Omega Jungle Lodge - Rafting!!!

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So today we started the day with a rafting trip!

We got some breakfast and got ready to go. There were the 4 Kiwis, plus us, and a nice American girl named Michelle.

Because the river is low right now during dry season, the trip was a little different than usual. Not only did we get to raft but there were some rock jumps and swimming too. Our guides were Ryan (American), Sam (Australian?) and Jairo (Honduran) who were all phenominal.

The river was SO refreshing. It was not at all cold, and in this hot heat it was kinda nice to have the wet portions too.

We started with a small rock jump (about 2 meters) and some swimming. It was then off to literally rock climb the side of a HUGE steep rock (with a little help from the rope, or in my case A LOT of help from the rope) and then did a much scarier jump of about 4 meters. It wasn't even the hight that got me on this one. It was the fact that you had to jump out about a meter so as not to hit the lip of rocks that stuck out under you.

We also did a little bit of letting the smaller rapids take us down the river a little ways. Such a fun experience and we hadn't even gotten in the raft yet!

I was a little worried about Walt, as his swimming skills aren't the best, but he did really well against the strong currents... well, except for the time he lost his shoe and drifted a little in the current. lol

When we did finally get in the raft, Michelle, Walt and I were with Ryan. I was shocked at Walt's lack of paddling skills but I guess when you've never really canoed or anything, that's a skill that needs to be learned. He ended up doing really well and we had a great time.

Because the water is so low, there were parts where we got a little stuck on the rocks. There was a bit of manouvering around to figure it all out or get us off the rocks. There were also some faster rapid parts and slightly scary moments but nothing too exteme. They figure the way the rapids are now, they're moslty class 2 and 3 with one part that had class 4 manouvers (on the guide's part I'm assuming, as I did nothing but paddle! haha).

The whole trip was a couple of hours. There was a little "pool" part at the end where some locals were also enjoying the refreshing cool of the water in this heat, then it was off in the jeeps and back to the lodge for lunch (which is also included in price of trip) and it was a nice lunch. We had spaghetti with two different sauces plus garlic and "chimichurri" (like a local pesto kind of) as well as homemade bread.

We then went to our new room to unpack and Walt took a nap while I lied by the pool with a book (well, my ereader) and soaked up some rays. SO nice. SO relaxing. JUST what I needed after the hustle bustle of school and musical, and car papers amd car repairs, and visa papers for Walt. VACATION!!!

Met a nice man (Dave?) and his son Michael, who are from Toronto. The dad had vacation time he needed to use up before end of April and decided to bring his son along. They got a direct flight from Toronto to Roatan and then smaller flights here. Funny cuz you meet a lot of travelers who are traveling through Central America and hit up Honduras on the way, but not many who seek out Honduras specifically for a vacay. Looks like they'll be here the next couple days so we'll be doing some of the tours together too.

I'm gonna head to the solar powered shower now and clean up before dinner. Tomorrow the plan is to do a horseback ride and then probably mountain biking Wednesday. Thursday we head back to Comayagua for the sawdust carpets.

So nice to have this time off. Really enjoying every minute of it.

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