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You are here: Home / Archives for jungle

Flashback: Honduras

June 21, 2011 By Jillian

Sometimes it’s about the journey not the destination.  Bumping around in the back of an overloaded Toyota pick up truck on our way into “the heart of darkness” was not my idea of fun. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but I couldn’t get Conrad’s book out of my head.  We were going into the heart of Central America’s largest wilderness and it was certainly a journey.

Trucks to La mosquitia

We had been pretty “vanilla” in our travels up until Honduras.  We hadn’t really gone off the beaten path yet.  As we got our travel legs we became more and more adventurous, staying at places not listed in the guidebook, taking guidebook suggestions with a grain of salt and relying on word of mouth recommendations from other travelers above everything else.  In Honduras we finally hit our travel stride and took a sharp turn off the beaten path.

By sharp turn I mean we decided to go to “La Mosquitia”, which Wikipedia kindly refers to as: an underdeveloped region of tropical rainforest accessible primarily by water and air.   By primarily they mean only by air and water. See, it’s about the journey.

House along the Rio Platano

I’ll admit that I was not thrilled when we decided to launched off into the Mosquito Coast, the coastline is heavily used by drug traffickers and it was starting to be rainy season.  Torrential downpours, underdeveloped jungle, mud and mosquitos? I’d seen this in a movie before, and trust me it wasn’t a pleasant situation.

I quickly realized my opinion would hold very little sway when we met a solo traveler who had just returned from the region.  He enthusiastically gave us all the information we needed and although Danny asked if I was interested in going, I saw that glinting “Indian Jones” spirit in his eyes and decided to quietly squelch my concerns.  In the words of a famous fitness retailer I decided to “Just Do It.”

So there we were, bouncing along in the back of a pick up truck, wedged between bottles of Coca-Cola.  To say it was an adventure getting into the heart of La Mosquitia is an understatement.

Trucks to La Mosquitia

My memories are akin to someone experiencing trauma.  Thinking of that journey is like reliving a painful experience and my mind has successfully blocked out all but part of it.  I have distinct memories of choking on the dust in the back of the truck, of the intense heat and the physical discomfort.  Of riding back to civilization atop the truck’s gear shifter in the cab, of a driver who had been deported a few times from the U.S. telling me how bad the State Police are in Georgia.  Our time in La Mosquitia was an exotic adventure (definitely worth a read, click here for Part 1 and Part 2), but it was really more about the journey than the destination.  Once there we hiked in torrential downpours and experienced the jungle in rainy season, not something I’d recommend.

Our pipante (canoe) driver

Spanish has a phrase vale la pena which loosely translates to be worth it, to be worthwhile.  It’s one of my favorite idioms in Spanish.  La Mosquitia was our first turn off the beaten track and although the journey is what I’ll remember the most, I can’t help but look back on it and ask myself again was it vale la pena?  Even two years later I can say yes.  The journey was vale la pena.

IF YOU GO:    The entire eastern coastline of Central America is tropical jungle and although we went rather remote, you don’t have to go deep into La Mosquitia to experience the jungle.  Winter is the perfect time to go to the jungle so if you’re spending the holidays in Cancun, it may be worth it to take some extra time and overland the coastline.  Traveling through Belize and into Honduras is relatively easy and there’s a lot to do.  We learned how to SCUBA dive on Utila, which was an enjoyable way to spend a week and also went to a couchsurfing meet up.  We arranged our transport into La Mosquitia along the way from La Ceiba and you should be able to get information in La Ceiba on the trip.

Filed Under: Flashback, Headline, Journey Tagged With: adventures, jungle, transportation, trips

Photo Tuesday: Gorilla Baby

September 21, 2010 By Jillian

After surviving the terrifying (at least for me) charge of the male mountain gorilla, we settled into a peaceful detante with them in a large clearing.  Surrounded by dense jungle foliage, it was hard to see the gorillas in the shadows.  I was uneasy being so exposed until I saw this mother and her baby about 10 feet away.  The baby’s adorable little face captured my heart and I immediately relaxed.

Want to see more gorilla pictures? Click here.

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: animals, baby, gorilla, jungle, photos, safari, uganda

Photo Tuesday: Coke in the Jungle

September 14, 2010 By Jillian

Six hours in the back of a pick up truck along the beach on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras brought us to a landing where we could take a dug out canoe to plaplaya for the night before continuing our journey upstream into La Mosquitia.  As our “captain” loaded the canoe with our belongings and cargo I couldn’t help but laugh at the “essentials” that were being carried, for a nice price of course, upstream to other settlements.  Eventually we were deep enough into the jungle where there was no coca-cola or fanta, but trust me that stuff is everywhere!

