Cusuco National Park Camping Trip

Last weekend TJ and I went on a hiking trip just outside of San Pedro Sula.  We drove straight out of the city on a 4x4, and immediately started up a mountain.  It got cooler really fast.  We took a local truck for about an hour and went by a few villages.  We got out at the last stop for the truck, and then walked for another couple hours up to the next village, called Buenos Aires.  There, we at a delicious dinner before heading up into the park.

It was dark at this point, so we were hiking up to the park in pitch black.  There were no lights past the village, and the clouds made it so we couldn't even see the moon.  It took us about an hour to get to Cusuco, which actually means armadillo in spanish.   Despite its name, we didn't see any armadillos, as they are hunted extensively for food.

When we got up to the campsite we set up our tents, and put some warmer clothes on.  It was freezing! We even got to have a fire.  We all hung out a bit together, but we were pretty tired from hiking all day, so it was an early night.  It was the first time TJ and I have camped since we've moved to Honduras, and it felt so nice to be back sleeping outdoors.  We didn't see much fauna, but TJ did see a crazy green snake on the way to fill up our water bottles at a nearby creek.

The next morning we hiked backed to the village and got some fresh coffee and fritas (similar to sweet pancakes) from a local woman named Marita.  It was some of the best coffee we've ever had.   Our guides told us that Marita's family pick, clean, dry, roast and grind all the beans themselves.  It was so delicious.   It was really cool to get to see some more traditional Honduran culture and use our spanish with some people who didn't know a word of English.  We actually found that the people up in the mountain had much clearer Spanish than people in San Pedro Sula.

After another delicious breakfast in the village, we went back up into the park to hike to a waterfall called Toucan waterfall, aptly named after all the toucans in the park.  The hike was about three hours, and went all the way down a valley and then back up.  It was a challenging hike, but it was worth it.  We got to see some amazing views of the mountains, mountain coffee fields and an amazing waterfall.
When we  got to the waterfall, we went for a swim, and it was FREEZING!  The mountain river definitely cooled us all off.

After another quick hike down to the lower village and an hour or so in the truck, we arrived back in the city.  It was such a great trip, and we can't wait to go back for a longer trip next year!

Feeling the End of Year Blues

Around this time of year, I always seem to get a bit anxious for the school year to be over. Since we are trained to expect the end of the school year at the end of April in university, these last two months of teaching are always the hardest for me. Both TJ and I are definitely having trouble getting excited for work lately.

Although we only have two months left, they seem never ending right now. However, we do have several things to look forward to! This weekend we will be hiking in a nearby national park. In two weeks we have a tournament. In three weeks we are having a girls weekend in Copan, and then for my birthday weekend we are traveling with a few friends to a lake about an hour away.

After that we both get to go home for Jessica's wedding. We are both really excited for this!
But most of all, we are looking forward to going home for the summer.... 7 weeks of laying by the pool, relaxing and visiting friends and family.

Can't wait to see everyone.

Costa Rica Vacation!

On Sunday we arrived home from our first international vacation in Central America. We have travelled a lot around Honduras, but this was the first other country we have travelled to so far this year ( if you don't count airport stopovers!)

We flew from San Pedro Sula on the Saturday of our spring break (here they call it Semana Santa... Translating into Holy Week). We flew straight into Costa Rica which was great, however, TACA, also known as Take A Chance Airlines, left all of our luggage in Honduras because the plane was too heavy. Although they informed us it would be sent to our hotel that night, we didn't see our bags for three days. Luckily, our friends lent us a lot of clothes (Thanks Ash and Chris!).

After we got into San Jose, we had to take a regional flight. It was pretty shocking when we first saw our plane...called ti-box. It didn't look much bigger or sturdier than its name sake. After a tense flight for TJ with only 7 of us on board, we landed in what appeared to be a farmer's field. The cows did not seemed too alarmed.

After a typical Central American drive (fast, bump and slightly disorganized) we made it to our house rentals in Playa Santa Theresa. This area is a small surf town with lots of restaurants and shops, and we were only about 50 metres from the beach. At the house that night we met up with our friends from home, Chris and Ash, and Mark and Kelsey's friends from Philadelphia. There were 17 of us in total!

At the beach we got to hang out by the pool, play in the HUGE waves, and even try surfing. TJ and Chris picked it up pretty quickly... I was slightly less coordinated.

One day, we took a shuttle to Montezuma, and hiked up to a series of awesome waterfalls. They were really beautiful and had some gun cliffs to jump off. The hike was a little treacherous, but the destination was worth it.

Another day we took a boat ride to Tortuga Island. Although we didn't actually see any turtles, which was the draw, the beach was beautiful and on the boat ride we saw a humpback whale and two dolphins!

In addition to great days at the beach and day trips, we also had some pretty awesome nights. One night we found a karaoke bar and brought the party there. Our personal favourite was a bar called Coco Loco, where we went to a full moon party. Lots of neon, dancing and tequila.

After four days in Santa Theresa, we rented two cars and started our drive across the country. We were sad to say goodbye to the beach, and to our new Phily friends, but also excited for our first driving adventure in Central America. The beginning of the drive was really dusty and bumpy, but very beautiful. After a while we hit save nice paved roads.

It took us about 6 hours to drive to Arenal Volcano. We drove around the lake, which was also really beautiful. We got to our hostel to find that it was just as great as our houses at the beach, and quite a bit cooler. At some points, I was actually wearing my sweatshirt.

We got up early the next morning to hike one of the Volcanos. We hiked up Cerre Chato in the fog and the rain. There was a crater lake at the top of the Volcano, but by the time we got up, we were too cold to go swimming. TJ did go for a quick dip though. Although there wasn't a great view from the top, it was pretty cool to get all the way up what was one of the more challenging hikes I have done. It was also our first time in the rainforest, and it was definitely rainy.

In the afternoon we went to the Balti Hotsprings. They were a little more commercialized than we had thought, and packed with families and kids on spring break. We still had a great afternoon relaxing and a good free dinner.

On our last day in La Fortuna, we had even more adventure. In the morning we went to the Venada Caves to go cave exploring. Although we didn't have high hopes for this, it was one of the coolest things we did on our trip. We walked about 600 m around the caves, which included walking, crawling, swimming, going under waterfalls, and squirming through one particularly small hole called the birth canal. My favourite part was all the adorable little bats!

If the caves weren't enough adventure, we went zip lining in the afternoon. It was some of the best I've ever done. The longest cable was almost a kilometre and over 120 metres high. We went up into the canopy, saw a waterfall and saw some traditional Costa Rican culture. It was definitely a day of adventure.

The next day we had to leave early to get to the airport in San Jose. We drove through the edge of the cloud forest, where it was so cloudy we could barely see the car in front of us. We got there and dropped the cars off. It was a bit depressing not to be able to drive anymore, it is definitely something that we miss, living here in San Pedro.

We caught our flights in the evening and were back in Honduras by 9:00. We were all sad to have it end, but it was a once in a lifetime vacation with great friends and adventures.