting for the border crossing, so be prepared for that. The little machine will light up with icons for which fingers you’re supposed to do next, which is helpful for people who didn’t understand the officials’ Spanish. There’s also a picture/video of you being taken during the process of fingerprinting/stamping your passport.
After arriving in Tegucigalpa at the Tica Bus station in the southeast around 3pm, I tried to catch the bus to my hostel, for which I had information and directions. The employees of the bus station were aghast that I was going to try to take the bus, because it was a pretty sketchy area. They even made the armed guard stand with me while waiting for the bus. I wound up not taking the bus, though, because 2 Danes from my bus were looking for a taxi to my same hostel and invited me to ride with them and just chip in $1. That was a fair deal.
After checking into the AWESOME Palmira Hostel, I went to the supermarket, got some supplies, wandered around, and had some food at Taco Loco, which isn’t that great, and isn’t great for vegans, either. It took a lot of customization.
The hostel has a GREAT “free walking tour” 5 days a week, and I absolutely recommend it. Tegus has tons of great street art, history, culture, and the guide asked me the obvious “are you hungry?,” to which the answer is always affirmative—especially after a 3 hour walking tour in the afternoon heat. We went to this taqueria that I would never be able to find again on my own (in a mix of crowded market stalls), and I had 2 burritos and a bottle of water for something like $1.10 US. Awesome. Most burritos and tacos will come with eggs and cream (not just at this spot, but everywhere), so make sure to say clearly and multiple times that you don’t want these, if you’re vegan.
During the tour, I even was interviewed for the evening news on a story they were doing about culture/tourism, but my Spanish is so broken that they wound up not using any of the footage (I watched for it). Go me!
Everyone at the hostel had nothing but positive things to say about Tegus. There are obviously areas you’d want to avoid (especially at night), but everyone had 100% positive experiences and was really happy to share them with me when I arrived, so the hostel and the city had a great vibe. It’s really the only capital in any Central American countries that seems to have this reputation, so that’s another reason to put it on your list of places to visit.
I will add that the down side of Tegus is that the city has water issues/water rationing, and the water at the hostel got shut off for about 12 hours one day, which meant that you couldn’t use the sinks, showers, flush the toilets, etc. That was a downer, but you’re talking about one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and I wasn’t staying at a 5-star resort. It’s part of traveling on a budget, and it didn’t honestly affect me in a major way. As a US citizen with white male privileges, I haven’t had to live through this as a part of daily life, so it’s easy to deal with it as a temporary bump, since it’s not part of my daily life affecting my ability to cook at home, for instance. Perspective.
I can’t really talk much about vegan spots, since I cooked at the hostel a few times and don’t know the name/location of that taqueria, but finding vegan food was really quite simple, so just bring along your “Vegan Passport” book and use your broken Spanish. It will be easy, and you’ll get delicious, cheap food for your belly.
Next stop: El Cuco, El Salvador
