Blogs from Celaque NP, Western, Honduras, Central America Caribbean

The fourth peak on my list of Central America's high points was Cerro Las Minas in Celaque National Park, Honduras. The name of the park means "box of water" in the local, extinct Lengua language possibly owing to the fact that the park contains 9 rivers supplying water to 120 cities and pueblos. The peak is not very high, 2,849 meters or 9,347', and the visitors center is at an elevation of 1,400 meters so there is not a lot of vertical to overcome. However, that is a bit misleading as I found out. The trail is very steep in places and crosses many creeks, dropping and rising through each one, so the cumulative elevation gain is much more. Not only that, I am certain that the trail is much longer than the reported 7.5 km ... read more

Perched precariously over the cliff edge, I watch the clouds wisp by below as I puff on a 5 cent, hand rolled cigar. Sitting on the boarder of safety and danger, with hundreds of feet of air dangling beneath my feet, fills me with a sense of being alive. The soothing echo of the 1000 ft water fall and the calming sound of wind rustling through the trees as it blows the shifting clouds over the ridge combines with the melodic chirps of tropical birds. The ample rainfall allows for a very lush environment in this humid, cloud forest. Thick, soft layers of various mosses cover the ground and rocks around where I sit. Orchids and other colorful flowers dabble the mountainside. In the shoulders and nooks of pines and other trees, tropical plants have taken ... read more

The next stop on our trip was Gracias and from there a hike out to the Celaque National Park and Honduras' highest peak at 2894m. We only spent a night in Gracias, trying to organise ourselves for our trip. We had been told that a lot of the hotels rented camping equipment so we went round to have a look. The first two places we went to didn't have anything and then we saw a pricelist for equipment in our hotel but despite having all the prices they had nothing as well! Undeterred we just took our hammock and some warm clothes to sleep in as there was supposed to be some kind of shelter halfway up the mountain. The National Park entrance was 7km from Gracias and there was no local transport so we decided ... read more