my final update

just a quick update before i head home!  i spent a quick night in la ceiba and then headed off to nueva armenia which is a small pueblo with around 2,000 people.  the pueblo is comprised entirely of garifuna people and it's not much of a tourist spot so i was hard to miss amidst the dark-skinned locals!  there was only one hotel (and according to the owner, it wasn't safe for me to stay in it by myself so i stayed at her house instead), there are no restaurants (i'm eating at the lady across the street's house)and very little in the way of facilities but the people are wonderfully warm and welcoming! 

i spent my first day swimming in the sea and relaxing on the beach with a local guy who took a liking to me and then my second day involved a trip to cayos cochinos which is a collection of small islands about 20km away from the mainland.  the islands were beautiful and peaceful but as you can imagine, they were hot and lacking in amenities :)  the islands are postcard beautiful, truly!

i watched a local soccer game (football to them) and took more photos than normal as everyone wanted their picture taken!  it was a nice spot to visit and one i will remember fondly.

i'm in san pedro in preparation for my flight home shortly. tomorrow we're heading to pulhapanza which is a 443m waterfall about 60km south of san pedro with tug and we'll do a bit of shopping for gifts before getting on the plane on sunday. 

see you soon!

hugs,

s 

carribean coast

after leaving tegucigalpa, i headed to la union for a couple of days.  la union is a small town about halfway between tegu and trujillo.  there's a national park nearby and a small waterfall/swimming hole.  tug and i met up there and explored the area.  it was nice to be in such a small town though we had problems finding places to eat since we're so far off the gringo trail!  the waterfall/swimming hole was great but sadly, we never made it to the park - too many foiled attempts to bother explaining!

we left for trujillo which is on the carribean sea.  it used to be a big tourist town but it was hit hard by hurricane mitch and hasn't regained its former glory.  the town wasn't as friendly as everywhere else in honduras that i've been - the locals seemed almost resentful that we were there but we enjoyed our visit nonetheless. we hiked along the beach to a local lake and watched the locals fishing, climbed up most of cerro calentura (we got a ride from the locals near the top!)  the cerro was supposed to provide a beautiful view of the town, the sea and the bay islands but it was a cloudy day and we couldn't see much.  we then experienced a tropical storm for the majority of our two hour hike down...  we also went to a local garifuna village. i had this huge and delicious shrimp dinner for about $15 CDN.

the garifuna people are totally different from the rest of honduras - they're descendants of the west african slaves who were transplanted to roatan back in 1797 by the british.  i have yet to see an ethnic dance but they are supposed to be amazing to witness. 

i am currently in la ceiba and am hoping to head to utila tomorrow or monday where i'll take my 4 day PADI certificate, kayak, swim and relax for about a week before returning to the mainland.  i'm looking forward to diving and seeing a totally different part of the world! 

hope you're all well!

s

a quick update

i hope that all of my canadian readers enjoyed their thanksgiving turkey - i was yearning for some all weekend!

a couple of people have asked what a cloud forest is so here goes - they are forests that are high up in the clouds which means they get very little sunlight and are generally very moist which impacts on the vegetation that grows there - mainly bromeliads and other neat looking plants.  this type of forest is different than anything i've seen in canada! 

i headed to taulabe to see some caves (just outside of siguatepeque).  they were amazing and terrifying at the same time!  they are over 12 km long (i didn't walk the entire length) with only ~400m lit with lights. i continued a bit further with just my flashlight but it was hard going with the limited light, the stale air and the slippery surface so i turned back. it was also a bit depressing walking through a tunnel of rocks with nothing moving save for the bats that would fly past so close they nearly touched you! i really don't think i'd have enjoyed walking the whole 12km on my own - it just felt so stifled and isolated walking through there! 

after the caves, i took a bus to the nation's capital - teguciagalpa.  there's about 1 million people living here and it's a nice city though not as nice as santiago.  i came to see the valle de angeles which is a nearby historical town and tourist area. i had expected something pretty and colourful (like valparaiso in chile) but i was a bit disappointed. they had heaps of tourist shops with much of the same stuff in each of them and the music reminded me of a circus. there was a parade and firecrackers and cotton candy - all up, it was an odd sort of place. 

while i was there, i was interviewed by the local news in spanish.  i wish i could watch TV tonight to see if i made it on or not...  i'm sure if i do, it'll be super embarrassing as my spanish is still quite horrible! 

i'll be heading to la union tomorrow for a few days to a national park before heading further north.  i'm dreading heading now as it seems to get hotter every time i do!

miss you,

sarah  

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greetings from siguatepeque!!

tug and i decided that we weren't too crazy about guatemala and thus we bypassed the lake and left antigua bright and early (in the dark) to head back to honduras.  we came back via a more southern border crossing to get ourselves into nueva ocotepeque (imagine a small town on the side of a highway with its only purpose, for people to stop en route to somewhere else). 

tug and i are here because of the nearby cloud forest in reserva guisayote which is the most accessible cloud forest in honduras.  we got up the following morning and took a bus 22km to the path entrance.  there we walked for 2.5 hours along a dirt road, through some cloud forests.  we weren't too excited by the hike as it wasn't particularly scenic and it didn't feel overly unique.  after the hike, we took a bus back to ocotepeque and then onto gracias. while on the bus, a woman touched my hair as she wanted to know what it felt like. i then heard her commenting about it to her companion in spanish... an odd experience :)

gracias is a cute little town nestled in between a number of mountains.  it was a gorgeous drive into the valley. we're here to visit parque celaque which is about 7km outside of gracias.  we hiked to the park, checked in and claimed bunks before hiking to see mirador del cascade which means view of the waterfall.  it was nearly constant uphill hiking and it was very rugged which we'd hoped for.  in 3 hours, we got to the top, only to find the name of the waterfall was accurate; you could see a "view" from a significant distance :(  i took a photo to show how far away it was - we were both a little disappointed as you couldn't even see the whole waterfall from where we were! 

