Fun with Locals

Laura and I said goodbye to John and Matthijs at the bus station in La Ceiba. They were headed to Sambo Creek.. we were going to attempt to get to Cuero y Salado, a wildlife refuge along the coast. We knew we had to take a local (chicken) bus to La Union and then take the trencito (the old train built to transport bananas to the coast back in the banana heyday). We ended up getting on the wrong bus! Some guy directed us to it. I don't know why we got on... but we spent about 10 minutes after we got on trying to find out if the bus went to La Union or not. My Spanish is next to non-existent, Laura speaks a little, so it was a real struggle! Finally we figured out that the bus did not go to La Union so we got off and had to take another bus back to La Ceiba and then catch the right bus! After that though, everything went smoothly. We did have a moment of "Uh oh, it's Sunday, the guidebook says the visitor centre isn't open on Sunday", but then figured what the heck, we could always just crash outside until morning if we had to. As it turns out the trencito was sitting there just about ready to go when we got to La Union. Usually you have to request it... we didn't know that! However locals use it as there is no road so we lucked out. The trencito ride itself was a treat! It was a beautiful 10 km ride through stunning scenery. We also lucked out when we got to the refuge because we were greeted by a guy speaking English! He had been working at the visitor centre and was just about to leave. Before doing that he set us up in the dorm, made sure that we were going to get dinner made for us and that we had a guide to take us canoeing in the morning. After a hot and sweaty journey, Laura and I were eager to hit the beach. We ended up swimming with three local boys (two who were 13 years old, one 14 years old). They were so much fun!! We were chasing each other, throwing seaweed at each other, and finding sand dollars. Something so simple, yet one of the highlights of my trip. Afterwards they even showed us some different types of fruit we could eat. On the way back to the dorm we stopped to talk to and take some photos of a really nice, but very poor family. They were so friendly and eager to have their photos taken. The old man was really proud of some tree that he was growing and insisted on having his photo taken while standing beside it. You can visit the wildlife refuge on a day tour (for a ridiculous $80), but we didn't want to do it on a tour because we wanted to get on the water early for the best chance of seeing wildlife. Also, when you go with a tour group they use motorboats which would scare off the animals. As it turned out, when we were out there we were the only tourists and all the interaction that we had with the local people would not have been possible on a tour. And that stuff was really the best part for me. The place is quite remote and the power for our dorm was supposed to be provided by batteries, but they weren't charged up so we ended up with no power! Not so much a problem for the lights because I had my headlamp, but that meant we had no fan!! That made it very hard to sleep as it was SO hot. We got up early to get on the water by 5 am. Our guide, Rolando, spoke a few words of English. He was a total sweetheart, very talkative and funny. We saw tons of birds, some bats, iguanas, spiders, and a howler monkey. You could hear the howler monkeys all around... but it was hard to see them because they were so high up in the trees. No manatees unfortunately. But it was a beautiful paddle through the mangrove canals. After our paddle, Laura and I decided to go swimming one more time before heading back to La Ceiba. There is actually a bunch of Honduran navy guys posted in the refuge to prevent poaching. We managed to convince one of them to come swimming with us. Before we went in the water we took some photos with him. He let us hold his M16 gun for the pictures. Hilarious. He first went swimming in his camoflauge pants and T-shirt but soon stripped down to his skivvies. Nice! He was only 20 and didn't speak any English, but we still managed to do a little flirting... Laura and I took the trencito and bus back to La Ceiba and decided to go for lunch before going our separate ways. We were sitting in a beachfront restaurant when I spotted Matthijs walking down the beach. I had already said goodbye to him in La Ceiba once after the end of my Spanish classes, then suprisingly he showed up at the Jungle River Lodge and I said goodbye again, now yet again he turned up! Very bizarre! It's odd how sometimes that happens when you are travelling...

Now I am off on my own... headed down the coast to a beach town called Tela.