12th of july

after a couple of more languid days in la ceiba where main activities were trying out various dishes at various places (includes asking for a juice without sardines instead of a watermelon due to the similarity in pronunciation of those 2 words in spanish language) and deciding which rum after all is the best one for cuba libre it felt really great finally to get ready to go out in the wilderness again. what happened right before out trip to the wilderness though was that our school burned down. or that is what we were told on thursday night. news and especially bad ones travel fast here and everyone would add their own little detail to spice up the story so in the end we thought that our spanish school was turned into carbon. everything and everyone was upside down and classes were moved elsewhere. the reality however was that the school itself was not destroyed by the fire, but the apartment above it was permanantly gone. and what is it that caused the fire then?well heavy showers and lightnings and the poor insulation of electic wires in the building lead first to a black out and then to the actual fire. good no one was hurt though!black outs however are quite common here with the whole neighbourhood or an entire mall suddenly turning dark in the middle of the day or worse - evening.

back to the trip though. marianne, scott and i were high in spirit and thought rafting was something one absolutely must do while here. pico bonito, a national park right outside la ceiba, is a perfect spot for that kind of activities. our transport was this old grey truck-like bus that is more suitable for transporting boats than people; nevertheless it took us right to the jungle river lodge, a place situated by the river cangrejal. the whole area is amazingly beautiful and the river+rocks+mountain covered with rainforests combination is just breathtaking. it´s not rainy season now so the river is quite tame, at least when one observes it from a distance. in december the water level rises many meters and floods basically everything around it. so, after a quick round around the place the owner suggested we did rafting that same day, friday, instead of saturday, because the weather was great for it (said he). it was not an ideal moment for us though, since we had been out the night before and still were in need of recovery. but the weather would not wait for us and so neglecting the slight dizziness it was time to get a lesson of rafting. putting on those lifejackets and helmets is obviously necessary and doesn´t indicate anything about the river or the activity itself, so it was when our guide and captain told us to hold hands and say our prayers to god that we got a bit worried. apart from that it turned out that "great weather" ment heavy rain and winds! the first excercise consisted in grabbing a paddle with left hand, swimming against the current to the other side and then letting yourself float in the river and let it take you to the next "stop point". it sounds quite easy in reality it is demanding!that was all but a calm start!everyone got sucked in the depths at some point, got water in the mouth, nose, ears and i at least felt like i was literally drowning. we did not drown though. not yet. that was just the beginning. after this little test it was time to get in the boat and listen to all sort of instructions, like : forward, backwards, on the floor etc. for the next 2h we were paddling like mad, yelling 1 and 2, hitting each other with those paddles occasionally (i got a nice blow from scott right in the face, which resulted in my upper lip getting swollen and bleeding for some time in the water) and going under the water and then popping back up on the surface with the water streams running down our faces, hair and clothes. the experience was AMAZING though. our expectations of an easy ride in a boat were mildly said erroneous but what we got was still absolutely impossible to describe with words. i suppose we did great job because no one fell out of the boat in bad places (even though scott did lose his balance a few times, somewhat destabilizing the balance of the boat too) and everyone had sore muscles this morning, including a few mild injuries. falling out of the boat was supposingly also an excercise but when scott made a staitment that "...they can´t make us fall out of the boat, we´re paying for this!" no falling happened :D. all in all our rafting experience was fantastically positive and at times when we were not 100% absorbed by the white water and the frantic turns the boat was making, we had a chance to spot a few tucans on the tree nearby and actually see them and their gorgeous big yellow beaks from a very close distance. river cangrejal made a great impression on the whole team (i hope so at least).

the rest of the day was spent in a very relaxing manner, sitting about in hamacas, having conversations with the two adorable guacamayas (the big parrots) and watching the scenery change at night when the sky finally cleared up and the moon was white and bright. later on that night our guide jairo told us that two people have actually died on that river. one doing cayak and the other person doing rafting. so, now i see why every time before hitting that stream one has to say the prayers. it is possible that one doesn´t pop up on the surface again even though the river looks calm. jungle river lodge was a great place and i wish we didn´t have to leave it that soon. the whole environment there is somehow thrilling. even on saturday, today, once back in la ceiba i´m still under the impression from yesterday. this is definately one of the best if not the best place in honduras i´ve visited so far.