TravTri: November 2012

I have always wanted to venture into Central America to experience adventure and new cultures.

Cayman Airways launched direct flights to La Ceiba, Honduras about two years ago. This year the outbound and inbound flights to La Ceiba perfectly aligned with the Easter weekend from 6-9 April. Jana and I decided to take the opportunity to make a weekend out of it with our friends Marius and Lara.

We departed Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands at approx 8:30am on the 6th of April for the hour direct flight to La Ceiba, Honduras. Flying into Honduras ended up being a really scenic journey. I sat on the right side of the plane so I was fortunate enough to see two huge cruise ships in port at the island of Roatan (Bay Islands) which is a divers paradise.

The runway at La Ceiba airport

After landing in La Ceiba, we cleared immigration and picked up our luggage. It was the first airport in the world (that I have experienced) where we had to show our luggage tickets in order for the security officials to release our luggage after putting it through an x-ray scanner. This was a good check I thought, as I always wonder how people don't just steal one's luggage as the luggage exits the carousel while still trying to clear immigration.

After waiting around for about 30min for all the tourists staying at Casa Cangrejal we boarded our bus for the 50min journey to Casa. The bus trip was rather painful as the aircon hardly worked and only the main roads seem to be tarred in Honduras. The secondary roads are all gravel/off-road.

We finally arrived at Casa Cangrejal at about 11am. What a great bed and breakfast. If you ever get the chance to make your way to La Ceiba, Honduras feel free to check out www.casacangrejal.com

The driveway leading up to Casa Cangrejal

Karen Treherne is the host of the Casa and has a great personality that keeps all the guests entertained. The breakfasts and dinners we had at the Casa were exceptionally tasty and we all could see that the Chef "Mae" really took pride in her cooking. Mae also seemed to be exceptionally talented as she did fire shows in the evenings after supper.

After we were shown our rooms we realized that we worked up an appetite from the morning's travelling. We decided to head over to Omega Lodge which is about a 3min walk from Casa Cangrejal. Omega Lodge is the hub for all the adventure activities in the surrounding area and has more of a younger crowd feel to it. We were going to have the "Tapidos" special for lunch but it was not ready yet so we decided to go for the chicken cordon bleu. The service was rather slow and my chicken was undercooked. After our lunch experience at Omega lodge we decided to rather enjoy all our breakfasts and dinners at Casa Cangrejal as the food at the Casa was just exceptional.

We were slightly exhausted from the travelling on Friday so we decided to take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon which was rejuvenating as it was so easy to fall asleep listening to all the birds in the background.

Map of the red route hiking trail which can be done from Casa Cangrejal

After the nap we headed out for the 5km red route hike which can be done directly from Casa Cangrejal. We set off at about 4:30pm. Even though we were walking in the shaded part of the forest it was ridiculously humid. I know what 80% humidity feels like in Cayman but the humidity inside the forest must have been about 90 - 95%.

Taking a break at the "viewpoint" section of the hike

Shortly after the incredibly scenic 50min hike we got ready for supper which comprised of pork medallions with marsala wine sauce. Dinner was thoroughly enjoyed by all and was rounded off with chocolate Bailey's cheese cake which brought us to the end of Day 1 of our trip to Honduras.

Scenic view from the top of the red route hike

Day 2 was started just after 6am. I tried out the natural cold water swimming pool and went bird spotting for about 2 hours. Breakfast consisted of eggs benedict which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. After lazing around and chilling at the Casa on Saturday morning we headed over to Omega lodge for lunch and the briefing for our river rafting trip.

The whole trip was great fun. It was a perfect 4h adventure activity with just the right amount of adrenalin required to still be safe. After my scary Grade 5 river rafting experience down the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe during 1998 with my brother Eric and my Dad I am very careful as to which grade of river rafting I choose.

Getting ready to head back to the lodge after the rafting

Jana listening attentively to the safety briefing.

The rafting finished at about 4:30pm after which we headed back to Casa Cangrejal. Supper could not arrive soon enough as the river rafting made as all ravenously hungry. One of the river rafting guides cooked us succulent steaks on the grill which went down really well.

Sunday morning (Day 3) Marius and I got up just after 6am to do a run up further into the mountains which took us through some of the smaller villages where tourists don't really venture into. Except for the dust kicked up by passing cars and buses it was awesome running on the dirt road as the softer running surface was a welcome relief to the cambered tarmac roads we have to run on in Cayman. The Garmin connect file that maps out our run can be found here:

Longish run from Casa Cangregal in Honduras

On our way to doing a 15km run in Honduras

About to start our trip to Cacao Lagoon

Marius and I arrived back at Casa Cangrejal at about 7:45am. We quickly had to get ready for breakfast which consisted of bacon and mushroom omelettes with scones on the side. We were so hungry after the run that we devoured our breakfasts. 8:30am we were ready to rock and roll and departed for the 1 hour journey to Cacao Lagoon.

We did about 5km of rowing in Cacao Lagoon looking out for all kinds of wildlife. In the end we were lucky enough to spot a racoon and a number of howler monkeys. The garmin file for our kayaking rendevouz can be found here:

Kayaking in Cacao Lagoon

Jana and Lara being towed along by the guide

On the picture to the left it can be seen that we had to navigate through the mangrove trees in the lagoon.

Jana and Lara spotting howler monkeys

Howler monkey chilling high up in the tree.

It took me a while to capture the photo above of the howler monkey. I captured the picture with my Nikon D3100 using a Nikkor 55mm-300mm lens which I carried on the kayak with me. Changing lenses while on the kayak was not that much fun as I felt rather unbalanced in my kayak.

Marius can be seen on the left having to paddle with only one oar as the guide forgot to pack in all the oars for our kayaking trip.

Super dodgy cab ride to La Ceiba

After a long day in the sun and on the water we arrived back at Casa Cangregal at about 4:30pm. At this stage the ladies made it quite clear to the gents that they would like to go and do some shopping at the mall in La Ceiba which meant that we had to catch a taxi ride down to town travelling on the dodgy gravel road. Wow, what can I say. The ride to the shopping mall was one of the scariest taxi rides I have had in a very long time.