Honduran Home Brew and some Birdspotting

We eventually arrived at out first destination in Honduras after a 12 hour and 3 bus epic. Having driven through the not so nice capital, Tegucigalpa, we sped through stunning mountain scenery, cloud forest and some seriously twisty roads and finally arrived at Los Naranjos, our base for the next few days.

It just happens that the hostel is attached to Honduras´s only microbrewery - D& D Brewery. It´s run by Bob Dale from Oregon and his Honduran wife Cynthia. Bob makes 5-6 different brews, a pale ale, amber ale (similar to British bitters), a porter which is a bit like Guinness and fruit beers including raspberry, mango and apricot.

We splashed out and stayed in our own cabin which was great, however the fact that we had no Honduran cash was a bit of a worry. We had managed to change some money at the border, but had not seen an ATM on route and we had managed to rock up on a bank holiday weekend. It was a 2 hour drive to the nearest ATM and all the local bank branches were closed so we couldn´t go to a branch to get a cash advance on a credit card. Bob was very understanding though and we ended up paying our remaining balance (lots of beer was partly to blame) to his mate at our next destination.

The village itself is on the shores of Lake Yojoa which is famous for its birds (as well as being quite stunning). We were introduced to Bob´s slightly eccentric English pal Malcolm who looks like he has been travelling for the last 40 years or so. He has settled on a bird watching career in Honduras.

We went out with him on a slightly overloaded rowing boat with Rafael from the brewery rowing for us, early one morning. The lake was so serene and we saw an amazing selection of wildlife. The lake boasts more species of birds (+400) than the whole of the UK.

Everyone we met in the village and wandering around were really friendly. It was great. Bob obviously could not have been more accommodating! He also showed us his amazing collection of Mayan and Olmec artefacts, some dating back to 700BC. He has unearthed them whilst building septic tanks and swimming pools in the area, over the last 15 years or so. He´s also donated a large number of his finds to museums.

On our last day, the weather was conducive to beer drinking only and we had a great afternoon with other guests including a 50 year old Canadian woman and her 9 year old son who were travelling for a year, and an Aussie/US couple who were on a 6 month honeymoon. They had planned to spend the night in their tent ( not very honeymoonish??) but when the storm set in, they switched to a room.

The grounds of the brewery the next day were slightly wind battered with a few fallen trees. It felt like the majority of the fruits from the avocado, banana, passion fruit and orange trees had been falling on our tin roof all night - hence no sleep. We were sad to leave though!!

Horsing about in Leon

We took time to plan our next few weeks and then caught a local bus (or two) to Leon, another colonial but less touristy city in northern Nicaragua. The city is actually surrounded by 7 volcanoes, some of which are still active!

We found a fantastic place to stay – Casona Colonial, a traditional colonial house, with old furniture, including our 4 poster bed which almost needed a step ladder to get into it.

We went exploring the numerous historic buildings and churches and came across a Dutch guy running socio-historic tours. We decided on ´History and Revolution´ for that afternoon. Harry was a great guide who clearly believes passionately in what he does. 5 of us were taken to important landmarks of historical and political importance from the days of Spanish colonization to the Sandanista revolution at the end of the 70´s, which began in Leon.

We were so impressed we decided to try another of Harry´s slightly left field tours – Cowboy for a Day and Night!

It was great fun. We headed off to a ranch outside Leon to learn and watch how cowboys go about their jobs. The only horsepower out there has 4 legs and eats grass and 4 wheel drive means two oxen harnessed to a cart.

We learned to harness an ox, chop firewood with a machete, use a lasso, ride a horse (I can do this, although this was the first time since I was a wee girl. Mr B never had and it showed and I think he needed a bigger horse!). We swam in the local stream which was very refreshing after a hard day as a cowboy (or cowgirl). And enjoyed a great BBQ before sleeping under the stars in hammocks.

Bryan hadn’t forgotten how to light a fire, taught by his Dad and the Scouts all those years ago! We also encountered the local wildlife, including 3 scorpions, numerous excessively large insects and lord knows what else as we slept. Suffice to say, this is one of the best organized trips we have done and the BBQ and fire brought back happy memories of camping in the desert with old friends in Dubai.

We headed off at the ungodly hour of 5am the next day to head north to our next destination – Honduras. I am now happy that I have my ´H´ for my A to Z of countries visited. Only D. R, Y and Z left to go.

Wet and Wonderful Nicaragua

Crossing into Nicaragua has to rank as one of our most stunning border experiences. After two local buses took us to Los Chiles on the Rio San Juan, we got our exit stamps, had a spot of lunch and waited for the next boat to San Carlos in Nicaragua. The river itself forms the border between the 2 countries and 45 minutes later we arrived at the border town of San Carlos at the southern tip of Lago Nicaragua. This border route is not on the typical ¨gringo trail¨ and it was great to be 2 of only 3 foreigners on the boat, and 3 of only 5 in the whole town (that we saw). During the boat ride we saw copious birds and were heckled by howler monkeys who clearly didn´t appreciate the disturbance.


