– Do you feel safe living here?
– No, not at all, not at all. You can see the man on the left here,
in the red shirt with the sunglasses, and his backpack it's full of beers,
and he also has a —— ——. How would you describe this place? Because it's quite uneasy,
I feel a bit uneasy here. Honduras one of the most violent
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 neighbourhoods. 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. Buenos Dias from Honduras again. Today we're heading to
Tegucigalpa, which is the capital city. Biggest city of over
one million inhabitants. Biggest city in Honduras. Not sure what it's going to be like. We're currently halfway between
San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. It should be another few hours on the road. Then we're going to explore
the city, meet up with some locals. Try and get a glance at the city, of
this notorious Central American country. If you haven't seen the last
videos, it's a very interesting country. It's very fun, and beautiful
nature, and very kind people, but at the same time, it's got
an underlying level of ——. Eighty percent of the —— imported
into the US come through this country. There's very tight security here. Anyway, let's get on the road,
see what we see on the way. A little bit nervous.
We'll see what happens. You never know in this country. So Omare, can you just
explain this huge perimeter on the right-hand side here? US Military Base in
the middle of a country? The truth about that place is
that early 80s, during the cold ——, we were surrounded by
the —— —— in El Salvador. Guatemala had the longest
—— conflict in Latin America. Nicaragua had this communist left
government supported by Russia. So, there was this conflict, so they
used this military base to control, to patrol, to take action against these ——
in el Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The CIA had a presence here,
together with the Honduran authorities they disappeared people
involved with the left. They repressed, they completely took over. The Nicaraguan government was,
as I said, was supported by Russia. Then there was this contra revolution which
was the fighting against the revolution, and they were supported by
the US government and CIA, and they gave them ——,
training and all of that. So every Honduran, we know
that, we sell our country somehow. We're used they give us nothing. Then kicked us out of the US. We've been kind of allies in the past. They used our territory
basically, just like that. Okay, so we've arrived in Tegucigalpa. Come to this neighbourhood,
and this is on the other side. It's actually, what's
the name of this area? This is Comayagüela. How would you describe this place?
Because it's quite uneasy, I feel a bit uneasy here. The whole capital is divided in
Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, and this is kind of the
poorest side of the city. You can tell by the
landscape, is more hilly and it's slums and stuff,
and this is the market. But it's very chaotic, run down. Lots of people looking at us, right? – Yeah.
– That's quite bad. Yeah, I have a different feeling than
walking down on San Pedro Sula, which is strange because I thought
that here was going to be different, but we have more eyes on us here. Yeah, I thought San Pedro
is going to be more extreme, – but this seems a bit more intense, right?
– Yeah. We're going to explore
a bit more of this side, and then we'll go to the
more developed side, right? So, we can get a feel of the whole place, but we're starting here to
see the intense side, right? There's like some —— around, we've seen ——. – We've seen people lying on the ground and stuff.
– Yep. – It's really quite intense.
– It is. Okay, so we were going to go and explore, and we were about to interview a local guy, but one of the locals who's been
helping us and giving us advice here came up to us and said: "It's not
good with the camera to be here." He said like: "There's heaps
of people looking at us." And it's really quite like a rundown area. So, we're just gonna drive. I'll film out the window, so you
can get a feel for the neighbourhood. But yeah, this is...
I wasn't expecting it to be like this. I thought that, like we were
saying, San Pedro was going to be... Okay, so we've come into the downtown area. We're going to explore this now. I think there's a security
guard coming towards me. But if you think that we just drove into that neighbourhood and got out, we didn't, we had one guy with us who lives
here, who actually grew up there, and then we met up with two more guys. But as soon as we got out
of the car, we saw these kids, and the thing is, you never
know who's an informant or an opportune —— or whatever. But the two guys that were
looking after us came up to us. They were about to take us for a walk, and one of them was going to look after the
car because you can't just leave the car and then they were like
"No, no, you guys got to go." They saw people making phone calls
while looking at us directly and things and you just never know
what could happen in that place. There were some market areas
that looked reasonably okay. I'm not trying to paint the whole site. So, the thing is to remember
is there's a river here, and it divides the two parts of the city. The city's got fancy shopping malls, and more middle class
and an upper-class places. That side, like you heard Omare
saying, that's the more poor side. It was definitely intense,
and at the moment, we were like: "Yeah,
let's just get out of here." It's not good vibes at all. Yeah, you don't know what
you're dealing with in these places. Even though we did have the
normal safety measures in place just there, it just wasn't a doable thing. But we're going to go and see
the other sides of the city now. But I hope they gave
you a bit of a glance, right. They were just telling us that on the streets
there at five or six pm everybody goes inside. At night in there, it's just
completely off the rails. Coffee shops, and nice
shops and everything, and this is just literally like three
minutes drive across the river, and then you're in places like this. So that's the contrast. So, this is like central plaza, so this is like
a bank center in the center the city here. The capital city of Honduras. It seems okay here,
obviously anything after that last neighbourhood is super chill. Before we went to that neighbourhood, I just want to make this clear, he said: "Do you want to go to an extreme kind of place
or one that's just on the edge a little bit?" I was like: "Yeah we'll go to the
one that's just on the edge a little bit." Apparently that's the more safe option
out of the neighbourhoods you can go to. So, I really cannot imagine what
kind of dark places exists in this city. I think the definition of safe in this city
is a bit different to my definition of safe. Just come downtown to
get the shoes polished. I asked him how is work.
