Why is Honduras so ——? One of the poorest and most —— countries in Latin America. Police fired —— at protesters, but it didn't stop them from marching in their thousands towards congress. The gangs told me to either leave or choose the way I wanted to ——. The confrontation between Guatemalan security forces and thousands of people from Honduras. Escaping an economy batted by the ——, —— ——, and hurricanes. These people are desperate. My goal is to reach the United States, why? Because of the level of —— that we have in this country, because of the lack of work, the lack of education, because of extreme poverty. But the acting customs and border protection chief has already told these people not to waste their time and money on the trip. Either that message didn't get to them, or more likely, they're too desperate to listen. Honduras, one of the most —— and —— countries in the world. Constantly dealing with major problems related to corruption and extreme —— ——. And on top of this, only a few months ago, Honduras was struck by two major hurricanes, which wiped out entire neighborhoods. Because of all this compounding suffering, thousands have fled the country headed towards the United States for a better life. Throughout this video series, I will travel all throughout Honduras. Meet the people, and hear their side of the story. Okay, so coming to you from Panama City, International Airport here. Flew here from Brazil last night but today heading to Honduras. Not gonna lie, I'm a bit nervous. I'm meeting up with a local guy there today, and he just told me the city I'm flying into, San Pedro Sula, there was a guy dressed as a police officer that —— six people in the downtown area just a couple of days ago. Although there are very nice parts of Honduras, it's a very —— country. One of the most —— countries in the world. Has the nickname —— capital of the world. It's consistently rated as one of the most... The highest —— rates in the world. Gangs have a very strong grip of the country. We'll learn a bit about this country. It's recently had a hurricane that's wiped through. It there's been mass migration. It's a country that's going through very difficult times, but I hope to see what it's like on the other side of the news and things and meet the people and see what it's like on the ground. So, let's go! Down the bottom, it's negative. It's Portuguese. Gracias, thanks. Okay, so arrived in Honduras. This airport here was actually completely flooded not even that long ago. For about a month, this airport was out of use because of the hurricane. I'll show you a video now of where we actually just flew into, and you can see how bad it was. So, I've met up with the guy that I'm going to be traveling with while I'm in Honduras called Omare and we're jumping in the car now, gonna head downtown and explore. I was here two years ago but more on the touristy island side because there is quite like a thriving backpacker scene, but it's mixed in with the —— areas and things. Anyway, let's head into the city These people lost everything. There's no insurance, from what I've been told. There's no payouts from the government. So, we've come to this neighborhood. It's actually a driver's neighborhood, and you can see because of the hurricane. People that had two-story houses, many people that lived in these single-story houses went to the two-story houses and sat on the roof waited until the water went down. So, it's just insane the devastation here. There's so much going on in the news these days. This kind of thing isn't really making headline news. It's just completely devastating. Okay, so we're going to actually go into our driver's house and see the damage. But here with Omare here, and Omare is going to be traveling with me throughout Honduras. He invited me here, so you want to showcase the country, right? Yeah, I'm glad you're here. Let's go have a look at this house. Let's go and take a look at the place. This whole area was floated up above the roof, so you can still see and the people working in. This is the kind of people that lost everything, and this is by the airport, we're just five minutes from the airport. You can see some household items here. Passports. Old pictures. Dennis at here actually our driver lost his wife and his son seven months ago. And then this happens. It must take months and months for the... Because there's a little bit of a smell here right, it must take a long time for that to get out. The problem with these things is that everybody tries to volunteer and help and give an... Immediately after the hurricane, and to recover from this takes months and years. So, after four months, people are still in need of help. Now the other things are coming, elections are coming, then... People forget. People forget. Wow! Completely mud. Excuse me, where are you from? I'm from New Zealand. Excuse me? New Zealand. Oh, New Zealand! Not from American city? Not American, man. Okay, New Zealand. Right. All right, this is for friends? It's for Youtube. Okay. Yeah yeah, like videos about countries... So, how long have you been doing this cleanup? They just took out all the furniture because they lost, practically lost everything, so it's... They've been working on all this...
