La Tigra National Park
After exploring the nature around Lake Yojoa, decided to head to another national park and hike through the cloud forest in search of more tropical birds and the hope of seeing some monkeys. Stayed in the park lodge which was great for early morning starts and 8 hour hikes in the area. It was a bit of shock to my body having to carry my backpack for 4km uphill to reach the lodge in the first place, but well worth the effort - it made the following days hikes without the backpack a lot easier. I don't think I have ever stayed in such a peaceful place - it was actually silent at night for once.....no dogs barking, no buses, lorries or cars beeping their horns, no noisy American tourists.....infact, just silence. The stars were amazing at night as there was absolutely no light pollution and the air was so fresh that I didn't really appreciate it until returning to the city afterwards. Didn't see as many birds as hoped, but did spot a coloured trogan bird though but couldn't locate the monkeys. The cloud forest provides the perfect environment for such a diversity of plant life to grow in the rain forest. It will be even more spectacular in a few months when all the orchids are blooming.
The thing that fascinated me the most however, were the leaf cutter ants. There are literally millions of workers in a single colony who can strip a whole tree in a day. Watching them carrying up to 30 times their weight across the paths was amazing. They really are an incredible species (see http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/ants/leafcutter/index.html for more info on leaf cutter ants). Obviously, being a Biology teacher, I've always been interested in nature, but when you are surrounded by such a diverse environment it's like being in a nature documentary and you pay more attention. Also, without the distractions of TV, you can sit for hours watching everyday life in the rainforest for real.
Leaving Honduras tomorrow for Nicaragua. It seems like such a short time spent in this beautiful and friendly country, but I feel I have made the most of the time here. It is a very easy and incredibly cheap country to travel in, and much safer than Guatemala. There is definitely something for everyone here, from the Mayan ruins of Copan, the Caribbean beaches on the north coast to the large area of mountainous rainforest with an amazing range of fauna and flora. Many people have compared it to how Costa Rica used to be 20 years ago before the influx of tourism and retired Amercians. Another one to add to the list then....
posted by Hannah @ 9:04 pm
1 Comments:
hey hannah&pete.
tried to leave a huge email/comment on hannah's blog before but i f'd it up somehow and it didnt get entered.
it concerns me that you should be in Nica and leave without going to playa Majagual, which i think got taken out of the new Cental Am Lonely P. don't you dare miss it! Basically if you're looking to do any amount of surfing on this trip anywhere, do it there and not in Costa where you're surrounded by arsey americans and have to snake onto waves faster they can snake you!
So it's a bit out of the way, but that only adds to the beauty of it; from san juan del sur you can get either a taxi for a few bucks or there's a truck about lunchtime every day that comes into town with people leaving/getting supplies and an hour or so later heads back, it's like $2. there's a little shop run by some good lads about 2 streets back from the main beach in SJ, it's called arenas caliente, that's your best bet probably for hiring a board. they had a whole quiver to choose from when i was there, and they weren't to phased when sully returned his in 2 pieces! there's a hammock camp/hostal place at majagual (or a very basic campsite but it has no food). this place was well chilled, i spent 3 weeks there. hammocks are like $3 per night. there's pretty well everything you need for a surfer there; relatively cheap food, cold beer, volleyball, shade, books, food, surf, hammocks, food surf, hammocks. get the picture?!!
the beach by the site is sheltered and good for swimming (crazy luminescence at night time too) and it gets turtles laying eggs too if you're licky. perfect sunsets, starry nights, rum, surf, beach campfire, cool breeze.
the surf there is relatively quiet intems of people out but there's always banter and ther's space for everyone ( i learnt there and even the best guys were really chilled about whos wave was whose, they got it that i just wanted to stand up on everything that came my way and anyway i'd fall straight off...) which is quite the opposite of most of costa rica... when i was there (late august) there was the nica national champs being held there so it's their version of fistral in that it's well consistent.
and if hannah isn't up for surf then make sure she takes a snorkel, that's worthwhile.
ok so i've ranted on about it but i really loved that place.
GO THERE!
ooh and if you're after waves in costa, santa teresa (by mal pais on the peninsula nicoya) is great fun, and even featured in the travel bit of observer this sunday! made me feel quite the seasoned traveller!
and there's this amazing park on peninsula de osa (south west CR) where you can walk between 3 ranger stations (each a day's walk apart) and it's the world's most densely populated (by wildlife) rainforest. there's monkeys bloody everywhere around you, pirate red parrots in huge flocks, tapirs, red eyed tree frogs, and there's so many you cant go an hour without getting excited by some new animal. and there's crocodils. and the beaches have big humpback whale vertebrae on (as big as stools). and they said there were sharks but we never saw any at the river mouth. it takes a day's bus ride from san jose so harldy anyone goes there but that's the beauty of it. you'll need to take a stack of food in with you but you can hire stoves and pans in the village at the entrance. there are no yanks there at all, just a whole bunch of budding david attenboroughs. if you do anything in CR do this.
honestly of my whole 4 months, playa majagual and corcovado national park were just the 4 most fantastic weeks of my life ever.
go there.
and take your camera.
(of all the photos from my gap year, the 6 that i chose to blow up to 22x28 inches were of majagual/corcovado/little corn!)
right gotta run.
bloody enjoy it. jealous is an understatement.
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