Trip report

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spoelle
spoelle

I just returned from a 4 week trip through Honduras and here is my briefly trip report:

San Pedro Sula :
- Hotel San José; A6aSO/C5a,6aSO: near central plaza, safe, clean, private room/bathroom, 9$
- Pizza Italia; C1a/A7a NO: very good pizza, big pizza + 3 beer for 160 Lempira

Near Lake Yojoa:
- Hotel D&D (http://www.dd-brewery.com/); you are not allowed to bring food into the hotel, food and drinks in the hotel are rather expensive for Honduras standards; the self brewed beer isn't that good at all (I'm from Belgium, THE beer country); overbooking -> I had a confirmed (e-mail) reservation for 3 nights but I had to leave after 2 nights because a big group was coming in; a little tourist trap especially for backpackers; owner is friendly but he does not control his staff to well I think.

  • National Park Meámbar: this I recommend to every nature lover; very good trails, spectacular views; very good infrastructure; very friendly staff; private cabañas; I slept in the clean dorm room for 5 $.

Comayagua:
- nice village to spend 1 or 2 days; try to get into the cathedral to see the nice little "3D" paintings (Calvary)
- Hotel Halston; C3aNO/A2aNO: near central plaza, safe, clean, private room/bathroom, 250 Lempira
- Haneman's Bar & Grill; C3aNO/Boulevard: searched for it but it seems to be closed
- Restaurant Cactus: very good, big portions, a little bit more expensive; 200 Lempira for steak, vegetables, tortillas, beer

Tegucigalpa - Barrio Comayagüela
- if you have to change busses in Comayagüela !! take a cab even if you only have to walk for 500 meters
- if you have to stay there for the night !! don't go out in the dark on your own, do it in group

Juticalpa
- Hotel El Paso on the main road from the bus terminal to the central park: rooms are ok, private room/bathroom, 182 Lempira
- not a nice city, don't stay there if you don't have a good reason; better to stay for the night at Catacamas
- on Sunday the most restaurants, shops, internet cafes are closed; really desolate city on Sundays
- National Park El boquerón: no good trails, no accomodation, I got lost

Road from Juticalpa to Trujillo
- very nice, scenic, dusty if dry weather trip
- you will pass the Pech village El Carbon where you can sleep in the house of a family. Guides can go with you to a waterfall in the jungle. Be prepared as houses are very basic (bathroom is in the garden) and there is only a small store to buy some (warm) drinks and basic food.

Trujillo
- Hotel Cocopando; Barrio Cristales: safe, clean, private room/bathroom, in the Garifuna neighborhood, can get loudly at week-ends, 150 Lempira
- Rogue's Gallery restaurant: very good hamburger, spaghetti, cold beers, on the beach; 150 Lempira for a hamburger + 3 beers
- Fortress in the centre: tourist trap; 3 $ for...? nothing
- Lavandería Colón near hotel Mar Y Plata: still exists but you have to ring a few times at the doorbell; 1 load for 60 Lempira
- nice beaches, everything is very tranquillo
- if you have to get money from the bank, be prepared to wait in line for more than one hour

Utila
- Dive course at Alton's Dive Center (http://www.altonsdiveshop.com/): the best! safe, very friendly, very flexible, nice setting, free food at one evening, nice dock, free dorm room for divers, small classes, study books in all kind of languages. I highly recommend this dive center. I did the PADI Open Water (3 students) and the NAUI Advanced (2 students).
- RJ's BBQ: big portions (steak, chicken or fish); right across Alton's dive center; 180 Lempira for a big steak, vegetables, bread, 2 beers
- Bundu restaurant: on one evening they served me a very good spaghetti but on another evening it was really rotten !
- La Picolla (Kate's Italian): good but thats it
- Bush's shop: best on the island
- everything is a little more expensive on the island than on the mainland: 1 beer = 25 Lempira; 1 hour internet = 50 Lempira; bag with mango on the street = 20 Lempira
- Ferry from La Ceiba to Utila: 320 Lempira; from Utila to La Ceiba: 375 Lempira. When the weather is bad (windy) the ferry doesn't go out and this can be for several days.

Near La Ceiba
- Jungle river lodge (http://www.jungleriverlodge.com/) : a REAL TOURIST TRAP !; although the setting is very nice near the national park Pico Bonito and next to the river Cangrejal but everything is overpriced: 1 beer = 2$; dinner (a little bit of vegetables, a small piece of porc meat and tortillas) = 7$; Rafting class 3-4 -> 2 hours and NOT 4 to 5 hours as they mention on their website = 35$. And above these prices at the end you have to pay 16% tax. We went there to stay 3 nights but stayed only one.

  • If you want to hike in the park Pico Bonito, you can go there easily by yourself. Just walk for about 10 minutes on the main road and there you'll find the entrance; the trails are not that easy but the waterfall is so nice (it's the big one you can see from the road). Take care at the waterfall because it is very slippery; I fell down and I lost my camera. Entrance is only a few dollar so don't pay the 30$ + tax at the Jungle River Lodge for the hiking tour!
  • If you walk 15 minutes more you enter a small village (Los Naranjas) and at the end (left side) is a bar with cheap beer (15 Lempira); the owner is called Roberto (ask him about his friend Lucas from Belgica)
  • the Jungle Lodge also owns a hotel in La Ceiba, the "Banana Republic Guesthouse" of which I heared also a lot of complains (dirty, bad smell)
  • they also mention on their website that transport between the 2 hotels is free. NOT true; from Banana to Jungle Lodge = free but you have to pay the cab for the return journey
  • and one last thing: from the backback which was behind the bar during the rafting, a Visa card was stolen; only staff had entrance behind the bar...

