In the jungle, the mighty jungle

I wish I could say I saw a lion but that would be a lie. Apparently there are jaguars here though, but they are understandably hard to see. They are probably sleeping. Just kidding I don't know. I am in the middle of the jungle, but its only 30 minutes from the town of La Ceiba so its not that wild. I am in one of Honduras' national parks, this one is called Pico Bonito. It features the beautiful Cangrejal river passing through the mountains on its way to the Caribbean. Yesterday I went white water rafting! It was awesome. The river is full of enormous smooth grey boulders and I jumped off of them into the river. Apparently during and after the rainy season the water rises to cover these boulders, which are 15+ meters high. Rafting at that time of year is much more intense. But it was still exciting for me, fast water, rapids, beautiful scenery. The water is really warm too! I have never been in such a warm river before.

After the rafting I went for a hike in the national park with this guy I met from Houston. I figured we would see some wild animals. At least a snake. But no, only spiders and geckos. Probably for the best that there were no snakes. I'm not sure how I would respond to a strange snake. Probably not well. Anyway it was a great hike through the jungle. I swung on some vines. Seemed like an appropriate thing to do. When we got back to the lodge I was exhausted so I had dinner and went to sleep. Today I am going to hang around for the morning, resolve some things over the internet that I haven't had a chance to do, then this afternoon I am going zip lining! I will leave tomorrow for Copan. There is a Canadian couple here who are also going that way so it will be nice to travel together.

I was sad to leave Utila, but I was ready to leave the "farm". I did make a significant contribution there - the holes I dug will allow them to bring in electricity! I did some actual gardening in the last day I worked with them. We planted a bunch of seeds. I am not too sure if any of them are going to come up though. The farmer didn't quite think things through, so if anything sprouts it will be a credit to his optimism. 

I felt bad about leaving early when I had committed to two weeks, but the couple didn't seem to mind. The farm felt really isolated even though it wasn't that far from town (about 45 min walk) but because of the lack of electricity the farmer frequently went to a friend's house in town and his wife was working for the Semana Santa (a massive holiday, leading up to Easter) at a bar in town so I was alone a lot. I had been spending the occasional night in town through the week. I made some friends in the dive school who were still around so I went in after work in the evening and then crashed in any empty dorm bed because I didn't feel comfortable walking back to the farm in the dark. I could take a taxi to the airport, but then from there it was still a 5 minute walk through the woods.

I was planning on staying in the jungle lodge one more night, but I am realizing how much money it is costing me so I think I will leave this afternoon. Its not expensive, but because its in the middle of nowhere they can charge whatever they like for food and drink. I was going to do ziplining today but that is also $40. I will find another place to do it in Central America I think!