The Potato ChickTravelling, eating and my other favourite things... |
Utila, HondurasIn a sentence...another island paradise. Food we loved...baleadas – the Honduran answer to the kebab. It’s a large tortilla folded in half and filled with meat, cheese, beans and salad. A million years ago I bought a Central America guidebook from a second-hand book shop. At the time I had no real plans to visit the area but the book certainly painted the picture of a fabulous part of the world. In particular Utila, a tiny island off the coast of Honduras, sounded like it would be right up our alley. We made haphazard plans to get there “some day”. Well we finally made it to Utila and, after a rough start, it has lived up to all our expectations. Not that the rough start was poor old Utila’s fault. Rather, it was me who left my phone behind when we vacated the bus we had spent the entire day on. Grrrr. Our time on Utila was mainly dedicated to physical pursuits. Nick completed his Advanced Open Water Diver course for starters. We also walked the length of the island (as far as the mangrove swamp would allow), did a yoga class, did some running and swimming, kayaked through a mangrove canal to the other side of the island and hiked to the other side of the island (while actually trying to find the path up to the highest point of the island). In between all of this activity we truly embraced our inner Caribbean by drinking plenty of rum while watching Utila’s stunning sunsets. Thank you to Rough Guide Central America for putting Utila on our agenda so many years ago. Next stop...Leon, Nicaragua. Posted 6 February 2015Copan, HondurasIn a sentence...not a bad little stopover. Food we loved...pupusas – tortillas filled with cheese, beans and meat. Delicious and cheap! We spent less than 24 hours in Copan out of necessity rather than a strong desire to visit. However, we had a lovely time there exploring a few of the nearby attractions and were able to get a bit of a feel for mainland Honduras. Our first stop was Copan Ruinas, Honduras’ answer to Tikal. While not as impressive as Tikal it was still a great place to wander around for a while and the macaws hanging out in the surrounding trees were pretty awesome. After a fabulous pupusa lunch and a choc-banana smoothie we headed to Macaw Mountain, a bird sanctuary a couple of kilometres out of town. I must admit that this kind of attraction would not usually be high on my list of priorities but the birds which are native to this part of the world, macaws and toucans for example, are just spectacular. We tried our luck with a cappuccino in the sanctuary’s cafe. Turns out that the fact the coffee beans were grown there does not translate to delicious coffee-making methods. When it came time to leave early the next morning we were glad that this vehicle was not our source of transport... Next stop...Utila, Honduras. Posted 5 February 2015 |