Weekend Getaway

We recently had the pleasure of traveling with a crew of people from the military base to Lake Yahoa. In that same vicinity is a small local hangout, called D & D Brewery, (owned and operated by a man from Oregon) nestled in the beautiful natural setting surrounding the lake. On its grounds is a small restaurant, several cabins for overnight travelers, a pool, several patio areas, and many plants, flowers, and animals. The owner brews several different types of beer (including fruity flavors such as a mango brew, apricot brew, and raspberry brew). He also makes a variety of homemade sodas (root beer, vanilla soda, strawberry soda, etc.) all served in frosty mugs. We arrived there on Friday evening, just in time for dinner. The group sat outside in an open-air dining area decorated with plants and Christmas lights. We all enjoyed the Honduran cuisine and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, telling stories, and laughing! The boys even broke out some ´fine Honduran cigars´to set the mood! :) That night, Greg and I shared a cabin with our good friends, Kyle and Crystal for L400 (about $20). The accommodations were actually quite nice! There was even a cable TV in room! We didn´t stay up too late because we planned to get up early the next morning and hit the Lake for some boating and water skiing. Greg was about to fight me though, because as girls do at a sleepover, Crystal and I stayed up talking in our room as our husband´s tried desperately to tune out our voices so they could sleep!

We woke up around 8:00am on Saturday and were bound for the kitchen. The owner mentioned ´fresh blueberry pancakes´the night before and we all had our heart´s set on a tall stack! Fortunately, they delivered! We all gorged ourselves on the tasty treats...and of course, washed them down with several cups of delicious Honduran coffee! Sadly, the weather didn´t look to promising. The sky was overcast and there was a light drizzle. We figured we could just relax a little longer (while hanging out in a little piece paradise) and wait for the weather to improve. In the mean time, the owner gave us a tour of his property. The grounds were so beautiful - as you can see from the photos, it was very green with a splash of color from the flowers and buds. It was an interactive tour because along the way, he pointed out many plants, flowers, and bugs that are used for eating, making products (lotion, hair conditioner) and making beverages. As we would go along, we would pull a flower off a plant and say ¨Try this, it is delicious!¨ He showed us a plant that if you squeeze it, it produces a thick, fragrant, milky substance that is used for hair conditioner (one of the girl´s with us actually used it!) We also got to eat ´root celery,´the plant that is used for making root beer. (I don´t know if that is the name of it, but it look exactly like celery, but tasted exactly like root beer!) And, the most odd thing we experienced would have to be....eating termites! Yes, we ate TERMITES! Okay, so I really didn´t want to, but everyone else was....and then I thought, when will I have this opportunity to do this again....and I went for it! They actually weren´t bad, believe it or not. They tasted like pepper. Our friend, Kyle, who grew up in Africa (his parents were missionaries in Kenya) said they would often gather termites in bulk and deep fry them for a meal! Crazy! After the tour (and snack!) we ended up just sitting around, talking, listening to music, reading, and hanging out together! Several people even started ´arts and crafts hour´ by making things out of Panamanian palm branches. (The material that they use in to make hats in Panama). Greg made me a friendship bracelet....that I preceded to lose about 5 minutes later...sorry honey! :) (See photo) It was very tranquil and relaxing! Next thing we new it was about lunch time, so they brought out the menus and we ordered lunch! Sadly, the weather still wasn´t clearing up! It was quite cool outside, so after we ate, the crew in my cabin decided we would go take an afternoon nap! We hibernated for about two hours then hit the road around 4:00pm to head back to Comayagua.

We stopped in Siguatepeque at this place we read about in a Honduras travel guide. Apparently this guy from Italy moved there and started an Italian restaurant. We got a huge salad and several different kinds of pizza....It was very good! I would have to say the best part though, was the fact that there was a huge screen set up in the room playing music videos, pre-recorded from MTV. Every once in a while, the guy running the projector would come to our table and ask if anyone would be interested in singing karaoke. Sadly for everyone else in the place, we had a couple takers. The worst, I mean, best, was our friend Tim´s rendition of Journey´s Separate Ways. Fortunately, Greg was so busy enjoying the food that he didn´t get the opportunity to ´show his stuff!´ It was a great night! We got home around 9:00pm and were so worn our from doing nothing for the past 24 hours that we went to bed! :) We had a very fun trip!