From Laowais to Gringos: Rio Maria

Greetings from Hondo! A busy week calls for a semi-relaxing weekend. Over the week we talked to a couple of second year teachers who wanted to head out to a swimming hole in the river and asked if we wanted to join them. We debated.... just kidding. We were all over that like a fat kid on a cupcake. We decided that we would all meet up in the central park and then catch some cabs from there.

When Luke and I got out of the cab we ran into the new student teacher at our school, Justin, and invited him to come along. That just shows how small La Ceiba can be sometimes. Since he is doing some of his student teaching here and some in the states, we were like, 'You only have 6 weeks here, you have to come!'. It didn't take much to convince him. We met up with Jessie, his mom, Jenna, Natalie and Tyler and grabbed a couple cabs out to Rio Maria.

We took a cab like 10 minutes outside of La Ceiba, towards Sambo Creek and pulled over to this dirt path. We paid the man 30 limpera ($1.50) and went on our way. You wouldn't know that this trail lead to anything unless you came with someone that had been there before. You walk by a couple houses with chickens and dogs all running around before you get to a sign that says 'National Park', then you hike up hill for about 10 minutes until you find another little trail and climb down to the most amazing thing ever!

Rio Maria isn't a very popular river here because Lonely Planet hasn't really reviewed it. When people come here, they either go to Rio Cangrejal or the islands, however, I plan on taking everyone here who comes to visit. As soon as you reach the river you are greeted with an awesome swimming hole next to a waterfall - oh but wait, there's more, you keep walking and then there's another waterfall and swimming hole... oh wait! They literally keep on going for miles (awesome). We spent several hours just swimming in the pools, jumping off rocks and just enjoying being by ourselves in this tropical paradise.

All good things have to come to an end, and we packed up and started walking back to the main road. Luke, Jessie, Tyler and Justin all walked down the river and us girls down the path. On the way back it was much easier to appreciate how gorgeous the view was. Over the canopy of palm trees and rain forest there was the sea. Paradise.

We made it to the bottom a little faster then the guys and found a toad just hanging out next to us. Of course, being me, I had to grab it and check him out. Don't worry, he was very much like Wan Tzu and could care less. He just puffed up to make sure I knew he meant business and wasn't to be eaten. lol.

After we met up with the boys we hailed a taxi (the same driver who brought us back from Sambo Creek - SMALL TOWN RIGHT?!) and came back home. The funny thing is it is crazy storming here right now and it is hard to believe that 3 hours ago we were relaxing in sunny warm waters. Oh well - got to love the rain forest!

Here are some photos from our adventure.