"Like all travellers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen."
Benjamin Disraeli
On November 22, 2024, Melanie, travel buddy Paul Delaney, and I crossed the Nicaraguan land border and entered the country of.....
Honduras
Although I've been to most of the Central American countries, I've never been to Honduras and I was anxious to see it. It's one of Central America's most underrated travel destinations, partly because, over the decades Honduras has been beset by conflict and rebellions, earning it a rough reputation.
Officially known as the Republic of Honduras, it has a population of just over 9 million citizens and is the second largest in size, next to Nicaragua. I found it to be a country of extremes: from the ancient city of Copan to the modern port town of La Ceiba; from the serene Lake Yojoa region to the 'Murder Capital of the World', San Pedro Sula; from the backpackers Caribbean island paradise of Utilia, to the mega-expensive resort-riddled island of Roatan. We plan on spending about three weeks exploring all of the above!
Our first destination is to Honduras's largest natural lake area.....
Lake Yojoa
A stunning lake surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and caves, Yojoa is also home to one of the country's most unusual accommodations - a craft beer brewery that doubles up as a jungle eco-lodge. I would celebrate my birthday here! Hee-haa!
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| Birthday #65. The Brewery made me cake and gave me free beer....so this is what paradise looks like! |
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| Paul getting ready to break out with his rendition of Happy Birthday or Happy Days - I'm not sure! |
The next day, after the birthday celebrations, some of us were up for a kayak paddle on the Lake...
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| To actually get to the Lake, you had to paddle down a kilometre-long man-made canal, the sites along the way were wicked....... |
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| ....such as this.... |
Within relatively easy reach of the Brewery is a network of hiking trails meandering through the rainforest. Nothing too strenuous, afterall I am 65!!! |
| Well-groomed trails crisscrossed a river several times as we hiked up the valley. |
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| The rainy season is just over (well it's 'supposed' to be "just over") and the jungle is in full bloom. |
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| Wild cacao plant and cacao bean pods: "You see Melanie, chocolate does grow on trees!" |
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| A fine spot! |
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| The trees were full of blooms, the blooms were full of humming birds! |
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| A late season tropical storm (Sara) blew through here a week ago dumping 500mm of water on the region and causing severe flooding. The rivers are only now starting to return to normal levels. |
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| We came upon the tallest bamboo thicket I've ever seen (and I've seen a fair number). |
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| Jungle Chief Tripod - the three legged man! |
With my beer budget quickly diminishing at the brewery, it was time to haul up anchor and set sail for our next destination, the UNESCO World Heritage Mayan city of.......
Copan Ruinas
One of the most important of all Maya civilizations lived, prospered, then mysteriously crumbled around the Copan archaeological ruins. The site was abandoned around 1200, following over 2,000 years of occupation. What makes Copan special is the detailed sculptures and hieroglyphs which cover the ruins, something not found at other Mayan sites.
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| The complex is quite large and will take a solid two hours to see all of it. |
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| The site is virtually void of any other tourist, which in a way, makes it all the more mysterious. |
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| Pachamama hard at work here. |
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| There are some 1,800 symbols carved into this staircase alone, making it the longest Mayan inscription in the world. True story. |
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| Melanie navigating the unusually high-riser stairs or she's doing the chicken-stomp, I'm not sure! |
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| There is a rather large population of macaws here, probably because they're fed....here's one with his pet squirrel. |
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| The first known ancestors of the Minions! |
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| Chief Beerhontas. |
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| "Who ya gonna believe, me or him?" |
We stayed in the aptly named village of Copan, with cobblestone streets that seems to pulsate to the coming and going of tuk-tuks. |
| The town square of Copan. |
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| The streets are decorated for Christmas. |
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| 'Traffic Jam' - with your host, Melanie. |
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| I got to get me one of these for the Park - the chain (in my right hand) is attached to the long board which pivots when you pull on the chain, which in turn pumps the billows, which in turn fans the fire. |
The ruins are not the only attraction in Copan, it also has a macaw restoration centre, where you can wander through acres of natural forest with the opportunity for some hands-on interaction with gigantic macaws.
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| A pet macaw can live for 65 years and often outlive their owners. This creates a problem for the inheriting family as the bird requires a fair amount of attention and, because of that, many of those birds end up here. |
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"Three little birds pitch by my doorstep
Singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true
Saying, "This is my message to you-ou-ou"
Bob Marley; Three Little Birds |
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| "You talking to me? YOU talking to me?" |
We leave the mountains behind and head for the Caribbean coastline and the port city of......
