Jungle Brew

Days: 166-167

Total distance travelled: 36,923.3 kilometres (22,933.73 miles)

A micro-brewery in the middle of the Honduran jungle?

Sounds crazy enough to work, so it was here we had set our sights after completed our PADI Advanced Open Water diving certification and leaving Utila.

But it’s not all about the beer. This remote outpost is also right near Lago Yojoa, so offers the opportunity for walks, kayaking and even caving!

It was an early start to the day, necessitated by our early morning ferry leaving Utila at 6:20am, which was therefore preceded by a 20 minute walk from our room to the docks.

An hour on the water, several buses and about 7 additional hours saw us deposited at the entrance to D&D Brewery where we hoped they had bookings for dorm beds for the both of us (I’d received a confirmation email, however Sarah had not… yes, we had to book separately)!

The place was in a lovely leafy setting, although it was also surprisingly cool.

We dumped our things in our room (yes, they had both bookings), and deciding to leave any activities until the morrow, got ourselves ready to sample a couple of brews, ultimately settling on an American Pale for myself and an Apricot flavoured beer for Sarah.

Micro-brewed beers in our jungle hostel

The beers were pretty good, Sarah’s Apricot number impressing such that we both had one later over dinner.

What we hadn’t expected was the cold, as it was still relatively early in the afternoon when we first had the necessity to don coats, eventually this became socks and boots, and even beanies!

There was a fire pit that was lit each evening, however with the tendency for patches of drizzle to pass overhead, the desire to huddle beside it was tempered somewhat.

We eventually went to bed, hoping for an improvement in the weather come morning.

Sadly for our motivation to either head out and explore the lake, or the nearby wetlands and archaeological park, with the dawn came more, even heavier rain, so we settled on planning or onwards journey and sadly wrote off our chances of exploration further afield (unless the afternoon fined up).

Cold aside, it wasn’t a horrible spot to while away a day (although there was the ever present threat of mosquitoes).

Many strategically placed bird feeders lured many hummingbirds throughout the day, which certainly weren’t difficult to watch.

Our cool, jungle setting

Sadly our time at D&D Brewery didn’t deliver the weather we’d hoped, and therefore tarnished our experience to some degree.

In fact, such cold severely inhibited our desire to really enjoy their beers, and we found ourselves consuming just as many coffees or hot chocolates as we did their brewed amber nectar!

Still, it’s a pretty nice spot to break up the journey between La Ceiba and either Tegulcigalpa… or even Nicaragua.

If only they had an indoor lounge and open fire…

 

Notes:

* $542.00 Lempira got us back off Utila island and back to La Ceiba where we were forced to pay $50.00 Lempira to get to the bus station by taxi.

* La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula’s main bus terminal cost us $115.00 Lempira per person, and from there it was an easy bus trip (about an hour) at $40.00 Lempira per person to the town of Pena Blanca.

* A final $40.00 Lempira Bici-Taxi got us to the main gate of the D&D Brewery, around 8 hours after leaving Utila.