Honduras
Facts:-
Day 45 - Tuesday 23rd August 2005 - ariving in Copan Ruinas
Immediately on getting to immigration we had some money changers harassing us, and eventually we were pleased to get almost a 10% improvement in the rate offered. However, being pleased with this Ian forgot to haggle for the price of a colectivo (minibus) to Copan Ruinas and when we left we realised that we were paying about twice the locals' fare!
Onboard, we soon found out that Hondurans are mostly bigger than Guatemalans when a large guy tried to squeeze himself into a small gap between Ian and a woman next to him, but he didn't get within a foot of the seat!
Shortly, we arrived in Copan Ruinas and found a room in Hotel Clasico Copan (we were actually just about to leave to try and find a cheaper room elsewhere, but were called back and asked what we wanted to pay! We ended up with one of the best rooms for the cost of one of the cheap ones... :-) )
We had noticed that the office to the Finca El Cisne, which we wanted to visit, was just next door, so despite the onset of heavy rain, we popped over. Unfortunately, no one was there. But, just as we were wondering what to do next, a pickup pulled up and Carlos got out and opened up the office. He told us (in fluent English) what trips he offered. We were tempted to opt for the extended 3 day / 2 night visit, but decided to sleep on it and Ian dashed through the rain to the corner shop for a couple of beers each.
Back at the hotel we met Sarah and Brett (from Oz and South Africa) and chatted to them for a while over a few beers. After a while it was getting late so we showered and headed out to Momo's (which Carlos had recommended). We were certainly not disappointed with the recommendation. Nikki had a large chicken kebab and Ian the recommended jalapeno steak, each was charcoal grilled just a few feet from us and tasted fabulous. There were frequent flashes of lightning and every now and then there would be a heavy downpour. The electricity failed a couple of times and as we had forgotten to bring a torch out with us, we were "forced" to have a couple more beers by candle light.
Day 46 - Wednesday 24th August 2005 - the Mayan Ruins at Copan
After a decent breakfast at Llama del Bosque we took the pleasant walk for 1km from town to the Mayan ruins. This was to be our final Mayan ruin of the trip and it didn't disappoint. Although the site was a lot smaller than the other major ruins we had seen, such as Chichen Itza and Tikal, the carving of the stelae and elsewhere (for which Copan is famous) was very impressive and surprisingly well preserved.
We spent about 3 hours wandering around the site and bumped into Sarah and Brett part way around. We then decided to walk along a short nature trail through the surrounding forest. As soon as we left the main track on this trail we were followed by a guy with a big machete. At first we weren't sure if he was there to protect us or stalk us. He ended up guiding us. In particular he hacked a route for us through the undergrowth around various areas where the path was flooded. Although it was only a short walk, we saw a couple of agouti whilst our guide also pointed out various plants and trees.
After refuelling with a cheap and filling burrito in the caf?teria de Ruinas, we headed a little further along the road to Las Sepultras, another part of the ruins, where the houses of non-elite / normal Mayans had been excavated. We had a somewhat impromptu tour of the site (in Spanish) from one of the guys checking tickets. It was quite interesting, if not nearly as spectacular as the main site. Our visit ended when the sky suddenly darkened and rain came lashing down. We sheltered under one of the tin roofs protecting a ruin, got kitted out in full waterproofs and watched the rain flood various plazas for about 30 minutes. After that the rain eased and we made a run for it. By the time we got back to the main ruins, the sun was out, the road was steanming and so were we.
We had a bit of a siesta before heading out for Happy Hour cocktails with Sarah and Brett to the Tunkul Bar. After our recommendation, they were keen to try Momo's for dinner, so we ended up there again. It was just as nice the second time around and we also had a good chat.
Day 47 - Thursday 25th August 2005 - Los Sapos, near Copan Ruinas
We breakfasted at Via Via (eventually, as far as half of Nikki's breakfast was concerned!). Then we failed to find a view point that was apparently accessible just north of town. Instead, we headed off south on a walk to Los Sapos, the sight of local Mayan birthing rituals.
The route was mostly along the Copan river, which was very pleasant although the river was definitely too swollen to swim in. It was supposed to be a 5km walk, but somewhat earlier than that the track turned uphill and we arrived at Hacienda San Lucas.
We were really hot and sweaty and appreciated the two refreshing icy cool limonadas we drank on the terrace. A little later we were pointed down a path that took us on a pretty walk through the forest and across a stream to Los Sapos itself (a few rocks carved with the faces of frogs / toads).
Back in town we had a light lunch at Vamos a Ver and spent the afternoon online and editing our photos. Unfortunately Ian realised that he no longer had online access to his bank account, so quickly emailed home for assistance!
For a change of scene we headed to Carnitas Nia Lola for Happy Hour cocktails and dinner, but were disappointed with both (as well as the service and the cost compared to Momo's!). We adjourned for a couple of beers at Via Via with the intention of writing up some diary entries. Instead we were distracted and devised our "loo-ometer". [link to follow]
Day 48 - Friday 26th August 2005 - Finca El Cisne, near Copan Ruinas
Not learning from dinner the previous night, we tried somewhere different fror breakfast and ended up at El Jardin with a not insubstantial part of the Honduran army! Despite being a coffee growing country, Nikki was served the worst cup of coffee yet on the trip (possibly ever!), the food wasn't special either. We had a few hours to kill before our finca trip started so used the time to update this online diary a bit. We also just had time to squeeze in a lunch of Papusas (apparently a typical dish from El Salvador) at Comedor Mari's, which was really excellent and very cheap.
We met up with Carlos and loaded up his pickup with backpacks and his two dogs (Isa and Inny Minny) and headed out of town to the Finca El Cisne. We arrived at our "exclusive country retreat" (we were the only guests) about an hour later. We started to settle into finca life and watched as some workers brought some large logs down a small stream by the guesthouse and Carlos loaded them onto his pickup. (We later learned that he hoped to have them made into seats for his friends who run Via Via).
We headed up to see some of the plantations themselves, picking up a few finca workers en route to give them a lift to the community. All of a sudden, the pickup stopped and one of the workers jumped off the back, machete in hand to catch a snake Carlos had spotted. By the time we got to look it, it was in three pieces, each still moving independently! Apparently it was a Fer-de-Lance (one of the world's most poisonous snakes!), and as this one was only a young one, we were told that it wouldn't have learned how much venom it needed to use to kill its food, so would actually be more dangerous than an adult! So, the locals were very cautious. They skewered the head repeatedly with the machete and then buried all three pieces.
After that, Carlos took us up to part of the coffee and cardamom plantations and explained some of the details of the cultivation processes to us. Although harvest time was not for a few weeks, we got to taste some of the "honey" that coats ripe coffee beans and also some ripe cardamom seeds. Nikki wasn't too keen on the taste of the cardamom and was more interested in the very small and pretty cardamom flowers.
We went to Carlos' parent's family home for an early dinner, eating the first of numerous vegetables that we had never seen before and whose names we couldn't remember. We also got to drink fresh maracuya juice for the first time.
