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Kath Freer and James Kay are now seven weeks into their year-long honeymoon. They quit their jobs in the summer and are travelling around the world living the romantic dream on a shoestring budget. This is Kath’s latest “maximoon” post from Honduras in Central America. You may also be interested in our quick interactive Honeymoon quiz.
By Kath Freer
Our introduction to Honduras proved a challenging one. A scheduled three-hour bus journey from the city of San Pedro to the town of Copan Ruinas turned into a hot and sweaty nine hours in a major tailback. With approximately three main roads, the most minor motor incidents in Honduras cause serious setbacks.
So we arrived into Copan Ruinas just after midnight with breakfast a distant memory. As we walked the dark quiet streets it became obvious that finding a place to stay, never mind a bite to eat, was going to prove a challenge.
We were saved by a friendly local who led us to a hotel across town. I was so relieved to have a bed for the night I hardly minded the cockroaches running across it.
Things improved and we quickly fell in love with Copan Ruinas – so much so, we signed up for three days of Spanish lessons at the local Guacamaya Language School (www.guacamaya.com). To help us practice our Spanish, we stayed with a local family which gave us a great insight into Honduran life (and food). We dined daily on rice, refried beans, deep-fried plantain and corn tortillas, while struggling through a few basic phrases with our patient hosts.
Without doubt, one of our best experiences in Honduras was an overnight trip to the Finca El Cisne. Cowboy Carlos Castejon has turned his family farmhouse into an agrotourism homestay, where he cultivates organic fruit, vegetables, coffee and herbs and serves them as delicious meals to his guests.
The staple diet we´d become accustomed to was ingeniously developed to include cheese-infused tortillas with a fresh tomato salsa, homegrown watercress and tomato salad, and home-reared beef with roasted yucca and courgette.
During our stay at the finca we went horseriding in the breathtakingly beautiful hills, took a tour of Carlos´s coffee plantation and rounded off the day with a visit to the Luna Jaguar Hot Springs, where we spent a blissful couple of hours floating in the warm thermal waters, listening to the cicadas in the surrounding tropical trees.
We ended our time in Honduras with a few luxurious days of secluded R&R at Barefoot Cay, a boutique resort on the island of Roatan, the biggest of the Bay Islands off the north coast.
The stylish resort is set on a privately owned four-acre cay, separated from the main island by a narrow channel. Our gorgeous beachfront bungalow, ‘Zeni’, featured a covered deck with spectacular views overlooking the Caribbean. Inside, a huge flat screen TV/DVD and fully equipped kitchen meant we could cosy up and work to our own (lazy) schedule.
Our days were spent relaxing on the private beach and splashing around in the T-shaped pool, whose partial covering provided welcome relief from the hot sun. In the evenings we cooled off in the Balinese open-air shower (big enough for two) before sinking into the soft white linens of the aptly named ‘heavenly bed´.
One night we dined at the restaurant, feasting on fat and juicy lobster tails, delicately seasoned with herbs and lime juice, and grilled to perfection. The upstairs seating area boasted views of the Cay and was a wonderful spot to watch the sunset with a glass of chilled wine.
We are leaving Honduras for Costa Rica now – it has much to live up to.
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