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Being a long narrow isthmus of land, Central America has two long coastlines, one of which has the Caribbean Sea lapping at its shores, backed up by the second longest reef system in the world (second only to Australia´s Great Barrier). Honduras boasts 700km of Caribbean coastline, which combined with its posession of a few palm-fringed, white-sand islands, means that there is quite a lot of fun to be had in and around Honduras´north coast.
CHAUCHAUATE - CAYOS COCHINOS
The highlight of my last couple of weeks has been a trip out to a completely undeveloped, postcard-picture white-sand island of Chauchauate. The people out there live a life of fishing, hammock swinging and chilling out. There are no hotels or any other services on the island (or any running water or electricity for that matter), but there are a few wooden shacks for rent and a chance to live amongst what might just be the most idyllic place I've ever been to. And as if the swaying palms, perfectly clear water, thatched roof homes and friendly local Garifuna people weren't enough, all you needed to do was swim 50 yards out to sea with some snorkel gear, and
My Home for 3 Nights
About 100 meters long by 40 meters wide... then you're directly above a coral reef with moray eels and tropical fishies of 100s of different colours swimming about (Chauchuate itself is basically a coral-based atoll).
Getting out there was a bit of a mission, you have to pay a fisherman from the mainland to take you out there (given that only about 100 people live on Chauchauate, there's not exactly regular public transport between it and the mainland - its basically 100 meters long by 40 meters wide). I'd read that the Garifuna town of Sambo Creek was a good place to find a local with a boat, and ran into two Italians and one Honduran hare krishna fan who had the same idea as me, so together we found a boatman, negotiated a price and the next morning we were speeding across the Caribbean to begin 3 nights in surroundings that were so idyllic I spent my first half hour walking around trying to avoid laughing out loud it was just so ridiculous.
Chauchauate is part of a group of similarly stunning islands known as the Cayos Cochinos. The whole area of Cayos Cochinos has been a marine reserve for a few years now, which
On the Beach, Chauchauate
The beach was always lined with dugout canoes that the locals, and the occasional lucky gringo, go fishing in means commercial fishing is banned although the locals are allowed to fish with standard fishing lines from their dugout canoes, and they are allowed to take the occasional gringo with them too. So I headed out one morning with a local and his two sons in the wobbliest, narrowest little boat I've been in, only to find that fishing got boring pretty quick just because it was SO EASY! Basically if you haven't had a bite in over a minute you need to pull your line up, because your bait will be gone. It was so ridiculous we were basically just pulling fish out of the sea, and after a while the novelty was wearing thin...
I was kinda gutted when I left, I could quite easily have holed up there for ages. Everyone on the island was so friendly, it really was like we'd joined their community for a few days. I'm going to remember some of those faces and their expressions forever. The kids would always insist on trying to involve me in a game of football or something, and most of the thatched-roof homes had hammocks out front that I'd always get invited to take a
Dinner!
Chauchauate is basically a coral atoll, which means there are always plenty of fish about... seat in. If other travelblog users stumble across this blog looking for things to do around the north coast of Honduras, I say go and unleash your inner Robinson Crusoe and chill out on Chauchauate for a while!!!
UTILA
Another highlight of the last few weeks has been spending 10 days on another (although considerably larger, more touristed and more populated!) island called Utila. Utila is basically a "divers central" island, with almost everybody hanging out there diving or learning to dive. Its also famous for a fairly raucous nightlife and for being popular with other activities on or underneath the water.
My time there consisted of completing a PADI Open Water course, basically an introductory 4-day course which means I'm now certified to dive without having an instructor present. It was pretty cool, although there is always a bit of claustrophobia to deal with early on when learning to dive, but once you get past that it was just damn good fun and a pretty good way to meet lots of other people too.
I was diving at one of the biggest dive schools on the island, and I was pretty lucky that the
My Dive Class on Utila.
