We have returned safely from the jungle, thankfully
not eaten by jaguars or peckish locals (although the mosquitoes had
their feast as usual).
Last time I wrote we were in the town of cowboy hats
about to visit the Copan ruins. The entire town's electricity kept
shorting out because of heavy rainfall so we spent a lot of time in
hammocks reading by candlelight (v romantic), cooking by candlelight (a
bit more dangerous) and showering by candlelight (downright impossible).
The electricity came back on in time for us to watch The Hurt Locker
projected onto someone's wall - amazing!
Honduras presented less activities than we had
anticipated, so after seeing the ruins, which were pretty impressive and
gave a clear picture as to how the Mayans lived, as well as how they
ritually sacrificed thousands of virgins and threw them down stairs.
We speedily moved on to La Ceiba in order to organise
our jungle adventure, which was the HOTTEST PLACE EVER. Unbelievable.
Sitting in the shade was sweaty and exhausting! We found a tourguide
willing to take us for the inconceivably large sum of 17,100 limpiras
(about $900 or 600 pounds) .. considering our daily budget is 30 quid at
the very most even the thought of this sum had us squirming in our
already moist flipflops.
We swallowed our British miserliness and agreed to pop
off to a cashpoint and get the cash. But we had to get it out 4,000
limpiras at a time (at a cost of about 3 quid per transaction, thanks
lloyds tsb), and then our cards both stopped working. Great. Long story
short, eventually we got all the money and then spent an hour sorting it
all out into the appropriate envelopes, which made us feel like really
organised gangsters.
Our huge expenditure covered airfare to and from the
jungle, so we boarded a teeny 19 seater at 5am and flew over some
incredible mountain ranges as the sun rose. Then we landed. Not knowing
where we were or remembering the name of our destination made our
confused conversation in Spanglish with a very large, very armed guard
much more exciting, but eventually we understood each other and he
pointed to a plastic model of a plane in the distance.. we walked over
and realised that is was actually a plane. That we had to fly in. It was
tiny, just us, the pilot, and a man who kept using his phone (European
health and safety standards obviously do not apply).
Despite my doubts that we'd even get off the ground,
we took off and were happily cruising underneath the clouds along the
coastline, until our rather hunky pilot offered Claire (riding shotgun)
the controls. Again, a near-fatal moment for me. She did remarkably
well, considering that we're both still alive, and though we had a few
bumps we reached our destination half an hour later.
Met by our guide, Susimo, and his adolescent
accomplice, we boarded a boat made from a hollowed trunk, which was to
become our place of perpetual residence for the next few dys. We crossed
a huge lake and wound our way down tiny rivers through forest and
fields for a couple of hours until we reached Belen, our first night´s
stay. We swam in the beautiful blue water on a white sand beach, watched Moskito women dance their tribal dances (discovered that our adolescent guide had remarkably scary snake hips) and slept in a wooden cabin on stilts! We were also given a tour of the town and conversed with our old man guide about how long horses are pregnant for (yes our spanish is that good).
The next day we woke at sunrise, smelling of woodsmoke from the firelit dancing, and got in our boat for 6 hours to take us into the jungle. Ragged children waved at us from the riverbank and we watched the amazing birds fly away from our scary boat.
Our next stop was las Marias, a village with no electricity or running water, where we befriended the cutest 4 year old girl and were adopted by a bunch of Honduran eco-tourism students who took us on a bird watching tour (parrots and other exciting birds that I can't remember the names of). We skinny dipped in the river at sunset -- we´re attempting to swim naked in every country that we visit -- and got bitten by mosquitoes as we listened to an egotistical Honduran student talk about himself for an hour. Egos abound everywhere!
The next day we had a big jungle tour which involved being punted up the river in another dugout canoe, walking through the jungle itself to a HUGE wooden viewpoint structure that looked as if it could collapse at any moment. Our guide stamped on an ants nest to show us the inch long army ants (terrifying, Claire lost all her alpha points by screaming when one crawled on her shoe and demanding the guide flick it away with his machete -- yes he carried a machete). After our jungle walk we swam in the river in our pants (we were not prepared, the Scounts wouldve been ashamed) and coasted through some mini-white water rapids, very exciting! On our way back they stopped to pick up three huge bushels of bananas from behind a rock and we ate them perfectly ripe and hot from the sun,
Arrived back to our cabin for a lunch of pasta, rice and yucca (three carbs, one plate, nice), then whiled away the evening in hammocks and watching Leon on Claire´s ipod (a master stroke).
Our final day was spent in Yamari, and en route we kidnapped an otter. They pointed it out, we squealed in delight, they picked it up, we squealed in indignation.
Apparently our guide´s brother has an 'animal reserve'. Hmm. We snuggled it the rest of the 3 hour trip in the boat, and I have been scratched to death. It was very cute though, nice to hold and stroke, like a particularly aggressive cat. In Yamari we kayaked and swam in the impossibly clear waters (something to do with algae), and ate yet more fish and rice. In the evening we went on a crocodile tour underneath the incredible stars.. you didn´t need torches the sky was so bright. We saw loads of little caimans and a few crocodiles, the our animal-bothering guide plucked a baby crocodile from the river and let us hold it. Claire again lost alpha points by dropping it and screaming.
Another sunrise wake up call meant that our trip was over and we had to fly back home. Luckily they didn't let Claire fly this time. Back in La Ceiba we washed our filthy otter-smelling clothes and went to bed early for our 3.30am bus to the capital, Tegucigalpa. It was a long day, but pretty easy to navigate. 5 buses, 18 hours and many latin american music videos later we arrived in Leon, Nicaragua.
Today we had a well deserved lie in then explored the town -- another beautiful old colonial city with a central park and the biggest cathedral in Latin America! Of course, no cathedral would be complete without huge plastic replicas of Jesus in immense pain.
We've had a cultural day of modern art museums and viewing national poet's houses, very civilised. At some point we will have to cave in and buy pants from one of the pavement stalls, as we have totally run out due to general forgetfulness and loss throughout the last 6 weeks. From here we plan to fly to the Corn Islands (such jet setters) for some tropical paradise.. because we haven´t had enough.. and then explore the rest of Nicaragua.
Just skyped my whole family which was hilarious, lots of jostling for camera space and childish rabbit ears behind heads!
