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Published: March 25th 2009
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Kayaking on the Rio DulceSo there we were again...back in Guatemala. Our readers will recall that the boat from Belize to Honduras was cancelled meaning the only way into Honduras was once again via Guatemala. As chance would have it, Livingston and the Rio Dulce were parts of Guatemala we hadn´t managed to get to on our first visit so we decided to stay for a few days before journeying to Honduras. We arrived in Livingston and spent the following day exploring the area. Livingstone, although part of Guatemala, is very different to the Guatemala we´d experienced so far and felt more like Belize with a heavy Garifuna/Carribean feel to the place. Sitting on the mouth of the Rio Dulce, Livingstone is the jumping off point to travelling up the river and into Guatemala. With recommendations from the hostel in Livingstone, we decided to catch a boat out to a hostel situated on the banks of the river but essentially in the jungle. The hostel was run by an English hippie, Chris and we were his only guests!
The hostel was more of a very basic jungle lodge in reasonably dense jungle. Our room was a very cosy cabin sufficiently ventilated to inspire jungle
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Ell diving from our own private waterfall! fear but at the same time extremely comfortable. We probably had the best nights sleep we´d both had for a while. Chris was an interesting guy who´d spent a few years in his jungle hideaway and appeared to be somewhat of an authority on the area from the political situation in the area, local tensions, mafia activity etc etc, Chris was ready to talk and we were his listeners!
We spent a couple of days in the jungle checking out the area. We rented a kayak and paddled up river to some hotsprings for a soak. On day two we took our faithfull kayak up one of the river tributaries in search of a waterfall in the jungle. The trip up river was fantastic because there was literally no-one else around except for the odd few local children who came down to the river to see what the strange gringos were doing. We had vague directions from Chris as to the whereabouts of the waterfall and luckily managed to find it after kayaking for about an hour and then trekking through the jungle for another 20 minutes. It was worth the effort as the waterfall though small was beautifully
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Emma soaking in hot springs set in the middle of nowhere cascading into a jungle pool! After some hestitation (who knew what was in there!) we ventured in to cool off. It was quite eeire being the only ones there but equally special.
It was now time to hit Honduras. We decided to get the convenient direct minibus across the border and all the way to La Ceiba on the Honduran north coast which is the jumping off point for the Bay Islands. After an hour or so on the ferry we arrived at Utila which is the cheaper, more backpackery of the Bay Islands. The bay Islands are all about diving and that´s what we were there to do! We checked out a few of the dive centres before settling on Deep Blue Dives. Ell decided to continue his dive ¨education¨ by doing some adventure dives as part of the advanced dive course. Once again the diving was great and we saw some fantastic marine life as well as a couple of boat wrecks. The diving was not without incident as one of the girls in the group shot up to the surface from 30 metres causing a bit of a panic among
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Taming the beast! the instructors!
We didn´t have the best weather on the islands as it rained for the first two days but thankfully picked up for the remaining 3 days we were there. We had some wonderful seafood on the islands and also indulged in a couple of drinks on our last night at the Jade Seahorse hotel/bar which was decorated with bottles, glass, shells and all sorts of things making a big crazy mosaic.
Having dived our way around Utila it was back on the ferry to La Ceiba to continue our Honduran adventure. With our adrenalin pumping from the diving we decided to continue the high with some white-water rafting! We decided to go with Jungle River rafting who offered a free nights accomodation at their river lodge if you went rafting with them. Good deal methinks! The lodge itself was beautifully set up on the rocks above the river making for splendid views up and down the river (see photos). But we weren´t here to admire the river...we were here to tame the beast! Our raft guides, in their infinite wisdom, decided the best way to prepare for possible capsizing was to plunge ourselves into the river
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Where´s Ell? and see what happens! Now if a Honduran chap with a paddle asked you to jump into a raging river with nothing but a lifejacket and a prayer, would you do it? Me neither but they must have been very persuasive because in we went. Now Ell, drawing on the skills he´d leart whilst earning his school a bronze medal in the butterfly leg of the under 10´s relay medley, managed to swim to safety. Emma unfortunately was not so lucky and had a fairly scary experience of being sucked back into one of the rapids and pinned against the rocks. Luckily, she finally managed to get free and make it to where the rest of us were but not without a racing pulse and talk of a near death experience.
