Sunday 8th July – Rio Cangrejal to Lago Yojoa.

Travel day today – things didn’t start out too well when the bus to La Ceiba didn’t turn up for over an hour while I was waiting outside the river lodge. Turns out that the buses don’t run as regularly on Sundays. The final leg of the day was the bus to Lago Yojoa – another 3 hours on the bus.  I finally arrived at about 4pm, just in time for a beer at the famous D&Ds brewery. 

Monday 9th July – Lago Yojoa.

Things got off to a better start today. The guide Walter at D&Ds found me some accommodation that was a little cheaper (and just as nice). I then set off on some adventures to explore the lake and the surrounding areas. The first stop was to the Waterfall Pulhapanzak some 40m tall and very impressive.  There was also a nice swimming pool there to enjoy. In the afternoon I rented a kayak from my accommodation and headed down the river to Lake Yojoa. It’s a huge lake – with lots of birds and nature around. I paddled around the edge of the lake for a couple of hours before heading back to the accommodation. It was an awesome experience – super relaxing! After dinner, it poured with rain and I got absolutely saturated on the walk back to the hotel. This was when I discovered that the roof in my new hotel room was leaking all over my bed! Not happy! I put a couple of makeshift buckets out and moved the bed so that part of it would be dry to sleep in and got in, hoping for the best!

Tuesday 10th July Lago Yojoa

Today I went for a hike to the second highest peak in Honduras – Santa Barbara. This mountain is located in Santa Barbara national park and is 2744m high. I was picked up in a microbus with my guide Leonel and taken to the small community of Los Cedros where I had a local typico breakfast cooked by Lionel’s wife. Then we started our ascent to the Santa Barbara peak through some lush forests filled with birds and beautiful orchids. Leonel was super excited to point out the different types of birds to me and show me the special types of orchids, explaining how to care for them and how the local community was working together to keep the forest preserved for the future. At one point we had a lovely view of the surrounding countryside down to Lake Yojoa. The hike itself was pretty gruelling, about 3.5 hours directly up, getting progressively steeper in each of the three sections. The peak itself was a bit of an anticlimax as it was surrounded by trees so it wasn’t possible to see anything, however there was a lovely view at our lunch spot a little bit further down the mountain.