This morning I photographed a hummingbird outside my room and afterwards, enjoyed a decent breakfast, saving some for lunch as there’s nowhere to buy food on the route I’m going.
I walk for some hours between 9 am and 3 pm without passing a single soul. I am totally alone in the National Park. It’s wild. All I can really see is the inside of the forest with occasional views over the canopy and into the cloud. It’s one of the nicest days I’ve spent in Central America. Apart from the trail, there's noting but pristine forest with the occasional wooden bridge. Built by? Can’t be by Hondurans so I suspect volunteers from the US. (Turns out to be the case).
I stop by the waterfall for lunch which consists of half a cheese and tomato sandwich, made from the leftover from breakfast components, and some of yesterday’s emergency rations. I've forgotten my “spork” so use the knife, though opposite to how it's pictured, (sharpened edge away from my mouth).
The path undulates through the forest and is extremely muddy in places. My shoes will need a good clean later. The temperature varies throughout the walk. In some areas you can see the cloud rolling in amongst the trees, and in these areas water drips constantly from the trees. There are lichens growing over every branch and trunk. I need to dress and undress throughout the day, and even wear a woolly hat at times.
Every time I find myself walking a pathway like this, I'm reminded of the Lord of the Rings, but I feel like a cross between Lara Croft and Indiana Jones. There's not a lot of action here though. Just walking. Plod, plod, plod. Nice tree.
Back at the lodgings around 3.30 and the proprietor, Jorg, offers me a small cup of honey straight out of the hive. It’s the first time I’ve had honey this way. You eat the honeycombed structure, dripping with the honey itself and spit out the wax. It tastes so fresh.
I try to shower but with the electric shower heads, that are so common in these parts, that heat the water as water passes through, don’t always work, and I can’t bare to get under the water. The cold wind blows through the outdoor ablutions. It’s the only thing that lets this guesthouse down. There will be no showering until tomorrow when I’m back in Tegucigalpa. I suspect there may not be hot water there either but at least they’ll be no wind. Finding hot showers in Central America is like discovering the Holy Grail.
There’s no Internet here, I wonder what’s going on in the outside world? I’ll find out soon enough. I’ve already booked my next 4 nights accommodation (in 3 different cities) as I knew they’d be no wi-fi here. With that taken care of, there’s less need to connect. Except to check if Leicester City are still top. Amazing stuff.
Tomorrow I'll head back to the capital of Honduras to endure it’s noise and it’s ugliness one last time before fleeing to the (possibly equally ugly) capital of Nicaragua the morning after. These cities are so awful, but the natural world around them; so fantastic. What a shame people always have to ruin things. Even by the waterfall where I stopped to have lunch, plenty of evidence of other people having lunched there: plastic wrappers discarded carelessly in a wonderful natural environment.
Nothing can ruin this day in the forest though. I realise, that I've been spending too much time in towns, which wasn't the plan. Perhaps that's why I'm a miserable complaining git. Ah well.
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