Departamento de Atlántida

I didn't get to sleep for ages - too much iced tea in Pizza Hut perhaps, not helped by Anna being starfished right in the middle of the bed. Begrudgingly I got up at 6:15am to have a breakfast of tortillas and beans (plus egg and sausage for the others). We had arranged to go to Cayos Cochinos, some beautiful islands, for the day but we were told it was cancelled due to poor weather as it had been raining heavily all night. We asked them to phone the canopy tour people we had been hoping to do yesterday and they arranged it for us.

We waved a sad farewell to our aussie friend who is heading to Nicaragua for a week. She will be missed :(

Sambo Creek Canopy & Hot Springs Tours ($49 - strangely $6 less than quoted by email) picked us up at 8am and drove us the half hour to Sambo Creek. They put harnesses on us and gave us gloves and we hiked up a steep slope for 10 minutes. We came out to a viewpoint looking out over the jungle to the sea where you could just about make out Roatan, Utila and CC.

After a brief demonstration and a close encounter with a small hairy worm which could give you a nasty scratch we set off on our 18 zip wires. You had to brake yourself using padded gloves so you controlled your own speed - Hannah failed to master this at first so was 'escorted' by Wilson until she was trusted to do it herself! It was great fun. The wires ranged from short to long (1km) and fast to slow. The views were stunning. We hoped to see howler monkeys but they eluded us - the only animal we saw was a tree iguana. We stopped by a small geyser of bubbling, steaming water - one of 13 pools that feed the hot spring pools below (mixed with cold water from another river to create various temperatures). Our guides, Simon and Wilson, were fantastic; really enthusiastic and took a billion photos of us.

After our canopy tour we relaxed in the hot spring pools - there are 4 of increasing heat. We were given pineapple and watermelon pieces in a floating wooden 'boat' which felt very luxurious, especially since we were the only ones there. Then Hannah was called for her massage. Half an hour later an oompa loompa appeared! She was coated head to toe in geyser mud. Then it was my turn for a lovely pummelling full body massage by Mundi and a covering in the hot, orange goo. As I waited for it to dry, I walked up and down a wooden boardwalk along the steaming river / waterfalls, which were absolutely stunning. Once the mud dried, I washed it off in another hot pool. After Anna had been done, we dried off, had some more fruit and were driven home by about 3pm. A fantastic tour! And the weather had stayed dry with some sunny spells.

We munched some of yesterday's supermarket snacks and then walked 15 mins to book our bus tickets for tomorrow. We were all shattered and chilled for a bit - swapping photos and packing. Hannah is very kindly taking some of our unwanted stuff back which will lighten our loads and make room for souvenirs. I am leaving my wet, stinky trainers here as I hopefully won't have any further need for them.

It rained again. We went to Pizza Hut again.Read more