The situation is not good. Because of the ——,
yeah, and there is no job. There is no work.
Forty five years doing this. – Do you speak English?
– I do very well, man. – Really?
– Yeah. – Where are you from?
– I'm from New Zealand. – Near Australia.
– Oh, really? – Yeah.
– Very far. Yeah, it's a long way. – Where did you learn English?
– USA. – Did you live there?
– Yeah, I lived around ten years over there. – What city?
– Oh, I was in Texas state. – Texas.
– Yeah. – Oh, you got the texas shirt
– Oh, yeah. – Houston or what city in Texas?
– Houston. – Houston.
– Do you like it? Oh yeah, it's a big city.
I want to go over there again. – But right now, it's so hard.
– ——. Yeah, the situation is real hard.
It's real bad. – The American people, were they welcoming you?
– Yeah man, yeah, I love American people. – Really.
– Oh yeah, the people have a lot of love. They are social, you know. And when they see you
are trying to learn English, they help you, and they
correct your English. When you say any wrong word, they say: "No, it's not like this, it's
like this you got to say." So, that's why your
English is so good, right? That's right. Yeah, I lived in the American people. I almost married over there, but I
never go over there to stay over there. I just want to make some money
and come back to my country. Yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ too.
What are you doing over here? Just travelling around, and
meeting people and making videos. – Nice to meet you.
– Nice to meet you too. – I'm Carlos.
– Carlos, I'm Nick. What are you doing for a job? – Are you working at the moment?
– Right now, no man, I'm looking for a job. – It's so hard over here, there is no work.
– Why is there no work? I don't know, maybe
it's too much population. I don't know, too many people. My situation right now
is no good, believe me, but as I told you, I believe in God, and I
know something good will come for me. – Beautiful.
– Yeah, Nick, yeah men. Nice to meet you Nick. – I hope to see you again, in heaven.
– Okay, I'll see you around, legend. All right, take care. – What's your name?
– Lucio Lucio, I'm Nick. Nicholas – Nicholas, nice to meet you.
– Nice to meet you too. How do you speak good English? – I was in Boston for two years.
– In Boston? In Boston, Massachusetts. – And you, where did you learn English?
– I'm from New Zealand. – Oh, okay, New Zealand, that's why you speak very well.
– Thank you, okay. What are you doing today? Me I was doing some
things in here in the bank. I was paying electricity, the water,
the telephone, and that's it. – Are you working somewhere?
– Yeah, I'm just making some videos of Honduras. – Oh good, so are you going back there?
– Europe. – Europe, are you going back to Europe when?
– Maybe a few weeks. In a few weeks, good. Are you having a good time here? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting
because, some parts are —. But some parts are safe, so
yeah, it's very interesting, right. – Do you feel safe living here?
– No, no, not at all, not at all. – Do you feel in ——?
– No, it's a lot of —— here. It's very ——.
They could rob you here. – Even in these streets?
– Even in the streets, yeah. Even going in the car or
by bus, you don't feel good. They rip you off. – Yeah, okay, yeah.
– It was a pleasure meeting you. – Mucho gusto.
– Mucho gusto. – Take care.
– Have a great day. – You too.
– Okay Good luck with your
trip going back to Europe. Yeah, man, good luck with your day. Thank you.
Take care, sir. All right.
