Nature At It's Best...

Sara and I had this past Monday and Tuesday off for Independence Day and Teacher's Day. Our plan this weekend was to take a trip where we could relax, take in all the amazingly preserved nature around us, and enjoy good freshly brewed beer at a D&D Bed and Breakfast and Brewery. After the parade on Friday, we were able to catch a bus to San Pedro Sula which is where we arrived just in time to catch the very last bus headed to Lago de Yojoa. Lago de Yojoa is Honduras' largest natural lake, it' s on the western side of the country, about a 6 hour bus ride from Tela. Near the lake are two huge national parks and Pulhapanzak Falls, and a number of different caves. Needless to say, we had a fully booked four days ahead of us! ....As a preface, this weekend was seriously filled with the most amazing things I've ever done or seen in my entire life. I'll try my best to save all of you from complete boredom, and I apologize for how lengthy this is, if you can believe it, I'm still leaving a ton of things out! There really is no way for me convey to you what an amazing trip this was, all the pictures in the world, and me babbling about it, could never in a million years do it any justice. The only way you could really know how great it was, would be to come and visit, so you can see it for yourself!:) So here is my best attempt:

Friday:

We arrived at the D&D late at night after a long and scary bus ride. It was scary because during the last hour or so, Sara and I couldn't see out the windows of the bus. The entire area around the lake didn't have any street lights, and we were winding up a very narrow mountain road. On top of that, Honduras doesn't believe in street names, or street signs, so our directions to the hotel basically said to take a left after the soccer field in a town called Los Naranjos. I anxiously looked out the window into a massive sea of black in panic that we might miss our stop and end up being dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we made it there safely, and we were welcomed by Robert, the American owner of D&D, warm food, and his freshly brewed beer. The D&D had the most perfect and relaxing atmosphere, all of the small cabins and grounds are nicely placed within the lush, green surroundings, instead of it feeling like it was a huge hotel just picked up and dropped off in the middle of the forest. This is a picture of the small pool, main office/kitchen, and outdoor eating area. They had some amazing food here too, like blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, chocolate cake, and yummy grilled fish, beef kabobs, and hamburgers! Sara and I had a private room in a small cabin. The entire cabin had four rooms, all attached by a communal living area in the center. Friday night we met the eight other people who were staying in the same cabin as us. They all arrived together, all around our age, and most were also volunteers from the US, except one from Australia (Carly), and another from New Zealand (Tamsyn). Luckily they were planning to visit the Pulhapanzak Falls as well and Sara and I were able to join their group, hence getting a cheaper price for the tour, as well as enjoying the company of new friends! Carly is the girl closest to me, and Tamsyn is the girl next to her. I'm forever thankful to both of them, you'll see why soon...

Saturday:

The Pulhapanzak Waterfall (the first picture on the top of this blog) was by far one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. There was a hiking tour that you could pay extra to take, that leads you behind the waterfall. Although I was EXTREMELY hesitant to join in the hike because of my major fear of heights, I sucked it up and told myself to give it a try, if it got too scary I could always turn back. Carly and Tamsyn, both more experienced at hiking and rock climbing, assured me that they'd help me, keeping me in between them, so that if anything went wrong they'd be close by. So reluctantly, I followed the entire group and the guide slowly up a very slippery rock pathway leading up to the side of the huge 43 meter waterfall. We climbed along the side until we reached a small pool with smaller waterfalls. This is where I saw other people jumping off extremely high boulders into the pool. I immediately thought to myself I wasn't even going near the edge of the boulders, as I felt my knees begin to tremble. Tamsyn assured me that I could just go around the other way to avoid jumping. However, after I watched everyone else do it twice, and some three times, and I could see me hating myself later for not at least giving it a try. I slowly walked up to the edge, and looked down at the water and all the rocks at the bottom. That made me even more scared that I could land on those rocks instead of the water, but I tried to ignore that part as I felt my heart racing faster. Carly said she would go ahead of me so I could see her go first. Everyone was down at the bottom, cheering and calling for me to jump, as Tamsyn waited behind me, trying to talk me into taking the leap fast before I gave it too much thought and chickened out of it. Before I knew it, I was flying through the air, my stomach flying up into my throat, falling for what seemed like forever, until I hit the water, and I had done it!!!! One step closer to getting over my fear of heights!!! But I only jumped once, once was enough for me, I didn't want to push my luck too much! On the hike, the guide also took us behind parts of the larger waterfall, where we got to climb into small caves! The park also had large swimming holes at the top of the waterfall where you could wade around and swim. The picture on the left shows all the gorgeous green forest surrounding the waterfall, and one of the pathways leading up to it. You can watch a very short video on the waterfalls by clicking on this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4wVpKvscAQ