San Carlos itself was a key town during the Californian gold rush. It was quicker for people coming from the east coast of America to travel down and up the Rio San Juan, though Lago Nicaragua and 20km to the Pacific and up again, than it was for them to go overland!!!


The next day we boarded our ferry to Isla Ometepe which is an island in the centre of the lake formed by two volcanoes, one of which is still active. The lake itself is one of the World´s few habitats for fresh water sharks. It was a 10 hour ride with a couple of stops on the way where local children piled on selling all manner of food, edible or otherwise.

Ometepe is a great place for volcano hikes, kayaking, relaxing on lakeside beaches and horse riding. Unfortunately the rain was not amenable to these activities and we spent a few solitary days reading, playing yahtzee and having early nights at our 90 year old hostel which was a former family plantation home.

With no sign of the rain abating we caught a bus and boat to the mainland. The buses in Nicaragua are fondly called chicken buses. They are old US school buses and carry everyone and everything. The route to the port was slightly bumpy and not helped by the lava flow over the islands only paved bit of road.

Next port of call on the mainland was Granada via a taxi and a chicken bus from the port. It was slightly soggy when we arrived, despite that we walked though town from the bus station to find a room for the night. After one or two false starts we found a nice room with cable TV and a bathroom for GBP8.

We were then thankfully treated to sunshine the following day and headed out to explore. Granada is an old colonial town and has some lovely old buildings and plazas. We took the opportunity to have a cold drink and watch the world go by in the main square. Baseball is the national sport in Nicaragua and on our wanders we found a ´little league´ taking place between to teams of 8 year olds in full baseball gear – it was great to watch. They all took it so seriously.

Turtle Watching in Tortuguera plus Volcanoes

The bus trip to Costa Rica was interesting to say the least. Our bus was great, lots of films, a very attentive attendant feeding us at every opportunity including 2 pretty good hot meals. The fun started at the border. Everyone had to get off the bus with all their bags and we were piled into a room where the baggage was put into a line on the floor. Eventually a sniffer dog appears looking for drugs and then the bags were searched by hand. Ours were given a cursory prod – we are British after all! Next step was the exit stamp, big bags back on the bus and then a 300 metre walk across no-mans land for an entry stamp into Costa Rica. Then we had to get everything off the bus again and waited 45 minutes for the Costa Rican customs people to appear. When she did you wouldn´t have known she was fairly important – high heels, spray on jeans and a black diamante studded boob tube with no ID. Again, everything was hand searched, except ours – being British and all that does have some advantages! Our hostel in San Jose was great, although we can’t say the same for the city itself. The main street resembled a drab British 1980´s high street a la Gateshead or Newport. A sharp exit had us on our way to the Caribbean Coast to see wildlife in Tortuguero National Park. Another eventful journey ensued, two local buses and a boat ride later we arrived in Tortuguero (only accessible by boat and air), after seeing a crocodile taking a nap on the way there. The final bus dropped us at a banana plantation called GEEST which some people may have seen labeled onto their bananas. There are 1000s of acres of banana fields, although the ripening bananas are covered in blue bags which makes it all look a bit surreal.

We found a place to stay next to the local footy pitch and enjoyed a cool beer on the balcony watching 2 local girls teams have a match. We had an early dinner (restaurants are all closed by 9ish) before heading out at 10pm to watch huge greenback turtles laying their eggs on the nearby beach. Whilst this was amazing to see it was spoilt for us by the two groups of over excited young kids who with their noisy behavior frightened off one of the turtles and we witnessed the sad sight of her as she abandoned her nest and headed back to the sea, still laying eggs as she went.

We returned to the beach the next day to see various tracks and nests and the wonderful sight of teeny weeny flipper prints as baby turtles had made their way to the sea for the first time.

Another early dinner and bedtime prepared us for a 5am start for a canoe trip though the local river network in search of wildlife. This was an amazing trip and the early start and lack of noise meant we saw loads of animals including howler monkeys, spider monkeys, caymans, river turtles, various birds and the aptly named Jesus Christ lizard which can actually run on water.

Our next stop was La Fortuna for a bit of volcano action. The weather was against us yet again, but we did manage a trip to the active Arenal volcano, albeit in bucketing rain. You could see the steam coming out of the top of the cones , but more fascinating was the sight of red hot lava rocks rolling down the hillside after being spat out of the volcano. No pictures unfortunately because of the weather. We were soaked through despite our wet weather gear.