I looked into things to do in Honduras, and the internet and other travelers have very little to say about the country, except that it is dangerous. Originally, I was going to do the awful journey from Utila down to Leon, Nicaragua, but thankfully I ran into these 3 English girls who just came from Lake Yojoa. After a quick google search I knew I wanted to go there, not only to break up the awful 16 hour bus ride to Leon, but because it looked so beautiful.
D&D Brewery has so much to offer, including really good craft beer! They have an entire wall on their brewery of the activities close by and how to do them, also perfect descriptions of how to get to your next destination. With it being the only hostel in the area everyone will know where you are heading, even the bus station in San Pedro Sula has a window that says D&D right on it. It is one guy who is making Honduras more accessible to travel, since it’s very hard to find information on where to go.
From the Brewery I went to Palhapanzak Falls by bus, which is super easy to do and fairly cheap for a day activity. It also includes no hiking what so ever so it’s fun for the whole family. They do offer a zip-line with I believe 8 lines, it didn’t look too exciting but for someone who is scared of heights or someone younger this would be perfect. The Falls didn’t take long to do so you could pick another activity to do that day as well. Which we did, and we went to the coffee plantation. It is a 5 minute walk away from the Brewery, the opposite direction than the bus so you can stop at the hostel for a refresher.
The Finca Paradise Coffee Plantation took me by surprise, it exceeded my expectation hugely. Even though we didn’t try the coffee, the walk around the property is so beautiful. With many waterfalls and bridges to zig zag across the river, through fields of palm trees and coffee plants, there is so much to look at. I’ve been to a couple other coffee plantations but this one was the best I’ve seen ten fold. I almost didn’t want to see ‘just another coffee plantation’ but I am so happy I went.
There is also kayak rentals from the Brewery, or do like I did, you can walk for maybe 5 minutes and pick up a kayak for half the price at a shop right on the river and spend a couple hours kayaking to the lake. It was a pretty windy day so it took some time to get out there but it was such a good way to spend an afternoon, especially when you wake up late morning after a night drinking D&D pitchers with new friends.
We also did the Cerro Azul National Park, or as the locals call it ‘Panacam’. It is a super pretty hike through a cloud forest, and it is a great spot to go birding. There are quite a view lookouts that you can stop and rest at, and also quite a few waterfalls! It is a pain in the butt to get there, with 2 busses and a tuk-tuk but a wonderful way to spend a day exploring. They have had puma spottings there, which I thought was super cool, but not in the weeks leading up to our visit.
If heading to Nicaragua from Utila I would highly recommend making a stop to Lake Yojoa! It is super easy to do by chicken bus with one going straight to SPS then straight to D&D. Onwards we went to Somoto Canyon, in Somoto, Nicaragua, which the English girls also told us about! I would recommend that as well. Leaving D&D there will be a chicken bus straight to Tegus, then one straight to the border of Nicaragua. I will say we ended up getting stuck at the border for almost 3 hours because of a shift change of border patrol, so they took their sweet sweet time, we ended up staying one night in Ocotal. There is nothing to do there, but all the parks in Nicaragua have Wi-Fi so finding a hostel wasn’t too hard!
I loved Lake Yojoa and I hope you do to! Let me know what you think of it when you get there.
Where Will I Wander 