Beer and Waterfalls (But not at the same time)

After feeling incredibly smug with myself for getting my article on to the front page, Pete and I decided to take a trip to Lago de Yojoa – Honduras´ largest lake. The main reason for this was to stay at the bed and breakfast/microbrewery of a man from Oregon.

Ironically, this time round, getting on the bus was relatively easy, but getting off of it wasn’t. I had told the driver in my best touristy Spanish that we wanted to get off at the lake side town of La Guama. However if I hadn’t seen the sign for the town out of the window, and if Pete hadn’t ran up the bus to tell the driver, I’m pretty sure we would have kept going all the way to San Pedro Sula.

It pains me to say this, but none of the fosses/falls I have seen in my numerous trips to Yorkshire can even compare to the Pulhapanzak waterfalls

After managing to get the driver to stop, we got off the bus into the beginnings of a thunderstorm, so therefore jumped on the nearest minibus heading to our final destination of Peña Blanca. It cost 9 Lempiras, which works out about 23p.

It was about this time that Mr. Managing-Editor Alvaro called me to let me know I had to get to a town called La Lima on Monday afternoon to cover a WWF conference (the wildlife fund, not the wrestlers). I was reluctant to agree, but Alvaro made it hard for me to refuse when he told me I’d get to stay in a hotel for 2 nights for free, all expenses paid. So I said yes.

We arrived at the D&D microbrewery just as it started completely pissing it down, with thunder and lightning and everything. It was great. (I should probably say that earlier in the week there was a thunderstorm in Tegucigalpa and several people died as a result of the flood. It rains different here.)

I then ate the most fantastic burger I have ever tasted, and washed it down with several glasses of pale ale. It was loooverly.

In the morning I had the great idea of walking the 16km to the Pulhapanzak waterfalls. In hindsight, this wasn’t such a good idea because the thunderstorm had blown over, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I later found out after returning from La Lima that Pete was admitted to hospital with heat stroke on Tuesday. Woops. But I enjoyed the walk nonetheless. We got about 2/3 of the way there when a truck pulled over and offered us a ride, which we were quick to accept.

It pains me to say this, but none of the fosses/falls I have seen in my numerous trips to Yorkshire can even compare to the Pulhapanzak waterfalls. They are simply spectacular. I can’t even find any words to describe it.

We hitched a lift back to the brewery in a pickup truck, and spent the remainder of the day eating excellent food and knocking back apricot ale, tequila and margaritas with a group of people I will never forget. There were 2 girls from Leeds University, 2 guys from Virginia and a guy from Pennsylvania who hadn’t moved from his chair all day apart from to get more cigarettes and beer. It was amazing.

We sat and talked about how much of a twat George Bush is, how evil the CIA are, several conspiracy theories, fishing and the lack of good music these days. Then it was time for bed to get a bus back to Tegucigalpa in the morning. And yet again, the goal of the Honduran bus companies to inconvenience me was in action.

The bus we were supposed to catch didn’t stop at La Guama, despite me waving my arm like a madman. We had to wait an hour in the searing heat to get on an already over-flowing coach to Comayagua standing up and squeezed in like sardines, and then catch an old USA yellow school bus to Tegucigalpa. It was an interesting experience, but not very fun.