The government of Honduras granted me a five-year residency, but will only hand it out to me one year at a time. This means that I need to go to Tegucigalpa, to Immigrations, every year to renew. Yes, it's a hassle, but dealing with the government here often is.
Because my residency carnet only shows one year, I can only get a driver's license for one year, instead of paying for a 3-year license. More bureaucracy, but, that's life here.
Time to renew my driver's licenses! Yes, licenseS. I have two: one for cars and a separate one for motorcycles. Never mind that combining them would make sense.
I got my first licenses in Tegucigalpa, since that's the law. But, I could get my renewal licenses here in Comayagua. Erica called the Transito for me to find out exactly what I needed to do: a physical, an eye exam, then go to the bank and pay and they (the bank) will give me the time of my appointment.
First stop: the doctor's office. I went to my doctor's on a Saturday morning and had my physical. It was actually much more thorough than the one I had last year to get my initial license. Last year, they took my blood pressure and pulse, determined that I was still alive and sent me to another room to get my blood typed. This year, it was more like a physical. The doctor also asked me about my eyes. Since I knew my contact lens prescription, she was able to write that on my form, saving me the extra expense of getting my eyes checked.
Next stop was at Banco Atlantida to pay for my licenses and get my appointment. That actually went smoothly and I was asked if Monday at 9:30 am would work? Sure. Sounds good to me. Hey, this might just be pretty simple after all.
Monday morning arrived and I decided that I would take a taxi to the Transito instead of riding my motorcycle. My permiso provisional, my permission to ride without a license plate, since the government hasn't issued new motorcycle plates in about 4 years, was expired and I had been waiting for THREE WEEKS for it to arrive from Tegucigalpa. (Each of my calls to the place in Tegus was answered with "we're sending it tomorrow." Don't bother asking how many times I had called.) I was actually still riding my moto, but didn't think it would be all that wise to ride it to the police station, where they might actually check the legality of my moto.
The power here at Enlaces had gone off a few minutes before 9:00 am, but I didn't know how localized the outage was, or how long it was going to last, so I hailed a taxi and was at the Transito by a few minutes after 9:00 am. There was a line of people outside the building and an even longer line inside. Crap! That's not a good sign.
I got in line behind a woman and asked her if the line was moving quickly. Nope. Not at all. Her appointment was for 8:30 am and she had gotten there at 8:00, only to find out there was no power. We were told to wait and they'd take care of all of us as soon as the power came back on.
Amazingly, the power came back on by 9:30 or so, so the woman and I, who had been chatting for a while, both went inside to get in that line. It turns out that the woman was from Siguatepeque, spoke English and teaches at a bilingual school there. She learned English while in New Orleans many years ago.
Finally it was my turn to go into the inner office, hand over my paperwork, and have my picture taken. Actually, they took two photos. I mean, two licenses, right? Never mind that in Tegus at least they used the same picture for both licenses. I thought it was a bit funny when the officer looked at my current licenses, which have my blood type prominently displayed on it, and asked me for my blood type. "A positivo" was my response. Good thing he couldn't read my thoughts, because Sarcastic Susan was really saying, "Uh, you're serious? My license says A+. Do you think my blood type has changed in the last year?"
After doing my digital fingerprints, I mentioned to the officer that I was waiting for my permiso provisional to come from Tegus. He asked me why I was waiting and I told him that the store there told me since I bought my motorcycle there that they had to issue the permission. He asked if I had my permiso with me, which I quickly got out and showed him. He told me that I could go around the corner, to the building in front of Hondutel and they could renew it there. Well, that was some good news.
Soon I was back in the main lobby waiting for my licenses to be printed. And waiting. And waiting. The lines were getting longer. There was quite a back up of people waiting for their license. And we kept waiting. I watched the guy on the other side of the window fiddle with the computer, put new ink in the printer, reboot the computer, call for some help, make a phone call for some help, and finally, the officer that was taking the pictures and fingerprints came out to assist.
The problem? The cable to the printer had come loose. Finally, the printer was spitting out licenses. Now, common sense might tell you that those of us who were waiting the longest would be the first ones to get our licenses, but that would be wrong. Common sense rarely comes into play!!
But I did finally get my licenses. Then, I walked around the corner and was in and out of the building to get my permiso provisional renewed for another two months. Yes, they only issue it for two months at a time. Again, that makes no sense, but now that I don't have to keep calling Tegucigalpa and can just go downtown, I don't care.
My carnet is current. My driver's licenses are current. And my permiso provisional is current. I'm completely legal. Well, at least until the rules change again...
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