Hey All!
It has been a while since my last entry, but I have a good excuse… I have been on vacation! You´re right, I was just getting back from being away… but what can I say… there is so much to see and so very little time! In all honesty, this last trip was not planned for all that long, but when a good friend said he would like to come and visit, I jumped on the chance to see him and another part of Honduras. Around the same time we began planning, another couple friends of mine began to contemplate a trip down. For a while, I thought maybe the four of us could travel together, but one look at the US Government´s travel webpage had my friends rethinking their Honduran adventure. While I completely understand, I was surprised that such an adventurous couple (with a good chunk of international travel under their belts) would so quickly change their mind based on one information source.
Since the conversation with my friends, I have become more aware of what it would be like to be a ¨tourist¨ traveling through Honduras, and found myself thinking about these very things while one vacation in the North this past week! I have definitely taken my comfort with Latin culture and Spanish language for granted during my adventures here, and so I decided to pay attention
to the types of people and experiences we came across while traveling as well as what we did and did not need Spanish for. While we had FANTASTIC luck on this trip- I´d like to think that people are just kind and everyone will have the same if not more opportunities if they are open and up for adventure!
Saturday: Picked up Reghu at the airport- paid about $25 round trip, but would have probably been $40 without Spanish and a previously established contact. Found a sweet little boutique hotel called ¨Casa del Arbol¨ that is on TripAdvisor.com.
Sunday: JUST made our 8am (read 8:10am) bus ride to Copan Ruinas in a retrofitted school bus. Ironically, we shared a taxi later in the week with the owner of this wonderful bus company, Casasola, who told us (in Spanish) that the other line, Hedman Alas, has been bugging them to raise their rates but they refuse to rip off tourists! CHEQUE!
DIY mud masks in the hotsprings near Copan
We got in late morning and after a quick lunch, headed out to the hot springs. I think this may have been a bit more expensive in English, but there are all sorts of tour companies, and the trip is well worth the avg $25-40/person! The springs were amazing! I had heard the private park was a bit overly touristy, but perhaps I am morphing out of my hippy backpacker mode, because I thought it was fantastic! There were a series of approx. 25 naturally heated pools that provided different healing modalities and ways to relax: do-it-yourself mud masks, hydro back massage, steam baths, stone foot massage, etc. All of the water came from a naturally born hot spring at the top of the hill (188 F degrees!)
Monday: We slept through our English yoga class :P but had a relaxing brunch and walked to the Maya ruins, just blocks from downtown. We declined a guide, but there were very knowledgeable guides speaking at least 3 languages. I did take advantage of my Spanish skills to talk with a local tourist guard who went on to explain the integration of Maya culture into current daily practices - very cool!
Tuesday: We ended up taking the ridiculously overpriced Hedman Alas back and up to Tela, a small beach town on the Caribbean coast. I have to admit that the rest of the trip used a decent amount of Spanish – and I used my in-country cell phone quite a bit to stay in touch with off season tour guides to make the most of our short timeframe, but for the adventurous and flexible, I think similar experiences could be had!!
We had the fortune of connecting with a South Korean travel documentary team while in Copan. (Speaking in English) While we planned to meet up in the ruins and give a tourist perspective, we somehow missed one another. To our surprise, our paths crossed again the very next day, Wednesday, in Tela, when they let us join them on their private tour of the nearby National Parks!! For a few on camera interviews and couple bikini beach shots :P we ended up getting a 2x1 deal and visited two different tours, Punta Sal and Laguna de los Micos, in one day. It was amazing!
Pictures from our tour of Laguna de los Micos and Punta Sal. Below Left: Conch- yum!
Our hotel in Triunfo de la Cruz!
That afternoon, we decided to head out to one of the small Garifuna villages nearby. We took a $2, ten minute taxi ride to Triunfo de la Cruz, where we found a great little cabaña (with AC!!) on the ocean. Just when we didn´t think it could get any more perfect, our South Korean filming friends showed up! They were going to tape a native Garifuna fire dance on the beach, and we were invited! After the show, we came to find out that the (English speaking) tour guide accompanying the film crew was from the town we were staying in. The three of us had dinner and planned our very own private tour for the next day!
While that was the last we saw of the filming crew, our adventures continued Thursday, with an early morning boat ride through the Mangroves of Punta Izopo, followed by a nature walk, where we tried all sorts of different fruits and had coconut water, fresh from the tree. In the afternoon, we biked to another Garifuna town to have amazing seafood on the beach and then spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing along the ocean. Our guide invited us out to play pool and spend time with his family, but we had had a full day and had a bottle of local rum waiting for us in the room… J Oh Guiffitti! If you are ever in Triunfo de la Cruz, Cabañas de Colon was wonderful to us! Ask for tours with Carlos Colon.
Friday: Our last day was spent relaxing, walking along the beach, swimming, and hanging out in the thatched cabañas along the water´s edge. During our time on the coast, we had amazing seafood: white fish, red snapper, shrimp, crab, and conch! (Nearly all menus were written in both English and Spanish) It was hard to leave, but so wonderful to have gone.
We decided to splurge for a nice hotel a short ride from the San Pedro airport our last night. While I am usually not a big fan of the big box hotel complexes that hide behind gated walls along the highway, for uncomplicated travels, Apart Hotel Villa Nuria was the way to go. Included in our hotel was shuttle service to both the airport and bus terminal and they even packed us breakfast to go! There was a restaurant, bar, pool, and mini market onsite, making late arrivals and early departures a breeze. This backpacker is slowly being converted… (we did spend 3 nights in hostals J )
In addition to our South Korean friend, we also met another documentary crew from Colombia, and this month´s Nexos (American Airline´s inflight reading material) features Honduras as an ¨off the beaten path¨ travel destination. With so much international attention, I´m not sure how long this country will remain off the beaten path, and my suggestion is to visit now, while you can still get a $6 conch steak and a $20 cabaña on the beach! A smile and willingness to share your cerveza will get you past nearly any language barrier J
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