All these months. All right, so several months. Several months. The mud was too soft, so they needed to be kind of a hard so in order to remove it. So, they waited at first. They waited. It's crazy times to deal with the floating and hurricanes because we're in the middle of a ——. So, it was not only one, but two hurricanes. Back to back. Eight days, eight days apart. They have had several floods in the past. They know that if there's a hurricane alert, so they have to move, and they have to leave everything. After the first hurricane, people tried to clean their houses, and actually, some people clean it, and then they had this alert of the new coming. So, they had to live again and back to the same situation. He is grateful for some missionaries from the US that came to provide and as a volunteer and help them to clean the houses. No help from the government at all. They have to endure and have to do it by themselves, basically. They promise a lot of things, but nothing comes. They are still here after several months without running water. He is talking about the corruption. They say that they will give people some money in the congress, and then they say that they have the money to give to the people. That money never reaches the people, the poor people, the people in need. Dennis our drive obviously, we just went in his house, he lives here. So, since as we're the local, it's reasonably safe, but it used to be much more ——. This street used to be called Alley of the Crosses. Something along those lines. This house behind me here with the bike here, there was five people —— in that house. It is still controlled, but I don't want the attention of the authorities because there's major ——. So they're trying not to make it —— and bring attention here. Crazy. So, we're currently in a neighborhood called Rivera Hernandez. I think I'm pronouncing that right. But every Honduran apparently will know exactly where I am. It's one of the most notorious neighborhoods in the country. This road here divides the —— territory. On this side is ——. Probably you might have heard of ——, huge —— in the USA and Honduras. And on that side is ——, may be mispronouncing that, but yeah. We just came from —— neighborhood, so that's another huge —— here. Those are basically the three of the major gangs here. Eighty percent of —— into the USA come through this country. You would have seen the kind of the tattooed-up guys with the —— signs and everything, maybe on some documentaries about Central American gangs. That doesn't exist as much as it used to. It's a lot more organized now because they've really cracked down on those gangs. So, they try to kind of keep it under the radar a bit more, so it's not so in your face as it was. If you remember, in Panama, at the start of the day, I was talking about how six people were —— by guys dressed in police uniforms. We actually just drove past, apparently it was that guy's house who was ——. Him and six other people, his bodyguards, and other members of his crew. We just drove past his house. So, this is one of the most notorious neighborhoods in Honduras that we're in right now. You can only go on this street, if you go down any one of these side streets... Only people who have permission from the —— can go into this area. Everybody knows that the Rivera Hernandez is a —— control area. This is the sicarios land. Right. Is this your first time here? Yeah, usually I will never come here to this area, never. You want to get out of here, right? Yeah yeah, you can tell. Even the public transports, you see taxis, and many buses driving around here, they're marked with a certain color. For example, there was one with green, and so each ——-controlled neighborhood has their own public transport and taxis, right? Yeah, now they are not just like they used to be before, just controlling the road now they are businessmen. They have taxis, they have transport, they have properties, they have everything. They started as knockouts, and now it's built into empires of... Yeah yeah, now it's more like organized —— I speak English Okay, thanks California, Georgia. I'm from New Zeeland, not America. No America? No. I thought you are American. Thanks, bye. If you come back, look for me. Thanks, bye. Okay, so we've come to this downtown area food court. If you're wondering what that was, that was a black market exchange rate. So, I exchanged a hundred US dollars, and you get a much better rate if you use those guys, and they're just standing on the side of the road just waving big wads of cash. $23,50 Honduran money for one US dollar. We're in the downtown area now, so we're gonna go explore, go walking. Not the whole city is destroyed by the hurricane seemed to be that was the hardest-hit area. It's kind of sad because it's one of the poorer areas, one of the ——-run areas. Very, very kind people, very welcoming people. Let's go explore the downtown region here. So, this is basically the main center, the heart of the city here. Got the cathedral here, and there's a police station here. Lots of families and people taking selfies and things. There's a few young guys sniffing glue, but apart from that, it seems reasonably stable around here. So, you're saying that we're walking away from the square now, but the further we go it gets a bit more wild. Yep. So, we've come to these train tracks just in the downtown area of San Pedro. You were