La Moskitia

Oh, civilization. Sweet, sweet civilization.

I left for La Moskitia on Wednesday of last week, after much deliberation over whether it would be worth the money and the hardship. I returned yesterday still not having answered the second part of that question. The money, yes. The sweat, bugs, and emotional turmoil... perhaps not. Let's discuss...

Day 1 - Left at 5 in the morning to catch the first bus to Tocoa. Two waterproof bags, one waterproof dutchman, and two non-waterproof New Balance sneakers. We managed to catch the 6.15, and were in Tocoa by roughly 8. We met up with our driver, Fernando, in the mercado, and were escorted to our means of transport by which we were to go to Pueblo Nuevo... the last city before the lagoons of La Moskitia. This is me posing before a 5 hour ride through highway, jungle, and ocean. I suppose it made the most sense to put the able-bodied outside... but four-wheeling through the jungle and driving (LITERALLY) through the ocean while perching on top of several sacks of potatoes which were draped somewhat capriciously over a stove in a box, with nothing to hold onto but a fraying rope is NOT something that should be trusted to a couple of foreigners.

After arriving in Pueblo Nuevo, we caught a lancha out to Ra Ista, our last stop of the day... had a bean and egg dinner, and fell asleep to the sounds of the ocean and the steady hum of thirsty mosquitos.

Day 2 - I'm going to count this in Day 2, even though I'm not sure exactly when it happened... Sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke believing Sjors to be kicking my bed. I opened my eyes to a 7.1 earthquake violently swaying our hut-on-stilts in the middle of the jungle. After teetering around like a bowling pin for 10 minutes or so, we eventually settled down, and Sjors told me that that was the first earthquake he had ever experienced. In the complete darkness of the jungle, in a rickety shack built in floodlands, atop stilts. I give him points.

The rest of the day was spent in a boat headed upstream to the tranquil, one-phone town of Las Marias. This is the view from the balcony.

Day 3 - This was our first day actually hiking in the jungle. I'm not sure what made me think I was up to hiking this. Perhaps it's my I-can-do-anything-a-boy-can-do attitude... but no. No, I can't. I went with 3 guides, heart jungle men that do this shit barefoot at least several times a month, and Sjors... a tall dutchman that I think works as a personal trainer in his gym back home. And then there was me. This is me drinking hastily out of a creek we passed along the way. After mercifully stopping several times for my benefit, we arrived at our shelter about an hour after we were supposed to. A lot of the hike was uphill. Shut up. The cabin was on stilts, like everywhere we stayed by the Rio Platano.

Day 4 - The day we actually made it to the top of Pico Dama. Not much to be said about the actual hike, except that I was slow and fell down a lot... but here is a photo from near the top. Nothing but jungle. Beautiful!


The most exciting thing about this day was when we were about to go to sleep. The next picture is the critter that was dangling above my bed. He is the second monster we found. The first was a spider the size of a dinner plate (no joke). The next half hour or so we spent trying to push him out of the window with the blunt side of a machete. He was about a meter and a half long. We spent another half hour chasing out giant cockroaches, other monster spiders, and baby scorpions.



Day 5 - Woke up feeling like a piece of cargo. This is the barrack where I slept for 2 nights. I wish I could have gotten a photo with me INSIDE of it. There wasn't even room to bend my knees. Now I know what slave ships were like. Except for the urinating on myself, and you know... being a slave part of it. I awoke next to a hairy mass that I originally assumed to be a piece of straw. After further investigation, I found that it was not only a big momma scorpion, but it was all her 14 babies too. That's why it looked hairy... all the tails were sticking out in every direction. Spent the rest of the day getting back down to the river to head to Las Marias again. The shitty thing about walking downwards on wet jungle leaves is that if you slip, you really don't stop sliding until you've gone about 10 meters and lost your ability to reproduce. I fell a lot.

Day 6 - Ra Ista enjoying having a real bed and shower. We saw the sun set over the beach on the Moskito Coast. The beautiful thing about this beach that I've never seen before is that it's completely northward facing, so the sun sets right were the land and water meet. These are some kids we met out there that were total hams for the camera.


Day 7 - Went back to La Ceiba and took the first proper shower I'd had in a week.





I'm in Copan Ruinas now, spending the next couple of weeks taking language school and volunteering at a clinic. I'll update accordingly.