So, after that wonderful introduction to the white water, our illustrious leaders decided now would be a good time to introduce the rafting element! So in we went and I must say, we were good! Precision timing, power through the water, we were taming the river. That was until the rapids started! Our first class 4/5 rapid and Ell was tossed from the raft like a ragdoll. Luckily
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Jungle River Lodge a small Honduran boy of about 15 managed to break Ell´s fall, but in we both went into the raging rapids once more. Solid crisis management from the raft though had us plucked from the water in record time, Ell with a bruised ego, Honduran kid with a bruised face! That was the last of the ¨man overboards¨ though as we learnt to navigate the rapids and tame the beast once and for all. So it was with bumps, bruises and shattered limbs that we emerged victorious from the river of death (as we´d now dubbed it) and earned ourself a cold cerveza.
We stayed another night at the Jungle log and managed to get some hiking in as well as jumping from the high rocks into the river by the lodge which was scary but lots of fun. As there were no busses out at the lodge we were encouraged to hitch hike and so found ourselves and our backpacks in the back of a pickup truck heading back towards civilisation.
Our next stop on the Honduran trail was the coastal town of Tela. We decide to take a tour to one of the local islands off
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A photo with both of us!! the coast where we could swim, snorkel and see some wildlife. The beach we stopped at was gorgeous, probably the best we´d seen so far. We had an authentic Honduran lunch of whole fish, plantains and rice in between our snorkling and sunbathing. We only stayed a couple of nights in Tela before heading inland towards Lago (lake) de Yojoa where there was the promise of a microbrewerey! Oh and a spectacular lake, wildlife, world class birdwatching (hehe) etc...and a microbrewery!
When we arrived at the brewery hostel (you can stay there!), all the cheap rooms were unfortunately taken but seeing as we had nowhere else to go (and it´s a microbrewery!) we decided to upgrade for the night into one of the plush cabins they still had available. So there it was that we sampled some new and interesting beers whilst lazing next to the pool at our plush cabin hideaway! I´m probably plugging it a little mich here as truth be told, the pool was freezing, it was cloudy and raining and the beer was good but not great! Nevermind though, it sounds better in the telling so we´ll go with that!
The brewery was a
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The impressive Pulhapanzak falls good base from which to venture out to the impressive Pulhapanzak waterfall an hour or so bus ride away (could be more could be less, can´t really remember). The falls were pretty spectacular and one of the highest we´d seen so far and certainly with a great deal of water tumbling over them. We had a swim in some pools at the top of the falls and then decided to catch the bus back. We waited and we waited and we waited. We thought something might be up when all the locals started picking up lifts until there was no-one else waiting for the bus that clearly wasn´t coming! So with reluctance we began the long arduous uphill walk. Thankfully after 15 minutes walking, Emma´s clearly very attractive thumb earned us a hitch in a pickup truck back to the town near our brewery. We then managed to secure a second lift all the way to the door of the brewery! We counted ourselves lucky and decided to continue that luck with some more micro brews!
Having seen the falls and sampled some beers we thought we should check out the impressive lake Yojoa. Having found a hostel in
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Budget fishing on Lago de Yojoa the guide, we ventured forth. Unfortunately the rains came too (Marge, come quick...the rains are ´ere) and must have scared away the punters as once again we were the only guests at our lakeside lodging. We didn´t let that get us down though as we were keen to get out on the lake and do some fishing! Sounds good doesn´t it? Well let me explain. There were no rods, just a piece of wood with some fishing line attached. No weights on the fishing line, though we cunningly got around this by tying coins to the line to weigh down the hooks. Bait was in the form of garden worms that the owners son was reluctantly forced to scour the grounds for (I guessed at this point we weren´t going to be game fishing!) and the fishing boat was a kayak...with a hole in it! Needless to say, we had some fun laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation but alas, no fish!
From Lake Yojoa we headed south west to our last destinantion in Honduras, the town of Gracias. Gracias was a very old town that seemed to take us back in time. There wasn´t a whole lot
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Hot springs outside Gracias to do there but we decided to hike out to some hot springs about an hours walk out of town. The springs were actually done up like the local swimming baths so lacked the authenticity of natural hot springs but regardless, it was relaxing and soothing to soak in the warm waters after the walk to get there. We went out for dinner in Gracias and were fortunate enough to stumble onto a world cup qualifying football game between Honduras and Mexico on the telly. Now Honduras are not exactly world beaters at football and the mexicans are in theory the superior team but somehow Honduras managed to win the game...and they went wild!! Suddenly the quiet dusty streets of Gracias were awoken to sound of blaring car horns and what seemed to be a procession of cars, motorbikes and bicycles blazing around town clearly pleased with the result!
So it was on that high that we finished our Honduras adventure and headed south to the border of El Salvador. Who knew what fate would await us in what was described as a very dangerous country. I can tell you know, they couldn´t have been more wrong.
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