saying that these have quite a significant role, right? This is from the banana republic time, banana plantations came from the west. These train tracks were in use at the time. So, now it's basically dividing the city north, south, east, and west. This area is kind of the poor more conflict area, and this is the wealthy area. San Pedro Sula in 2011 and 2014 was number one in a —— rate in the world. We were granted the name of —— capital of the world. But now, the —— rate is a little bit down. Baltimore and St. Louis in the US have a higher —— rate than San Pedro Sula. So, that will give you an idea. What do you think's changed to make the —— rate get better? That's a tough question to answer. We're gonna go back to that one later. So Omare, you were just saying an interesting point about this market here, right? Good man, how you? Good good, where are you from? New Zealand. Oh, okay, what are you doing right here? Just making a video. Making a video for web, youtube? Yeah. Okay, what are you doing? Nothing, news, shows and everything. Right, right bye. I was saying that this is a typical market on the street. People take over the street there is impossible to remove them. Every time that the major tries to do or even relocate and give them another place or whatever, there's —— and riots. People take over the street, and they are selling, and there's a lot of money involved in this. Cheers, it's okay, So we've walked up this hill here to this viewpoint. We just walked through a very expensive neighborhood. Yeah, wealthy. Very wealthy. Complete opposite of where we saw with the flooding and where the hurricane damaged. A lot of guards and cameras. And the guards didn't want to let us in originally, right. So it's quite controlled. It's quite controlled. They decide who comes in. You even saw a kind of a tower, a guardian tower like a —— kind of thing. Yeah, it was security. Yeah, it was funny to see. And you were telling me earlier that it's illegal for two men to ride on a motorbike. Yes, it's illegal because of the sicarios and hitman's then there is this law that is not allowed for two men to ride on a motorcycle. So, and I think it's not fair because why would the criminals... Ruin it for everybody. We just met a guy called Lenny. I'll show you that interview now. Okay, so we've come up to this viewpoint, and we've met a young man called Lenny. Enjoying the sunset, right? Of course, it's great. And so you live around this area? Yeah. Pretty close? And how is it living here, because the thing is, the city has a pretty bad reputation, right? To be honestly speaking, around the world, it's known as to be quite ——. How is it for you living here?
What's it like for a local? Is it true is it ——, or is it okay to live here? I think that San Pedro Sula City is a very important city in my country. I don't know, I think, no it's a —— city. Not ——? Not ——. Okay. It's important as Hondurans that we can show the good side of the city as well. San Pedro Sula is known as the industrial capital misinterpreted as a ——, extremely —— city which is not. There is a danger in every city in the world, and if you do the right thing, if you focus on work and educating yourself, then you can change that perception of things here in San Pedro Sula. You heard Lenny saying that it's not —— and I don't feel in too much danger, but then I've seen things and I've heard stories, and then they were in the city right down here a few days ago there was six people ——, so it's very blended together with the danger. It is, it's a bad reputation, and at the same time you come here, and you have this relaxed vibe and this easy-going smiley friendly people, but I will say that, don't fool yourself. I mean, bad things happen here. It's not like a war song, but people get ——, people... Bad things happen, like just two days ago, six people were —— downtown San Pedro. It wasn't in some far-off bad neighborhood.
It was in the center. In center city, so the city I think it's better than in 2000. I remember it was worse in 2014, 2013 but still some challenges. So, back at the hotel now, we actually got picked up. We were walking back, and these nice young girls that we'd met on the trail came and drove us all the way to our door, so that's a really good reflection of the people. People have been very welcoming and warm. It's conflicting. Some people say it's safe, but then you have —— in the middle of the downtown area, and we were in a —— area where there were people ——. Some people say it's safe. Some people say it's not. Omare says stuff does happen and to hide from that fact is not really a fair view of it. In the next video, we're going to explore more of this city. We're going to meet more people. We're going to go to different neighborhoods, some bad neighborhoods, some good neighborhoods. We're going to try and meet some people who are trying to migrate to the United States because a huge part of this country is mass migration because of the hurricane, because of —— ——, because of job opportunities, all these kinds of things. We're going to be traveling to many different parts of the country in the coming videos. Great to have Omare as a guide. He's a great guy.
I'll see you in the next video. Thank you so much for watching. And in case I don't see you good afternoon, good evening, and good night from San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Good night!