Bye. So, we've come up to this
huge viewpoint of the city with a massive Honduran flag. You can see the downtown area. Felt pretty good to me, but asking
the blind man there his thoughts of it, he didn't hesitate for a
second, saying it's not safe. So Carlos, the first guy that we
spoke to, who said that Americans welcomed him and everything. He was with a guy in a
red shirt with sunglasses on. You might have noticed him. Our local guide here, Tito, that
I'll introduce you in a second, he actually came from this neighbourhood
that we just visited, the dodgy one. The guy in the red shirt
opened his bag to get beers out, and then he pulled out a ——
—— and showed it to our guy. Just the amount of ——
Here is quite intense. We've just come up to this viewpoint here, and to get in there was like full-blown
military guys with extremely ——. We're talking like —— grade ——. I don't want to come here, and
kind of say it's all —— and everything. But you know, when there's
that much security around, you see everywhere has barbed wire on. You see guys with these huge ——. You see just random people in
the street packing heat, holding ——. Guys on horses in the middle
of the countryside with ——, and then somebody is walking in the
downtown streets just with a —— and a backpack full of
beers while they're drinking. I mean, that's quite unhinged, isn't it? Definitely a surreal country in many ways. Obviously, we're in the capital. There's lots of, you know, there's
always going to be different sides of it like any capital city, but it
does feel more enhanced here. Like I mentioned in
past videos of Honduras, you know this place was
dubbed the —— capital of the world. It used to be like over twenty —— a day. Now it's around ten a day ——, which apparently you know
obviously that is a good 50% drop. But of course, it's still very ——. So, we are here with Tito. We went to some neighbourhoods today,
that you grew up in these neighbourhoods. You feel completely okay in this country? The security is me, I look
for security, I look for safety. He knows the area, he knows where is
——, and he tries to avoid those areas. The areas where he normally moves or... There is no... He's not
on a hostile environment. He feels totally safe in those areas. But Honduran standards when it
comes to safety are totally different. The definition changes here. The neighbourhood where we had to leave, we were told by the
locals to get out of here because they were concerned for our safety. How was it to have grown up there? He said back then, fifty years
ago, so when he grew up, it was completely safe, but over
the years, it completely changed, and now it's not as it used to be. The neighbourhood we went,
just a lot of movement he says. It's meaning that there is a lot of
things going in that neighbourhood. You saw it.
You got it on camera. There's a misconception about
Honduras, and he doesn't like that. Being portrayed the country as all bad,
when there is actually like everywhere there is safe areas and places
that you're not supposed to go with. So, this is such a beautiful
country, so that's what he said that referring to the government, it's
not well taken care of by the government. This is a beautiful place, really is. A tropical paradise, but as you said,
there are areas that like we saw today. Not fair that being portrayed as a ——
Country, as the —— capital of the world when this is beautiful, friendly,
smiley, and hospitable novel, working hard, hard-working people
and just put we all in the same category. That's not very fair for us. So, we've driven about
half an hour out of the city, and we come to this middle
class gated community, very strong security getting in, guys
with —— and things, just the usual. Once you're in here, it's very safe. We've met a man called
Juan who's an English teacher and plays in a metal band as well. Cool, so we're here with Juan. What's it like as a middle-class
man living in a nice neighbourhood? Obviously, there's security here, but
it seems very secure and safe here. What is it like living in this
capital city of Honduras? Geographically it's an interesting city. It's like a big hole, like a big
pot surrounded by mountains, so that makes mobility quite a challenge. – Crazy traffic.
– It's crazy traffic, there's crazy traffic. In terms of growing up in
Tegucigalpa it's, I mean, I loved it. Here we got pop bands,
we got merengue bands, tropical music bands, and
we get heavy metal bands. And yours is Delirium? And I went, you know, with
heavy metal with my friends. We have 30 years of playing right now, and we have forged sort of
a career that we're proud of. Your lyrics are quite on the
activism side of things right? – Some of your music.
– Yes, definitely. So, you want to explain a
bit about your kind of mission and your something about
your lyrics and things like that? The insistence of authorities
to change their attitude and their minds towards the
empowered areas in the country, and you know society itself
you know, it's always a demand a constant demand, and
that's what heavy metal is. Heavy metal on its roots is a constant
demand on authorities to do what's right. There is a song, that's called the blood. Which basically, it's what you listen
at night on the streets of Tegucigalpa. The riots, the shootings,
the ambulances, the police. If we talk about ——, we present ——
as something that shouldn't be there. It's because the government
has something to do with it. I've heard a few things,
but I'm not too familiar with freedom of speech
against the government. You've obviously got a platform. Is there no issue with
that you can speak freely without worrying about getting anything? So far we can.
