...Punta Sal, Tela Weekend...

Since our time is quickly running out here in Honduras, we decided we needed to take advantage of EVERY weekend until we leave - so we decided within a few days that we wanted to head to the coast this past weekend. There is a nice beach about 2.5 hours away called Tela, with a great little hotel on the beach - Cesar Mariscos - with an infinity pool and jacuzzi on the roof ($20 each with bfast) - so 5 of us loaded up in our friend Katherine's (my first british friend, yessss) car Saturday morning for the coast! We arrived around noon, threw our bags in the room and immediately hit the beach, Steph and I had ridden in our bathing suits so we were more than ready! While swimming, the girls found a lost little sea creature that we had never seen before - turned out to be a nudibranch, which we had never heard of or seen before, we like to think we discovered it b/c there is nothing on google images matching what it looked like. So some Honduran guys of course went and got a plastic cup and caught it so the gringas could hold it. Candace dropped it and screamed like a small child, it was great and the guys thought it was hilarious when we asked them if it was a "pepino del mar" (sea cucumber) evidently that doesn't translate right, hahaha.

So after a few sandy hours on the beach we decided it was pool time and went to the jacuzzi and pool for a couple more hours and relaxed before dinner. We just wandered down the beach a little to a nice beach front rest. that had a lot of options. It was pretty good (Brisas del Mar) - then we wandered around the city a bit for ice cream but it was a little sketchy so we went back to our place for ice cream (why didn't we think of that in the first place?!) They told us they had ice cream but wouldn't take our order for about 10 mins - thats when we saw a guy slipping in through the back with a gallon of ice cream he had just went and bought for us, haha, and had chocolate sundays with pinapple/coconut and cherrys on top! The night we were there just happened to be the first night of the Tela Fair, yay for us, not. Directly below our window was a huge set up for the "Queen of Tela" contest happening that night. The music/screaming only lasted til 1am which could have been worse, but it was pretty funny, we watched from our window.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and caught our tour to Punta Sal. It was $28 for the tour, the guide, the boat to/from, and snorkeling. It was an adventure from the beginning - the tide was too far down so we had to push our boat from the canal into the ocean as the waves would come high. Then a 45 min ride in the middle of the ocean in a small boat, and finally we arrived to the peninsula/island. On the way to the hiking spot our driver spoted a massive boa constrictor sun bathing on the rocks - so what does our tour guide do - what any normal person would do - jumped out onto the rocks from the boat and pulled it from its tail out so we could see it. We got some good pictures and looks at it as it snapped at him several times causing him to drop it - but he would pick it back up of course. Finally the huge snake got away and escaped into the water, which was great considering we would be snorkeling later - but it ended up crawling back up after about 5 mins.

We got to the hiking spot and started on the trail. On the trail we saw some really cool trees, weird bananas with seeds, and more. There was this bright blue crab that had eaten a poisonous plant on the island (which was used as a natural aphrodisiac), and was dying. Our guide said he wasn't suffering though - he was in a "bob marley" state - so we decided the crab had overdosed. We also saw the 2nd most venomous spider in honduras - and it was ALL around our heads as we walked down the trail. Our guide had to go in front in case there were any in the trail so he could tell us. We prolly saw over 20 of them on a 30 minute hike - it was NOT comforting. They were HUGE too, not cool. At the end of the hike we saw a 4 inch yellow spotted grasshopper and howler monkeys. Then on the way back to the island where we would eat lunch, we got to stop a little out from the beach and could snorkel back to the beach along the reef. It was great, we saw some cool worm/caterpillar things, queen angel fish, parrot fish, and more! When we got back to the island we had some typical garifuna food - fried fish, tajadas, red beans and coconut rice, and coconut milk straight from the coconut. After lunch we chilled on the beach a couple more hours, and took some funny pictures underwater. We kept trying to take a picture of us having a "tea party" (you know like you do when you are young in the pool), but some ppl had trouble sinking and staying down, haha. We really didnt wanna leave this beach, it was amazing, a little cove tucked away on this island with crystal clear blue water, snorkeling just right off the beach, the sand was even inclined for a comfortable laying spot!! ahh it was great! But we had to head back so we could get home before dark. The ride in the lancha back home was a little scary - there was a storm watch that had started so the waves were getting reallllly big and water was splashing in on us from the front and the sides - steph had to do yoga breathing at one point, haha. But we made it back alive and loaded up the car and headed back to sigwa. It was such an amazing weekend - all accomplished in  a day and a half and under $75 bucks, can't beat it!