The early dinner gave us time to visit Agua Caliente, some hot springs near the finca. There a couple of pools were constantly being filled with hot water from the river. (We were told that some of the water actually leaves the ground at 92 degrees Celsius!). It was soon very dark and as there was no electricity there, we enjoyed a lovely warm bath beneath a star-filled sky. We had to be careful not to fall asleep and drift away from the pool's sides, where we might not be found before too late! When we eventually left we were so tired we didn't have much time to enjoy the candle-lit guest house before falling asleep.
Day 49 - Saturday 27th August 2005 - Horseriding at Finca El Cisne, near Copan Ruinas
Up for a hearty finca breakfast of breadfruit "porridge" followed by pancakes with honey (Ian just used sugar and squezed fresh orange juice on them instead) washed down with some finca-own cardamom infused coffee.
We were driven to the finca stables where we were introduced to our horses, Princessa (Ian) and Beatrice (Nikki). As one of Carlos' other horses was very sick (it coudn't stand up) our first ride was down to the field where it was lying. Some of the finca workers were called upon to manhandle her onto the back of a pickup so that she could be taken out of the sun to the stables where she could be reunited with her 3-week old foal.
Carlos returned on horseback and we headed off. Neither Princessa nor Beatrice seemed particularly inclined to move quickly but that suited us as we were both complete novices. We rode around part of the finca, taking in the beautiful scenery (with views into Guatemala) and trying to get some control of our mounts.
After a while, Carlos stopped to pick a couple of pink grapefruits, which we ate whilst resting near a couple of small reservoirs. They were fantastic! Once back on the horses, Carlos managed to get our horses to pick up some speed (at least for a short while) and we continued to a swimming stop. We went for a very refreshing dip in the fast flowing stream and were occasionally washed a little further downstream by the strong current. After that, although Carlos encouraged the horses into a trot for a while, Princessa and Beatrice soon left us way behind Carlos as they preferred to plod slowly through the most shaded parts of the route. Ian and Princessa made it back to the stables sometime after Carlos and Nikki and Beatrice eventually brought up the rear.
It was back to Carlos' parent place for a delicious lunch of chicken and some flower buds (!) in a creamy sauce (plus rice, beans and tortillas, of course) and some more yummy maracuya juice. :-)
We spent a lazy afternoon reading and snoozing in hammocks.
We had hoped to go back to the hot springs in the evening to bathe in the river itself, whilst it was light enough to find our way across. But it was already getting dark when Carlos came back with the news that the sick horse had died. Carlos was obviously upset and we were sad for his loss, too. Consequently dinner was a low-key affair, but delicious again with lots of tasty veg and rice. After dinner, we played scrabble by candlelight and Ian won.
Day 50 - Sunday 28th August 2005 - Copan Ruinas, 3-month Wedding Anniversary
Carlos was still a bit subdued in the morning and so it was a strange ending to the Finca trip. After breakfast, Carlos again took us up to his parents' place and we had a look around the coffee processing plant. We saw the de-husking, soaking, drying and roasting areas, although it wouldn't be in use until harvest time in another month or so.
Thanks very much to Joan Robertson for "sponsoring" this part of our trip!
Back in town we wandered around a bit and deceided to have a pre-lunch drink at Via Via. Almost immediaely, Carlos, Isa and Inny Minny walked in to see the owners. We went back to Mari's for lunch an tried to eat them out of papusas - well, we had 7 between us! which, together with 2 fantas, cost only 46 Lempiras (about $2.50). We were expecting it to be cheap, but think they must have undercharged us as well!
A bit more time on the internet and photo editing and then we went off to find somwhere that would burn a CD for us so we could send some photos back to the UK for safe keeping. On the way home we picked up a few beers to drink on the hotel terrace to start our 3-month wedding anniversary (and our 50th day of our trip) celebrations.
We had planned to go to a different recommended restaurant for the celebrations, but it turned out to be closed that Sunday and as we didn't want to be disappointed by the quality of food elsewere, we went back to Momo's for the third time! (By the way of variety, we did pop into the Tunkul Bar for cocktails and nachos first.) At Momo's we treated ourselves to a bottle of Chilean Cab Sav, our first wine on the trip since our flight out of Heathrow. This time we be both had steak, the cost of which together barely added up to half the cost of the wine!
Day 51 - Monday 29th August 2005 - on to Tela
An early start for the 7am bus to San Pedro Sula. For breakfast we each had a cereal bar on the bus. But about half an hour later, we nearly saw them again as the bus swang rhythmically around the corners of the winding road. We were obviously not the only ones suffering as another passenger was noisily vomiting a few rows behind us. But, despite having to ask for sick bags, we made it through. Fortunately, after about and hour, the terrain changed and the road became much flatter and straighter and we were even able catch up on some sleep.
We were pleased and a little surprised, when we were dropped off in San Pedro Sula right outside the bus terminal for buses south, and within 15 minutes we were on our way to Tela.
A couple of uneventual hours later (on more flat roads!) we were again standing roadside (unfortunately once again not at the bus teminal where we had been expecting to be). But, Sarah and Brett were waiting to board the same bus we were getting off and they pointed us in the direction of town and advised us to grab a taxi.
The taxi took us to our chosen hotel (Hotel Playa), but the rooms we were offered were dark, unwelcoming and right by reception and the hotel entrance. They were not even particularly cheap, so we wandered off to try and find a better alternative.
We stopped at Garifuna Tours to book ourselves on a kayaking trip for the following day and ended up staying at their hotel (the M@ngo B&B, - breakfast not included!) just a block away. It was really hot and we were glad to have a corner room for additional draughts. We stocked up on water and went to the beach to catch a little late afternoon sun.
On the way, we got a bit lost and ended walking across a scruffy beach eventually finding a cleaner stretch in front of Hotel Villas Telamar. The surf turned out to be too strong for swimming or even standing for long, so after a while of jumping around in it, we went for a lie down on the beach. Ian had put some money and our room key in a little plastic bag in his velcro pocket and on leaving the sea realised that it was no longer there. No sooner had Nikki said that there was asolutely no way we'd be able to find it, then we saw just at our feet on the edge of the water!
A little later, we called in at the beach bar there for a couple of shaded beers before heading back to the hotel. On the way back we passed a street party, which looked like some sort of political rally / party, we couldn't find out much about it (except it was definitely for the "red" party). We later found out that it was the start of campaigning for the general elections due later in the year.
We decided to treat ourselves to a guidebook-recommended seafood resturant. We certainly had a nice sea view at Cesar Mariscos and enjoyed the food (we were even served baked potatoes - a first on our trip!), although it was a little expensive.
Day 52 - Tuesday 30th August 2005 - Kayaking at Parque Nacional Punta Izupo, near Tela
We got to Luces del Norte for breakfast before they were ready for customers, but once a few chairs ad been rearranged we had a good breakfast in time to verify that our tour was going ahead (i.e. enough people had signed up). Nine of us were on the tip (Craig and Shanon, from Whistler, another British couple and 3 American guys). Richard, our guide, drove us in a old minibus (one with those uncomfortable side facing seats not seen in the UK for 10-20 years) out to Punta Izupo, where we started our kayaking trip.
