Doña Lucy and Elsa had prepared us another great breakfast, and we ate it heartily! Mizael and Israel came over for breakfast too, since they were going to go with us to the cloud forest. It was about an hour away they said. Mizael had invited us all over to his house for dinner that night, so we could hang out and watch the Honduran National Soccer team take on Puerto Rico. We looked forward to nice relaxing day and night spent hanging out with our new friends and enjoying God’s creation.
Lips Update: No change, still large and full. Cliff has started calling her Hotlips, after the M.A.S.H. character! She says they still hurt. 
We got to the Parque Nacional Cerro Azul by about 10:15, and we were taken on a tour of the hotel and restaurant by the caretaker. She told us it was only $40 a night to stay here in the heart of the rainforest in these beautiful, romantic little rooms. We wandered over to the park map and decided on a direction to take, up into the rainforest towards the cloud forest. If we figured right, we would be at a waterfall within an hour.
The hike was steep and everything was damp. Alfredo had warned us to keep our cameras in a plastic zip lock back until we wanted to take a picture otherwise the moist, damp air would ruin them! Words cannot describe the beauty that this place had to offer.
I have never seen so many shades of green, such wondrous and prehistoric looking trees, moss covered vines hanging in random patterns across the jungle, and these high pitched electronic sounding humming bugs we never got to see! It was like being in Jurassic Park; we were just waiting to see Raptors behind the ferns! Every now and then, the jungle would open up to expose the neighboring cloud shrouded peaks of the cloud forest. We looked and wondered if the mountain we were on looked the same way from there! We wound our way up through the dense forest on a trail that was marginally maintained at best, but speaking for the team at that time, we would not have wanted to be anywhere else!
When we approached the roar of the waterfall, the scene can only be described as something in the Garden of Eden. Lush tropical trees and ferns, a 30 foot high waterfall, and huge boulders at the base. We decided to eat our lunch here and just hang out for a while! Mizael was the first one to head into the waterfall, and he made it look so refreshing. I did not mention it was HOT, and wet in the cloud forest! Our clothes clung to our bodies as we hiked, so that waterfall was looking pretty good. Mizael kept trying to get me and the rest of us in the water, but we held off for awhile, until Amber said why not. Well, how could us burly men let a girl go into the waterfall and not go ourselves! Me, Rodain and Cliff all found our way into the cool water that pounded us from above. It was like standing under a bunch of people with closed fists pounding you on your head and shoulders, the water was falling at such a high velocity. I dare not open my eyes as it might have just washed my contacts into the Honduran cloud forest! We got a group picture there that is priceless!
It was at this point where we decided to continue on up to the cloud forest and not just double back to the visitor center. That decision would test our resolve, patience, faith and health to the very limit.
The next two hours we continued to hike what would eventually be a 5.4 mile hike up shear mountain paths, through the very top of the cloud forest, running out of water at the midpoint, and then descending out of the forest for about 60 minutes. It was tough going and I was worried about the team and injury. But, the scenery was amazing, and the view from the top breath-taking. I know we were all praying for God to keep us safe as we made our way down the mountain, tired, thirsty and soaking wet! Needless to say, none of us dried off on the hike because the humidity was so high! It was a joyous sight to see the visitor center and the chilled liter bottles of water waiting for us! All in all, it was a great hike, but next time we will be better prepared with the knowledge of the difficulty, the length of the hike, and the time needed to complete it. But we chalked it up to the experience of being the first team to hike the cloud forest in its entirety!
Back at the homestead, we showered and cleaned up. None the worse for wear, we headed over to Mizael’s house for dinner. When we arrived, the game was on TV, and there was a huge spread of Chinese food waiting for us to devour it! The funny thing is, when we heard that we were going to have Chinese food earlier in the week, we kind of balked at it in favor of more Honduran food, but in actuality, the Honduran people LOVE Chinese food, and it is a big part of the culture! Go figure! It is common to serve it to big groups and family get-together’s, so this was no different. It just meant less work for Bessy, Mizael’s wife! The Honduran team kept it interesting, but Puerto Rico would not relent. So as we watched the game, we had the typical Chinese food you would get in the states, with the exception of one thing. Where as we have beef and broccoli, they have beef and jalapeños! There was tons of food, so we each tried everything there, including the scorching hot beef. It turns out because David was asking for hot sauce earlier in the week; he developed the reputation of liking spicy foods, so they got it in his honor. I can only tell you that there was not a dry eye in the place after eating that stuff! I mean it was super tasty, really tasty, but HOT! My tongue was scorched the rest of the night and into Sunday! The rest of the food was awesome as well, and we did our part to eat it all.
After dinner, we watched as the Honduran team tied the game with the Puerto Rican team, and it ended in a tie. Rodain found a keyboard in the office and started playing beautiful classical music. We were blown away at his piano playing skills! After the game, Mizael and Cliff found a common bond, in that they both love Celene Dion….so Mizael put on a Celene Dion DVD, and they all started singing along! Now, this is the part of the blog I have to remember that I am a good Christian man, so I will behave, but I would rather have a root canal than sit through a Celene Dion concert, so I had no choice but to revoke Cliff’s man-card for a day! LOL.
He was a good sport, and stuck by his passion for Celene, and yes he sang along to the Theme from Titanic. He was such a powerful worker out there in the trenches, uh, holes, and he hiked the 5.4 mile cloud forest like a 20 year old, I gave him his man-card back, in good standing! But he got even. Somehow, because of his singing, they decided we should do karaoke on Sunday night, and it was set in stone! I have never done karaoke, anywhere, and really had no plans to start now, and I am sure David felt the same way. Little did we know that Rodain was the Folsom Marc Antony, Cliff and Peggy were the new Sonny and Cher, and Amber was the equal to Diana Ross? Who knew?
