Fulanito
03-28-2013, 06:50 PM
In short on Honduras:
I was assigned there for 4 years. I lived on the economy. I have gone back many times since then for contracts and social reasons. Anything can be bought, anyone can be silenced...or made to speak, the boarders are so porous that flying unicorns dressed in pink pajamas could go through everyday unnoticed. Narcos fly directly over the capital of Tegucigalpa every couple of days and the Air Force doesn't have the capability to scramble fast enough to do anything about it...nor do they have the will. Hell, its how their economy is sustained and would be counter productive to do much about it. Anyway, what idiot goes in through a main port when it is actually much easier to pass through a punto diego (blind spot)? Hell, you dont even need to pay anyone for this. Kids cross from Nicaragua everyday to attend school through the river bed at Las Manos. The guards just watch. Also La Fraternidad, La Mosquitia and the boarder at El Salvador at Amatillo and Guatemala at Chiquimula and Agua Caliente. All easy to cross with or without papers. Depends on the business. Water ports out of Puerto Cortez, Choluteca and Puerto Lempira are ridiculously easy. Likely the no brainer method is to go by private boat from Cortez to Belize and end up in Barranco or Punto Gorda. Did it, been there. Easy. Of course I was on the job and had certain privileges at the time, but easy enough to see that thousands of others do it all the time on a regular basis. Remember: Water ports are your friend as it is actually hard to find someone to stamp your papers. Legitimate border checkpoints and registered airports are for the schmucks who aren't very inventive and have no connections. I always have to giggle when I hear or read about someone getting rolled up in an airport. Why the hell would you go through an airport on purpose if you were doing something that wasn't on the up and up, were being a drug mule...or simply attracted attention. I guess they deserve to get rolled up, hassled, extorted, interrogated, jailed......Darwin at work.
Im very much a fan of the north coast. La Ceiba and Trujillo. However that is where folks "try" to get lost. In fact so many try you can see all of the not so well hidden, on the streets and in the bars. These are more the romantic expats pretending to live life on the edge. Ceiba and Trujillo are good places to go for supplies (in and out) that are not too high on the radar. Better yet, have a friend hire a driver to go in and out for you. Then have the friend drop your supplies somewhere for you. Ceiba, Trujillo...and Choluteca to the west are at least not as high up on the list as Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Hey, I spent a night in the main prison in La Ceiba. Long confusing story that turned out fine. Not as bad I thought it would be...just no food and my team and I slept in shifts, shoulder to shoulder with one man awake all night. Would have needed a better plan for the long term, but manageable for anyone with the stomach for it.
Getting lost / going under in La Mosquitia in the northeast is so easy it happens by accident all the time. I have had to locate planes, crews equipment and individuals there that went down. This is the quintessential place to find wreckage covered over with Tarzan vines and tribesman worshipping the fuseloge. Don't laugh...I have seen it. Yep, as recent as 14 years ago. Funny enough: Go to the museum in Trujillo to see World War 2 planes that went down. Also remnants of German boats that wrecked along the coast.
The islands off the north coast: Roatan, Utila and Guanaja. Nice cute, austere, touristy places to stay for a while but one can become very board on an island. I have spent time on each of them and find them WAY too small. It is virtually impossible to be a foreigner there off the radar. I liken them to a small high school...everyone knows everyone and everyones business. And of they dont actually know your business, what is made up about you can be worse...more interesting. In SPanish we have a phrase "Pueblo pequeño, infierno grande" ...small town, big fire. Lots of chisme (rumors). Not where one goes to hide. Rumors are your enemy when boring and nondescript is the goal.
The military is right wing and quite conservative, just as we trained them to be. They actually protect the constitution with their lives, imagine that! Im not saying they are professional, but they have the right idea. The cops, especially in San Pedro Sula shoot, shovel and shut up everyday. Dirt bags disappear all the time...but so do good guys. Money here buys you time and space. An operational envelope, if it were. You can be left alone or enjoy the company of your choosing. Depends on your needs and desires. Spanish and cash are a must. Lawyers....ha, ha, ha, ha, ha..... Used to matter when the Maya hotel in the 80's and 90's was the spook central. Now you only need a lawyer to enter into honest ventures, which are few and far between. Now Central America is soooooooo off the radar, it doesn't register with the USG. Used to be a USG hotspot, now it is just an embarrassment, a US policy black mark in history, failed made up drug war, kidnap and extortion haven. There is good and bad in this depending on the side you are on.
You can bring in a tax free vehicle every 5 years. You can ship all your household goods tax free. Pick a weapon and it can be found...legal or otherwise. Getting residency is easy for an AMCIT and HO citizenship is not that much of a hassle.
Your money will go far in Hondolandia. All depends on the lifestyle you are trying to achieve.
If you are looking to go off the radar and perhaps never return and are really up for a LAST turn of the century style adventure. Honduras just may be the place. I loved it there and tried to stay on for another tour. Sadly duty called me to Surinam for the following 3 years. Now that place was actually the absolute end of the F-ing world on the lip of the Amazon. Again...another story for another time.
Final note: Chaos, failing institutions and corruption are good to get lost in. they cant keep track of themselves, how the hell will they keep track of you?!? The trade-off is comfort, convenience, good medical care, good schools for the kids, job contracts for you etc... Going under is done for a lot of reasons...choice, work, privacy...or your are just plain old running from someone you don't want to be caught by. Whatever the reason, it CAN be done, but it does have its costs and it does take a toll over the long haul. A few years when you are in your 20's or 30's is one thing, perhaps romantic, pretty young ladies, lots of cash, drinks and guns. To live out your days like that is tiresome, lonely, isolating and not for the faint of heart.
