WTF MATE!

MATE?OK, so I need to go over this real quick. I just wrote my previous blog, but I gotta put this down before I forget. So, I walk into my hotel after getting some lunch and I see this tall blonde guy in jeans heading toward his room, and he stops and turns to me.

I said, hey. how's it going.
He garbled a response unrecognizable to me.
I asked if he's been at this place for a while.
He says it feels good to speak English, and that he has been here a while.
How long? I ask.
About a year, he responds.
Wow, I say, doing what?
I don't know, he says with a half grin
What do you mean? have you been working or something?
No, I don't think so. Are you from the United States?
Yes
The United States of America?
Yep. Where are you from?
England.
And so you've been here a year...and you don't know what you've been doing?
Yeah.
So where were you before here?
I don't know.
You don't know how you got here?
No.
OK, well, you might want to get a pair of shorts if you're going to be here much longer, there's a great beach out there.

So what what do you guys think about this? Any explanations?

***

OK, so I just had another interaction with that guy. I was looking at the hostel's book exchange and he was sitting near the front desk with a cigarette. He said something, but I didn't hear it. I turned and the woman at the desk just turned to me and gave motioned with her finger in circles on the side of her head that he's kinda crazy. I nodded in understanding. As I passed him on my way to the room, he turned slightly and he said desperately, "help me" in a strained voice. I stopped and he repeated, a bit louder, "please, help me. I need to get out of here!"

Where Are you trying to go?
Just away from here!
Away from the Mar Azul Hotel? Away from Tela? Away from Honduras?
Whatever, I just need to get out of here! They won't let me go!

Ok, this did sound like a crazy person, but either way, he seemed panicked, and far away from where home. He assured me that they kept him locked in his room and he hadn't been outside of the guesthouse in a year. I asked him why, and his response sounded like "for my skin" which could have simply meant they wanted to kidnap a white person, or he had gone thinking he was in Silence of the Lambs style or something. That happened in that movie right? Either way, to prove his point he got up, and announced in English that he was leaving, and the two woman at the desk yelled at him to stop and to come back inside, which he did. I mean, if I was him, I'd just run right across the street. Tourist police. Though I think it was put in there less than a year ago, so maybe he doesn't know.

So I didn't know how to help, and then he just told me to save myself. That was creepy. And as I write this I am hearing yelling outside of my door. It is this guy (who's name is Tristan, usually an indication of insanity right there) and the woman working here arguing in Spanish. I couldn't make it out, but it sounded like Tristan submitted and returned to his room.

***

A couple of hours later I discreetly asked the woman (who I will now take as the owner) about what the deal is with that guy. She says that he has been in Honduras for a year, but only in this place for about 15 days. She said she thinks he has been drinking and smoking, but to me his demeanor gave the impression more of dementia (or at least harder drugs than pot). She said something about having a girlfriend too.

***

A couple more hours later, and I was sitting outside the guesthouse just before going to bed. One of the girls who had been hanging out around the place all day comes and sits next to me. I had noticed earlier that she had at least one black eye, but I can't remember. She asks if I had been speaking with her boyfriend. I ask if she means the English guy, she says yes. I tell her I had spoken with him, and ask what's up with him. She explains that he has been on a 3-day alcohol and cocaine binge (and there might have been other substances thrown in there too. He hadn't smelled too strongly, and I don't think coke can make you trip out and think you've been somewhere for a year and that you are trapped. Apparently they had met about a year ago at the ruins in Copan. Neither side of the story made too much sense.

