Honduras turned me into an early bird and an almost professional bird spotter. I saw the big hand pointing to 5 every morning of the week what with catching the 07.00am bus from Copán Ruinas, birding at 06:00am, cloud forsest hikes at 06:30am and the bus to Nicaragua at 06:30 not forgetting the loud parrot who woke me at 05:46 on Sunday. Early starts somehow suit Honduras as dawn springs into action around 05:30am and it gets dark at about 18:00 making 21:00 feel like midnight.
Copán Ruinas is a gorgeous tranquil colonial town where time stands still as do most of the Panama hat wearing inhabitants in the square. I caught a tuk-tuk to the Mayan ruins and wandered around the site virtually on my own. The Hieroglyphic Stairway being the highlight with large carvings rising out ot the stairway. How funny that 18 King Rabbit ruled from AD 695-738 and many of the exhibits feature my Royal relative. In the afternoon I headed up the hill to Macaw Mountain a rescue centre for Honduran birds. It was sad to see such beautiful birds in captivity but they do have ample enclosures. That night two Austrian girls, Sofia and Bianca whom I had previously met on the bus to Panajachel turned up. We went out for dinner and I caused much amusement by calling us by our bunk bed names. Sadly I was Ugly Betty.
I found my way early on the 07:00am local bus and then a chicken bus, via San Pedro de Sula, to Los Naranjos near a big lake called lago de Yojoa. I found D&D Microbrewery in the LP and what an oasis it turned out to be. That night I sampled the home made beer and went to bed at 21:00 having to be up at 05:00 for birding.
Malcolm my English Art Student hippy ornothologist hired Rafa to row us around Lago de Yojoa lake for about 4 hours. Half way down the canal the heavens opened and I sat in my poncho hoping the rain would stop. It didn´t put off the acquatic birds and we spotted 6 different types of heron, the Yellow Crown Tiger Heron being my favourite. I loved the nocturnal Black Bellied Whistling duck with it´s pink feet and beak - so trendy. An Osprey fishing in front of us was spectacular and the piece de resistance were the five Keel Billed Toucans spotted by myself. All in all we spotted 50 different species and we went home happy spotters. In the afternoon I caught the collectivo to Peńa Blanca and woke up the heavily pregnant lady in the hairdressers for a trim. That evening I sampled more fine beer with Thorsten a Belgian volunteer and started yawning around 20:00.
Thursday was hike up Parque Nacional Santa Bárbara cloud forest. Malcolm took 5 of us up in a Toyota pick up, with us lot sat in the open back, to a coffee village called San Luis de Planes. We hiked up paths and promptly slid down on the way back trying to spot birds way up in the canopy. The birds were less profuse but as we were standing up in the pick up heading for Peńa Blanca I spotted a Mot Mot and those who had hired bins could finally see a magnificant bird in fine view. Not long after I tapped the cab again and this time the bird turned out to be a Barred Woodcreeper that Malcolm hadn´t seen in his three years in Honduras. Shit Hot Hawk eyes as KV used to call me had done it again!
By Friday I was feeling out of sorts I think largely due to all the early rises but I had to get the chicken bus to Las Vegas in order to get a cash advance. There were two armed guards on the bus, my truseted Havaianas broke as I stepped off the bus and my 1.20 GBP new pair are the fashion understatement of the year. The town had a fairly edgy feel to it so I escaped home for a siesta to recover from my malaise. I had dinner again with Thorsten, said good bye to Malcolm and had one beer as it would have been rude not to.
The trip to Nicaragua was a mission and more than a half leaving me with a very sore coccyx. I caught a chicken bus at 06:30 from the end of the road to the Tegucigalpa. We had market wares along for the ride: loads of flowers, planks of wood, a bicycle, SQUAWK, someone also had a parrot. At the capital I caught a taxi to the border terminal. Chicken bus number 2 took me to the border where I walked aross and paid my Lempiras having to cough loudly to get the officer´s attention from his TV programme. The Nicaraguan chicken buses are still old American school buses and I had two more changes in order to get to Estelí and a taxi to my hotel. I arrived at 19:30 exhausted and barely able to move. Ironically I hadn´t had anything stolen until the taxi driver nearly drove off with my large rucksack in the back as everyone whistled for him to stop. I don´t blame them for all laughing at me. I hadn´t seen a fellow traveller all day and my bumpy 13 hours had in total cost me 8.80 GBP. Dinner was very welcome, although it hurt to sit down, at a local Chinese restaurant and so I tried a Tońa beer which did nothing apart from wet the whistle.
Honduras is a lovely country not without it´s violence but not once did I feel ill at ease or whitness any nasties. Instead I was warmly greeted with people curious as to what I was doing in their country. Equally the children still have an innocence with regards to meeting foreigners and I loved it when Malcolm lent the mountain children his bins. Without any supervision they had ordered themselves into an orderly queue to have a go - priceless. It isn´t pleasant seeing armed guards and local shops grilled to the gills but it is the unspoilt countryside and abundant nature tht makes Honduras truly magical.
A lie in was high on my Sunday agenda but the resident hotel parrot squawked me awake at 05:46 and a noisy siren went off at 05:56. I was awake! I had a wander around town and caught the bus to León. I hobbled off that bus after 3 hours and wondered whether my back would ever take another Nicaraguan road. I did see rural Nicaragua at it´s best with the usual healthy tethered animals at the roadside: cows, pigs, horses and pigs. The bus announced it´s arrival with a 30 second horn blast which made today´s parrot squawk even louder. I have grown accustomed to seeing tin shed houses with bare yards, people wearing dirty clothes sitting around doing nothing but today was the first time I have seen a barefoot girl run alongside the bus to be thrown a couple of Cordobas. Interestingly the towns seem prosperous and the architecture and quality of build better than that of their neighbours. Once in León I was back to Backpackers World: dorm rooms, couples and Americans after 5 night of my own ensuite room. Enough said. The heavens opened and I saw the biggest flash and heard the closest clap of lightning ever right above the hostel keeping me from discovering town and instead having some Victorias and a dull evening.
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