Hello everyone.

We have been in Honduras now for 4 days. We flew in to San Pedro Sula after a two flights from Toronto connecting in Miami. After landing in San Pedro Sula we headed straight to La Ceiba on a 3 hour coach ride so we could avoid staying in the city. On arrival in La Ceiba we booked in to the Banana Republic hostel in to a private room. I have pictures of the room available, it was not much to look at but it gave us somewhere to rest our heads after are massive day of travel. We dumped our bags pretty quickly and decided to head out for some for some food as we hadn't eaten since Miami airport. The lonely planet recommended a place called Mango Tango as somewhere to eat fairly cheap and enjoy a good atmosphere. The atmosphere was flat but thankfully the beer wasn't, a couple of bottles of Salva Vida slipped down nicely, but unfortunately the food wasn't anything to write home about... Sue had some weird bubbling skillet full of blended beans and some cheese, I had a ground beef and bean blend in a tortilla wrap. Although it was relatively early, maybe 9pm, we then headed back to the hostel for a good sleep. Our rooms were upstairs and only had a bug screen for a window so we could hear the entire goings on down stairs in the reception area. We had to try and get to sleep through a Honduran comedy show, a dance party and then a horror film which involved plenty of screaming (we hope it was a horror show). All in all it served a purpose and we were now ready for the start of our adventure.

Banana Republic has a sister hostel about 30mins drive away called the Jungle River Lodge which is in Pico Bonito national park. They organised transport for us up to the lodge which took as via a petrol station where we sat for about half an hour while the driver and attendant debated the safety of the canister full of petrol in the back seat with a plastic bag for a lid. It appears in Honduras it is necessarily safety first as we were allowed to carry on our way. On the forecourt we were also offered fried fish and bread fruit from a woman wearing her goods on her head. The drive up to the lodge was great as we circled the river and slowly climbed higher until we reached the lodge. The pictures we have taken don't do justice the amazing views we had from the communal bar area. Our arrival was just in time for breakfast and was made even more special as we were greeted by a Parrott who was only too happy to say 'Hola'. We decided to do a canopy zip-lining tour at about 10am with two guides Juan and Marvin. They walked us up to the first platform where I (John) promptly fell over and hurt my hand and more importantly my dignity. They gave us a run through of some of the safety rules which was very thorough and put us both at ease. We zipped from the platform about 50m over the river and in to the jungle. In the jungle Juan lead the way barefoot telling us to be careful of tarantulas, snaked, scorpions and a number of other creepy crawlies. Juan would occasionally stop and look under a rock for snakes before allowing us to continue. On the walks Juan and Marvin stopped us numerous times to show us things. They showed us a plant whose stem tasted of cinnamon, a plant they boil to use to combat malaria, the soldier ants they can use a stitches (this involves allowing the ant to clamp either side of the cut then they remove the body from the head), termites which they ate and also rubbed over their body as a natural insect repellent. They also showed us a plant which they called a hog plant as it smelt so bad. It is also very dangerous if its juices get in to your eye. Sue was naturally quite tentative when Marvin was waving it around her face trying to give a whiff of hog. On one of the earlier zips lines my dignity along with my leg took another bashing as I smacked straight in to the wooden platform. Infuriatingly Sue was looking quite the natural. Zipping through the jungle was amazing as you passed in between trees which were sometimes only a matter of inches either side of you. The last line was 100m starting by going through the trees then breaking through half way down over the river. The thrill factor was quite something and it gave us plenty to talk about as we got back up to the lodge for our fruit platter. The rest of the day was spent dipping in and out of the rock pools and then in the evening watching the rainforest live up to its name as we got to witness a magnificent thunderstorm. We had a fairly early night as the following morning we had to be up early to catch our transport to the ferry port for our boat to Utila, one of the bay islands.

We arrived on Utila yesterday after a very hot and very rocky 1 hour boat ride which did little for our stomachs. We have booked in to the Tropical Hotel, it sounds much nicer than the reality, but a private room with shared facilities for $8 US per night is the upside. We took a walk to either end of the cove yesterday and had a dip in the clear waters before coming back for a couple of beers at the end of a dock to watch the sunset. Whilst that was an incredible setting the toilets in the bar were a hole straight down in to the sea. We then had some grub and headed up to a bar called Treetanic which is the weirdest and most wonderful bar. Pathways lead you through strange sculptures made of a variety of materials which means you spend your first half hour exploring before even hitting the bar. On the walk we saw a giant spider's web with 6 very large and very dangerous looking spiders. Sue when waiting to use the ladies also saw a tarantula wandering about. We had a couple of beers up there and chatted to a few other backpackers before heading back. This takes us up to our present, we have just had some breakfast, sue had giant pancakes and I had egg, bacon, cheese and beans. I didn't really have my brain in gear when ordering and full expected my breakfast to come with beans of the Heinz variety. Instead I got beans of the kidney and blended variety. Now we are hanging out on our veranda, Sue is swinging from side to side in a hammock and I am stuck to cheap plastic chair.

Hope you are all well; we'll update you again soon.