This weekend we took our second trip into Cusuco National Park. This time, we had a long weekend, so we were able to hike further I to the park and up the mountain. Our hike was set to lead us I to the dwarf forest- a special type of forest at high altitudes in the tropics where all the tress are smaller.
We set out on Saturday to La Hamaca hostel where the guides work out of. In true Honduran fashion, we waited around for a while before we set out. We finally set out. A truck up the mountain, hitching a ride from a coffee farmer who was bringing his product down the mountain that morning. It was aboout an hour up to a village called Naranjito (I think this translates roughly to "little orange") Then we walked to the last village, Buenos Aires. It was dark by the time we got there. We stopped here for a delicious traditional meal. After dinner, in one of the oddest guiding decisions I have whitnessed, we started to hike into the nationaal park (it was 11:00PM at this point). We were all pretty tired when we arrived at our campsite at 1:00AM, but it was worth it. We were staying at an international research station, that was carved out on the jungle, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Apparently it was built to study the wildlife of the park, and was frequented a few times a year by the scientists. We camped there that night. We were originally set to go further into the park, but there were too many poisonous snakes. (Also, I think we would have mutinied).
We slept in late the next morning and had a questionably thought out breakfast of roasted onions and coffee. It was pretty good, but not much sustenance.... Luckily we all brought lots of snacks. We hiked for about three hours up into the Jungle. It was a good hike, pretty solid uphill, but not too bad. When we hit the dwarf forest, the vegetation became really dense and nearly impossible to even stick your hand away from the trail: not that you would want to... because of the snakes.
It didn't look like we were imagining it originally. We all had though it would be a bunch of tiny knee high trees on the top of a mountain. Pretty much a forest of bonsai trees. The trees were smaller, but still about a foot or two over our heads. A few of us climbed a tree to get a nice view out over the mountains.
We headed back down, and the trip was a lot shorter. We are all pretty hungry at this point as we had only eaten onions so far that day... Almost back at camp, we came across a tiny house in the middle of the national park. There was an elderly man living there, who had been forgotten about when all the other families were told they had to leave the park. It was such a picturesque cabin, covered with flowers at the edge of a stream. We bought some pataste from him which he was growing on a tree beside his house. Pataste is kind of like a legume that tastes like broccoli stems... It's actually pretty good.
We got back to camp just as it was getting dark. We relaxed for a bit and then had our second meal of onions (seriously, planning for these trips need to improve). Luckily, we also had pataste this time. We might have been a bit more irritated had we all not brought at least one box of wine, which we drank about 12 of collectively.
We had another great sleep outside, and got up early-ish the next morning. We did a hike to a waterfall, and then went back to Buenos Aires for a real breakfast. As it was the first real meal we'd eaten in two days, we were pretty psyched. It was delicious as usual.
We grabbed another truck ride down the mountain and ended our awesome adventure. All in all, it was a beautiful and amazing trip. Although I don't think that any of us will eat an onion for a while.