We headed down a quiet mangrove river to the sea, where we had to pull our double kayaks out over a sandbank. Then we saw the size of the breakers that we needed to make it out through to the nxet mangrove inlet! We headed out first, paddling hard straight into the breakers. After a short struggle we were pleased to make it through to the calmer, deeper sea beyond the shore. Our jubilation was shortlived, however, as we were called back in. Back onshore, we saw why. As some of the breakers had washed right over the front of our kayak and none of the boyancy pockets had theoir protective cover in place, we had taken on a lot of water and were in danger of sinking! There was enough time for everyone else to get out to sea before our kayak had been drained sufficiently for us to try again. Eventually we were all making our way along the coast to the next mangrove river.
Although we did see a keel-billed toucan flying across the river a little ahead of us, unfortunately, apart from a few other birds and a large number of vicious mosquitos as we paddled deeper into the mangroves, we didn't see much other wlidlife. However, the trip was still very enjoyable. We had to brave the ocean again on the way back but this time we made it through just fine.
After the kayaking, we were taken to a beach restaurant in a Garifuna village for a seafood lunch - Nikki had garlic prawns!
On our journey back to Tela, one of the tires on or minibus blew out and most of the boys took turns to fight with the rusty nuts to remove the wheel. Eventually we got back to Tela where we picked up a couple of beers and relaxed in the lounge area at our hotel, just outside our room.
We had arranged to meet with Craig and Shannon in Luces del Norte for dinner where Ian had an enourmous seafood soup (as recommended by Alice, a Brit on the kayaking trip) and, as lunch had not made Nikki sick, she had garlic prawns for the second time that day!
Day 53 - Wednesday 31st August 2005 - on to Omega Tours Jungle Lodge, near La Ceiba
Another good breakfast at Luces del Norte (the omlettes are recomended!), then just time to shop for some essentials before heading off to the bus station. For a change, we actually had to wait for the bus to fill up and leave (but only for about 20 minutes). En route, Ian bought some bus food - we think it was coconut bread, but whatever it was it was very nice.
In La Ceiba, we changed buses and, as we had decided to stretch the budget and go to the Omega Tours Jungle Lodge to try and do some rafting on the Rio Cangrejal, we headed straight back out of town. We were 20 minutes on the bus before it left, it then stopped for another 20 minutes about 100 yards down the road, refuelling. Then after a slow and winding journey out of town, during which the bus filled up so much that we were uncertain whether we would see where we needed to get off. Fortunately, Nikki managed to spot the sign for the lodge and we got the bus to stop for us.
We settled into our rooms and soon realised that there were more guides than guests at the lodge! We booked ourselves on a half-day rafting for the following morning and walked a short nature trail, accompanied by both of the lodge's resident dogs, before enjoying the open air shower! Dinner was a simple meal with the only other guests, 2 Swedes, followed by an early night.
Day 54 - Thursday 1st September 2005 - Rafting the Rio Cangrejal, near La Ceiba
A filling breakfast of "Omega Eggs" set us up for our rafting trip. We took a short walk down to the river, where Sharon, our Aussie guide gave us a briefing - after all this was Nikki's first time rafting. We were in a small raft, whith just Sharon and ourselves so we had to paddle hard! After a bit of practice, we were off and safely down the first few rapids (they were all graded III or IV). There were enourmous granite boulders all around and Sharon guided us between them with input from us as instructed. We started to get the hang of it (Ian had to paddle more gently!). Then Nikki was unceremoniously dumped on her back in the bottom of the raft a couple of times!
We had to carry the raft around one larger rapid, we don't think that with only two of us paddling, we had enough power to raft it safely. Then, about halfway down our bit of river, we stopped to jump into off a couple of big rocks. We started with a 3m jump and them moved on to a 6m one. Sharon and Nikki, just stepped straight off it, but Ian deliberated for a while and then after slipping at the top and nearly falling in, not once, but twice, he gave up and did the small jump again.
Just a couple of rapids (and a short section where we had to lift the raft over a very shallow secion) later we stopped again for a short jungle hike to a waatefall. En route, Ian climbed a "monkey ladder" to do a Tarzan impression and we stopped for a snack - a few small ternmites, which tasted of pepper! We then used more termites as a natural insect repellent by rubbing crushed ones all over our arms and legs. It seemed pretty effective!. We had a dip in the pool by the waterfall and a "firm" back and shoulder massage under the cascading water.
Back at the raft, we had a few more gentler rapids to negotiate and quite a few gentle stretches of shallow water before a couple of larger rapids to finish with. Taking the first of these backwards resulted in Nikki leaving the raft temporarily! We finished the trip with a float down the river and then had a filling pasta lunch back at the lodge.
We lazed around the pool for the afternoon and read in hammocks hiding from the occasional tropical downpours and thunderstorms. Later on we had a good chat with Sharon and Marisio about their forthcoming travel plans in Honduras and Guatemala and passed on some tips.
Day 55 - Friday 2nd September 2005 - on to Utila
More Omega eggs for breakfast before our transfer to the dock just outside La Ceiba, were we caught the "Utila Princess" to Utila. We were surprised how empty the ferry was, particularly when half the people who looked like they were tourists turned out to be working in various dive shops. After an hour or so on top of the swaying boat, we docked in Utila, and as promised were greeted by people handing out fliers for various dive schools. We spent the rest of the morning visiting some of them and ended up trying to make a decision on which one to go to over a good sandwich at the Bundu caf?.
We chose the Cross Creek Dive Centre, and headed there to register. We settled into our "wooden cabinette" and almost immediately got stuck into some theory and Karen, our instructor, gave us some PADI DVDs to watch - very exciting!.
After over 2 hours (in which time Nikki only fell asleep once! - but as we were the only students we were able to rewind) and a quick shower we went to RJ's where we had arranged to meet Craig and Shannon (from the Tela kayaking trip). They had chosen one of the dive schools we visited earlier in the day and we arranged whilst they were doing their swiming tests to meet up later). We had some excellent fish dishes (tuna for Nikki and Amber Jack for Ian) and a few beers before having to move away from the edge of the restaurant to shelter from the sudden and heavy rain..
We both fell asleep doing our homework...
Day 56 - Saturday 3rd September 2005 - Starting Dive School, Utila
Up early to finish our homework - it wasn't too taxing! We had some cereal for breakfast and also picked up some croissants from Camilla's bakery, before meeting up with Karen at 8:30am to go though the first bits of theory for the Open Water Diving certification. Ian had been advised, for comfort, to wear speedos under his wetsuit, so we went to try and buy some, before grabbing a lunch snack of baleadas and quesadillas at caf? Maritas. Karen took us over to the Utila Dive Center (UDC) - our dive centre's sister shop - where after a short swim test we got to grips with our scuba gear...