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: boat, coka-cola, coke, drinks, honduras, jungle, photo, transportation

Amazon- Game Recap

September 22, 2009 By Danny

TURNING POINT –
When our broken down jeep finally puttered into the dock area and we realized we´d made it with our lives and could already see the caiman chomping on fish.

STAT OF THE GAME –
2. The number of piranhas caught by the group…and one was caught by the guide.

IT WAS OVER WHEN –
We rode back with a different group (consisting of 4 Germans, 1 Pole, and 1 Aussie) so we could make it back to town to catch our flight. In exchange they asked us to lead them in a rendition of the ´Star Spangled Banner´ to which they all knew the words.

GAME BALL GOES TO –
Jill, for being the only one in our entire group NOT to go swimming with Caiman (alligator/croc cousin) and the man-eating piranhas..

Do I have your interest yet? Hope so!

We´d long ago chosen Bolivia as the place where we would venture into the Amazon. This is because the Bolivian Amazon is more accessible than most other Amazonian tourist spots and with fewer tourists it is known for having the largest variety of biodiversity (amongst the best on the planet) and best wildlife viewing. Plus, we´d heard that you could go swimming with pink river dolphins. (OK, really, who even knew the Amazon had river dolphins?)

So as our tour began we were quite excited for what lay ahead. We had only to brave a 3 hour drive in a jeep to get to the 3 hour boat ride. What we didn´t know was that the car´s radiator was leaking and that the driver thought it would be a good idea to fill it up with the muddy water he could find on the side of the road. In fixing the leak he also managed to remove the car´s grill which meant that once we finally started moving again the hood actually flew up and cracked the already cracked windshield even further. And this was the part without the dangerous wildlife.
With the car trip taking twice as long as it should have we were quite relieved to finally reach the river and begin our boat trip. Some of you might remember our time in Moskitia where we had a 6 hour long boat ride and saw a lot of indigenous communities along the way. On this trip instead of seeing people we say caiman…lots of caiman…more caiman than you can shake a stick at and if that expression still doesn´t make sense to you, you should go there and try to shake a stick at all the caiman b-c you just won´t be able to do it. We saw them swim, we saw them chomp, we saw them eat, and we saw them gaze at us as we floated by in our posh little boat. Caiman are the South American equivalent of the alligator, only they are uglier. On top of the caiman we saw more water foul than I (please remember I grew up in a home that is in what used to be the Everglades) have ever seen in my life and we even saw capybara…the world´s largest rodent. (Looks quite tastier than that cuy we just stomached in Peru…hmmmmmmm). The most amazing part was how active all the wildlife was, nothing like trying to spot a gator in the zoo.

So that was the boat, but what about the land. On day two we went out in search for an Anaconda, one of the largest serpents in the world. We walked and walked and walked. And while walking and walking and walking I was wishing that I didn´t have a size 12 foot and only a size 10 boot but I still made it work out somehow. Walking through the pampas should have been more difficult than it was but unfortunately much of the land is burned regularly to allow for cattle grazing. Granted, we´d taken the Pampas (savanna/plains) tour rather than the jungle tour but the utter lack of jungle really was eye-opening. Despite being disappointed with the landscape we were not disappointed with the result of the walk when we found a young male anaconda sunbathing along a trail. Luckily it was a young snake and not big enough to pick off any of the nearby gringos!
After a quick lunch we set off to find some pink river dolphins to go swimming with. Despite their name, they are not really so pink and in some of the pictures even look like narwhals (postcard to whoever can name the mythical creature based off the narwhal). We floated around for awhile and eventually found a spot with a few of them swimming where our guide was able to dock the boat. None of us moved.

We´d been told countless times by this point that there has never been a cayman attack on a swimming human because we are too big for them, not tasty enough, and the caiman try to avoid the dolphins b-c the dolphins steal all the food. That being said, still none of us moved. Finally the Aussie jumped in and was out just as quickly. Then someone pointed out that there were piranhas in the water as well as caiman and it was awhile again before another member of the group finally jumped in. I followed. For awhile it was just the two of us, the dolphins which clearly had no interest in us, the caiman, and the piranhas Did I mention that this water was completely brown and it was impossible to see even one inch below the surface? Eventually another member of the group joined, and then another. Finally 5 of us were in the water, with only one person remaining on the sideline…Jill. Letters of complaint can be emailed to ishouldlogoff@gmail.com or posted in the comment section below.

