Tela - Garifuna and unspoiled beaches
Trip Start
May 20, 2007
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14
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Trip End
Nov 21, 2007
Tela, Honduras
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
La Ceiba is the 3rd biggest city in Honduras and it just does not look like its a big city.
However we found all what we needed there. I bought a new pair of Flip-Flops, to be precise havaianas they are the best. I killed my other ones and had to wear trainers for over a week so im very very happy now.
Maria found Quesnos there (something like Subway) but they just started to build the place so no sandwiches, but we went to KFC and found the other day Dunkin Dougnuts and had breakfast there.
We stayed at a Place called Banana Republic, nice airy rooms but check the bed before
bananapier in tela 2
. The matress was the worst we had so far, very very soft and the sheets wer covered with bloody dots. First I thought aboud bedbugs but the matress was ok so the blood was supposly old.We visited the beach and what we saw we weren't too impressed, littered ....
At 12am we checked out and took a bus to Tela. As we left the taxi, two men helped to carry marias backpacks. And they were carried to the right bus. Sure this service was free but the bustickets were probably about the double price then. Nothing is for fee!
Tela is a quiet and a harbour town not hit by too many tourists, and you feel a much more welcoming by the people. We had to check 3 hotels before we found a cheap and clean one.
Hotel Bertha was our choice. Take a room with aircon, we didn't but due to the fan which went well its awfull hot here. Like in a Sauna!
After the checkin we looked for some food and found a place called "luna del norte". Nordlicht, quite a strange name for a place not in scandinavia. However very very good seafood there
bananapier in tela 3
! We even went there yestday for dinner, get the grilled fish filet with rice and fried bananas. Our plan was to go to the Garifuna village on the most northern tip on the beach and we dicided to take it easy and spend the huge sum of 20 dollars per person to go with an organzed trip. But the go only with a group of minimum 5 persons. So we had to do in by our own the next day.
So we sood up early and went to the bus terminal, there we were aproached by a strange old captain who saw all of the world, then he told us he was a priest and traveld all over the world.... He showed us around but did not charge anything, even more strange. We made it in the right chicken bus (remember the old american schoolbuses, they still have got all the savety warnings on the walls but they were disregarded not just once) and had a ride in it with lots of funny Garifunas who laughed, sang and joked the whole ride. Maybe I have to tell now what Garifuna means, so they were Slaves from Africa who shipwrecked on the coast 200 years ago and get on very well here so you see them quite often.
After 30 minutes we arrived at Tonabe and we were told that the next car who goes to Miami is in 2,5 hours
beachhut in miami
. I planned to take a boat there but the only one had a broken engine. So we walked the 10km on the beach. Again it was in the middle of the day and due to some warnings i took a stick for the banditos. We got a nice suntan and arrived in about 2hours later in Miami.The houses are all made by wood and covered with palmleaves. Looks really carabean.
We found the only "restaurant" and had a chicken soup with yuka and bananas. And a ice cold pepsis. Very tasty and cheap food. I bought some notebooks and some colourpens and gave it to some kids and they were really happy. Thanks to maria thought of it, i might have carried it back and forgot about the stuff in my bag. When we left we saw the mother take the stuff away and i guess she confiscated it for the school or until they grew older.
About one hour later the car arrived and fish and people were loaded. It was a funny ride back to Tonabe and from there we took a chickenbus back into town. Because the bus was empty for a while we took some pics on the drivers seat.
So all together we might have spent about not even 4 Dollars for each of us, compared to 20 Dollars for the tour, quite a bargain. Close to the busstand we had some more refreshing Liquados (Shakes with milk, mango and pineapple) and later in the Luna de Norte some nice seafood. We will take the bus to Teguchigalpa at about 11am and will arrive there 5 hours later. So have fun and take care!
Bye Maria and Alex
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have to stop now, the pics are online now the story goes on by tomorrow from teguchigalpa.
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