So far we can. But we've had circumstances
in which fellow musicians can't. In a way to involve, for example our band, we play songs, we resist many
ideas from the government, but we have our daily lives.
You know, we're not activists. I mean I'm a teacher,
we live our regular lives but there are some members, some
musicians that actually are activists, and they're deeply involved in
organizations within a specific purpose, and those guys have actually
been silent one way or another. Like can you give an example
how they've been silent? Oh, we have our friends
from Café Guancasco. You know the media and the
government itself just went against them. One of the members from
Café Guancasco had to migrate. He's in Europe now, life
threats and that sort of thing. So, as long as you kind
of like do it from a distance, and you don't get too involved in the game. Yeah, definitely, we could
have songs about it, right. But if they see you out there in the
streets in protest, they mark you down. It's very tough. It's tough, not only when you speak out your
mind as an artist, but even to get instruments. They're expensive. There's taxes for musical instruments. Some friends who are around the
government, are in the congress. I've told them: "Listen, we have to get rid of
the taxes from books and musical instruments." If you want to build up a strong culture instead of giving the
money to the military, and for the military to wait for the
right moment to get people in and out. I mean, other than that,
it's a beautiful country, man. It's beautiful, we have good people,
hard-working people, that just want to be happy and the government somehow,
they don't want to give you that. Are you not worried about,
because you're very outspoken, you're not worried about talking to the camera
about this kind of stuff, or you're just... Not really. We hasn't gotten to this point,
to this point in which you leave and in five minutes, I'm gonna
have a car outside my house. Hopefully, that never happens. But I've heard stories, I've heard
stories and I know people that... That's exactly the case and as a teacher, there is more responsibility
for me to bring a sense of: "Listen, money is not everything in life as long
as you do it with ethics and moral values." And that's what's lacking in our country. Our educational system is really... We're like sixty years behind Costa
Rica and Costa Rica is right there. How could that be possible? Yeah, because Costa Rica took their
military budget and put it into education. That's one of the reasons, that's one of
the reasons, that's a very strong reason. How would you, how would you? We'd never have a civil ——. Salvador has one, Nicaragua
had one, Guatemala had one, All the countries around us had a civil ——.
We haven't had a civil ——. Do you think they're riding
the line perfectly in Honduras? Just keep it in control but not. Yes, definitely, yeah, but
people are getting fed by now. What do you think would be
the best solution to all of this? What direction would you
like to see the country going in? It may sound like a cliche,
education is the origin of all the... Well, it is, it is. The only thing is, that it's a
long-term result we're looking at, but you know the unwillingness
of the politicians in our country is what really destroyed our country.
The unwillingness to do what's right. Actually, I don't have my base. I got in my studio.
What do you wanna? Do you wanna listen, you wanna
watch a video, or you wanna... Well, I guess maybe you can send me, and
then I can put it into the video somehow. – Awesome, I appreciate your time.
– No problem. – Thank you very much.
– No problem. Anything else that you wanted to say? – No, no, just good luck on this journey, man.
– Yeah, cheers. There's a lot of people that
want to be in your shoes for sure. Just travelling around, getting to
know different people, I know I'm one. – That's a new world, this blogging world.
– Extreme privilege. I just want to take a quick second out and say thank you so much to
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sponsor because it offers you guys the tools to learn something new. Okay, back to the video. This is definitely one of those trips where when you get to the hotel at the end
of the day, you feel relieved in a way. You know that you're here. Obviously there's the nice places, there's the gated community, the middle-class
neighbourhood we went into just then. But to get in and out of
that place, you have to pass a guy with a —— and a guy with a ——. They have to take your ID, they keep it, and they put a special sticker
on your car saying visitor, and you have to get approved
by the people living in the house. But of course, we have to
recognize what Tito was saying and what Omare was saying about the people, and we've met so many
nice people on this trip, and they're everywhere, like the people
who work in the hotels and everything. Very friendly, very welcoming
I have to reinforce that fact. They exist in most
countries, these contrasts, but to me, it's interesting,
so that's why I like to cover it. Juan gave us some of
his band, Delirium, clothing. So, check them out in the
link below if you want to listen to some metal music about rights,
and environmental, and political activism. So, I'll see you in the next video. We're going to explore more of Honduras. We're going to try and see a
different side of the country. And in case they don't see you, good afternoon, good evening
and good night from Honduras here.
