I made it down to Lago de Yojoa on Friday afternoon. I’d wanted to arrive on Thursday, as I was planning on staying a night in the D&D Brewery, a microbrewery near the lake, before the others arrived, but as I’d had to stay and finish some forms for diving, I didn’t manage to leave until Friday morning. Hopefully I can make it back for another weekend before I leave!
We stayed at El Cortijo del Lago, which was great. It’s right on the lake and our room had a huge porch with hammocks, overlooking the lake. It has a good restaurant, which serves fresh fish and prawns and you can rent boats to row across the lake. Not to mention, hot water and free drinking water (it may not sound exciting, but I miss tap water more than anything)!
I spent Friday afternoon in a hammock, finishing my book. I hadn’t spent that much time reading during the week as I’d been diving, and as antisocial as it may have been, it was great to just sit and read; it’s nice to be surrounded by people, whilst quietly doing my own thing.
On Saturday, we went to Pulhapanzak, a 43m waterfall on the Rio Lindo. We hitched a ride in a truck to Peña Blanca, took the bus to San Buenaventura and then walked up to the waterfall. For about £5 you can take a guided tour behind the falls; I wasn't expecting a lot, but it was amazing! You climb down into one of the pools, then into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, up behind the water and into a cave in the rocks. After that we jumped from some of the rocks into one of the pools and then did a 9m jump into the river below the waterfall; 9m is a long drop! I hadn’t realised it would be so full on but it was great. You can’t see a thing as you swim under the spray. We had to climb into the cave through a tiny, dark hole. As I’m claustrophobic, I was terrified, but made myself do it anyway! Once you were in the cave, it got bigger, but was still pitch black. It was surreal to be sitting inside the waterfall. I’m also not a big fan of jumping from great heights, but since I managed to jump off the dock at Alton’s, I made myself do it this time too. I jumped into the smaller pool 3 times and did the 9m jump twice. Once you hit the water, you have to swim to the bank pretty quickly, as the water flows fairly rapidly. You then have to scramble up the cliff, to get back to the path. I loved it but it was exhausting. I wish I’d had a waterproof camera, as the pictures would have been incredible.
On Sunday, we rented boats and rowed across the lake to what we thought was an island, but was actually not. It was much further than it looked and the boats had seen better days. Our paddles weighed about a tonne each and so the going was tough. It was also absolutely boiling...my back was protected by the life jacket, but my arms and knees caught the sun. By the time we all reached the ‘island’, everyone was too tired/hot to walk around it, so we sat down for a while and then started to row back. I’ve never seen anything as comical as watching Oskar, Allie and Perla attempt to row their flat bottomed, metal boat across the lake; by the time we got back, they were about 50m from the island. I wish I’d taken my camera, as the views were incredible, but I didn’t trust us not to capsize.
(Pictures to follow)
We didn’t have to wait too long for a bus back to Tegus on Sunday and the one we did catch cost about £3 (for a 4 hour journey), had air con and a TV. Ideal.
It’s now back to family life, work and reality! I miss the family whilst I’m away, but not the screaming which started about 5 minutes ago and doesn’t look to stop any time soon....the joys of small children!
I need to crack on with my initial dissertation proposal, which is due in on 26th March. I’ve downloaded some articles onto the Kindle...but that’s about as far as I’ve got!
I’m going to start working in the office tomorrow; hopefully there will be more for me to do!
I think I’m going to go to Copán this weekend and visit the ruins. I’m already looking forward to getting out of the city.
It’s Ele’s birthday tomorrow, so Happy 21st Birthday! I wish I was there for the Harry Potter party! I hope you have a lovely day :) Enjoy New York!
Nearly 9 weeks down...11 to go
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