HONDURAS, COURAGE SEES YOU THROUGH | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

In Honduras, you had better pluck up your courage to travel on what are roads in name only leading to the most remote provinces, especially during the fearsome rainy season. And yet thousands of Hondurans continue to  live and survive in parts of the country cut off from the world because of the deplorable state of the roads. Villagers there owe their last link with society to a handful of souls who find the courage to travel these roads to come to their assistance. The stories we are about to tell you illustrate the point to which living in Honduras demands a terrific dose of courage. And fortunately for them, Hondurans are not short of that.

Hugo is one of the rare few in his region to own a car so, whenever he can, he turns taxi-driver to bring help to those most deprived. “There’s no public transport here, how do you expect people to get around? It’s my duty to help them!” Today, Hugo is taking an injured child to hospital… on the other side of the border in Guatemala! There, treatment is free, unlike in Honduras. However, getting to the child, like getting him to the hospital, is no easy matter in the middle of the rainy season.

In Honduras, Rosa is a woman unlike the others. “Ironing and dishes aren’t my thing. What I like is adventure!” And Rosa gets plenty of adventure. Every week this shopkeeper and her driver take to impracticable roads. 260 km of tracks and a three-day trip to sell her vegetables in the most remote villages.

On these lost roads, little angels are hard at work! Juanita and her two little girls spend their days, braving the rain and the cold, filling in pot holes in return for a little cash. Today, living conditions in Honduras are driving thousands of families to emigrate to the United States. Faced with this human tide, one politician commented: “They’re not pursuing the American dream, they’re fleeing the Honduran nightmare.”