222 Bats

Next stop was Comayagua, the former capital of Honduras, known for its colonial architecture. I stayed two nights here. It was a bit underwhelming, but there were definitely some nice churches, and a cool cafe or two, that made the stop not a total bust. Stayed at the "Hotel American Inc.", with nary an American in sight. Somewhat generic, with broken internet, but clean enough, with actual working hot water. Saw very few other tourists during my stay, only perhaps three or four, which was kind of neat in some ways, but one of the times when I felt a little bit more lonely than usual. Normal enough while travelling solo, and hanging around in the main town square was good for people watching. The city hall and main cathedral are the focus points of the ... read more

La Ceiba itself was a fairly dirty, characterless big city, so I left the next day to go to the Cuero y Salado wildlife reserve. The town near it, La Union, is 30 km from La Ceiba according to my guidebook. Took 1.5 hours to get there on a crappy converted schoolbus. Great road systems. Got to the town, then took a narrow gauge train the rest of the way, (about 10 km), another three quarters of an hour. While waiting for the train a guy asked me what I was doing here? Guess they don't get a lot of tourists. Not a lot of tourists is right... I was literally the only visitor! Small village around the visitor centre, and some rangers to look out for poachers, but I was definitely the only gringo. They ... read more

Next day in Tela I went to the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens, one of the largest in the world, I think. It's a few kilometres out of the town, but my hotel rents bicycles, so I was going to rent one to get out there.... Or not. I'm glad I know bikes, and that I checked them out. Of maybe seven or eight bicycles, the only ones without flat tires had either jammed gear shifts, or loose brakes! Yikes! I told the hotel staff and they looked at me blankly. So, plan B, got a cab, then arranged pick up in a couple hours time, and wandered around. The map they gave me of the gardens was extremely unreliable, and since it was a weekday, I was basically the only visitor, but I made my way around ... read more

On Ecuador: Spent twenty four days in Ecuador, in several different areas. Overall I was impressed by the country. Great scenery and wildlife, mostly very friendly people, good weather. Some bad parts, but overall a very good trip. Quick breakdown of a few things. Where I went: Quito, the equator line, Banos, Ambato, Tena, the Galapagos Islands, Otavalo, Mindo, Guayaquil, and Cuenca. How I travelled: bus, car, plane, and boat (the Guantanamera yacht in the Galapagos). Highlights: the Galapagos in general, snorkeling in the Galapagos the hummingbirds and frogs of Mindo, the bat cave outside Tena, the chocolate, the fresh fruit, the scenery, the people, and the architecture, and getting a new hat and lovely alpaca sweater. Lowlights: the food, the bus accident, the cancellation of the rainforest tour, getting a bad sunburn, the attempted pickpocketing, ... read more

May 16 to May 19th: Woke up, checked email, and saw no word from Kevin (as you know from previous blog post). Had an interesting and eventful morning in Quito. Had a great breakfast included in the cost of the hostel (pancakes, fruit, eggs, tea, passionfruit juice), but was then taken to the wrong museum in the morning. Turns out the national museum of Ecuador, and the exceedingly dull national Bank of Ecuador museum have very similar names. Didn't have time to go to the other museum, but decided to walk through the old town to the tallest church in Ecuador, where you can climb up to the top of the bell tower. On the way, I narrowly avoided falling victim to one of the classic travel scams... Someone throws a foul smelling liquid on you, ... read more