La Ceibe
Developed in the late 19th century as a banana export port, La Ceibe is one of the country's major Caribbean seaports. It is also the transit point for tourists going to the Bay Islands, hence the reason we drove for 8 hours to be here, but the 'banana port' was the reason we stayed for a few days! I had never seen a manatee before and I had read that La Ceibe was a good place to spot them, so we signed up for a tour of the La Ceibe wetlands and hopefully a sighting or two!
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| The tour operator told us we would take a car to the train station and from there we would take a 45 minute train ride to the estuary. We arrived but someone had forgot to tell the train...... |
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| ....as it turns out someone did not forget to tell the train, it was just our expectations of a train actually involved a train! |
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| Our conductor! OK, so this is a new one for me! The motorcycle driver actually pushes the 'train' with the assistance of his trusty motorcycle and his foot! |
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| Forty-five minutes barrelling along on the old banana export rail tracks....some fun! So, what is your agenda today? |
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| It would appear that our train has priority! |
This is a video. Hopefully it works on your device!
Our train arrived at the banana port on time and we are off on the adventure......
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| After jostling with the crowds we managed to score prime seats on the touring boat! |
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| And it's up river we go...... |
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| ....into the murky shallow depths of the mangrove forest. Sure, even if we saw a manatee here, the water is so turbid, it would only look like a submerged log. |
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| We did manage to see an upside-down howler monkey....... |
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| .....and a leaping turtle! |
Alas, our manatee safari was a bust, but now that we were back on dry land we went in search of the elusive beer tent....
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| I want to clarify something....the little village we were in had but one shop.....down an alleyway....patrolled by a gang of ducks. |
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| The coldest beer in the place was found, afterwards we hop on the 'train' to go back......Woo-Hoo some fun OR should I say Choo-Choo! |
With our time in La Ceibe now over, we packed our bags and headed for the ferry. Our next ten days will be spent on the Caribbean Islands known as 'the Bay Islands', starting with.....
Utila Island
We settled in for the hour long ferry ride over, which was an absolute joy for some and a nightmare for others. They nickname the ferry, the Vomit Comet, because so many people get seasick! After an hour of being tossed around, we land to a torrential downpour, on Utila Island.
One of three Bay Islands, Utila, has only one adorable town - small and wonderfully laid back. I think there are about 5 vehicles on the island - everyone gets around by scooter, tuk-tuk, golf cart or foot. The town runs one main road all along the coast and is lined with endless shops and restaurants, with every third shop a dive place....being situated on the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world makes this a Dive Mecca.
Roatan Island
The largest of the three Bay Islands, Roatan is also the most expensive and commercial of the three. I was somewhat surprised when I initially found out that many of my friends had heard of Roatan Island but not so much of Honduras. My surprise was short-lived when I also found out that Roatan is one of the normal Caribbean ports of call for cruise ships.....which may explain, in part, why the prices are so high here?
We made our way to the touristy village of West End, which should not be confused with the cruiseship-popular touristy village of West Bay, and settled in for our final five nights in Honduras. |
| Everyone is welcome in West End except Karens, they're only welcome in West Bay. |
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| Don't be fooled by the exterior, Eddy charges $8 cdn for a beer.... |
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| .....this guy charges $12 for a drink with questionable ice - good ice will cost you another $2. |
With just about everything priced out of our meagre budget range, we settled into simply exploring the town. One day we took the water taxi to West Bay - if I thought West End was expensive, I was completely shell-shocked when we went to West Bay.
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| The sites on our way to West Bay. The closer we got to West Bay the larger the all-inclusive resorts got! |
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| The water taxi deposited us right here and told us if we patronized the adjacent restaurant we could use their loungers for free. Made sense to me..... |
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| .....well it originally made sense, until the bill for the four empanadas and beers arrived. OK, I don't mean to rant about the prices, but holy f**k, is $75 for two beers and empanada's reasonable? |
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| Today there were a total of five ships and approximately 10,000 paying passengers ready for their onslaught on Roatan. That's 10% of the entire island population. |
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| Back in West End and at Beacher's Bar waiting for the Scallywags to start playing (we arrived early to get a good seat). With a name like that you know they're going to be good!! |
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| The day-trippers have all gone and the town is once again back into 'sleepy dozey' mode. |
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