Since we´d already been swimming in the water we of course had to try to catch some piranhas Jill nearly caught one but it was really only the guide who did the job right. To hook a piranhas you need to pull up on the line as it is stealing your beef and hope the hook catches…otherwise it just swims off with your meet. Looking at the fish, I could see the little teeth but could not understand how they earned the name “man-eating,” they just weren´t that scary.

So the dolphins were a disappointment in that they didn´t want to play…but no one died either so that was a plus. We enjoyed a sunset and then took a night boat ride back to camp. The reason for the night boat ride was to watch the glowing eyes of the caiman, (have I mentioned that they are far more active once the sun goes down) as they watched us float down the river. This was kinda like being watched by that big scary eye in the Lord of the Rings…only it was 2 meters away and its buddy was just a few inches further.

The best part of the night though was the sky. We´d been doing a lot of trekking lately but all that camping seemed to coincide with a full moon...now it was a new moon and being nice and far from civilization the sky was simply amazing. One of the guys on the trip who had just been to the observatory in Chile that I really, really, really, really, really want to go to but am not sure if I´ll get to was full of information. He pointed out Jupiter, the southern cross (remember, we´re in that other hemisphere now…this is winter, almost spring), and even showed us how to derive south from the southern cross and a few other stars. It was during this that I counted 7 or so satellites and even more shooting stars. Even a midnight trip to the bathroom was rewarded with a brilliant flash across almost half the sky. I´d never seen anything like it and can´t wait to see more and more.

Filed Under: Bolivia, South America Tagged With: amazon, animals, jungle, pampas

Cusco to the Amazon…

September 21, 2009 By Jillian

Having spent nearly 5 weeks in Peru, it was time to move on to Bolivia and get value from our expensive, but justified visas. Arriving on an overnight bus from Cusco headed towards La Paz, we arrived at the border prepared for a fight.  Rumors abound that even with the visa, the Bolivian border is not an easy crossing for Americans.  Arriving at the Bolivian Immigration office, the first official didn’t know how to handle our visas. Groaning we luckily found another immigration official who set the first one straight. Without so much as a hint of a n “extra payment” we crossed easily into Bolivia.

Having saved the Amazon until Bolivia, we were anxious to get there as soon as possible. Unfortunately it is an 18 hour bus journey from La Paz to the jungle.  No one said the jungle was easy to get to!

Weighed down with so much cargo, we inched our way north out of La Paz. The highest capital in the world, La Paz (3500m) is actually in a canyon, so our little bus had to slowly climb out of the canyon before heading on to the jungle. Cut into the mountains, the asphalt road was barely wide enough for a lane in each direction.  Unable to see what was certainly a sheer cliff next to us and pulling out all of our warm clothes, we tried to focus on anything else but the road.

And then the asphalt ended.

Bumping along a curvy dirt road in the dark I couldn’t keep my mind off the Bolivian bus warnings in our guidebook. No wonder, to let someone pass going the other direction our driver had to back the bus up over the cliff to give them space. Sitting in the backseat of the bus we looked behind us into the abyss praying the driver knew exactly where the tires were in relation to the road. As if the situation couldn’t get any worse we drove into a terrible thunderstorm. Bounced our of our seats so high we actually got air, we eventually somehow fell into a fitful sleep. Arriving the next morning in Rurrenbanque, 36 hours after leaving Cusco, we checked into a hotel and then marched ourselves to the regional airline office. Sometimes you just have to say enough is enough.

Booking ourselves on a return flight to La Paz, we were shocked the following day when our tour stopped at the airport to pick up two more travelers. A grass airstrip, often out of service for rain/fog/humidity you name it, the 19 seater from La Paz landed with a hard thud followed by the squeal of breaks. As “baggage” claim rolled the cart across the grass we looked at each other and smiled. The jungle is never easy to get to.

By the end of our jungle tour we had met five other people who had taken the bus from La Paz, and not a single one wanted to return via bus. As we crossed the grass airstrip to get into the plane, with no security check what so ever, I felt like I was on a movie set of the jungle. Could this be real? Climbing into the plane we took the first two seats and as the pilot shut the cabin door and triple checked that the handle was locked I steadied myself for what would probably be the bumpiest take off of my life. Finally we were in the air and just as my nerves calmed down an Australian from a few seats back yelled to me to look out the window. Turning my head I looked what can only be described as face to face, with the summit of a snow capped mountain. Wow. Sure beat the bumpy bus in the middle of a thunderstorm!

Lesson learned though, never underestimate jungle transportation!

Filed Under: Bolivia, South America Tagged With: jungle, transportation

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