Rafting the Rio Platino
Trip Start
Dec 2007
1
20
30
Trip End
Feb 2008
Rio Platino,
Honduras
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Having two beggies on the trip seemed to be causing some problems and we seemed to have an enormous amount of food in two large barrels but then given the remoteness we would need to be self sufficent.
Bodie playing footie with the local
Day one was a long dirve from La Ceiba to Las Catamas over very dodgy roads. It was a long day given the bouncing around in the 4wd. Bodie meet us there as he had been at Copan.
The second day was also a long day of driving and we were warned that the 4wd vehicles may not be able to make it all the way to our lodgings but we did make it all the way, thanks goodness as we had a lot of stuff.
We stayed overnight with a family in Bonaza who grew coffee. They dont often get visitors as the Rio Platino is only rafted a couple of times a year. So we caused great excitement and villagers from all around came to stare at us. They watched us eat, then watched as we played poker. Bodie played footie with the lads, who seemed surprised that he could play.
They put on some ínterestíng music and i think they wanted us to dance but by now 40 people were crammed in the room and then the testosterone started to flow. Suddenly everyone was arm wrestling each other and Jeff turned out to the champion and must have arm wrestled everyone in the room, i have no idea how he could even move his arm
Di in the mud
.Getting to sleep was difficult as we were basically sleeping on the floor and between the two main areas of the house. The first difficulty was trying to get everyone to leave the room and then i woke up to find some of the kids just watching us!
The thrid day was always going to be hell as we loaded our equipment onto 8 mules-horses and proceeded to walk over a muddy mountain to the river. The walking was hard work as the mud was often mid calve and all thoughts of clean boots were banished after the first hour. We slipped and slid our way along the path. Bodie and Stuart went ahead following the mules and we followed their tracks, getting lost once or twice. The mule drivers needed to cut some path for the mules as this is not used often and also some trees had blocked the passage in other places.
finally we reached the top of the mountain and now we had to slide back down. Very elegantly we often sat down and slid down the hill. I learnt a new lesson, do not look up as you are guaranteed to slip and slip i did in one of the streams! It was actually quite pleasant as it was hot and it washed some of the mud off.
First camp site in Jungle
7 hours later we arrived at camp where Bodie and Stuart had set up the tarp and pumped up the raft. No more people for 9 days.
Jus and I put up our tent, Bodie cooked some dinner and then i went to sleep.....
Next morning we worked out how to load the raft as the middle compartment was totally full of barrels and other equipment. A safety briefing and away we went.-
The Platino is quite small where we started and with our heavy raft we were constanly caught on rocks for the first two days and this required, climbing out (sometimes the princesses, as i christened us, didnt get out and the boys hauled us over the rocks). A couple of times Jus and I had to get out of the raft and climb down the sid eof the river, this was treacherous as the rocks were slippery and the rapids, not nice to fall into.
At the end of our first day of rafting we couldnt find a beach to set up camp so the boys just cut one out of the jungle. It was fab to set up our tents within the jungle and i couldnt believe the noise all the critters made.
Day 2 was still very patchy with getting stuck on rocks, hauling off and walking down the side of the river. This was partially because our raft was so full but also because the water was quite low.