A tired cowboy.....
I was assigned there for 4 years. I lived on the economy. I have gone back many times since then for contracts and social reasons. Anything can be bought, anyone can be silenced...or made to speak, the boarders are so porous that flying unicorns dressed in pink pajamas could go through everyday unnoticed. Narcos fly directly over the capital of Tegucigalpa every couple of days and the Air Force doesn't have the capability to scramble fast enough to do anything about it...nor do they have the will. Hell, its how their economy is sustained and would be counter productive to do much about it. Anyway, what idiot goes in through a main port when it is actually much easier to pass through a punto diego (blind spot)? Hell, you dont even need to pay anyone for this. Kids cross from Nicaragua everyday to attend school through the river bed at Las Manos. The guards just watch. Also La Fraternidad, La Mosquitia and the boarder at El Salvador at Amatillo and Guatemala at Chiquimula and Agua Caliente. All easy to cross with or without papers. Depends on the business. Water ports out of Puerto Cortez, Choluteca and Puerto Lempira are ridiculously easy. Likely the no brainer method is to go by private boat from Cortez to Belize and end up in Barranco or Punto Gorda. Did it, been there. Easy. Of course I was on the job and had certain privileges at the time, but easy enough to see that thousands of others do it all the time on a regular basis. Remember: Water ports are your friend as it is actually hard to find someone to stamp your papers. Legitimate border checkpoints and registered airports are for the schmucks who aren't very inventive and have no connections. I always have to giggle when I hear or read about someone getting rolled up in an airport. Why the hell would you go through an airport on purpose if you were doing something that wasn't on the up and up, were being a drug mule...or simply attracted attention. I guess they deserve to get rolled up, hassled, extorted, interrogated, jailed......Darwin at work.
Im very much a fan of the north coast. La Ceiba and Trujillo. However that is where folks "try" to get lost. In fact so many try you can see all of the not so well hidden, on the streets and in the bars. These are more the romantic expats pretending to live life on the edge. Ceiba and Trujillo are good places to go for supplies (in and out) that are not too high on the radar. Better yet, have a friend hire a driver to go in and out for you. Then have the friend drop your supplies somewhere for you. Ceiba, Trujillo...and Choluteca to the west are at least not as high up on the list as Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Hey, I spent a night in the main prison in La Ceiba. Long confusing story that turned out fine. Not as bad I thought it would be...just no food and my team and I slept in shifts, shoulder to shoulder with one man awake all night. Would have needed a better plan for the long term, but manageable for anyone with the stomach for it.
Getting lost / going under in La Mosquitia in the northeast is so easy it happens by accident all the time. I have had to locate planes, crews equipment and individuals there that went down. This is the quintessential place to find wreckage covered over with Tarzan vines and tribesman worshipping the fuseloge. Don't laugh...I have seen it. Yep, as recent as 14 years ago. Funny enough: Go to the museum in Trujillo to see World War 2 planes that went down. Also remnants of German boats that wrecked along the coast.
The islands off the north coast: Roatan, Utila and Guanaja. Nice cute, austere, touristy places to stay for a while but one can become very board on an island. I have spent time on each of them and find them WAY too small. It is virtually impossible to be a foreigner there off the radar. I liken them to a small high school...everyone knows everyone and everyones business. And of they dont actually know your business, what is made up about you can be worse...more interesting. In SPanish we have a phrase "Pueblo pequeño, infierno grande" ...small town, big fire. Lots of chisme (rumors). Not where one goes to hide. Rumors are your enemy when boring and nondescript is the goal.
The military is right wing and quite conservative, just as we trained them to be. They actually protect the constitution with their lives, imagine that! Im not saying they are professional, but they have the right idea. The cops, especially in San Pedro Sula shoot, shovel and shut up everyday. Dirt bags disappear all the time...but so do good guys. Money here buys you time and space. An operational envelope, if it were. You can be left alone or enjoy the company of your choosing. Depends on your needs and desires. Spanish and cash are a must. Lawyers....ha, ha, ha, ha, ha..... Used to matter when the Maya hotel in the 80's and 90's was the spook central. Now you only need a lawyer to enter into honest ventures, which are few and far between. Now Central America is soooooooo off the radar, it doesn't register with the USG. Used to be a USG hotspot, now it is just an embarrassment, a US policy black mark in history, failed made up drug war, kidnap and extortion haven. There is good and bad in this depending on the side you are on.
You can bring in a tax free vehicle every 5 years. You can ship all your household goods tax free. Pick a weapon and it can be found...legal or otherwise. Getting residency is easy for an AMCIT and HO citizenship is not that much of a hassle.
Your money will go far in Hondolandia. All depends on the lifestyle you are trying to achieve.
If you are looking to go off the radar and perhaps never return and are really up for a LAST turn of the century style adventure. Honduras just may be the place. I loved it there and tried to stay on for another tour. Sadly duty called me to Surinam for the following 3 years. Now that place was actually the absolute end of the F-ing world on the lip of the Amazon. Again...another story for another time.
Final note: Chaos, failing institutions and corruption are good to get lost in. they cant keep track of themselves, how the hell will they keep track of you?!? The trade-off is comfort, convenience, good medical care, good schools for the kids, job contracts for you etc... Going under is done for a lot of reasons...choice, work, privacy...or your are just plain old running from someone you don't want to be caught by. Whatever the reason, it CAN be done, but it does have its costs and it does take a toll over the long haul. A few years when you are in your 20's or 30's is one thing, perhaps romantic, pretty young ladies, lots of cash, drinks and guns. To live out your days like that is tiresome, lonely, isolating and not for the faint of heart.
A tired cowboy.....