Advertisement
Published: January 28th 2009
Edit Blog Post
The Location: Utila, the smallest of the Caribbean Bay Islands and also the closest to the mainland Honduras, less than 30km away. At night the orange glow of La Ceiba´s city lights can be seen across the water. Most of the 6,000 inhabitants live in Utila Town and I´d say with confidence that after only five days here I could recognise at least half of them. We´ve seen the same people constantly, almost an embarrasingly large number of time in one day. Unlike the rest of Honduras, the islanders speak English with a strong Caribbean lilt. Ya man.
Our Mission: To trek across the island to its highest point, Pumpkin Hill, and search for the (apparently) legendary treasure stashed by pirate Henry Morgan.
James and I set off full of purpose from our base in Utila Town. It is basically a two-road town: one main road curves around the bay and is trafficked by electric golf buggies and scooters whizzing up and down; at a right angle to this is the other road that leads from the town jetty to the small airport in the northeastern side of the island. And that´s as far as the tarmac got.
Since we had first stepped off the ferry from La Ceiba - a choppy crossing that left all passengers green around the gills - it had lashed down. Tropical torrential rain. Today was the first day of sunshine and so we donned our boots in search of treasure and adventure.
We headed north with a vague notion of where Pumpkin Hill was located. Our two maps showed it in two different places - it was either east of the airport, or possibly west (Lonely Planet was wrong, again). But as it was the only real hill on the island, we were optimistic that we would be able to find it easily enough.
Following muddy unsigned trails, we left the tarmac and tracked through the bush, guided by landmarks with fantastic names such as ´James Brush´and ´Red Ridge´. The trails were confusing and frustrating, not at all where either map showed them to be. We would begin walking in the right direction, but then the trail would twist around onto itself and suddenly we were walking in the opposite direction. We turned back to take an alternative route more than once, going hours out of the way in the
process. We thought about giving up, but we reasoned we might as well keep going, we could be heading back to town for all we knew anyway!
There were no people about to ask and in places the trees were so thick we couldn´t even see Pumpkin Hill. Surrounded by so much flora, it was no surprise that fauna was also close at hand. Millions of ants hard at work, beady eyed dragonflies, lizards zipping about urgently, birds twittering like ladies in hairdressers.
We had also noticed during our trek that the muddy paths were spotted with freshly dug holes, roughly the size of a tennis ball. But what was making them? We couldn´t figure it out. Snakes perhaps? Large spiders? Moles? Ahead was a large puddle. We paused to figure out our way across and found ourselves by the side of some such holes. That´s when we heard them. Strange scuttling and clicking sounds. What was making those unsettling sounds? I caught a quick movement out of the corner of my eye and a splash of something in the water. Whatever they were, they were lurking in the muddy pool. We stood absolutely still, listening, looking. Slowly
they revealed themselves. Crabs. And lots of them. Especially surprising as we were a good distance from the sea, well as inland as we could get on an island that is only 5km wide. The vibration of our footsteps had sent the grey crabs into hiding, but they had been all around us all along, tens and tens of them. We decided against wading knee deep through the puddle.
By this stage we were well away from Utila Town. A few wooden houses and farmland peppered the landscape. Apart from that it was all forest, as the island would have been before any tourists began to visit. We saw Pumpkin Hill clearly now, heads and shoulders above any other bump in the horizon. And, finally, we were on a trail that was headed straight for it.
At a lowly 74 metres, we bounced up to the summit in less than twenty minutes. The altitude might not be dizzying, but the views were impressive. We could pretty much see the entire island, coast to coast. An ideal lookout for pirate ships.
Which reminded us, time to hunt for lost treasure. We checked out the large boulders scattered on
Pumpkin Hill
Not really pumpkin shaped. the top in case they held any secrets to be discovered. Not even a centavo was to be had. The slopes of Pumpkin Hill were part rocky coral, part farmland and part forest. Some of the white-ish coral looked like skulls from afar - a sure sign of pirates - but they turned out to be tricks of nature. One whole section of the hill was cut off by an aggressive barbed wire high fence. Seemed less pirate and more farmer.
The search for the X that marks the spot was not going well, and I was beginning to thing we had more chance of finding a pumpkin. In fact we found one of my worst nightmares. On the forested side of the hill, we disturbed a three foot long dark brown snake in amongst some dried leaves. We edged slowly away backwards and it slithered out of sight. I was now a little jumpy. Ok, I confess, I was very jumpy. I really really don´t like snakes (something I have in common with Indiana Jones by the way, before you mock). So suspicious of every brown stick, I nervously picked my way down (the coral side!), holding tightly
Pumpkin Hill Beach
Looks lovely from a distance doesn´t it? onto James´hand.
One more place to investigate, Pumpkin Hill Beach. a small secluded strip of sand we had seen from the top of the hill, and there seemed to be thatched building nearby. It was in fact an abandoned resort, and no wonder it was left to ruin. The whole beach was a tip. Litter strangled the beautiful Caribbean setting. Crushed plastic pop bottles lined the tidemark, not seaweed as it should be. An absolute disgrace.
James and I had seen this state of affairs on other beaches in Utila, ruined by laziness and wastage. The cleanest beach on the island by far was Chepas Beach, west of Utila Town. Apart from this single idyllic stretch, on the whole Utila was grubby and dirty. No one seemed bothered by the amount of rubbish lying around the place.
Whilst I know that one man´s rubbish is another´s treasure, Pumpkin Hill Beach took it to the extreme. I´ve seen the films! No worthy pirate of the Caribbean would consider used toothbrushes or broken flipflops as treasure. Dejected and defeated we headed home, hands empty.
Alas the sun set and no treasure was to be found.
From Jess
Advertisement
Tot: 0.437s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 16; qc: 69; dbt: 0.1816s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
rachel
non-member comment
animals
ye are so lucky getting to see all the beautiful animals even the snakes.Beach was so lovely from afar but I couldn't beleive how dirty it was in the picture. I loved the green and blue lizard. sorry you didn't find any treasure . miss you lots and lots. Rachel