Back to La Ceiba...and into the Jungle

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Returning to La Ceiba brought back tons of fantastic memories...even though the streets were empty and there were rooms available at every hotel. Me, Kailee, Josh, and Sander took the early morning ferry from Utila, and made our way to a jungle lodge just outside of La Ceiba to do some white water rafting (and really, my expectations weren´t very high...i mean, i´ve seen some wicked rapids on this trip!) and some jungle exploring. We got to the lodge, and it was beautiful!! Set on the rocky shores of the Cangrejal river, we got there, had breakfast, and were in a raft less than an hour later! The rapids were, despite doubts, awesome. It may have been the fact that the boats we were in were way smaller than ones i´ve been in before...so perhaps the rapids just FELT bigger. None the less, i´ve never started a tour having to float down a set of rapids with your lifejacket on (not in the boat) - to make sure everyone is comfortable being in the water. Evidently the chances of us flipping were pretty high. Our guide was doing his first run of this season, and we had six people in a 4 people boat. We flew down that river, dumped the whole boat once, lost me twice, and lost this other guy a time or two also (didn´t quite understand the whole ´let´s put the two tallest people at the front´ technique...I guess we DID tell our guide we wanted to flip...)

The next day we went on a crazy jungle adventure. We had heard about this great trail that goes along another river up to these amazing waterfalls in Pico Bonito national park. The dirrections we were given were definitely not exact. We ended up along this dirt road...and then got to this abandoned house...and found a trail..and ended up having to pay some woman off..and then finally found the river. With a clear sign saying ¨It is prohibited to cross into the national park through the neighbours property¨ OH well....we didn´t speak or read spanish....right?? So of course we crossed through...and hiked our way up from swimming hole to swimming hole, from waterfall to waterfall. Had a sandal emergency half way up, fixed it with a bracelet from a ¨Supremo Bimbo¨bread bag. Genius. We finally made it to the last waterfalls. And they were incredible. We were the only four people on the trail up there, a real jungle adventure. Machete and all. We explored around the whole area, used vines to climb up slippery rock faces, slid down rock faces and waterfalls..and generally felt like real life Tarzans and Janes. Lame, but true. We have the jungle scars to prove it! It was an awesome day, and we topped it off with a great sandwich lunch at the bottom of the biggest waterfall. Made our way back down the path, the flip flop still holding up, and got to the random property, crossed over...and headed back to La Ceiba - to our air conditioned and lovely room (the jungle lodge was only one night...especially after our little creepy crawly friends in the bed in the morning...EW)

We settled in with some food, started flipping the channels of our CABLE TV...and came across....dun dun dun...DON CHERRY and game 4 of the Stanley cup finals. It was awesome. Three canadians and a dutch guy, beer and the ottawa senators. What a beautiful day. Even though they lost.

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Photos

Bed Bugs
These termites fell from the ceiling in the morning....all over where our heads were. EWWWW

Jungle Adventures
We took this picture by slamming the machete we bought into the tree to make a ledge. Genius!

Supremo Bimo sandals..
to the rescue!