As we headed into La Esperanza on a four bus mission our ears popped as we wound our way into the hills. The climate here, at least at this time of year, is fucking glorious quite frankly. Lovely, hot mornings, getting a bit cooler in the afternoons as the cloud moves in, perhaps a spot of rain, then the nights are cool enough to sleep without a fan which was ideal as our room didn’t have one. La Esperanza isn’t for everyone, there’s a lot more visible poverty here which makes sense given that it’s a bigger city, and there are a lot of people begging or passed out in the streets so on the whole it’s not a lot different to where we live in the UK.
Shit to do here then. I’m pretty uncomfortable around heights so obviously as soon as I heard you could rappel down a waterfall nearby I stuck it very firmly on our list of shit to do. Apparently I hate myself. We contacted the people responsible and perused the offerings they sent to me. A spot of canyoning with a fifteen metre rappel? Hmm, well we’ve done plenty of canyoning recently, probably don’t need to do more. Rappel down a 54 metre waterfall? That does sound like fun, but what about the 70 metre Cascada El Mirador, hey? I mean, I’m going to shit myself regardless of the height, might as well shit myself as high up as possible. Sign us up!
We were staying at the hotel that arranges this sort of shenanigans so we just had to let them know which day we wanted to go and then make sure we woke up on time and try not to cry as we were fitted with harnesses and helmets as the reality of what we’d signed up for started to sink in. What the fuck is wrong with me? Just because you CAN do a thing in a town it doesn’t mean we SHOULD do the thing in the town. Our guide was lovely though, he assured us the equipment was the best and we were on good hands. We drove to the site, hiked a short way to a lovely waterfall then just hung out whilst him and his mate sorted everything out.
They knew we were nervous and set to work putting us at ease. He showed us the carabiner and the figure of eight, the things you need to attach the rope to your person along with the harness. He showed us the mark that said they were certified pieces of equipment and the numbers that meant they could handle up to a couple of tonnes so even my lard arse would be safe. The guys demonstrated all the different ways we wouldn’t plummet to our watery deaths even if we let go of the rope because the guy at the bottom could pull the rope tight and keep you exactly where you were, and the bloke at the top had the safety rope. I felt so much better after that, even if I was desperately shite at this I could quite comfortably have a nervous breakdown halfway down and I still wouldn’t die.
Right then! I was to go first to give me less chance to go and hide in a bush and pussy out of this whole endeavour. We watched the other chap go down first and the whole way he showed us what he was doing. We were told the worst bit was the initial bit, going over edge edge. Ohhhh fuck fuck fuck! Here we fucking go then. I took tiny, tiny steps over the edge, bit by bit, inch by inch, then suddenly he said, “You have done it! The hardest part!” And fuck me, so I had! I was stood up on a vertical rock face! Ha! Now all I had to do was get down the fucker.
You’re meant to let the rope in your right hand out bit by bit as you lower yourself down so that’s what I’m pretty sure I was doing but honestly, I think the fella at the bottom was doing most of the work for me. At one point the wall disappeared and i was just hanging. I attempted some less than graceful flailing to try and bring my feet back to the cliff before realising I’d need to lower myself down to where the wall actually existed. I looked down. Oh my, well that’s quite high up isn’t it?!
I clung onto the safety rope with my left hand with the force of a thousand pitbull terriers refusing to drop their favourite toy despite my logical brain telling me it was so unnecessary. I knew that hand was useless. I could spend the entire descent picking my nose and eating it with that hand and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference. I’m pretty sure that by the time I reached the bottom I wasn’t really doing anything and the guys were doing it all and I was so grateful because I was so fucking tense. I’m so pleased I did it though, it’s quite the achievement for me.
Tarrant made it look a lot easier than I did despite losing her footing at the top and once she was down we had to get back to the car which involved a bit of an unmarked scramble through a coffee plantation until we reached a proper trail. Well that whole thing had my poor little heart working overtime but shitting hell, what an experience!
Whilst La Esperanza is basically climate controlled for optimum comfort, the little town of Gracias is your standard Central American mosquito infested sweat box. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, it makes for a lovely stroll, but you’re going to need your body weight in DEET to avoid being exsanguinated within minutes. Maybe not YOUR body weight, maybe the body weight of a medium sized elephant. They’re fucking relentless. We were covered head to toe in the strongest DEET we could find without having to submit forms to gain permission for the purchase and transport of hazardous materials and Tarrant still swore blind they were licking it off and biting her as a cheeky dessert.
We originally came here to do the zipline not a hideous distance away but honestly, what zipline is going to compare to rappelling down a fuck off great big waterfall? We decided to use it as a mere stop off on the way to the border but we did head to the little fort they have in town, Fuerte San Cristóbal. Yeeaahhh… probably not worth the effort and it’s certainly not worth the L60 that foreigners have to part with. It feels neglected. They’ve obviously started building something but abandoned it for whatever reason. You can walk around the whole thing in about two minutes. They did, it seems, used to have information boards but they’re now broken, faded, and propped up against a wall. We could have spent that L60 each on baleadas instead and actually been satisfied.
Anyway! So that’s Honduras coming to an end for us. There might be way more to see and do but we’ve enjoyed what we’ve seen and done, definitely. The Bay Islands are fun but they’re not a genuine snapshot of Honduras, I think the towns mentioned in this post are your authentic taste of the country. It’s been great though, I’d probably come back some day and see more of it, but tomorrow we head back to Copán Ruinas for the night before we head to la frontera and into Guatemala for a few days.
Jump to “Useful shit to know…”
La Esperanza, Intibucá & Gracias, Lempira, Honduras
Stayed at: Hostal Mitos, La Esperanza & Jardin Café Restaurante & Hotel, Gracias
Useful shit to know…
How To Get From Los Naranjos (D&D Brewery) To La Esperanza By Bus
- You can take a bus (L15 each) or mototaxi (L20 each) to Peña Blanca.
- 14.967649, -88.025667 is a good place to wait for a bus to La Guama.
- This will take twenty minutes and cost L25.
- Alternatively, the Santa Bárbara Mochito bus will take you from Los Naranjos to La Guama but I’m not sure how much this costs.
- Once in La Guama you can flag any bus heading for Siguatepeque (mercifully shortened to Sigua) or Tegucigalpa, but you’re only going as far as Sigua.
- We ended up on a big bus to Tegucigalpa which cost L60 each and took 70 minutes but this includes a toilet break just before Sigua.
- Incidentally, when we went to the Cuevas de Taulabé the other day we took a minivan bound for Sigua and I’m pretty sure he was charging L75 to go all the way there.
- If you let the ayudante know you’re heading for La Esperanza he’ll make sure you’re dropped at the turn off, then you just need to walk around the corner and get on the next bus heading there.
- This took just over 90 minutes and cost L90 each.
- Be prepared to have to stand for the last two buses, they get full.
- Total cost: L190 (US$7.70) each.
- Total time: Three hours and 40 minutes including waiting time between buses.
- If you want to stay at Hotel Mitos (L600 for a room with one bed for two people at the time of writing, July 2023) or if you wanted to do some waterfall related rappelling you can contact them on +504 9700 0409.
- It cost L700 each to rappel El Mirador.
- La Esperanza to Gracias is one bus from the bus terminal (14.308684, -88.170277).
- I was told they were every hour on the half hour.
- We ended up on one of the big Tegucigalpa to Santa Rosa buses.
- It cost L120 each and took just under two hours.
- We were dropped across the road from the bus terminal which is at 14.59124, -88.586521.
Travel & Shit 