La Ceiba
After leaving NPH Honduras, we took one last week of “vacation” before returning home. We went to La Ceiba which is third largest city of Honduras and is on the Caribbean coast. It is close to beautiful beaches and is a good location for day trips to Pico Bonito National Park and the islands of Cayos Cochinos and Utila. We stayed in a nice beachfront hotel with a swimming pool and air conditioning which was much needed as the heat and humidity was greater on the coast than in the mountains where the ranch is located. The first few days we “decompressed” according to Allen which means that we read by the pool, swam, and walked around La Ceiba.
We booked a day trip to see Cayos Cochinos, a group of small
coral islands maintained as a Marine Protected Area in Honduras. The sparse
inhabitants live in fishing villages and are Garifuna which are mixed African
and Amerindian ancestry originating in the Caribbean. Our tour took us to several
of the islands that make up Cayos Cochinos. The Caribbean water and sand
beaches were beautiful and with no rain and a gentle breeze it was ideal. We
snorkeled, searched for (and found!) pink boa constrictors, and enjoyed a
seafood lunch at a Garifuna restaurant. The wind picked up in the afternoon and
we had quite a bumpy ride home in the Panga (fishing boat). For me, this was the
highlight of the week.
On a different day we took the morning ferry to Utila from La Ceiba which gave us a half day to explore the island before taking the afternoon ferry back. We had a long walk shopping up and down the main street, found a public beach to get in a nice swim, and ate lunch at one of the many beach restaurants. Utila is next to Roatan but has more of a hippie vibe than Roatan.
We also took the opportunity to do a little hiking at Pico
Bonito National Park. The hotel arranged a private driver to take us to the
Pico Bonito Lodge which has trails into the park. The morning hike was somewhat
challenging with a steep uphill and uneven terrain, but beautiful with vistas, big
gnarly trees, and many different colorful birds. The lodge offered an excellent
lunch after our hike.
We had arranged to fly out of Roatan, so took a ferry from La
Ceiba on Friday and rented a room in a beach condo close to the airport. The
room included access to a resort swimming pool and was close to a couple of fun
restaurants, one of which was being used as a wedding venue that night.
I wish I could say that the trip back was uneventful, but unfortunately, that was not the case. It was good that we arrived at the airport early Saturday morning as it took three hours to process ourselves to the gate. The holdup was the long line at Honduras Immigration; you must check out of Honduras to leave the country, and this includes having Honduras officials check your passport to make sure that you have not overstayed the 90-day limit as well as getting your photo and fingerprints. There were many flights Saturday afternoon and the lines were long!
Our flight was delayed as they waited for passengers on our
flight to be processed. Additionally, storms in Denver causing some of the
runways to close meant that we had to first stop in Colorado Springs to refuel
before approaching Denver (our stopover) from a different direction. This caused
us to miss our connection and we ended up sleeping at the airport for our
rescheduled early morning Sunday departure. We arrived in Seattle, but our checked
luggage did not arrive with us. Finally, we made it home, purchasing a new car
along the way. But that is a story for another time,,,
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