0105 Lago de Yojoa to Danli

Have you ever tried to photograph a humming bird ?  Unless you have a very high speed lens (and a steady hand !) I reckon its impossible.  But with them always flying
around at D&D, I had to try - And as least I got a beak in focus !!

Yesterday afternoon, after spending the morning catching up with email etc and chatting to other visitors at D&D, we went off to the Cataracts of Pulhapanzak, about 20 kms away through the nearby village of Pena Blanco (White Rock).  The dirt road was interesting, and to greet us at the falls was a great big lizard !  Seemed friendly enough though !

The falls are quite spectacular, especially with all the recent rain, and the 50 metre drop creates a lot of spray and mist so you get quite wet !!  it is just a shame that the whole facility, which obviously once was quite nice, has been allowed to go to rack and ruin, so paths and stairways are quite dangerous, fences are missing, and it is all just a bit "sad".  It wouldn't take long to bring it up to a smart standard, but.......
Nevertheless the falls were great, an the swimming and picnic area interesting. We particularly liked the sing asking for no "ruff" play by the pool !!  Several old Toyota Land Cruisers (FJ40 model ?) lying around down near the falls too ! (My son Damien has one !)

On the way back to D&D, we passed a posse (?) of vultures chewing on some carcass right in the middle of the village, with villagers walking by on the other side of the road without a care !!

Back at D&D for one more night, we saw their brewery which is all inside a 40 ft container - Quite good from a security point of view !  In the evening the whole area is all lit up with LED lights, and we sat around chatting to all and sundry over a few beers and dinner.  And of all the people there, it turns out that an English guy Chris -  who is travelling north with German Renate - is in the chemical industry and was on a business trip I went on with a supplier in about 2005 when we went to the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring !!  Small world !!

Rained a lot in the night, but we woke up dry, had breakfast, and were ready to leave by about 9.30 am. While I was packing up, Osmond, who works at D&D, and who really wanted to buy my bicycle, worked on me for a while, and eventually I relented because he SO wanted it, and I really am not using it like I expected and it is starting to suffer quite badly in the weather behind the car.  So I left him a very happy chappy with a new bike, and we set off down the road round Lago de Yojoa, heading towards Comayagua, once the capital of Honduras.

Lots of different things for sale beside the road today - Fish, oranges, coconuts, other fruit, clay pots and (rather sad) kind of clay garden statues, honey, sugar can juice - All sorts of things.  Its like a supermarket as you drive along !!  After some 1500 metre passes, we dropped into the charming little town of Comayagua, where we found our way through the narrow streets to the Cathedral, which we had read had gold on the walls behind the altars, and the second oldest working clock in the world, built in

1100 !!  We found a parking spot and wandered through the central plaza to the cathedral, and enjoyed the inside - Enormous silver light fixtures, an old pipe organ undergoing repair, and the gold background behind the altars. Couldn't find the clock though, so went out into the square and had a coffee, and the owner then arranged a guide to take us up the tower of the Cathedral to see the clock.  So up this very narrow steep staircase, where up in the tower was this old clock in a ratty old case, pigeon poop everywhere, and bodge job cables linking the mechanism to the bells so it chimed correctly.  The weights keeping the clock running hung through the floor !  If it truly was built in 1100, it really should be looked after better, but, it is still working, so can't be too bad ! 

Beautiful views over the tiled roofs of the town, and also over the square where the "shadow" of the cathedral is laid out in the plaza using a different coloured stone.  You don't even notice it when you walk across the plaza, but it is quite clear from the bell tower.

After that, we went back to the car and head out of town as we still had many miles to go to our intended destination for the night, near the Nicaraguan border, so we can cross early tomorrow. But not far out of town we had to stop while electrical cables (hopefully not live) were dragged across the road, while taxi and bikes tried to get around and go over them, so great was their impatience !!  It really is amazing what you see on the roads over here !!

Eventually on the way to Tegucigalpa, and as we drove, Janet read in the guide book that there was nothing to see there, it was quite dirty, ugly, and dangerous, and it suggested one didn't stop there.  And as we approached the city, black clouds gathered

and as we entered the city, the heavens opened and made it all worse than the book had said !  It really was filthy, traffic everywhere, just a total mess, so we drove straight through and out the other side. Ever since I first wrote out the name "Tegucigalpa" I had envisioned some delightful city, perhaps more like Comayagua had been, so to see this really rather horrible city when I finally got there after all these miles was a big disappointment for me.  Ah well........

After Tegucigalpa, it was a fairly straightforward run eastwards towards Danli where we planned to spend the night as it is only a few kms from the Nicaraguan border.  When we got there it was just getting dark, and after driving through town and finding

nowhere we could spend the night (we had been told of a big gas station but couldn't find it), we drove back the way we had come to where we had seen a hotel beside the road with walls and security, but just right outside the hotel there had just been an accident with a truck lying on its side right in the driveway of the hotel !!   Anyway, we squeezed through, and managed to get a room for $20, and had dinner in their restaurant while we watched the police sort out the accident outside the window !  In fact, the police came in and had dinner in the restaurant after they had finished clearing up !!

So, a warm shower (rare over here !), and tomorrow we are off to Nicaragua and the next stage in our journey.  As always, a fun day with so many unexpected happenings !  All making for a very interesting and varied adventure !!!

Pics are here https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0102LagoDeYojoaToDanli?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7rwLa04I20Qg#