Tela
- Hotel Tela: is in a reconstruction stage for quite a long time more I think; probably prices will go up a lot when they reopen
- Hotel Posada del Sol: very safe, clean, private room/bathroom around a little garden, 200 Lempira; the owner likes to sing at 6 in the morning...
- Food at Luces Del Norte is very good value: highly recommended; hamburger, french fries and 2 beer for 123 Lempira
- Pizza is very good at Pizza Bambino near the bridge and calle 11: on Tuesdays it's 2 for the price of one !
- you can hire a good bike at the Mango Inn hotel for 95 Lempira/day
- I drove all the way to Miami which is very nice but hot; take enough water; In Miami you can go by boat on the laguna, eat some fish, buy cool drinks for the road back to Tela
- Lancetilla Botanical Gardens is very nice for bird watchers; for me it was not rough enough

San Pedro Sula
- the last night I spend in the Metrotel Express: very extravagant for a backbacker like me but I had to be on the airport at 5 AM the next morning so this was a safe option; very nice rooms with airco, tv; there is a pool and a nice garden, to luxurious for me... but the staff was very friendly even for a dusty backpacker with long hair ;-)
- Even at 4 AM I could eat free (included) breakfast
- if you walk a few minutes along the busy street (direction San Pedro, on your left) you can eat and drink for cheap

If somebody has some questions please ask them because I like to help other travellers as they also helped me with the preparation of my trips.

Luc Spoelders, Belgium

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hopefulist
hopefulist

Very interesting and helpful - thanks for taking the time to share!

My photos w/ blog & travelogue links on the main page of each collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections
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russtyg
russtyg

I agree, very helpful indeed. Could you please elaborate on directions to get into Pico Bonito? We are interested in seeing the waterfalls and if we can avoid paying for a guide then that would be a bonus. Or is it safer with a guide? Will we know which waterfalls we can swim in?

Thanks very much for your report.

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hopefulist
hopefulist

The hike I took into Pico Bonito with a guide named Darwin from the Central American Spanish School was fabulous; Omega offers a hike to the same location with a different local guide. I'm an avid hiker (check out the incredible waterfalls in my beloved Columbia River Gorge sometime:) but the hike we did to the El Bejuco waterfall wouldn't have been safe or nearly as interesting without the guide. He caught snakes and a large iguana for us to see, spotted toucans, motmots, and blue morpho butterfly larva we would have missed, treated us to the taste of a certain kind of termite (they tasted exactly like carrots!), talked us into swinging just like tarzan on jungle vines and spotted a large, deadly fer de lance snake near the base of the falls. The trail was not obvious and had many branches and we took different ways in and out which added to the enjoyment but would have increased the chance of getting lost if we'd been on our own. It was also a wonderful opportunity to spend 4-5 hours of quality time with a local and, in our case, practice our Spanish (though the guide was bilingual). I think I paid $30 including the taxi cost from La Ceiba - well worth the splurge for me. Just my 2 cents' worth...

My photos w/ blog & travelogue links on the main page of each collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections
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she_travels
she_travels

I am with number 3 on this one,,,I did that very hike Hopefulist is speaking of with Omega and their local guide two years ago. I am from Colorado and hike tons.

This one to the waterfall (largest in the country) was a challenge not only cause you are climbing over trees, and hauling yourself up cliffs but because I swear there is no true path. It was great fun. We did a loop as well.

I also went rafting with them... it was grade 4-5 but a week later someone died so they may have decided that bit of river was to much for most people. It is not for the faint of heart.

I loved everything about Omega. My nights were free cause I did "tours" during the day. The food on Sat and Sun was yummy.

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mrred
mrred

It's not even necessary to get a guide to hike to the waterfall. The entrance to the park is not even a 20 minute walk from Omega, and the waterfall is about three hours from there. Several at the guests at Omega had done the hike while I was there on their own, and I would have done it myself, had we not been scheduled to leave the lodge so early.

I enjoyed my stay at Omega, but prices were higher than elsewhere. Be sure to calculate your bill on your own! I think there may be some padding going on by the owners.

And thanks for the report Luc.

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she_travels
she_travels

Mr. Red,

Is there now a bridge across the river? And the path to the waterfall is well marked?

Wow...things have changed in two years.

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rbfactor
rbfactor

We stayed at Omega in January and really enjoyed being so close to good hiking. There is an expansive new suspension bridge about 10 minutes walking downstream that crosses the river. I think we paid about $6 each to cross the bridge and have access to the trails that lead to the waterfalls. We did not have a guide and had no problem following the trail that consists of a long loop that passes by a smaller waterfall and ends at the bigger one. Just make sure that you start early enough as the round trip took us about hours and I wouldn't want to be trying to follow the trail in the dark. My wife slipped on some of the rocks and was lucky that she only scraped her hand. I can see how it would be nice to have a guide for interpretive reasons. The waterfalls are impressive and well worth the hike. Saw plenty of birds and butterflies.

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spoelle
spoelle

To RusstyG about Pico Bonito hike:
- As hopefulist said: a hike with a guide is always more interesting. I think the price for a guide was 15 Dollar. We did it on our own and we didn't got lost but at some points you'll have to look a little bit around to find the trail back. Look for the red ribbons on the trees.
- You can't swim at the waterfalls
- The trail is a loop; first you can take the longer piece and you'll arrive at the big waterfall after +/- 2 hours and from there it's another 1,5 hours to the entrance. You better be in a kind of good condition to do the hike because at some point you have to climb over fallen trees and rocks.
- As I already said in my previous post: be CAREFUL at the waterfall because it's slippery

Edited by: spoelle

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