Well, 4 of us anyway. There were 7 in total. day after my course finished was also one of the few days of the year that the dive school rents out the nicest private beach on the island and throws a US$10 All-You-Can-Drink-and-Eat BBQ/Beach Party which was fairly wild and ended up about 5am. Needless to say not many of us went diving the next morning! Most of the people I met through my school - both Dive Masters and students - were pretty cool and its going to be a lot of fun to be of a part of the diving scene in years to come. I'm already thinking about where I might do my PADI Advanced (which is the next course you can do after PADI Open Water).
I also did a Level 1 Kite-Surfing class (basically, 6 hours over 3 days) while I was on Utila, which takes a lot to get a handle on at the start, but is a pretty massive adrenalin rush as well. The winds are only blowing the right way in Utila for a few months a year, but luckily I happened to be there at the right time. It's something else I'll be looking forward to doing more of, and
Did Someone Say Toga?
As part of the all-you-can-eat-and-drink beach party, a welsh dude decided we should all rip our bedsheets off and go in Toga I've already found some kite-surfing schools on the south coast of Spain through which I might arrange a Level 2 Class once I'm back in London and looking for things to do with my weekends.
RIO CANGREJAL (or "River of Crabs")
My main "mainland" experience of Honduras over the last few weeks (ie. not on one of the islands) has been heading to a jungle lodge upstream from one of the wildest rivers in Central America, and about which the often-but-not-always-correct Lonely Planet describes as having the best rafting in Central America too. The jungle lodge I chose had a pretty solid reputation for putting on a good 3-hour rafting tour, and as it turned out their reputation was pretty well deserved! And the setting was beautiful too, massive boulders all around, fast-flowing water, and all set in a valley with groovy tropical forest growing up both sides. There was even a kiwi dude from Greymouth working there having mastered the art of rafting back in NZ, who gave me doubles but charged me for singles when he performed his "night job" of working in the Lodge's bar once the days activities had finished.
We spent
the first hour out of the raft, doing lots of crazy activities like finding huge boulders to leap off and into the river, and other activities which I believe sometimes go under the name of "canyoning". After that it was into the raft for a couple of fairly furious hours paddling downstream during which time only one person managed to fall out (guess who?) as we ran a few small waterfalls and plenty of rapids. I fell out when we basically nearly flipped going down a small waterfall, and it tipped in the direction of the front-left which is where I was sitting so I didn't have much say in the matter of the fact that I was leaving! I managed to grab a rope on the raft though, and then a teeny tiny american girl had the job of pulling me back into the raft by my life vest.
And that´s about all for now, am currently in the small town of Trujillo getting ready to head into the Mosquito Coast - pretty much the most untamed part of Central America. I´ll be out of radio contact for a while, but at least I´ve stumbled across a budget
hotel here in Trujillo called "casa kiwi" (or the kiwi house), owned by an expat who lives here now... last night I even had a big kiwi burger for dinner with beetroot, pineapple, an egg - I´d not seen a burger like that in 4.5 months in Central America. She has lots of beer mats of NZ beer around the restaurant too, although sadly none of the beer but I´ve found one Honduran beer I really quite like so I´m happy!
Send me news soon,
Steve
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Layla
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How Beautiful It IS
Hi, I am glad to see beautiful pictures of Beautiful Honduras. My last trip to Honduras , I visited the Isla de Roatan, pristine, tranquil, great beaches, wonderful food friendly people with a broad smile. I was born in Tela, Honduras and grew up with the Caribbean Sea as my backyard, Lined with coconut trees in fruit under the bluest sky. Extremely fine and white sand, piping hot, and as a child, I would have to take a fast dash toward the Ocean from the sidewalk and into the warm blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. I am glad you enjoyed Honduras, it is a piece of Paradise on Earth. Thank you for sharing the pictures of Chauchauate, I have never been there. I know the Garifunda tribes were brought to Honduras by the British, and left there. It was not difficult for the Garifundas to do that, just imagine their happinnes to find this piece of unbelieable beautiful land and live as free people as nature intended.