Around Lago de Yojoa

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In our Lonely Planet guide, Central America on a Shoestring, there was a great listing for a microbrewery/hotel near Lago de Yojoa, a picturesque lake in central Honduras. We got a lift from the Jungle River Lodge at 7 am in the morning of Oct. 9th to La Ceiba, and made our way to the D&D Bed & Breakfast and Microbrewery via San Pedro Sula. By the time we were dropped off by the chicken bus in front of the road to D&D, it had started to rain and the sky was getting darker.

D&D was closed. Argh!

Unfortunately we didn't have a backup plan. The brewery was 5 km away from the nearest town and the only other hotel in the area, which resided next door to the brewery, was also closed. This was the first major setback we had on our entire trip thus far. A bus and tuk-tuk ride later we made it to the front entrance of El Cortijo del Lago, a hotel right on the lake, hoping it was open. Fortunately we found some employees in the kitchen. They were a little reluctant to get back to work as we were the only guests they had seen for a few days and they were getting used to having time off. Nevertheless we settled in for a peaceful night on the lake.

The next day we took a bus to the nearby tiny town of San Buenaventura and hiked to the Pulhapanzak waterfalls. The falls were medium-sized (about 43 m) and enjoyable enough to watch. There was a nice swimming hole but we declined - it was directly above the falls! Later that day we visited the Parque Eco-Arqueologico Los Naranjos located northwest of Lake Yojoa and spent quite a long time walking along the trails leading onto a long boardwalk. The boardwalk passed through a large marsh where we got some great sightings of waterfowl, normal fowl, and frogs. We were mostly alone, expect every 20 minutes or so we would run into large school groups that frightened all the wildlife away. I felt sorry for the kids who didn't know what they were missing.

We bused back from the park to Penas Blancas, the nearby town, where we spent some time on the internet. Unfortunately, it was dark by the time we finished some e-mailing and blogging and all public transport from the town had stopped. We were about 10 kilometers from our hotel. With luck, we were "saved" by a passing church bus. They gave us a lift to our hotel singing "He Decidido Seguir a Jesús" the whole way, and would not even take a few lempiras for their troubles.

The next morning we troubled our hotel staff for some breakfast, then hightailed out of there for cooler weather in La Esperanza in the highlands.

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