Rotary Club of San Pedro Sula

I left for Honduras at 7:30 am on Wednesday, September 16. At 8:40 AM, the plane had traveled about 500 feet. When we finally got to Atlanta, I had missed the flight to San Pedro Sula. This forced Al Steele into his "here's what we are going to do" mode.

After a 7-hour layover in Miami, I finally got to San Pedro Sula at 7:45 PM that night, and was immediately taken to the Rotary Club of San Pedro Sula. Their 70 members are the business leaders of the City. Honduras is not the safest place for Americans or Hondurans. The economy and especially the tourism business have tanked since the ousting of former President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28. The US still considers him the President. The Hondurans at the Club called it a "Constitutional Substitution" of a corrupt President, who was trying to change the Constitution in spite of a Supreme Court order. They support new President Roberto Micheletti and are not happy with the US position.

The Chief of Police spoke at the club for over an hour that night about what to do to protect yourself. He had power point slides and I could at least understand the pictures. An example. Don't stop for stoplights after 9 pm if there are no cars in either direction. Stopped cars invite attackers. I was later told that almost every member of the club had their own driver and their own security staff. They believe the violence and the economy will get worse before the elections in November.

My driver going back to the Bed and Breakfast said that every minute while driving, she is constantly looking at what is going on around her. The B&B was in a gated community, with a locked gate in front of the house.

I slept well, cursing Delta Airlines instead of the darkness, and thankful that I can listen to books on an IPOD while driving instead of worrying about somebody attacking my car.