Honduran Highlights

Our map is finally fully up to date and a LOT of pictures have been added for your viewing pleasure.

Honduras was a bit of a whirlwind. After spending a lot of time in both rural and mountainous areas, we had a craving for the coast. We hightailed it all the way across the country - twice - but in the meantime managed to have an adventure or two. We arrived in Tela, a small beachtown hoping to kick back on some beautiful white sand carribean beaches. What we found in Tela was a hot, dirty beach with a bit of an attitude problem. So we hit the road again - albeit one beautiful sunset and a delicious pizza later - and intended to head for our real goal in Honduras: The Bay Island of Utila. But first we took a detour to La Ceiba.

While La Ceiba is, well, ugly as hell frankly, it´s incredibly close to the gorgeous National Park Pico Bonito. So we delayed our island gratification by doing 2 activities we had been wanting to do since our trip started: Whitewater rafting and ziplining.


Our rafting trip was several hours down a beautiful river surrounding by huge boulders and beautiful rainforest. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Guided by the military-like commands of our guides, we encountered rapids as big as Class 4 (Class 5 are the biggest), and had a wonderful time alternating between smooth relaxing floating and vicious paddling through rapids and hydraulics. Only one of us managed to fall out and almost kill themselves, try to guess which one! Ziplining is an activity that is really booming down here in Central America. For those of you who don´t know, it involves climbing to the top of a tall tree in the rainforest, hooking yourself onto a thin cable, and hurling yourself hundreds of feet across the forest to a platform waiting for you at a tree on the other end. While we had a great time, we admit we expected a bit more of an adrenaline rush and preferred the rafting which we hope to do again soon.

But the real highlight of Honduras was SCUBA Diving on Utila. Utila is the smallest of the 3 Bay Islands, and is home to dozens of ludicrously cheap diveshops, a few restaurants, and not much else. It´s only 4km long and only has 2 streets. It´s full of tourists but still feels incredibly low key. The water surrounding Utila is crystal clear and runs about 84 degrees farenheit almost year-round. When the weather really heats up (which it does bigtime), you take a dip and cool yourself off and stare down into 30 feet of water and can still see the bottom. When you´re not diving, you swing in your hammock and watch the sea and the sunset, occasionally stirring to eat fish pulled from the water just a few hours ago... not a bad lifestyle if you ask us! Before diving, we spent 3 glorious days doing nothing but sitting in a hammock, staring at the turquoise water, and drinking island drinks.

The barrier reef in the Carribean Sea off of the Bay Islands is considered one of the top SCUBA Diving sites in the world. After we had our fill of relaxation - it´s hard work to relax so much - we signed up for a 4 day SCUBA Diving certification course. We learned to dive and recorded 7 different dives at a maximum depth of 60 feet. While both of us are a bit out of our element in the water as opposed to when we´re in a hammock, we managed to float effortlessly among the gorgeous coral reef, encountering dolphins, eagle rays, seahorses, puffer fish, and all sorts of colorful sea creatures. We also saw some of the sea´s oddest creatures, including a Southern Stargazer, who buries himself under the sand in the ocean by vibrating his body... a hilarious and effective defense mechanism.

Rafting, ziplining, diving... not a bad week at the office.