Our first underwater experience was kneeling in about 4 feet of water where we learnt some basic skills (breathing underwater, clearing our mask, taking the mask off etc.) with Karen and Jerusha supervising. This all went well and with some time to kill we went to try out the Mango Inn's pool, but (we presumed because it was a Saturday) the pool was full of kids, so we just enjoyed some iced fruit juices by the poolside. Instead we decided to have a dip in the sea and wandered down to the public beach for a short while. On the way home we picked up a few beers and a bag of munchies to eat on our "balcony" pre-dinner...
It was a long way (about 20m) to Dave's for dinner, where we met up with Craig and Shannon (and a few of their fellow dive students) again. We both had a very tasty coconut chicken curry while a lot of people from our dive shop were celebrating some students finishing their Divemaster qualifications on a nearby table....
Day 57 - Sunday 4th September 2005 - Day 2 at Dive School, Utila
We had a 10:30 meet for part 2 of our theory, so we got to have a bit of a lie in and then went down the road to caf? Zanzibar for an omelette breakfast. Karen had not recovered from the previous evening's celebrations so Joel took us through the final parts of the theory. Since we finished these early, we got to sit our final "exam". We had to rush lunch, but we weren't that hungry either, so popped across the road to the Seven Seas restaurant, where Ian had a very disappointing cheeseburger and Nikki enjoyed a milkshake.
For our second dip into the water in scuba gear, we were joined by John (from Ireland) and Itzia (from Spain), who were just starting their Open Water courses too. Today, Barry assisted and we headed out to a dive site called Little Bight. After repeating all our shallow water skills so John and itzia could catch up, we all went down to 4m for more skills practice, including our first efforts at maintaining neutral buoyancy. Everything seemed to go well and we felt ready for diving proper the following day.
We hadn't tried out any of the local nitespots yet, so we went for some pre-dinner drinks on the water front at Coco Loco's where the low light, low waterside seating and large holes in the decking for fish spotting would have made interesting hazards after a beer or too too many! However, we just had a couple of happy hour drinks before heading to the Bundu café for a night of Mexican food washed down by a bucket of iced beers, Yumm!
Day 58 - Monday 5th September 2005 - Whale Shark Day, Utila
An early start, with only time for a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast, as we had decided to join the morning dive boat and go snorkelling. The boat was headed to the north side of the island as ellusive whale sharks had been spotted by other boats over the previous few days. The first dive site was Raggedy Cay where the divers went down the coral wall. Of course we stuck to the shallows! We saw lots of fish, including a large southern stingray lying on the bottom in one of the few a sandy patches. In several places, we had to be careful to avoid numerous small jellyfish near the surface (we later found out that they wouldn't have stung us anyway).
Back on the boat, everyone was keen to try and spot a whale shark, so we headed a little around the north shore to look for them. (Dan, one of the divemasters, checked that we knew that you had to tip the boat captain 100 Lempiras (about $5.50) if you got to swim with a whale shark. We didn?t believe him at first, but it seemed this is customary). No doubt, spurred on with this knowledge, Cray, our captain, located a large number of birds feeding on a boil of fish which typically forms above a feeding whale shark. Now, even the more experienced divers were getting excited. All of a sudden, someone at the back of the boat spotted a whale shark and Cray yelled for us to get in and swim. We all jumped in and swam as fast as a couple of fins each would take us, but the whale shark went too deep too quickly for anyone to get a view.
Cray continued to follow the fish boil and feeding birds and 8 people were selected for the next swim (apparently this was the maximum recommended number of swimmers with a whale shark - something we hadn't been told before when about a dozen of us had jumped in...) Nikki was one of the chosen 8. She donned her fins and mask and got her camera ready. We were not waiting long before the whale shark was spotted again and all 8 swimmers jumped in. Nikki was one of the last in, but as soon as the bubbles around her started to clear she could see little else except a "big" whale shark (apparently they can grow to about 20m long, so at at 4-5m it was only a baby really!). After her initial shock, she remembered she had a camera with her and managed to get a decent snap, although there were still a fair few bubbles about.
Meanwhile, Ian was on the boat and was lucky to see the head of the same whale shark no more than a metre or so away as it touched its nose against the back of the boat. The whole episode lasted only a matter of seconds, but everyone was very excited (especially Cray, who was in line for a hefty tip!)
The second dive site of the morning was at Diamond Cay where we did some more snorkling before resting on the roof of the boat and enjoying the late morning sun.
The boat didn't get back until 12:15pm and we were lucky to be able to buy a couple of sandwiches before our 12:30pm meet for our first open water dives. Karen was not well, so another instructor, David, took us out instead. Our first dive site was Airport Caves and we went down to 12m. There we repeated some of the skills we had done the previous day, before following David on a fun dive where we saw loads of colourful fish and coral.
Our second dive site was just nearby at Ted?s Point. There we did a few more skills and then set off on another fun dive. We both really enjoyed it and Nikki decided she never wanted to snorkel again! However by the time we got back to Cross Creek we were both exhausted, so rested before having a cocktail at Munchies. Unfortunately, the menu there didn't compare well with Dave's (which after all was so convienient, being right outside our room!). So taking advantage of a break in the thunderstorms, we rushed back to Dave?s without getting too wet. Unfortunately, Dave?s is open-sided and soon the wind and rain picked up again and a few of us had to re-locate our tables to a drier spot! We chatted to John and met Jason (who was driving from Canada to Argentina) and a couple of Irish girls. They were keen to go on partying after dinner, but we were too tired and our bed was too close!
Day 59 - Tuesday 6th September 2005 - Qualified Divers!
Cereal again for breakfast, followed by a couple of hours on the internet / naming photos / diary writing. We picked up some croissants and mini-dogs (hot dogs, some with cheese!) for lunch from Camilla's bakery. Then it was off in the dive boat again for our final two dives of our PADI Open Water course. David took us and John down to 18m at Black Coral Wall. After a couple of skills, we follwed David down and, amongst other things, saw a large spotted eagle ray swimming in the deep blue of open water just a few metres below us. We had a great view of it but unfortunately did not have the camera on this occasion. Amongst the other fish David pointed out were a trumpet fish and a trunk fish.
For the second dive, the boat moved a short distance to Pretty Bush, where we saw more fish including another trumpet fish. We also had our photos taken by an underwater photographer.
When we got back we went to the office to fill in our diving log books and finish our certification.
Thanks very much to Doug & Mila Robertson for "sponsoring" this part of our trip!
That evening was Craig and Shannon's last night in Utila and we had arranged to meet them for dinner again, this time in Picolo's / Kate's for some pasta. The food was nice enough, but a bit pricey (comparatively, at least!), given the portion sizes. After dinner, we went to the Tranquilla Bar for some Sea Breezes which were on offer. Then it was time to say goodbye to Craig and Shannon, as they had a 6:20am boat to catch - maybe we'll make it to Whistler one day and pop in to see them...
