Thoroughly relaxed and recovered from our hangovers we pushed towards La Ceiba, Honduras and Pico Bonito National Park.
Semana Santa (Holy Week) was rapidly approaching. During Semana Santa the entire latin american populace takes the week off and heads to the coastline to party it up. On the beaches of Tela we were sitting at ground-zero for the madness. The hotel owners all said we should get the hell out of dodge before Monday, every single hotel room was booked up for the next 8 days and people were flocking in by the thousands when we hit the road.
We headed for the hills! Specifically Pico Bonito national park located outside the town of La Ceiba, Honduras. We stopped by the grocery and stocked up on supplies. We were planning to be gone for at least a week up in the mountain, vowing only to come out once the madness had ended.
The Rio Cangrejal winds through Pico Bonito park. Rio Cangrejal is known for its world-class white-water rafting.
We followed dirt roads all throughout the park searching for free place to pirate camp. Unfortunately you had the river on one side and crazy dense jungle on the other. Not many opportunity’s for camping. Beautiful country though.
I had some fun mashing through some wild river crossings and getting some weird looks from kids wondering why this gringo was driving in their swimming holes.
On the road we pass this hut slinging some sort of jungle hooch. We, of course, pulled over to have a taste.
Guifiti/Gifiti is a Garifun native drink made out of sticks, herbs (including that good good), spices, and rum. It tastes like crap but they say its good for your health and vigor.
Saluld!
They also had this bottle of AIDS for sale. Surprisingly it was pretty damn good.
Spotted our first Mot-Mot! Sorry the point+shoot doesn’t have the best zoom.
Sun was starting to set and we still had not found a place to camp, We passed a few hostel/hotels on the way up the mountain so doubled-back to check them out.
We found a spot called “Omega Tours” who offer cabins/camping/rafting tours in Pico Bonito. $5 a night and they have a bar. Sold!
Setup camp beneath the palm trees.
Night falls and the moon comes out.
We spend the night drinking at the bar and messin’ with the pool frogs. 
Woke up the next morning and hit the trails. We heard about a hike through the Pico Bonito jungle to some nice waterfalls. Even though we started at 730AM the temp was pushing into 90F by 8AM. Did I mention its hot here in Honduras!?
Lauren looking down at Rio Cangregal from the suspension bridge.
Hit the trail!
Passed a few smaller waterfalls.
And lots of these creepy alien-pods growing on the trees. The Greys are coming!
Eventually we made it to the waterfall. We were the only people out there and took a dip in some of the pools at the bottom of the falls. Very refreshing after sweating our balls off on the hike.
We hung around Pico Bonito for a few more days, The Omega Tour folks were having some computer issues. I got them sorted out and got our campground and bar tab bills comped for the 4-days we were there. SCORE!
After a while though we got bored and decided to break our rule. We headed out during Semana Santa. Destination: The Moskito Coast.
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