The night ended back at our house. We had really come a long way from Tuesday, and the melancholy feeling that the trip was half over started to set in. We really were enjoying being part of this big family here in Honduras. Our new Honduran family. God is amazing!
We got to the Parque Nacional Cerro Azul by about 10:15, and we were taken on a tour of the hotel and restaurant by the caretaker. She told us it was only $40 a night to stay here in the heart of the rainforest in these beautiful, romantic little rooms. We wandered over to the park map and decided on a direction to take, up into the rainforest towards the cloud forest. If we figured right, we would be at a waterfall within an hour.
The hike was steep and everything was damp. Alfredo had warned us to keep our cameras in a plastic zip lock back until we wanted to take a picture otherwise the moist, damp air would ruin them! Words cannot describe the beauty that this place had to offer.
I have never seen so many shades of green, such wondrous and prehistoric looking trees, moss covered vines hanging in random patterns across the jungle, and these high pitched electronic sounding humming bugs we never got to see! It was like being in Jurassic Park; we were just waiting to see Raptors behind the ferns! Every now and then, the jungle would open up to expose the neighboring cloud shrouded peaks of the cloud forest. We looked and wondered if the mountain we were on looked the same way from there! We wound our way up through the dense forest on a trail that was marginally maintained at best, but speaking for the team at that time, we would not have wanted to be anywhere else!When we approached the roar of the waterfall, the scene can only be described as something in the Garden of Eden. Lush tropical trees and ferns, a 30 foot high waterfall, and huge boulders at the base. We decided to eat our lunch here and just hang out for a while! Mizael was the first one to head into the waterfall, and he made it look so refreshing. I did not mention it was HOT, and wet in the cloud forest! Our clothes clung to our bodies as we hiked, so that waterfall was looking pretty good. Mizael kept trying to get me and the rest of us in the water, but we held off for awhile, until Amber said why not. Well, how could us burly men let a girl go into the waterfall and not go ourselves! Me, Rodain and Cliff all found our way into the cool water that pounded us from above. It was like standing under a bunch of people with closed fists pounding you on your head and shoulders, the water was falling at such a high velocity. I dare not open my eyes as it might have just washed my contacts into the Honduran cloud forest! We got a group picture there that is priceless!
It was at this point where we decided to continue on up to the cloud forest and not just double back to the visitor center. That decision would test our resolve, patience, faith and health to the very limit.
The next two hours we continued to hike what would eventually be a 5.4 mile hike up shear mountain paths, through the very top of the cloud forest, running out of water at the midpoint, and then descending out of the forest for about 60 minutes. It was tough going and I was worried about the team and injury. But, the scenery was amazing, and the view from the top breath-taking. I know we were all praying for God to keep us safe as we made our way down the mountain, tired, thirsty and soaking wet! Needless to say, none of us dried off on the hike because the humidity was so high! It was a joyous sight to see the visitor center and the chilled liter bottles of water waiting for us! All in all, it was a great hike, but next time we will be better prepared with the knowledge of the difficulty, the length of the hike, and the time needed to complete it. But we chalked it up to the experience of being the first team to hike the cloud forest in its entirety!
Back at the homestead, we showered and cleaned up. None the worse for wear, we headed over to Mizael’s house for dinner. When we arrived, the game was on TV, and there was a huge spread of Chinese food waiting for us to devour it! The funny thing is, when we heard that we were going to have Chinese food earlier in the week, we kind of balked at it in favor of more Honduran food, but in actuality, the Honduran people LOVE Chinese food, and it is a big part of the culture! Go figure! It is common to serve it to big groups and family get-together’s, so this was no different. It just meant less work for Bessy, Mizael’s wife! The Honduran team kept it interesting, but Puerto Rico would not relent. So as we watched the game, we had the typical Chinese food you would get in the states, with the exception of one thing. Where as we have beef and broccoli, they have beef and jalapeños! There was tons of food, so we each tried everything there, including the scorching hot beef. It turns out because David was asking for hot sauce earlier in the week; he developed the reputation of liking spicy foods, so they got it in his honor. I can only tell you that there was not a dry eye in the place after eating that stuff! I mean it was super tasty, really tasty, but HOT! My tongue was scorched the rest of the night and into Sunday! The rest of the food was awesome as well, and we did our part to eat it all.
After dinner, we watched as the Honduran team tied the game with the Puerto Rican team, and it ended in a tie. Rodain found a keyboard in the office and started playing beautiful classical music. We were blown away at his piano playing skills! After the game, Mizael and Cliff found a common bond, in that they both love Celene Dion….so Mizael put on a Celene Dion DVD, and they all started singing along! Now, this is the part of the blog I have to remember that I am a good Christian man, so I will behave, but I would rather have a root canal than sit through a Celene Dion concert, so I had no choice but to revoke Cliff’s man-card for a day! LOL.
He was a good sport, and stuck by his passion for Celene, and yes he sang along to the Theme from Titanic. He was such a powerful worker out there in the trenches, uh, holes, and he hiked the 5.4 mile cloud forest like a 20 year old, I gave him his man-card back, in good standing! But he got even. Somehow, because of his singing, they decided we should do karaoke on Sunday night, and it was set in stone! I have never done karaoke, anywhere, and really had no plans to start now, and I am sure David felt the same way. Little did we know that Rodain was the Folsom Marc Antony, Cliff and Peggy were the new Sonny and Cher, and Amber was the equal to Diana Ross? Who knew?
The night ended back at our house. We had really come a long way from Tuesday, and the melancholy feeling that the trip was half over started to set in. We really were enjoying being part of this big family here in Honduras. Our new Honduran family. God is amazing!
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