Day 60 - Wednesday 7th September 2005 - Fun Diving, Utila
Our dive course came with 2 free fun dives, which we took on the morning boat. Dan led us and John down at Stingray Point. Again we saw lots of fish, including a yellow trumpet fish, lizard fish and the very small spiny headed blennie. This time we had our camera with us, so we practised our underwater photography skills... The second dive was at Silver Gardens where, amongst other things, we saw more trumpet fish, a large black grouper, a rock beauty and a large pansy shell.
Unfortunately, by the time we were back in the boat, Nikki was starting to feel unwell, so once back on land, we headed to the Bundu caf? again, where we knew we would get a good and filling lunch. After that, we had some chores to do. Since we had failed to get any cash out of the only cashpoint on the island, Ian queued for a cash advance. Next, after being told, in the pharmacy, that there was no contact lens solution on the island, we found some in the supermarket! - so at least we had the option of staying on to do some more diving if we wanted too...
We had a look at the photos taken during our final dive of the Open Water course, but decided that $25 for a CD of them was too much, especially given our limited budget and the fact that we could use our own camera underwater anyway.
Nikki was feeling rapidily worse and so went to bed for the afternoon whilst Ian went to write up some more on-line diary entries.
In the evening, we went to RJ's again for more barbecued fish and met up with John (Ian had barracuda and Nikki, king fish, but we were not as impressed as on our first visit). Since Nikki was ill an early night was called for.
Day 61 - Thursday 8th September 2005 - Utila
Nikki was still ill, so we had a lazy day and postponed any decisions about leaving or doing some more diving. We stayed in bed until about 11am, when Ian went out to buy some brunch. That was about as active as we got, spending the afternoon sitting around on the deck outside our room reading, writing the diary and chatting to John. We did make it all 20m or so to Dave's for dinner!
Day 62 - Friday 9th September 2005 - Utila
Nikki was feeling a bit better and eventually we decided to stay on and do some more diving. We even decided that it would be fun for us to do the Advanced Open Water course (basically, this would give us some tutored "adventure dives" and a qualification to dive down to 100ft). We had a lot of online diary to upload, so after resting for the morning and signing up for the course, Ian went to the internet caf?, while Nikki rested a bit more, before joining him a bit later.
As we emerged, it was late and pouring with rain, again, so we just popped across the street to RJ's for dinner, again! Ian treated himself to lobster (all of 165 Lempiras, about $9) and Nikki had steak. Time for another early night, hopefully Nikki would feel fully recovered for our adventure dives the following morning.
Day 63 - Saturday 10th September 2005 - Starting our Advanced Open Water Dive course, Utila
An extra half hour in bed as our dive sites for the morning were close by. Our first adventure dive was a "Deep Dive" (one of the compulsory dives for the Advanced Open Water course) and we went down to a wreck called The Halliburton, which had intentionally been sunk here in the 1990s. We went down to 100ft, where we did some easy tests to see if anyone was suffering from nitrogen narcosis. Unfortunately (!), none of our group entertained us with its symptoms. On the dive, we did see a few interesting creatures, including a yellow arrow crab and some big angle fish. As Ian took some photos he noticed how much brighter the corals looked with the flash - the reds were otherwise not visible at all at that depth.
Our second dive was at Ted's Point again, where we did a "Peak Performance Boyancy" dive. This involved practicing our buoyancy by playing underwater frisbee, trying to swim through hoops, first normally, then on our backs and finally standing on our heads! When finishing off the dive we spotted a Southern Stingray and watched it as it settled on the bottom and them moved off.
Back to the Bundu caf? for another filling lunch, where we also made use of their 2-4-1 book exchange (although they liked the look of our books so much we got a 2-4-2 exchange!)
We decided to try out one of the small private beaches near the old airport for the afternoon. We chilled out there for a couple of hours before returning to our room for a low quality game of scrabble. We ventured all the way across the deck in front of our room to Dave's again for dinner, where most of the Cross Creek divers were eating - there were celebrations ongoing for a newly qualified divemaster and another guy's birthday.
Day 64 - Sunday 11th September 2005 - Naturalist Dive, Utila
Only afternoon diving today at Cross Creek, so we had a lie in followed by a lunch of baleadas (stuffed tortillas) from the Seven Seas resturant. Then it was off on the dive boat for 2 more adventure dives. Barry took us on a Naturalist dive at Airport Caves and, armed with laminated fish and coral identification charts, we spotted and named loads of fish, including trunk fish, angel fish, parrot fish, rock beauties, sea spiders, sea snails, a spotted spiny lobster and lots of others.
The second dive was our "Navigation Dive" (the second of the compulsory dives for the Advanced Open Water course). We did this at Moon Hole. Karen had a problem with a pain in one of her ears, so one of the fun divers (a Brit who happened to be on vacation here and was a qualified instructor himself) supervised us trying to navigate straight lines and squares using a compass. Then we navigated from Moon Hole over to Ron's Wreck (we had been given the bearing to follow) and explored the coral wall a bit. We saw another spotted eagle ray and this time managed to get a photo. We were supposed to find our own way back and we did eventually get back to the boat. We had had a few communication difficulties, which resulted mostly from Nikki?s compass being faulty and we weren't convinced that we had thoroughly mastered the art of underwater navigation, but apparently it was good enough.
We had heard that the Tranquila Bar on the waterfront served really good kebabs, so we headed there for dinner, just catching the end of Happy Hour and getting a couple of bargain rum and cokes in. We certainly wern't disappointed with the kebabs either (the lime and basil chicken and cajun shrimps at about 110 Lempiras - about $6 - each are both highly recommended). Our only disappointment was that we had discovered this place so late in our visit to Utila (and that it was closed on Monday's - our last evening).
Day 65 - Monday 12th September 2005 - Night Dive, Utila
Another cornflake breakfast set us up for our fun dives this morning. However, just as the boat was about to head out, it began pouring with rain. As no one was in a rush, we had a somewhat delayed start. The boat was full again as we were again diving with a group of Brits who had just finished a month or two of conservation work elsewhere in Honduras. We sailed around to the North side of the island, now in the early morning sun! However, the sea was still pretty rough so we had to dive at an alternative site, The Maze. This was really good as we had not dived on a large coral wall before (one of the experienced divers thought that it was the largest wall he had ever dived). It was a near vertical drop off of at least 150-200ft. Certainly from our maximum depth of 100ft there was a lot still beneath us. As soon as the dive started we spotted a couple of barracuda and later a spotted spiny lobster, poking out of a hole in the coral, a yellow arrow crab, trunk fish, a big trumpet fish and lots more.
It was back to the south side for our second dive (at Big Rock). We didn't see so much sea life here, but did see some drum fish. However, we managed not to see a turtle, which a few of the divers at the back of the group did see :-(
This morning's trip had been long, so our late lunch (at our regular lunch venue, the Bundu caf?) didn't give us much time to do all of our Advanced Open Water course homework. In fact, we just had time to finish it all, pay for the course, find out (from an Aussie) that England had won the Ashes :-)) and get ready for our "Night Dive".
