Escape from the Ranch to El Lago Yajoa

We volunteers had been stuck on the ranch for over two weeks. The weekend of January 5-7 Vanessa, Douglas, Kris, and I decided to rent a car and head to El Lago Yajoa. I had been there once before with my sister Anna and Justin, and was really looking forward to a chill, relaxing weekend. Kris braved the pothole-filled, mountainous roads of Honduras in our Chevy Aveo. We stayed in the same cabin I stayed in before, complete with Jacuzzi and water you can drink out of the sink. We relaxed for a bit and then headed out to eat corn dogs and beer. Yum! Who would have thought that I would come to Honduras and order a corn dog?! But at the D&D Brewery they are sooo good! The four of us hung out and were pleased to see Malcolm, the 60-something, bird watching hippie from England. He joined our table and shared lots of stories with us about his crazy traveling life. Not long after we got a phone call from Jesus, our ranch director from Chicago. It turned out that he and his friends, Cesar, Julio, and Oscar, were also at El Lago and were staying at the Agua Azul, another hotel not far away. They invited us to join them for beers and pool. By the time we arrived, most of the beer had already been consumed, but we had fun hanging out -- listening to music, taking pictures, playing pool, and listening to these guys speak in the most Mexican Spanglish I have ever heard in my life!

The next day Kris, Vanessa, and Douglas woke up early to eat blueberry pancakes, but I stayed in bed until 11:00am. I had never slept in that much since I got to Honduras. I am telling you, the brewery is the best place to relax! After they ate breakfast, they joined me back in bed…haha. When we finally got up we decided to go to Pulhapanzak, a park not that far away from the lago. It is a park that has a river you can go swimming in, hiking trails, a restaurant, and a beautiful waterfall. We laid out for a while in the grass by the river, went swimming, had a couple drinks, and soaked up the sun. We were then approached by a 21-year-old local guide who asked us if we wanted to hike the falls; meaning actually go into, through, and under the falls. For just 100 lempiras/$5 we could do this. We thought about it and decided to go for it. We didn’t have appropriate hiking gear though, so we quick went back to the brewery to put on better shoes (and we left Vanessa who was having stomach issues). So, Douglas, Kris, me, and our guide headed down into the falls. It was incredible!! I have never done anything like this in my entire life. To give you an idea, the falls are maybe five- or six-stories high. We had to jump off mini-cliffs in order to get from one point to another. The water around us was roaring. It was hard to see anything, especially with my contacts. It was as if a hurricane, tornado of water was blaring all around us. We made it under the falls into a little cave and were able to look out and up through the falls. It was gorgeous. On our way back our guide took us on some cliff jumps, maybe about two-stories high. I was nervous at first, but after seeing Kris jump right in without hesitation, I had to follow suit. This experience was a natural high, and one I won’t forget. I hope to be able to bring my sister Rita here when she comes at the end of February. Afterwards, we met back up with Vanessa at the brewery and hung out on our front porch lounging in hammocks and listening to music. That evening we ventured out to eat a fish dinner; the lago is known for tilapia. We stopped at the first nice place we saw, called Chalet del Lago. We indulged in anafre/bean dip, whole fish, and dessert. It was delicious. After dinner, we headed back to the D&D for beers, iPod, and cards. I taught them how to play Gin, which was fun. Bob, the owner of the brewery, hung out with us as well. He played us CD’s of him playing the slide guitar with a band, showed us pictures, and shared jokes.

On Sunday, it was time to head back. We first enjoyed a blueberry pancake and hash brown breakfast, and then hit the road. When we got back to Tegucigalpa, Kris, Douglas and Vanessa kept on going back to the ranch, but I stayed to work at Casa Angeles the following day. I met up with Jesus’ friend visiting from Chicago, Julio. We went to Los Reses, a restaurant/bar, and ate chicken wings and shared a cubetazo/bucket of Imperial cerveza/beer. It was fun to share stories and reminisce about Chicago. It made me realize how much I miss it and enjoyed living there.

All in all, it was a fun-filled weekend, one in which we felt we especially deserved after spending the holidays on the ranch.