Talor: Woke up 4:30am to have coffee and breakfast before leaving at 6:00 on our 2-day tour. Dona Justa was kind enough to get up early, feed us and even packed a lunch for us to take! Julio (the head guide) showed up at 6:20 to take us to the boat. Walked for about 25 minutes through the village trying not to step on horse and cow manure which was everywhere. Had wondered why everyone walked around in galoshes... that explained it.
Met our lead guide, Ricardo, whose father owns the hotel we would be staying in that evening. The two other guides were primarily working on the pipante (boat), "pulling" us upriver with long wooden sticks and paddling us downriver. The pipante ride was really quite beautiful... nothing but dense woods, butterflies dancing... and, oh yeah, mosquitos buzzing. About an hour later, we arrived at the site of our first hike. Took about an hour and a half through an established trail, and there was even a look-out post with magnificent views in all directions. Emerged from our hike further up-river, right across from Hospedaje Don Bernardo's... how convenient.
Thought Dona Justa's was basic as far as the facilities go... at least there was a bathing area and toilet paper. At Don Bernardo's, the tub of water in the outhouse was both for bathing and flushing the toilet. We chose to bathe in the river... was far more refreshing and fun. The facilities weren`t all that, but the view was beautiful from the hotel, plus there were very cute puppies running around.
Anyway, took an hour`s rest then got back into the pipante to go a bit further upriver to see the petroglyphs. The setting was very pretty. The petroglyphs, which are a bit of a mystery because these curious images were carved into these stones a long long time ago, but they`re still not sure who, when or what it means. I found them to be unremarkable... one looked like a smiley face... guessing someone was having a good day?
Back to Don Bernardo`s cause we were done for the day at 1:00 in the afternoon. Ate the lunch Dona Justa packed us, which was rice and beans with sardines and a pancake. Sounds like a strange combination, but it was pretty tasty... well, anything`s tasty when you`re hungry. Afterwards, took a swim/bath in the river, rinsed out our musty clothes then just relaxed and did a whole lotta nothing, because there is absolutely nothing to do, until it was time to eat dinner. Ricardo was showing off a fancy fish "gun" that he made himself so we were hoping for some fresh fish for dinner. Instead, one of the ladies came up to ask us if we wanted to eat meat. A bit disappointed, but ok, whatever. Little did we know, it would be a few bits of deep fried beef with a mound of rice, beans and fried plantains. Everything was really dry, but we managed to choke it down by candlelight. Think it was good that we couldn´t see that well.
After dinner, read a bit by candlelight then went to sleep. Day 2 of the tour was going to start at 6:30am...
Once again, coffee and breakfast at 6:00 before leaving. Breakfast consisted of a mound of rice, spaghetti and fried plaintain chips... yes, three carbs/starches heaped on a plate. Ate as much as we could choke down then paid our bill. It was a lot more expensive than Dona Justa`s... 200 lempiras for the room and 70 lempiras for each meal... what a jip! Then we headed out for our hike to Cerro Mico, which started from the "backyard" of the hotel.
For the next five hours, we traipsed through thick jungle as Ricardo created a path with his machete. Thought it would be more of what we had done the day before, through an established path, but this was very very different. It was dank, dark and slippery. Ricardo seemed to have no problems with his galoshes, but we had to be careful with every step because there were rocks, twigs, branches, twines, just about everything you can imagine beneath a layer of leaves trying to trip us up. About an hour into it, I was already exhausted... mentally and physically. Then the "fun" really started... had to cross ponds with slippery rocks and our shoes were sopping wet. It wasn´t long before I could feel the blisters starting to form on my feet. Then we started our ascent up Cerro Mico climbing over felled trees, walking up muddy hills, etc. Erik discovered a snake that Ricardo hacked up with his machete because it was poisonous. He explained that he almost died from a bite 11 years ago and thanked Erik for spotting it. Then we got eaten alive by fire ants, and we were only half-way there. When we stopped to take a rest, I looked up and thought, "Wow! So this is the rainforest!" It was gorgeous, lush, dense and full of life. The problem was that during the entire hike, I didn´t dare look up because I had to be so careful with every single step we took, and even then, we constantly twisted our ankles, banged our legs against broken trees, tripped over vines. The descent was even worse. It started to rain and made everything slippier and muddier. Fell twice and just wanted to sit down and cry. Erik fared a whole lot better than me, but think he was almost as miserable because he was so worried about me. Plus we really didn´t get to see any animals unless you count puppies, chickens and pigs. Erik thought he saw a monkey`s ass but wasn´t sure. We heard howler monkeys, but didn´t see them. All I could think was how much I wanted it to be over...
When we finally emerged on the other side and saw the pipante, I was so relieved, I almost cried! All I could think was "NEVER AGAIN!" No more jungle, woods, forests... ever! Should this experience get blurry with time, and I ever speak of taking a hike again, someone please point me in the direction of the nearest city park!
Anyway, a half hour pipante ride and a 25 minute walk through the fields and we were back at Dona Justa`s thinking how luxurious that was compared to Don Bernardo`s! Absolutely everything is relative. Now we had to work out our ride back to Rais Ta. Jorge, one of our boat guides, was very pleased with the generous tips we gave them, said he would go and tell Olvideo that we needed to talk with him about our return trip. Got out of our very funky jungle smelling clothes and picked off all the ticks off our bodies. Then we bathed as best with could with a plastic tub of water and a metal bowl. Waited for Olvideo to show, but didn´t and we wondered if we would be able to leave the next morning.
About 6:00, dinner was ready so we went down to eat. Rice and fried fish heads and tails... wondered what happened to the bodies. Just as we were finishing up, Olvideo showed up with another man to talk to us. Said he could take us the next morning, but it would cost 2500 lempiras because he had no other passengers nor cargo to transport. When we explained that we didn´t have that much, he just laughed. He seemed very different than the really nice man who brought us here. We had heard there were a couple of people going to Brus Laguna the next morning, so we asked them if they knew anything about that. They said that there were two American tourists who had hired a private pipante through the Impresa Tour Co. Then Dona Justa and Mariano explained that they may take us, but it wasn´t good because it doesn´t support their community. We realized there were a lot of politics going on between villages and even within the villages.
When Olvideo left, Dona Justa and Mariano told us that we may be able to leave if we were willing to take a tuk-tuk (a boat with a louder, noiser, slower motor), which would be cheaper, possibly 800 lempiras. Of course we said yes. He went out into the dark to go talk to them to see if it would be possible. Returned a half-hour later and said yes and a man would be coming by to work the details out with us. There were two men, and one spoke English. Turns out they were the men with the Impresa Tour taking the Americans to Brus Laguna. Told us they could take us as far as Rio Platano then we would have to take a paila (pick-up truck) to Rais Ta. Whew! So we got our ride. We realized that although Justa and Mariano were not happy about Impresa, they helped us to get on that boat because it was important to them to support and help their clients. All they asked in return was to recommend them to anyone who is going to Las Marias.
With that worked out, we went to bed smiling dreaming of the luxury we would have once we got back to Rais Ta...
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