We returned to Moon Hole and just after dusk we jumped in and started the dive. There were probably too many of us out there together, but it was still fun being underwater in the dark water. We were all armed with torches and a few people saw a blue octopus (not us though) and a squid (again not us!). But Ian did spot a large spotted spiny lobster, out of its hiding hole. We also saw a conch poking out from its shell. Unfortunately the night seemed a bit bright. Even at 40ft down, with all our torches off it wasn't pitch black and so we didn't see much bio-luminescence that Utila is known for. When we surfaced, there was one more surprise - the ladder to get back onto the boat had broken in the large swell! This meant that we had to take all our diving kit off in the water and then struggle (with assistance from those onboard) back on to the boat.
Back on land, we were now officially Advanced Open Water divers and got our certification finished. We had planned one last meal at Dave's, but it was closed. There are not many other restaurants open on Utila on a Monday, so we ended up at the Mango Inn for a pepperoni pizza, which wasn't bad. Almost everyone else from our dive boat was also there, but as it had taken some time to get certified, they got there before us and we had to wait a bit for our pizzas. By the time we had finished eating, all the staff were waiting to go home...
Day 66 - Tuesday 13th September 2005 - on to Trujillo
A horribly early alarm call (at 5:20am) was required for us to finish packing and make it to the ferry in plenty of time for the 6:20 (and only) departure to the mainland. It was a smooth and pleasant crossing, taking about 1 hour. As we pulled into the dock at La Ceiba, we saw Sharon and Sylvia trying (unsucessfully) to drum up some more business for Omega Tours. We chatted to them for a few minutes before taking a taxi to a "comfortable" and direct bus to Trujillo - our final Honduran beach town, and the last time we would see the Caribbean Sea for a while.
It was only a whort wait before our bus arrived and we were on our way again. En route, we bought some snacks of coconut bread and "treacle tarts" from a bus vendor, which tided us over until lunch.
The bus stopped a little outside Trujillo and, despite the midday heat, we opted to walk the 1 km or so into town, where we settled into the Hotel Mar de Plato. After 11 nights in mostly English-speaking Utila, it was a bit of an effort to speak Spanish again, but at only 130 Lempiras (about $7) we managed to secure the cheapest room of our trip so far and it even came with a private bathroom and a TV!
The town itself was exceptionally quiet - we only spotted 2 other gringos - so we headed down to the seafront. We shared a huge and excellent vegetarian spaghetti at Rincon de Los Amigos (the LP recommended that this was a good place to meet other travellers, but we were the only diners!). But we did get to sit at a table on the sand, under a palm-thatched roof, looking out at the Caribbean Sea, so there were no complaints from us!
Trujillo is known for its long stretches of white sand beaches, so we decided to walk along the bay for a bit. We noticed that the sea birds here were almost exclusively vultures, which we thought was rather unusual. After a while we found a suitable swimming spot, but after a few minutes in the shallow sea, the sun disappeared and dark clouds began rolling in off the nearby mountains. As rain was on its way, we headed back along the beach, and after a while Ian noticed one of the restaurants had football on the TV. It turned out to be Liverpool playing Real Betis in the Champions League and as it had just started to rain, we "had" to stop and watch the rest of the game over a beer or two! Although Liverpool won, their performance didn't liven up the day and we wandered back to the hotel (and got wet).
After drying out, we headed back to the seafront where we had decided to treat ourselves to garlic lobster (Ian) and garlic shrimps (Nikki). Yummm...
Day 67 - Wednesday 14th September 2005 - on to La Union
We had rejected the opportunity to catch the only direct bus from Trujillo to La Union (it left at 4am!). Neverthless, we thought we needed to make an early start, as the LP warned of a sparcity of buses on this cross country route). So we had a 5:20am alarm call for the second day running, which felt early enough. This enabled us to get a 6:30am bus to Sav? (just short of half way to La Union). At the bus station in Sav?, we soon discovered that there were no more buses to La Union that day (it was already 8:15am after all!). It was suggested that we take a taxi to Mame and try and pick up a bus there. The local taxi drivers told us that the last bus from Mame would leave at 9am! So with little bargaining power we agreed to an expensive taxi trip for the 25 km or so to Mame. But, to give our driver his due, he certainly put his foot down and we arrived just before 9am (and 300 Lempiras - about $16 - poorer!). Unfortunately we were not early enough to secure ourselves a seat, which was unfortunate as one of the main reasons for making this cross country trip was to experience the scenery - which we couldn't see whilst standing up!
Luckily, after about 20 minutes, enough people had got off the bus for us to sit down and we were able to enjoy the splendid mountain scenery, which compensated for the bumpy ride.
After about 3 hours we arrived in the first town on the journey - La Union - and we found our way to the Cohdefor office, where the LP suggested we arrange our visit to Parque Nacional La Muralla. We had expected to be able to stay in the visitors' centre in the park and had bought enough food to see us through a day or so there. But we soon found out that the centre was closed. The woman we were chatting to decided we would make more progress with an English speaker and so she took us a couple of blocks back into town to see her cousin.
He explained that due to lack of funds the visitors' centre had been closed for about 2 years. We were apparently welcome to visit the park and use some of the hiking trials, but could only camp. We decided that as we didn't have a tent and the park was 14 km uphill out of town, along a road with little traffic and slim chances of hitching a ride, neither a day trip nor an overnight stay were practical. :-(
The bus we had arrived on was the last bus out of town that day and it was long gone, so we checked into the nearest hotel (Hotel Los Arcos), which (for the second day running) was our cheapest room yet (at 100 Lempiras - about $5.50). However, we soon discovered that the town had been without electricity for 5 days!
We dumped our bags and went in search of lunch. We weren't all that hopeful and we did have to walk along 
almost every street within a couple of blocks of the plaza before we found a comedor that was open (although it didn't seem to have a name!) We had a choice of a meal - with or without meat - not a difficult choice to make in a town lacking electricity for 5 days! We were served a perfectly adequate combination of beans, eggs, rice, tortillas and (rather unusually) spaghetti in a tomato sauce, which set us back only 25 Lempiras (about $1.30) each.
The LP didn't suggest many alternatives to visiting the La Muralla cloud forest, but it did describe a short walk to a waterfall. So, that's where we went. On the way back we were caught in heavy rain (not surprising being in a cloud forest region!) and we headed back to our room. The rain intensified and, as there was no glass to stop the rain from coming in, we had to close the shutter on our window. So we were now in complete darkness! We got good use out of our head torches and candles and Ian made dinner of tinned tuna (with a hint of lemon) and bread rolls (our supplies intended for basic meals in the national park). We whiled away a couple more hours playing cards, before calling an early end to the day.
Day 68 - Thursday 15th September 2005 - on to Tegucigalpa (Teguc)
Oh No! Our alarm woke us at 4:20am. What a shock!
