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

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