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