But at least that enabled us to get the 5am direct bus to Teguc (the Honduran capital). We boarded the bus in the dark, head torches showing us the way. Due to the early morning mist, there wasn't much scenery to see, so we snoozed when we could and arrived in Teguc at about 10am. We managed to orientate ourselves almost immediately and made our way across the city to the Parque Central.
We tried a few hotel options before deciding on Hotel Iberia, which provided us with a clean double room with private bathroom, a communal sitting / TV area in a quiet location - what more could you ask for..? Oh yes, and electricity of course!
We needed to get some clothes washed, so immediately headed off to find SupercJet, apparently one of a very small number of laundries in the city centre, only to find it closed. We decided to look for some lunch, only to find most restaurants closed. Eventually we ate very tasty snacks at Resturante Amapala, but were denied beers as it was before 6pm on 15 September! It was only then that we checked in the LP and discovered that 15 September is Independence Day in most of Central America and therefore a holiday. On reflection, Nikki realised she had noticed something going on in the Parque Central, so we went back that way to have a slightly more informed look at some soldiers standing around ceremonially.
We spent a couple of hours updating the online diary and then went out for dinner. We had planned to eat at the Tobacco Road Inn, but it was almost deserted, so we just stayed for a couple of beers before searching for an alternative. Again not much was open and we settled on the ratther oddly named "Duncan Mayan" restaurant. The food was OK but not the memorable part of the evening as, after a while, an old American guy started chatting to us. He seemed to have back-packed around most of the world and was keen to pass on a few tips and then a few more... He was certainly able to chat and his Honduran wife / girlfriend looked on, obviously resigned to a long evening! We couldn't work out how old he was (but he must have been at least in his 60s) and we felt he could have chatted all night. He was keen to meet up in the morning to chat some more, but we already had plans to see some of the surrounding towns. We eventually parted when the restaurant staff wanted to close up!
Day 69 - Friday 16th September 2005 - Valle de Angeles and Santa Lucia, near Tegucigalpa
The day started with a few tasks (we dropped off some laundry, found some contact lens solution that Ian's eyes didn't "reject" and arranged a visit for the following day to Parque Nacional La Tigra at the Amitigra office in town), before a really good breakfast (including some free internet access) at Caf? La Plazuela.
We then decided to head straight off to Valle de Angeles, which turned out to be a hour's slow bus ride (about 22 km) away. It was a small, pretty town full of artisan shops and workshops. It also had a pretty little church on the plaza. We wandered around most of the shops, dodging showers, but it wasn't practical to buy and ship home any of the things we liked (there was some good pottery and large wooden bowls etc.).
After a while we got on a bus returning to Teguc and stopped off at the turning for Santa Lucia. From there it was about a half hour stroll uphill to the centre of the town. The main reason for visiting was to try and have lunch at Restaurante Milu?ka, a Czech-owned and run place, apparently serving Czech-influenced food. Unfortunately, we found out that it had closed. However, we did get to have a typical Honduran meal in comedor "Mila" instead. (Mila being Nikki?s mum?s name and Milu?ka being a familiar form of the same name.) Whilst waiting for the once-an-hour bus back to Teguc, we spent a short time looking around the town, and found a viewpoint overlooking Teguc in the distance. Unfortunately we didn?t find the church, which was supposed to be very pretty.
Once back in Teguc, we stocked up on some provisions for our trip to La Tigra. We actually shopped in a large supermarket for the first time in Central America, which was such a novelty that once we had found what we wanted, we both had a wander around to see what else was available (most notable were the extensive - aisle long - shelves of picante (spicy sauce) and other sauces!)
For dinner, we had decided to try resturant El Don Quijote, but as we had only read about it in a tourist brochure, we didn?t know exactly where it was. When we asked him, the hotel receptionist suggested taking a taxi as it was up a steep hill (we suspected that he didn?t really know where it was - rather only the part of town, which the brochure gave). Anyway we did decide to take a cab only to find out that it would almost have been quicker to walk all the way rather than walking to the Parque Central to pick up the cab! Unfortunately, once again, we had suceeded in finding another restaurant where we were the only diners! But, as Nikki is now happy to eat shrimps, we shared a rather good Paella, which also turned out to be good value as the price in the menu was for the dish (for 2) rather than each.
Day 70 - Saturday 17th September 2005 - on to Parque Nacional La Tigra, near Tegucigalpa
We had only vague instructions on how to get to San Juancito (for La Tigra) by bus. In fact, we had 2 conflicting sets of instructions, neither of which suggested how regular such buses might be.
So, by 7:30am we were waiting at a bus stop that one of the bus drivers who was hanging around assured us was the correct one. However, by 8am (although several hundred buses had passed by) not a single bus had started from this stop and there was certainly no sign of one to San Juancito. We checked with another bus worker, who told us to go to another bus stop about 1 km further out of town (actually the same one as for our bus to Valle de Angelles the day before).
Once there we were told that all the buses to San Juancito had already left! We didn?t really know what to do and received a lot of conflicting advice. One guy told us that in fact a bus would be passing at 8:30am and we waited hopefully on the side of the busy road until after 9am. By then we had been told of a bus leaving at 10am that, although not actually going to San Juancito, would be going within a "15 minute" walk of it. Eventually, we decided to get on this bus and wait - just as well, as by 9:15am it was full!
The bus went past both the turning for Santa Lucia and through Valle de Angeles, before continuing to wind higher into the mountains and dropping us (and our full backpacks!) off at a junction high above a small village. A sign at the junction told us it was 4 km to El Rosario (a tiny village where the entrance to La Tigra was), but the LP had warned us of 4 km steep uphill from San Juancito, so we were not sure how far lay ahead of us.
It was actually a pleasant walk down into San Juancito and as we didn?t see anyone there who looked like we could catch a lift with up to El Rosario, we set off up the hillside. Shortly after starting the uphill hike, we were joined by Leanna (from Switzerland), who had caught the same bus from Teguc as us. After a hundred metres or so, we were pleased to see another "La Tigra" sign, showing 2 km to go and we got our hopes up.
We chatted and kept our spirits up for a while, but unfortunately, the road was possibly even steeper than we had been led to believe and the midday sun was beating down on us. So we were soon both struggling, but at least Ian?s bag was getting lighter as we drank our way through our water supplies! After several lengthy stops, Leanna headed off ahead of us (she only had a small day sack with her). We had to stop for a small snack of banana and cakes to refuel. But it still wasn?t enough for Nikki, and Ian had to ferry the bags one at a time a few hundred metres further. He then tried carrying them both at the same time, but after a minute or so, that was just too much weight! Eventually we reached the village of El Rosario, and with renewed enthusiasm we kept climbing the track looking for the park entrance and our eco-auberge accommodation. The signs for the visitors?centre at the park entrance kept on taking us further and further uphill and eventually Nikki gave up and Ian had to ferry the bags the last few hundred metres.
We don?t know whether it was because we were late, or because we had made a reservation the day bfore, but our room wasn?t actually in the eco-auberge, but rather a short way back down the hill in a separate house. We made the bunk beds as comfortable as possible (each taking a bottom bunk) and ended up not only with a room to ourselves, but the whole house.