we hiked back and sat under shelter during a tropical rainstorm and waited for dinner.  the warden's mother was supposed to cook dinner and bring it up around 5pm.  around 6pm, we were both starving and no one had arrived so we started eating our breakfast provisions - a package of cereal with fruit cocktail was on the menu - not ideal!  we were just getting into bed when someone knocked on the door.  it was the warden - we were supposed to go to his mother's house for dinner. oops!

we watched her make our entire meal over a wood stove and got to eat in their small kitchen like family.  it was definitely a cultural experience that i'll never forget!  we repeated the same process for breakfast the next morning since we'd already eaten our breakfast and then we hiked back to town.

we relaxed in gracias for the afternoon and went to bed early as i have a 5am bus to la esperanza in the morning.  i wasn't 100% sure where to catch the bus in the morning (i'd gotten multiple stories from people) so i stood on the bridge which is the way out of town i was looking to head, figuring it couldn't get by me without me seeing it...  no bus had arrived by 5:30am and some guy with a pickup truck and other passengers stopped and offered me a lift.  i climb aboard and rode, standing in the back of the cab.  it was beautiful to watch the sunrise through the clouds, with the mountains in the background.  it was also freezing cold in the open air! 

about an hour later, we found the phantom bus...  it had broken down the night before on its return trip and everyone had had to spend the night in the cold!  from la esperanza, i caught a bus to siguatepeque.  i sat next to a chatty local so i've had the opportunity to practice a bit of spanish :) 

hugs,

s

Virus-free. www.avg.com

san pedro sula to copan to antigua

tug and i arrived in san pedro de sula and headed into town in the sweltering heat!  we found a hotel and organised ourselves before wandering the streets for a bit.  we stumbled on a parade for the day of the bible which was occurring despite the rain :)  we relaxed and acclimatised after our long flight. 

on sunday we took a bus to copan which has mayan ruins within a kilometer of the city.  copan is a small town near the guatemalan border and it's a really nice place to be.  we visited the ruins on monday and went back on tuesday to check out the museum.  the ruins date as far back as 672AD and were quiet and beautiful to wander through.  they were also very different from machu picchu as the mayans carved wonderful shapes and signs in the rock. it's amazing that some of the detail is still preserved!  the museum was well worth the price as they have placed some of the more delicate pieces which can't handle the tropical rain in sheltered areas. 

we then detoured slightly from the original plan and somehow ended up in antigua which is just west of guatemala city.  it took us the whole day to get from copan to antigua with all of the buses and border crossing but it was worth it!  antigua is an old colonial city surrounded by three volcanoes.  it has a great deal of character.  today we climbed volcano pacaya which is an active volcano that last erupted in august 2000.  the climb wasn't too bad until we go near the top and then it was more or less straight up!  we climbed around 900 vertical meters today.  the views from the top were nice however i was disappointed again as i didn't get to see any lava! 

we're heading to lago atitlan tomorrow to relax for a bit and then i'm heading back to honduras and back to our scheduled itinerary.  tug's not sure if he'll do the same or not. 

hugs,

sarah

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back from roatan

tug & i went to roatan instead of utila after we had a chat with an english guy who worked on roatan.  he convinced us it was worth the couple of extra dollars a day when compared to utila so we changed plans :)  the ferry ride was rough as a storm was brewing just as we were due to leave - i'm certain a few people were queasy on the 2 hour ride!  we arrived to a barrage of taxi drivers who were keen to take us to west end but we found a bus and saved ourselves a few cents each :) 

we were going to stay at sammy's lodge, a bit out of town but fairly cheap in comparison according to lonely planet but we decided not to as the shower didn't have running water and was being used as a storage closet, the toilet had no running water and there was no sink AND the beds were horribly uncomfortable!  all this luxury was $12.50 CDN.  we decided to shift after the first night & happily, we found a place in town, with a shared bathroom, centrally located for $15 USD :)  it also had a shared kitchen so we could cook as we're both a little sick of eggs & beans! 

we checked into the new hotel and went out in search of a kayak rental place.  we came back to get changed and discovered that someone had broken in (we'd left a window open).  it was a bit unnerving to have someone riffle through our things but nothing was taken - he was looking for money or drugs, according to the locals.  supposed, he's broken into a number of homes on the island but the cops aren't arresting him for some reason.  after the incident, we made sure to lock the shutters when we were out. 

we went kayaking around the reef, checked out the beautiful beaches and relaxed.  we then registered for a PADI course so we can become certified openwater divers :)  i have been feeling a bit congested and ill be we figured we could complete the dry (and on land) parts first and then we'd get into the ocean when i'd gotten better. 

i completed all of the activities and confined water tests in about 3m but there was no way i could go down to 12m or 18m with the congestion - the pressure at even 3m would give me a headache.  i was so snotty; it was embarrassing!  we hung around roatan longer than planned, hoping it would clear but it didn't so i had to forfeit the course :( 

i'm back on the mainland and still feel congested - hopefully it passes soon!

hugs,

me