This morning I hopped on an early bus to Puerto Cortés, stopping off at the junction to pick up a yellow school bus to Omoa. I arrived here a little before 10 a.m. and dropped off my stuff at the hostel. By 3 p.m. I became fairly certain that I had already covered everything I needed to cover. Once an up-and-coming beach town, the city has lost a lot of its tourism after the nearby gas company changed the current and flooded its beaches. Hostel owners said they’ve gone consecutive months without a single client. And it looks like I’ll be staying here two more nights! Having booked some other hotel rooms in advance, I can’t really push those reservations back. I’m trying to figure out how to enjoy this and make the most of my time…so far, I’ve discovered cable TV. And tonight it rained really hard, so my 6 p.m. nap turned into an evening in, thus saving me money on dinner! I took a Tylenol for my hunger headache…is this a bad pattern?
I’d read about some charming waterfalls in my pre-trip research. They sounded relatively easy to get to – a 45-minute hike down a path, maybe ask the locals if you get confused along the way. It took me about an hour and a half to realize I couldn’t find them and that the Honduran rainforest might not be the best place to be after sunset. On the way back to where I started, I asked a super smiley man who lived in a wood shack at the entrance if I had been headed the right way. Then he offered to take me there, so we walked along a small, hidden path (he smiled the whole time, I wondered then if it was because he was thinking about what he was going to do to me). I gave him two lempiras (less than 10 cents…I’m nice) for his help, then I walked via log across a creek and upriver until I approached the swimming hole. It’s a pretty swimming hole, I’ll give it that. But waterfalls? Maybe it’s really dry right now. On the way back, I walked with a family to the main road. Awkwardness ensued when the mother asked if I’d heard of Jehovah’s Witnesses before. I think I was more scared then than when a strange smiling man lead me into the forest. Her husband soon shamed me but telling the woman “never mind, she doesn’t care,” but, well, he's right.
And here I am, now watching “The Devil Wears Prada” (no Law & Order in this backwards country!), and I have a strange red rash on my chest. It doesn’t itch or burn, it’s not sensitive…it’s just there. Tomorrow I intend to have a large breakfast at a B&B reviewed and take advantage of their WiFi. Then it’s on to Puerto Cortés for a day trip.
Oh yeah, I’m really lonely right now. TV til midnight it is!
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