Additional Honduras Border Information
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From Drive the Americas
The borders at Honduras are kind of insane. Read more here for people's individual experiences. Don't let the border officials push you around - don't overpay!
[edit] Entering Honduras
Esquipulas, Guatemala to Aqua Caliente, Honduras
December 14, 2008
Our experiences crossing the Guatemala-Honduras border was not a particularly pleasant one. We first crossed the border at Esquipulas-Aqua Caliente. When we neared the migration station, we passed tens of parked cars along the side of the road and entered into utter chaos with 10 men swarming around our car, directing us to parking spots, and shouting that they would take us through the process. Since we didn't like their attitude and figured that we could do it ourselves, we largely ignored them (although I did tell one of them to shut up when he was speaking over the migration officer who was trying to describe the process). After showing our passports, we proceeded to a very unofficial waiting room, where un-uniformed people were busily working away and ignoring us while surrounded in stacks of papers piled on the floor. We waited at the window for about 10 minutes until one of the workers asked for 4 copies of the above necessary documents. Four copies seems quite extreme, and given the huge stacks of paper surrounding them, I think they probably serve no more than a fire hazard, but we handed them over. We also needed 4 copies of several stamps in our passport, so they directed us to a nearby tienda that charged 2 lempira per copy. Luckily they also took Guatemalan quetzales at 1Q per 2 lempira. This process took quite a while as they continued to shuffle papers, stamp them, then need xeroxes of the freshly stamped documents. They also stamped our passport to indicate that we were traveling with a car.
After 4 separate trips to the photocopy tienda we had our vehicle import permit (permiso de entrada y salida temporal de vehiculo) filled out with one slight catch. We had neglected to look online ahead of time to find out the true cost of this permit. They first told us it would cost us $100 (US). We immediately and somewhat aggressively told them this was not correct and that we would head back to Guatemala before we were extorted. They quickly relented and said it would cost $40 (US). Still believing we were probably being ripped off, we agreed to pay since we didn't actually know the true cost. Later on we realized that price of the permit was printed in the upper right-hand corner of the permit: 135 lempiras, closer to $7 US. Lesson learned - never hit a border without looking this up ahead of time. They also (erroneously) claimed that our permit would be valid for 90 days, whether or not we left the country (as were planning to do). However, this is not correct. At the El Salvadoran border, they had to take our Honduras vehicle import permit away, which means we will have to go through this nightmare a second time. Shame on the Honduras migration officials.
--Posted by Kristin
El Amatillo
December 21, 2008
We next crossed the El Salvador-Honduras border at El Amatillo. It was a similarly hectic and dirty situation, but most of the officials at this crossing were at least wearing uniforms. We first had to pay $3 to enter the country, which we had not needed to do when we entered Honduras from Guatemala.
The procedure at this crossing was slightly different than the crossing at Agua Caliente, but was somewhat more organized, we were given receipts for every transaction, and the prices for any fees were posted (but we're not sure we believe them, since they were on a stained half ripped piece of paper) After an un-uniformed official sitting in a urine scented cement box slowly filled out or vehicle import permit, he handed us our paperwork to proceed on to the immigration building.
Once there we went through the same procedure of getting stamps, getting xeroxes, and paying fees as previously experienced. While you are getting xeroxes made, it is a good idea to make several copies of your completed vehicle import permit, as we a official down the road needed this, requiring us to backtrack a to the border to make additional copies.
--Posted by Kristin
March 23, 2010
We used the far north Guatemala/ Honduras border crossing at Corinto to enter Honduras. There was no waiting at all on either side of the border. We payed 640 Limpiras for each motorcycle and 60 Limpiras for each person. It was quick and with no hassles. The Guatemala exit station is about 10 km before the border and the Honduran station is right at the border. It probably took us about 1 hour to cross here. The guy in charge of our doing the paperwork for our motorcycles was at first a bit confusing as he told us we couldn't actually import the bikes here (or so I think) but after a while it all happened and everyone was happy. Stay in Omoa about 50 km past the border for a relatively pleasant beach experience (unless it is the weekend).
--Posted by Marshall
[edit] Exiting Honduras
El Poy, Honduras to San Ignacio, El Salvador
December 14, 2008
Leaving Honduras to enter El Salvador was pain-free compared to entering Honduras. We simply had to show our passport and Honduran vehicle import permit and they waved us through. We were glad to be done with Honduras after our border crossing experience.
-- Posted by kristin
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