Sunday:

Sara and I headed out bright and early for a hike in the Cerro Azul Meambar National Park. The path we wanted to take took an estimated 4 1/2 to 5 hours to hike, but for us, it took 6 hours, most of which was uphill! All I kept thinking the entire time was that my family and friends would never believe that I'd do this, but surprisingly I did, and I made it out alive! The hike, though very difficult, was well worth it. The views of the massive green forest and the lake below were breathtaking, and there were also two beautiful waterfalls, and many cute (and scary) bridges to cross.

Sara and I came up on some "bumps in the path" during our hike. Hurricane Felix had left it's mark on the hiking trail, and along the way we had to literally climb up and through many fallen trees and debris, some of which had actually fallen on the bridges(the picture below), and others that were dangling off the edge of the trail, which basically meant if we slipped off the trees, we'd fall straight down many feet. After the 6 hour hike through the forest Sara and I were faced with the problem of how to get back down the mountain from where the park was located. (the town at the bottom of the mountain was where the bus stop was). This trip was about 7km (about 5 miles) one way. One our way up to the park we were lucky enough to hitch a ride from a nice man and his family that took pity on us after we told him we didn't have much money, and the we were teachers volunteering in Tela. He even took us by his store where he offered us free sodas. Our way back down however, was a totally different story. The people from the park wanted us to pay $8 US for a ride back down, and that was way out of our budget, so Sara and I decided to start walking down the hill, thinking we would be able to find another ride along the way. I know what you my all think, $8 is nothing at all, but when you make only $200 a month, that means you only have about $5/$6 a day. Unfortunately, we didn't think about the time, and it was going to get dark soon, so within about an hour, it started to get dark and of course it started raining, and it was on a dirt road! So our 6 hour hike we had began earlier, was now extended to continue on for another 3 hours! Luckily, everyone that we had meet in the towns around the lake were some of the nicest people I've ever met. After walking about halfway down the mountain (another 2 1/2 miles), we eventually came across a man and his two kids, who brought us to a friend's house who owned a taxi service. His friend was able to give a ride directly back to our hotel, and just in time because that's when it really started to pour!

Monday:

Sara I sent out to explore one of the caves in the area, we were so exhausted from our hike yesterday, that we chose to pass on exploring the larger caves. Those would have been amazing, but also would have involved another 4 hour or so hike. So we decided to go the "Cuevas de Taulabe" which was a much more manageable 30 minute hike.

The cave was said to

have stalagmites and stalactites shaped like Buddah and Jesus. I did see what looked like Jesus' face, but there was no Buddah to be found. After we headed back to our hotel, we decided to walk to a nearby botanical garden. It turned out to be even more beautiful than we imagined, there was a gorgeous river surrounded by a large green park and many amazingly lush plants.

Tuesday:

On our last day, we decided to take a boat ride on the lake, called "Lago de Yojoa." Robert, the owner of the place we were staying, set us up with a small boat, and even had one of his employees row the boat for us, which was perfect because I was already surprised that I had survived all the hiking, I didn't want to push my luck, and attempt rowing through the gigantic lake. It turned out to be an even better idea than we thought after we realized we had to help scoop out the water that continuously collected on the bottom the boat (there's a picture of Sara scooping out the water using the bottom of a plastic liter bottle). So, doing this on our own, while rowing at the same time would have been a recipe for disaster! The lake was so peaceful and so relaxing! The picture above is of a house along the lake. The family that lives there is isolated from the rest of the world. In order to get anywhere, they have to row a boat across the lake to get to the nearby towns, there are no roads that lead to the house.

So... for those of you that are thinking of coming to visit while I'm here, we were able to do EVERYTHING this weekend, all the food, buses, tours, and hotel for a just about $100 each! It's pretty cheap to travel in Central America...*wink, wink*