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November 22nd 96 - We left the frigid temperatures of another polar-like Quebec winter behind us as the American Airline flight climbed over the clouds and warm sunlight flooded into the aircraft. Thinking about last minute items I may have left behind - well it would be too late anyhow to retrieve any forgotten equipment. Herb Ladd and I were joking about the colossal pile of equipment we'd checked through the airline's service counter - including an eighteen foot folding sea kayak, two mudpails of seventy-one dried meals and four stuffed dufflebags. Total weight of about three hundred pounds.
Before our departure, we'd heard about the hurricane/tropical storm that had ravaged Honduras' north coast for fifteen days. Now, as we circled over the San Pedro Sula runway, we were shocked to see nothing but coffee-colored muddy water from horizon-to-horizon. Projecting out of the flood were trees, elevated roadbeds and the airstrip. Herb reiterated "how in the devil are we going to get to Ceiba? By motorboat?" Checking through the chaotic "Migracion" section of the "old" terminal building was nothing short of an adventure. To our great shock we found one of our bags with a hole cut through and our main expedition tent missing. Well, we'd have to deal with this at a later date. After stealing the attention of an irritated and perplexed official, we navigated and negotiated our way through the bureauocracy and red tape. Fourty-five minutes later, we were on our way to San Pedro Sula on-board Javier Pinel's comfortable tour van. Javier, owner of Maya Ecotours, promptly informed us of "the probable impassible flood obstacles awaiting us on the road to La Ceiba" - where we would meet our Islena Airline flight to our kayak putin. Three hours later, the potholed road kept us from reaching La Ceiba early, we arrived without major incident. Javier was cheesed-off with the ineptitude and incompetence of Margie Dip, the Mayor of La Ceiba "why are these roads in such poor condition?", he said, "its probably due to the misappropriation of resources" he speculated. Herb and I were debilitated with exhaustion after a sixteen-hour day of travel. After a five-star supper at Ricardos Restaurant, we crashed at the Parthanon Hotel. The hotel's night clerk, I found out, was from the Mosquitia. He warned us "you may not have electricity in the morning, due to the floods". Ok, at least now we knew we'd be taking a cold shower.
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This web-page was produced, designed & is maintained by Derek A Parent, A Walkabout In The Rio Platano Biosphere, La Mosquitia, Honduras. The article and photos were provided with the permissions of Derek A Parent & Herbert Ladd. International copyright law protects all the contributing authors herein. This article, images and web page may not be copied or used in any way without the express written permission of the author and the producer. Violators will be tracked down and legal action will be taken.
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