Day 12 - Valle de Angeles to Zambrano

Back to a 5.15am wake up but we had both slept well. We all had a little sticky note on our bike, which said “Hills are tough, but so are you” which was a taste of what was to come for the day with nearly 7000 feet of climbing, a lot of which was off-road. Started the day with a road climb and then a 15km sweeping road descent which had stunning views as the mist rose around the valley. We had been told that we should ride in a group today although it was a bit vague why - rural area / risk of robbery etc. Dick had been looking at the Dutch government advice and noted that we were crossing the area where there was an advisory for essential travel only, so we set off in groups. Long sections of unpaved road which varied from hard packed rutted mud to loose gravel on hard packed mud - and some sort of road made of broken paving stones / rocks which made for a very bumpy ride. The day started beautiful and blue and a lovely temperature, and that lasted until lunch. Lunch as usual, was delicious - we ate lots of it even though it was only 11 o’clock when we stopped. After lunch came the steep gravel climbing in intense heat, which was pretty tough going. However, the little villages and rural areas that we passed through, were wonderful. Quite a lot of dogs running after the bikes today and one managed to get a bite, but only of John’s shoe. A welcome stop at a tiny shop that sold ice cream and we probably doubled their takings for the day when most of the riders stopped. 30 kilometres of the day was not so good as it was riding alongside the equivalent of a motorway in the UK. We were basically on the hard shoulder and it was noisy and dirty and grimy and the last 10km was uphill and pretty unpleasant. However, Honduras does has very little infrastructure and so it was a means to an end to get to our rather quirky guesthouse, which I am guessing is a Christian retreat given the content of the rooms. Our room is huge with 2 large wooden beds which are pretty firm and lots of religious art on the walls. We also have a large balcony with some quirky wooden furniture that’s overlooking rainforest which is very pleasant. However, because it was such a long hard ride today we won’t be able to make use for very long.Read more