Even though we were totally knackered, we thought that we should at least make an effort to see some of the park, so we took a short walk up to a viewpoint, from where all the other trails started. We were glad we did as it wasn?t as straightforward a route as we expected and it would have been very frustrating to have been taking wrong turns following an early start the next morning. In any case, when we got there the view was certainly good, we could even see the route we had walked from the bus!
We had a very unsatisfying dinner at the visitors? centre and although there were lots of people around (apparently a 2-day 50 km race from Teguc had just ended here!), we were too tired and so just headed for an early night.
Day 71 - Sunday 18th September 2005 - Parque Nacional La Tigra, near Tegucigalpa
We tried to make an early start so as to have the best chance of seeing some wildlife, but even starting walking at 6:45am wasn?t early enough! Our route took us across the park to the main visitors?centre at Jutiapa, walking high up in the cloud forest. We were certainly in the clouds and we certainly saw lots of forest, but although we heard lots of birds calling we didn?t see many (only a few few small ones) or any animals. The trails were easy to follow though, and the walks very enjoyable nevertheless. At one point, we even saw some some locals mountain biking the main trail in the opposite direction to our route.
At Jutiapa, there was some confusion over whether we had paid our entrance fee, but we managed to explain that we had walked from the El Rosario centre, and so were allowed to continue. We re-fuelled there on some unhealthy snacks before returning by a series of different trails.
Our return journey took us via a waterfall and eventually we made it back to El Rosario about 9 hours after leaving. Given the difficulty in getting to La Tigra, we had long since decided to spend 2 nights there rather than the originally planned 1, so we rested. There were no other guests around (the park seems to be a weekend destination for Hondurans) and we were pleased to be able to use the hot showers in the eco-auberge.
As we were the only guests, no food was available and (having eaten nothing other than cereal bars, biscuits, fudge, crisps, sweets and other such healthy food all day) we were delighted to find we could get dinner at a house just down the track. In fact the whole El Rosario community appeeared to be there for the evening. The food was immeasurably better than the previous evening and at only half the price (25 Lempiras - $1.30 each). We had an even earlier night, with the intention of making an even earlier start in the morning...
Day 72 - Monday 19th September 2005 - back to Teguc
...So a 5:20am alarm call enabled us to be back at the viewpoint by 6am. We retraced our route along of the previous day, before turning onto a different trail. This trail seemed far less well-maintained, being blocked in a couple of places by some very large fallen trees. We managed to negotiate these with some difficulty.
We had planned to take this trail to a place the trail guide described as a scenic snack spot, but we realised we didn't really have enough time as we had no idea how long it might take us to get back to Teguc. So we went as far as a small waterfall (which descended straight into a mine shaft). Before we headed back, we stopped for a calorie-loaded and vitamin-free breakfast of cookies and cheesy rings (a sort of dry pastry / bread)!
So far, we had only heard a few birds and seen almost none, but as we approached the visitors? centre again we actually saw some larger and more colourful (but still un-named!) birds closer at hand. Back at the centre we paid up and were told that a bus might pass the same junction we had been dropped off at at about 1:30pm. Since by the time we had packed up it was about 10:30am, this seemed to be good timing. We made good progress down the steep "road" towards San Juancito, nearly reaching the village in about an hour. But before we got to the village, we were delighted that a bright red pick-up stopped and picked us up :-). We didn't know how far our lift might take us, but we whizzed through San Juancito, up the hill out and passed the junction we had expecetd to wait for a bus and almost all the way to Valle de Angeles. Given we had been expecting a far longer walk, we decided to walk the last 3-4km down into Valle de Angeles for lunch.
By the time we got there Ian as pretty worried about his sore feet and so sat in the plaza resting them while Nikki went to check out the lunch options. Given how unhealthily we had been eating for a couple of days whilst we had been in La Tigra, we decided on a couple of veggie (mushroom and tomato) bowls of pasta at Caf? El Anafre.
Once full and a little rested, we caught a bus back to Teguc, bought some water and milkshakes and headed back to Hotel Iberia again. We were immediately recognised by the guy on reception and, even without asking, were given the key to the same room again.
We had a much needed shower and collapsed pretty much until dinner. Even then, all we had the energy to do was pop around the corner to La Terraza de Don Pepe. The rather bizarre feature of this restaurant (other than it actually had a decent number of customers and some annoyingly loud music) was that the men?s room had been converted into a shrine! Apparently, a statue of the Virgin Mary (which had been credited with a number of miracles), had been stolen from a local church and turned up here in the men?s toilet in 1986. This was all documented in detail in framed newspaper cuttings in the shrine. You will be pleased to hear that the men?s toilet is now elsewhere!...
Day 73 - Tuesday 20th September 2005 - Teguc
We had decided to stay in Teguc for another day to do a whole load of chores. We stopped in a chemist to find out that Larium was not available in Honduras and probably not in any of Central America (oh dear, we only had 6 weeks' supply left), dropped off some laundry and, as we were still too early for our breakfast choice to open, Ian decided to pop into a tiny barbers (Barberia Hernandez) to get a hair cut for the bargain price of 30 Lempiras (about $1.60, - including a 20% tip!)
After another good breakfast at Caf? La Plazuela (including watching news on Hurrican Rita on TV - "R" already, it was "K" only a few weeks ago! - which entertained Nikki). We spent the rest of the morning on the internet, writing diairy entries and labelling some of our many diving photos. But we coudn't get Hotmail to work!
After a quick bakery lunch, we visited a rather rundown parque which was filled with reproductions of Mayan stelae and carvings from Copan. After more internet and a visit to the post office to get postcard stamps, we headed home to get ready for our big night out.
It was Tuesday after all, so we took a taxi to Ruby Tuesday - an American style sports bar & restaurant, which was a big change of scene for us. We enjoyed cheap cocktails (particularly nice were the "Ruby Mudslides", filled with chocolate, cream and Baileys flavours!) and expensive (but huge) plates of fajitas and battered shrimp. Fortunately, we didn't have to stand for long in the torrential rain to get a taxi back to the hotel.!...
Day 74 - Wednesday 21st September 2005 - on to Nicaragua
We decided to start the day walking up to Parque de le Paz for a view over the city. As one of the paths shown on the map no longer existed, it took longer than expected - about an hour each way - but we got a good view of Teguc, over the National Stadium.
We had an excellent and cheap breakfast back at La Terraza de Don Pepe, failed in two more internet cafes to access Hotmail before packing up and heading out of town.
A taxi took us to the bus terminal for buses south to the border, where we waited about an hour. Even then, we were less than certain that the bus would actually get us to the border early enough to cross / catch a bus on the other side. The bus really struggled up the hills out of Teguc, spewing dark clouds of fumes behind us. A couple of times the engine cover was opened for inspection, allowing loads of the fumes into the bus. However, it did make it all the way to the border, by which time we were almost the only passengers.
Once we had found immigration, it was a fairly smooth border crossing - we seemed to be the only people crossing.
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