As we approach the border of Nicaragua, driving up and down the last rolling hills of Honduras, winding around those curvy roads, full from our ‘Corte de filet’ and that giant ‘La Torena’ hamburger (more about that later), we reflect on our time here in the land of the hills.
Unfortunately, it has not been long enough, seven days to be precise. But we have camped out in six different places, visited ruins from over a thousand years ago, experienced the country’s health care system firsthand, tried out some local IPA beer, dealt with some serious flooding, stood next to a giant Jesus, and witnessed yet more of Central America’s generosity.
With a little hiccup at the border, well, I guess no news that end, we made it into the country. We were travelling with @Hourlesslife, driving convoy with our Walkie-Talkies in hand and heading to the ‘Balneario Los Cipreces’ for our first night. We stopped in Lucerne (yes there are many places named after hotspots around the world) to replenish our provisions and stumbled across a fine piece of Honduras pork loin (8lbs in fact) which after a splash in the swimming pools, later slapped onto the grill. It was a quiet first night and the family who ran the place were very friendly.
With little time left on our visas for Central America, we charged on, making sure we hit the Ruinas de Copán next. These were to be our last Mayan ruins of the trip. And having seen the great pyramids of Teotihuacan, the unique stelaes of Quirigua and the towering temples of Tikal (to name a few), we were not sure these Copán ruins would compare. But it was as if everything we had learned whilst on this Mayan pilgrimage had been combined for one big last finale. The carvings were more intricate, faded colours of some of the paintings still remained and what really was the cherry on the top for us was seeing mounds of rubble still in the process of excavation; real archeologists at work in their tunnels.
There were no toucans to be found here but rather lots of Macaws dotted around sporting their rich vibrant colours. These birds are in fact Honduras’ national bird and just up the road lies a Macaw rescue centre. Unfortunately, we couldn’t follow through with our plan to visit, as Richie had taken a turn for the worse and was in need of some medical attention. It appears that he may have eaten a few dodgy lettuce leaves on our last night in El Salvador. A parasite was developing and he needed some urgent treatment. Three hours later after a hot and sticky wait in the ‘Centro de Salud’ (luckily for Zoe and I, there was a fun library next door), he was given one tablet for the parasite and some antibiotics free of charge.
We were finished by midday and figured we’d still have time to get to our next destination, San Pedro Sula, before dark. Well, that’s always a risk across Latin America because about 30 minutes in, we hit a protest. We’re not sure what the protest was all about, but it definitely added two more hours onto our journey and unfortunately, prevented us from avoiding the heavy rainfall that had begun. GoogleMaps was informing us of flooding across the country, and although, we did not come across anything major on the road, we did stumble upon a little flooding of our own- inside our camper. It had been almost a year since we experienced the rainy season, that was back in Mexico. Like here, there was a downpour each day, but we had somehow always managed to keep dry. Well, perhaps our windows and walls were getting a little older, because when we stepped into our camper after our five-hour drive, we stepped into a few puddles. The bedding was wet, water was dripping from the ceiling and our gray tank was getting fuller due to the raindrops seeping in from above our kitchen sink.
Luckily ‘Angelis Gardens’, our chosen campsite for San Pedro, had its own brewery, where we could wash away the challenges of the day with a very good wheat beer- oh and an Angus burger!
The following morning brought the sunshine with it, and we were able to dry all our sheets before driving south again. We were on our way to Lago de Yojoa. Not finding anything affordable in terms of accommodation on the lake, we chose to camp in the nearby national park of Cerro Azul Meambar. Although the park has lots to offer in terms of trails and nature, we were happy to have space (and internet) to chill out, update our website, and repair those damaged seals. Richie made good use of the silicone gun and managed to resolve most of our rainy day problems.
We were good to go again and made our way to Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, breaking our journey at another water park on the way; Parque Aurora.
After comparing notes with a French family heading north, we made a beeline to the Farmacia del Ahorra, in order to get our PCR tests done. Nicaragua is a tough country to get into, and whether you’re vaccinated or not they want those Covid tests in, via email, within 36 hours of entry. We diligently got to it and had five hours time to kill. So up to El Picacho it was, where a similar-looking statue to that in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was standing overlooking the city. It was a huge monument of Jesus and in addition to being able to play hide and seek in between Christ’s legs, there was much to do including botanical gardens, zip lines, playgrounds, cafes and a zoo. Time well spent before our descent back into the capital for some mariscos and the collection of our Covid results.
All clear- we drove out of town to Valle de Angelis, staying at nearby ‘Parque Touristico’. This place was huge, set just outside ‘La Tigre National Park’ with plenty of picnic tables, cabañas and play areas. We couldn’t find anyone to pay our fee, so decided to park up next to Moritz and Becke, a German couple who had also just arrived. There was a little time left for a beer and a play at the playground before the heavy rain set in- another cozy evening for us, spent watching Frozen, and dealing with the raindrops coming through our kitchen window. It’s amazing how creative one gets when having to problem solve.
We said goodbye to our German friends the following morning and had just one pre-border task ahead of us, to find internet, so we could forward our Covid results.
We exited Parque Touristico with some very friendly waves from the staff- turns out, we didn’t have to pay for our night’s camping after all, and found ourselves a real Honduras jewel: ‘Las Tablas’ steakhouse.
Being a little snobbish when it comes to steakhouses, after all, Richie is the master at grilling himself, we were just going to this restaurant for a coffee and to use the wifi.
Well, not so fast! Once the chefs and manager had spotted our ‘Meataroundtheworld’ sticker on our camper, there was no “just a coffee” today. They wanted to spoil us rotten- and boy did they succeed!
We’d ordered a ‘Corte de filet’ to share, which, dear readers was simply phenomenal! Grilled to a perfect medium-rare (and with the help of a leaf blower too), the three of us just devoured the plate in minutes. Then came a beast- “on the house” she said, a huge 1lb patti hamburger with a free cocktail “It’s got coffee liqueur in- you did order coffee right!” We were treated like royalty! This quick stop ended up being a four-hour feast, and we enjoyed meeting the manager’s family too. It was a happy occasion and one which definitely left a lasting impression on us.
Thank you ‘Las Tablas’, Honduras and dear friends for reading!
‘Meat’ you around the world!
