Hurricane Mitch in Honduras on November 21, 1998

O Ma R's Report
Saturday, November 21, 1998

We went on another fact-finding road trip; this time we headed to La Ceiba.

Crossing the Rio Pico Bonito is treacherous at night and we recommend it only for the adventurous and brave. The river bed is full of big rocks, so ones' vehicle bounces up and down all through the crossing. The crossing is easy when the river level is low, but when it's been raining a lot, then the high waters and current are a real threat and the crossing should only be attempted in a strong vehicle. Thank God we made it through all right, and soon were in La Ceiba. It was about eight pm local time when we arrived that Saturday night, and the town was in its full glory. Apparently only a few night spots were affected by Mitch, the ones at the very end of the beach, such as the Rex Night Club.

As usual in this rapidly changing town, many of the night spots that we had frequented in the past were no longer "in" and were now closed, with the new replacement spots nearby. The important thing is that the city is alive and booming!!!

Reportedly, the worst hit was the Barrio Kawas, which we did not visit since our time was very limited. We did try to stay in the Villas Rhina since they are very special clients of Honduras.com, but when we arrived at the resort unannounced at curfew time, it was already closed. This resort is located some distance outside of La Ceiba, so we headed back and got caught by the local police force that was patrolling the streets and enforcing the curfew. Our credentials helped establish who we were, and the officer was kind enough to let us continue our search for a place to spend the night. We ended up in the Partenon Beach hotel located on the beach, and near the hot spots of La Ceiba. We were also pleasantly surprised to discover that their night club had to shut down at curfew time - we were wondering whether it would stay open since it could cater to the hotel's patrons - but thankfully the authorities also had closed it.

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