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Honduras: Health and well being:
Health is one thing we all take for granted if we have it. While living on the road and away from good health insurance, health is a matter of survival. The only health insurance cavegirl and I can afford is a $5K deductible world health insurance that is only good in the USA if we spend at least 6 months out of the USA first(what da heck!). Five grand will almost get us a by-pass in a developing country so basically we are on our own unless something vary bad happens, and if that happens within the first 6 months we have to be taken care of in the country we are in (woo).
Honduras has always felt different but with the bonus of finding an sweet hotel with a sign in every hallway saying “Purified ice” we are fired up. Great, Heidi and I celebrate finally having ice the first night, cocktails, pop and water with plenty of ice. Later that day we walk to town and eat at a fast food chicken place, which we don’t normally do. Later I get sick and Heidi doesn't feel well either. We blow it off thinking it was the greasy chicken. The next day Heidi has a bad headache and my head is not great either. I also have an ear infection and had it for a week now. We have some powerful antibiotics used for traveler’s diarrhea, they can also be used for general infections like you would use penicillin. That day I start on the antibiotics for my ear. Heidi continues to drink plenty of water and pop all with ice and kept getting sicker and sicker. We tried to theorize why she is so sick and i am fine, nothing makes sense because we both ate the same food. Later, while filling up another pitcher of ice for Heidi I inspected the ice machine. The frick'en ice machine is not connected to purified water but is connected to the city water line with a cheesy little water filter that says (Ice-O-Matic)and we are in Honduras! I know about water filters for camping and for salt water sailboats and I know that this filter worked OK for the first few gallons of water but after that it needs to be replaced. I’m sure this filter has never replaced and it has been years. I'm sure the sign that says “Purified ice” is from the company who sold the ice machine and the filter, all Bogus.
We are both on traveler’s diarrhea antibiotics now. My ear infection is slowly getting better and Heidi is slowly feeling better to. Lesson learned: Always question the source of drinking water AND ICE. Without health we have nothing……..
All in all our stay in El Progreso is good. At midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas day the town is blowing off fireworks, way cool. A memory flashes when I was very young and my Mother and I went out onto our second floor porch at midnight on New Years and listened to the fireworks blow off around town. It is unreal how sounds and smells can re-ignite vivid memories of something that happened over 40 years ago. My head feels a tingle…..
Lago de Yojoa:
The day after Christmas riding toward Lago (lake) de Yojoa looking to hunker down until after the holidays. This is the biggest and one of the most beautiful lakes in Honduras. After trying to get reservations at the D & D brewery / bed and breakfast on the north side of the lake and failuing and the phone is always busy, this concerned us, our guide book talks about all the hotels around the lake tend to fill up over the weekends and holidays.
The highway out of El Progreso is in fantastic shape with beautiful scenery, huge fields of tall sugarcane and tall tassels on top lined by big volcanic rolling hills. Even though the highways are in great shape we still keep a good lookout and ride easy, south of the border there is always the possibility of a man eating pot hole at any time, and Honduras is no exception to that. The ride is uneventful…..
Cruising the entire length of Lago de Yojoa while looking for the hotels recommended in the guide book. The eastern side of the lake is lined with dozens of restaurants and is a good place to stop for lunch and get a closer look at the map.
The directions are to ride north to the end of the lake and then left 2.5 Km from the town Pena Blanca. The only problem is that there are four possible roads it could be on. Of course it took us four attempts. The D & D is a cute tropical jungle feeling place with a swimming pool and a micro brewery. We are not happy with the bike security situation and the owner is not giving us any warm fuzzy feelings, plus the place is not even close to the lake.
Heidi spotted a hotel a few miles back. Hotel Agua Azul. What a score, this place is right on the water.
Heidi and are from one of the biggest tourist areas in Northern Wisconsin filled with trees, lakes and fishing resorts. If Hotel Agua Azul was in the Hayward Wisconsin it for sure would be one of the most popular resorts around. The fishing is great, the resort has a swimming pool and a huge covered deck overlooking the lake and surrounding hills with a pool tables, restaurant and bar.
Lodge deck
A few shots of the lake
There are a lot of fun things to do around the area. On our second day we take off on foot looking for a waterfall we read about. The first pickup truck that comes along stops and gives us a lift. Way cool and the driver wouldn’t accept any money for the ride.
The only directions we have to the waterfall is that the trailhead is close to the town San Buenaventura. San Buenaventura is not on any map we have so we just give it a good guess. The pickup truck drops us off at the town Pena Blanca. There we ask a taxi driver if he could take us to San Buenaventura, $5.50 and he drops us off right at the trailhead, all right!
A few shots of Palhapanzak is a 443 m waterfall along the Rio Lindo.
On the way back in Pena Blancawe we find chicken tacos for lunch, funny looking tacos but they are big and taste good. Two plates of food and soda for under $5.00, can-do.
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