After cruising around Guatemala and camping on Lake Atitlan for a few weeks, I shot south to the Honduras border crossing. At this point, I was pretty pressed for time and needed to crush the miles before meeting family in Costa Rica.
I decided to head for Honduras, skipping El Salvador completely. The route is actually much short by following the coast but I figured one less border crossing would level things out a bit. Before crossing, you pull up to the Guatemala exit and get stamped out. This was super easy and you just wait at the gait while they do a quick inspection and let you through for the exit.
After pulling through, you park and walk into building on the right. Go to the Guatemala folks and get your exit stamps. Go to the Honduras line and get your entry stamp. This took about 10 minutes.
The next row of windows is for the TIP. The Guatemalan guy will do the exit process then lead you into another office for the Honduras TIP. The Honduras guy was pretty fussy, a bit like being at the DMV in the states.
After some back and forth on paperwork and copies at the store across the street, he will hand over the paper with your TIP. At this point, he noticed the dog in my car and didn’t say anything. There was an agriculture inspection building across the street but it was heating up and I just took off after paying and finalizing the TIP.
The police at the exit also looked over my passport and TIP, then looked at the dog and said nothing. We drove off into Honduras, cruising towards Copan on a pleasant highway. If you have a dog, get your paperwork done at the border. It made for a huge hassle at the Honduras border Exit and Nicaragua entry. More on that coming soon.
Outside of the dog issue, everything here was super easy and for the most part, took place in a single building. No helpers were present, just a few folks to change money. The entire process required about 2 hours.
The border was not super busy and the roads driving into Honduras after the El Florido border crossing were in great shape. I was impressed with the road conditions after leaving the junk show in Guatemala.
