So, Lago de Yojoa in the center of Honduras, the largest lake in the country and a natural lake! We stayed at Agua Azul 7 nights. We hitchhiked into the town Pena Blanca for food stuffs and internet, even found a brewery after the second day of looking (they had homemade root beer!). Went to some caves where we could explore on our own because we had head lamps that were running very low on battery so didn't get too far. Saw beautiful waterfalls a short bus ride outside of Pena Blanco in Buenaventura. I thought Lago de Yojoa was much more pleasent than Lake Atitlan , the lake in Guatemala most travelers rave about. Pristene, but small, cloud rainforest on the east and west sides of the lake, easy to hitchhike, and there are very few tourists. Only bad side(s); expensive, they aren't the friendliest, and they don't give reliable bus or directional information.
Onward to San Pedro Sula. To get anywhere in Honduras you need to go through San Pedro Sula. They have a huge bus terminal with a massive food court. Got a bus to Tela. Tela was pointless to go to. We thought we'd get a boat to Guatemala from a town very close by but that wasn't right. Ended up paying lots for accommodation with a broken toilet, spent 3 nights because we overstayed checkout time and decided another night was cheaper than the fee. In Tela we rented bikes; rode through the town, past several rural homes, over an old railroad, past a golf course and at least 2 km on a muddy muddy dirt road to a Botanical Garden. Its the world's second largest or best (I can't remember) botanical garden. It was quite impressive, set amongst the jungle, a clean swimmable river running through, and all the trees were mature. Huge orchards of mangosteen, upwards of 20 different palms, fruittrees. We stopped by the beach for a quick swim before the bikes had to be returned. Left the bikelock keys in the ocean! Walked back to town and told the shop, with our broken Spanish what happened. A dude with a motorbike road to the location to break the lock and Joey and I walked back so we could then ride the bikes home. In the end we were only charges $9. No biggie :)
Left Tula via San Pedro Sula into Puerto Cortez, Honduras. Fun bus ride day and good luck being the last on the bus so we got directly dropped off at a cheap, grimey hotel. Figured out how to get to Belize that night and ate Pizza Hut. Bad idea, never again. Met a local man who had lived in the states to drive us to Puerto Barrios, Honduras, where we could get a boat into Belize. Got in a small boat packed with 10 other gringos and our backpacks. Right when the rain started Joey and I got called out for not paying our Guatemala exit tax. Got a ride to the border office but then we didn't have the $10 each to leave in Guatemalan or US currency, only Limpira! And I just changed my Quetzales into Belizean! Eventually the sever returned and we payed him too much to exchange current for us. Such an annoying ordeal and lame we didn't remember to pay to leave, too many borders in 1 day. The boat ride was very wet- rained hard and we were zooming thru the ocean. We quickly jumped on the 12 o'clock bus after holding it up on front of the bank for Joey to get cash. Got off at the junction for Hopkins.
Hopkins is a great little village of more than 1000 Garifuna people. We camped at the Drumming Center. While we were walking through town with our backpacks a local guy who does construction for the center told us its a cool place to stay and we were sold. It was perfect; cheap, kitchen, and free drumming shows nearly every night. We got food in town, Dangriga, just 30 minutes on the bus and made delicious meals; fajitas for dinner, huevos motulenos for breakfast with fried plantain, and stir fry vege rice the next night. Hopkins is a taking off point for lots of the protected forests, jungle, and wildlife reserves. We just stayed 3 nights because we were eager to get to WWOOFing and stop spending money.
Now its 8:15 on Sunday night at the farm and I'm nearly ready for bed.
Spanish Creek is a for profit bamboo farm, owned by a tropical fruit farmer in Florida who sells tropical fruit all over the east coast. He doesn't live here. An American and her boyfriend live here year-round and she is the farm manager. We stay in a palapa with some other volunteers, work 4 hours a day 4-5 days per week, and cook meals together. The first work day consisted of ripping out the passionfruit plant that got taken down by the hurricane and preparing dinner for the 4 of us in the evening. Day 2, I rode a horse through the jungle with Clinton the local horse man who makes up stories and went to the river and swimming hole with Joey. On the 3rd day Joey and I cleaned up breakfast, gardened and made lunch; sauted garden bitter greens, bean burgers, and cabbage salad. In the afternoon all the volunteers continued to pour concrete to make the bamboo workshop. Friday we helped clean and landscape the environmental education office in town and I made lunch: homemade toast with farm chicken sunny side up eggs, lentils, and a habanero, tomato salsa. Saturdays and Sundays are weekends but we still do daily chores. Care for chickens, sheep, and horses, and water, weed, harvest the vege garden.
I learned how to make banana leaf tamales with a local lady and her family and brought about 40 back. The day before I went her to the banana trees on the farm and harvested 17 leaves, then made a fire with dead leaves and scorched the leaves so they become pliable. She tore them off the stem and I folded them into a bag. The tamales were so yummy, we all had them for dinner last night (there's 6 of us now). I made a thai dinner tonight with a green papaya, garbanzo bean, cold salad and lemongrass stir fry garden bitter greens and veges over rice.
My legs are getting better now but 2 days ago they had more bright red bumps on them than any other time in my life. The mosquitoes and sand flies are horrendous and unavoidable here. But when that's the only problem, life is good :)
