Today was an adventurous day. We went to the National Forest Park at Mount Celaque, which is the tallest mountain in Honduras, rising up to 9347 feet at its peak. We did not climb to the top as that is an overnight, 2 day trip. We did climb a long way though to an area supposedly with a view of water falls. I say supposedly because we never actually saw any falls that high up. We got close enough to hear the falls and kept going thinking they would be around the next bend or next peak, but they never appeared. We went fairly high up to the top of one of the lower points along side the mountain which was about 7000 feet high into the cloud forest, about a 3 hour climb up and little more than an hour mostly out of control run down. You cannot see down below from there nor can you see these peaks from the town below because they are surrounded in clouds all the time. We did hike along lots of cascades of the rivers with small falls along the way. The water was freezing cold. No bathing is allowed because this is the drinking water for the towns below. Definitely the cleanest rivers and streams I have ever seen in Honduras. We passed lots of coffee plantations along the way up in the lower areas before it got too steep for people to live. These high altitudes with clouds are the ideal climate for growing coffee and this is the season too; lots of red bean pods on the plants. My legs are killing me!
We went from the town center to the entrance to the park in a moto-taxi, which is the little form of taxis they have in lots of towns in Honduras. The front looks like a motorcycle with two wheels in back and a place for 3 people to sit, covered. The trip from town up the mountain over a terrible dirt, rock, pothole road took 40 minutes and cost the equivalet of $5. That is such a good wage that they guy was happy to agree to return 5 hours later and pick us up for the return trip, same price. Nearly 3 hours of his time in total driving 2 round trips over terrible terrain for $10.
When we got back we all went to the hotel pool, which was freezing cold, but felt refreshing after being so tired. Yesterday was the hot tubs, today the cold tub. They were having a sound check poolside for a concert that was going on later in the night. The concert was later in the evening with three different singers, all supposedly famous Honduran singers. The boys were embarrased to swim at first with all the people there setting up for the show, but got over it before too long. We went back later on for the show which was nice. Recorded music with each of the singers singing his songs live kind of like keroke. It seemed like big doings for this small town on a Sat. night. Nice way to spend our last night here.
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