Border crossing to Honduras

This guy told us to follow him. Commence parade speed.

We have read and heard a lot of horror stories about driving in Honduras. I have driven here before and remember pot holes the size of moon craters. People say to expect to be stopped by the police every 15km. Cops will ask for a laundry list of items supposedly "required" for driving in Honduras. Besides the usual, you supposedly need to have a traffic cone, a fire extinguisher, a reflective triangle and who knows what else.
We haven't been able to find an actual list from the Honduran government. They, of course, don't offer it at the border. The only thing we could find out while crossing the border is that you are required to have 2 license plates-- one on the front, one on the back. In Arizona, where we got our truck, they only issue you one. We asked what we could do about it? Nothing. But it's illegal to drive without it? Yes. But we can enter the country without it? Sure. Hmmm...

Waiting in one of many lines

When you approach the border from El Salvador, any number of people, from children to old men, will approach offering help to assist you through the border. Some will just start "helping" you until you make them go away. This "help" is for an unannounced fee and is totally unnecessary. Every official you have to talk to at the border crossing will tell you where to go next. Avoid the helpful helpers.
The financial logistics are these: you will have to pay US$3 per person for the entry fee. The Permiso de Importacion for our vehicle (1995 Toyota 4Runner) was about 685Lempiras (US$36). You will probably need Lempiras to get through, but there are lots of muchachos standing around with wads of cash ready to exchange money. They actually offer a pretty good exchange rate (they gave us 19L to US$1).

Discussions about copies at a window made for Lilliputians

They will put a big stamp in your passport describing the vehicle you brought into Honduras. If you do not leave with the vehicle, and get the stamp in your passport cancelled, you will have to pay a fine. The Importacion lady said the fine is about US$350.
So far, we have only been stopped by cops once and the roads have been decent. When we told the cop we were staying in Honduras to volunteer rather than just cruising through to Nicaragua like most gringo traffic, he let us go without even asking if we had any required gear.
One piece of advice we have heeded was to do most of your driving and border crossing on Sunday. Honduras is a mostly catholic country, and the cops that are looking for bribes the rest of the week take Sunday off to go to church.