***

1:30 AM, I am woken up to some shouting. It sounds like it's coming from outside my window to the street. "DONDE ESTA ISA?!" It sounded like they were saying. They sounded a bit angry and maybe even frantic. Though it was not a scared frantic, just an angry one. I dosed back off, but then rose with a start when I heard more yelling, this time through the window leading into the courtyard. I could not tell what was going on, but my senses first told me that whatever it was, it was something violent. I got up and pulled back the curtain, just a tiny bit. I saw the figure of someone around a corner, going to the door of a room invisible from my vantage point. Another guy, a guest I recognized that had checked in earlier with his girlfriend, both speaking only Spanish, emerged panicked, saying, "what do you want me to do!?" and I also heard something about the police. I don't remember if this was in English or not, but the idea of police being around for whatever reason struck fear in me, but I think more fear was struck in me when I realized this guy was rushing out of his room while I think the person was saying something about not being police. It was all very hazy. When it seemed the commotion had died down, I stepped outside and met the Spanish-speaking guest and his girlfriend was out to. I asked what had happened and they said the crazy English guy had come into their room. They were packing up their things and heading across the street to the tourist police station. I asked an older guy hanging out at the guesthouse and he told explained that they had been sleeping and for whatever reason he had just come in. I don't know what he did when he entered, but it was enough for the couple to peace out. And apparently the English guy just ran out afterward and they don't know where he went. I hung out in front of the hotel for a while, just trying to get more info from the couple people talking about it right there. One seemed worried that he was gonna get killed out there, or that he was going to kill someone out there. I couldn't quite understand which, and neither seemed too far off in this place. At one point a younger man came up and started yelling with the older man, a younger Garifuna girl got in between, and the younger guy walked off angry. He came back with his woman a few minutes later. They must be staying at the guesthouse, or just friends of the guesthouse people, as they had been hanging outside earlier. When the woman started talking loudly, the owner, who was making her way from the police station across the street, started shhhing her, even so much as to start yelling, and physically cover up her mouth. I hadn't understood a word she said, so I couldn't tell what the owner was hiding and from who. Me? The police? Other people? Seriously, what's going on? I chatted with the owner for a couple minutes. She tells me she doesn't want any druggie in her hotel (then why's he been around for 2 weeks) and that he's never caused a problem and that in 15 years here she's never had a problem like this. I highly doubted that. She's running probably the cheapest guesthouse in a seedy beach town in Honduras. Yeah, things are gonna happen. She also told me that he must be here illegally because he's been in the country for a year. True, they don't just hand out year visas to Honduras. The first is 90 days, and then it is possible to extend it another 90. Oh, and sure enough, she told me that the black eye(s) were on this guy's girlfriend were from him. This is all too much for me to figure out.

So then I am left with wondering this. Is it possible that this guy is really being held captive? The owner definitely seemed to careful with what she told who. I even noticed that at times, even when she wasn't talking to me specifically, she would slow her speech and use her hands more, as if to make it more obvious to me what she was saying, and other times she would speak so fast I could not keep up. Or was he really the boyfriend of this girl, a drug attic and illegal immigrant, who really had no concept of reality?

***

Following morning, I roll out of bed at 9:30 with the intent of some morning beach time before checkout. I go to the front desk, Tristan (English guy) sitting next to it. I ask the owner woman what time checkout is, and she says 8:30. Was she seriously? Usually it's noon, sometimes 11:00, and only the lamest cheap places are 10:00, but 8:30!? So I had to go pack up, and leave. As I handed my key in she abruptly said, Seeya later, bye! As if to rush me out after I had said hello to Tristan. I remind her that I had wanted to trade a book in for one of the books behind the counter. She lets me through and I switch out the book. On my way out I start talking to Tristan.

Hey man, how's it going?
Good, good. Where are you going?
La Ceiba, have you been there?
Yeah.
How is it?
It's fine.

I could see the owner getting visibly nervous, as she could not understand us. She moved closer, making her presence felt.

I asked Trisan, So how much longer are you staying here?
I'm leaving tomorrow.
Well, good luck, I said before heading on out.

***

As far as Honduras goes, I like it. My two nights in Tela were fairly low-key for how much of a party town it seems to be. This morning as I walked toward the beach at 930 AM, people were already one or two beers deep. As it was the weekend, the beach was constantly packed, almost entirely with locals. Vendors everywhere, the water filled with children, teenager, adults, giggling as the waves splashed them. A very fun atmosphere that I really appreciated. I am in La Ceiba (a town with an even greater reputation for partying) now, making final preparations to descend into the moskito region. I was looking through the guidebook, and they do not list any passage from Honduras to Nicaragua through this region, and there are really no roads from where I will be to the border. I will make it happen though. If not, super lame. But I have confidence I will make it one way or another. I am out of internet contact for what I am guessing will be about a week, but could be very possibly two. Peace out!