BootsnAll Travel Network



Takin’ A Pre-Winter Break in Honduras

It wasn’t all about whale sharks.  Winter in Alaska was just six weeks away and the summer here was wet and miserable, so we all needed some sun and fun before the darkness set in.  Utila was our first stop, and after booking with Cap’n Morgan’s Dive Centre, settled in for the night. The island is fairly inexpensive there’s lots of 20-something europeans, americans, and aussies all about.  Yep, there’s a fair bit of partying. At 6ish the next morning we boarded the Miss Cary and motored across to Jewel Cay and got our rooms at the Hotel Kayla. Nothing fancy, but more than adequate.  Well, except when the commodes didn’t flush.

We did a 10-dive program and it was fairly first-rate.  Good equipment, good boat, good crew, good guides.  My lame pictures don’t do justice to the reefs, which were in surprisingly good shape.  You’ll see better ones online.  We did see whale sharks as we were cruising between dive spots and were able to jump in the water and swim with them a little bit before they sounded.  Darn cool.  Another day we came across a pod of over 100 dolphins and were again able to put on mask and fins and play around with them for some time.  That experience is up there as one of the highlights of the trip and of my life- and I’ve done a few things over the years. The dolphins were jumpin’ and divin’ and whistlin’ and twistin’ and turnin’ all around us for about a half-hour.   We stayed at the Hotel Kayla for just under a week and really didn’t want to go – but Tom and Steph only had one more week before returning to Alaska and we all wanted to go to Copan.

jump.jpgBut the first stop after Utila, was outside of La Ceiba.  Tom and I are white water kayakers and we had hoped to boat on the Cangrejal, but the water levels were too low for that.  Instead we did some canyoneering in the river and it was kinda fun.  Some rock climbing, some rappelling, swimming, diving in from rock ledges – good times.

It took us all day to get to Copan – a couple of buses, and since the last bit of road was washed out, the back of a pick-up got us to Copan Town.  The ruins were interesting, but a day was all we needed.

Tom and Steph had a plane to catch, but Jan and I had another 10 days – enough to check out some more out-of-the-way spots.  Gracias was our first destination and we had to take 3 different buses and also ride in the back of another pick up (with 12 other folks AND get out and push it through the mud in one spot).

gracias.jpg I liked Gracias and there are trails and hot springs in the area.  Not too many people spoke English here – and that was nice.  After a couple of days relaxing here, we found our way to Lake Yojoa and the D and  D microbrewery (good food, alright beer).  We spent our last days in country drinking brews, hiking around, boating on the lake and checking out the nearby waterfall.



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