Playa de arena blanca ~ West Bay Beach, Roatan
Roatan was great! I got in pretty late on my first day because I was coming from Gracias (3 buses, 2 taxis, 1 boat) My second day was entirely spent at the beach. I took this 45 minute walk along the shore. Not all of which is sandy and beachy. Then I just sat at a beach bar and relaxed drinking Honduran beer. Why is it that whenever you are drinking beer in the beach, everything is gonna be alright? The sunset was awesome, but the way back to West End was kind of rough. It got dark pretty fast and I had to hurry. By the time I got into West End (the town where I was staying) it was peach black. I only got to stay in Roatan for one day. My t-shirt tan-line definitely went away though. Getting there was not easy or cheap and almost makes me feel like I should have stayed there longer. But I really wanted to see other places too.
Because of time, I had to change some of my plans. Bus travel itself eats away a lot of time. You may think that one day is enough to get to a town and look around, but by the time you get there it is way too late and you end up having to make your stay longer. And while town hopping is not the best way to go about it, if you want the opportunity to see enough of a whole country, you have to manage this way.
West Bay Beach, Roatan
Life is good
The hostel that Makes its own beer ~ D&D Brewery, Lago de Yojoa
After Roatan I made my way to D&D Brewery. It is a hostel/brewery near Lago de Yojoa. It has its own brewery and purifies its own water. Its is pretty cool and they also organize tours to the lake and the national parks around the area. There are some really nice people that stayed there and dorm beds are only about $6.
While there, I went to this nice archaeological park and sleep over a bird watching tour to the lake. Well I can't say that I was too exited about the guy who was taking us. He was British, but kept b%#&$ about Americans. And said something to the effect that my accent wasn't right. Anyways, I ended up going to this awesome waterfall called Pulhapanzak. There was all this cool activities you could do, but most of the people zip-lining and going under the water fall were tourist, so I kinda decided to do the more local thing and just hang around lol.
The lady that sat next to me on the way to the waterfall was also on the same bus back and again we sat in the same seat. She was the one who told me where to get off and then on the way back she told me about her experience trying to get to the US by way of Mexico. She mentioned that she tried twice with her brother, but was caught on the Mexican side in Tamaulipas and Piedras Negras, which are right next to the border. It took her almost 2 months to get there once and she told me about how the Mexican immigration was bribed and how corrupt they are. She once was caught by the same guys and then the coyote gave them a number and they just called their boss and he gave the ok to let them go so long as they gave them a bribe. If I am ever president (of the World) I am going to get read of all restrictions to travel. Free movement should be a human right. Panamericanism all the way!
Lago the Yojoa turned out to be amazingly fun. I was about to leave, when they told me there would be a group of people going to climb Mountain Santa Barbara. So I convinced myself that this would be worth staying a bit longer. The guide gave us coffee from his finca and maduros on the way up and when we came down his wife had some home made donuts and coffee again for us. And although that was amazing, the most amazing part was sighting a quetzal! I had heard that there would be a good probability of this and it was an amazing experience. It was only for a couple of minutes, but I managed to take a picture to prove it. Just this one thing would have made this trip worthwhile. I got the muddiest I have ever been. My shoes were twice as heavy from the mud on them and we all kept falling on our butt. Jimmy, one of the climbers, later mention that the hike would have been more enjoyable had he spent more time looking up rather than down.
Once we got back to the hostel, the water wasn't running so we had to shower in rain water. I just went under the gutter and stood there. The mud didn't entirely wash away though. My fellow companion where an American, an English, a Norwegian and a Dane. I had to serve as the translator because the guide only spoke Spanish. I had to translate for a lot of people at the D&D. I guess I never imagined that one day I also will be going to a country where I don't speak the language.
Pulhapanzak Waterfall
I am sure if someone had film of us asking "How high are we now?" and how many times we fell...there wouldn't be enough film
View of Lake Yojoa from Mountain Santa Barabara
This proves it... the elusive quetzal
One last stop ~ Comayagua
On my last night in Honduras, I stopped in Comayagua. (On my way out of the city I saw a sign that broke it down for me coma y agua!) It is a pretty charming city. Well at least the center area. I went out pretty late and ended up going to the church and having an awesome vegetarian meal in a restaurant next to the cathedral in the central plaza and as I sat there I felt pretty good about myself and glad that I took this trip. I like to think that this trip allows me to grow and find myself. It is silly but we all have something that inspires us and that allows us to grow and learn and be productive members of our society.
Had some awesome Vegetarian dish at this place.. chair hurt though lol
Catedral de Comayagua
I just realized that I have been to four of the top six countries with the top murder rates. In fact Honduras had the highest murder rate, which was in 2011 87 per 100,000. I found it funny that a taxi driver in Honduras tried to argue with me about the murder rate in Mexico!
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