This was a short trip to enjoy some birding and SCUBA diving over a 4 day weekend. We relied on public transportation and inexpensive accommodation. This report is intended to help those traveling in a similar manner, and to augment the very few number of trip reports that I could find regarding Honduras. In April many resident birds are breeding and singing, while wintering migrants are still abundant or passing through. We found the weather to be cooperative: warm and humid and thunderstorms only at night. Well timed flights and the ease of travel in Honduras allowed for an ambitious yet relaxing itinerary:
16 April: 7:15pm American Airlines flight from Miami, Fl to San Pedro Sula (SPS).
17 April: Bus from SPS to La Ceiba. Afternoon birding at Rio Zacate in Pico Bonito NP.
18 April: Morning birding at the Lodge at Pico Bonito. PM ferry to Utila.
19 April: SCUBA diving. Celebratory drinks in PM.
20 April: AM ferry to La Ceiba. Bus to SPS. 2:05pm AA flight to Miami.
Money: Honduras operates on the Lempira, but US dollars were accepted almost everywhere (at least along the north coast), but change is given in local currency. ATMs were readily available and charged no withdraw fees! Prices quoted were sometimes a better deal if paying in local currency, but not always. The exchange rate was officially ~ 19 Lmps to 1 USD at this time. *Make sure save ~$700lmps ($37 USD)/person for the airport departure tax when you leave, it is not included in your airfare!!!
San Pedro Sula: Buses from SPS stop running sometime around 6pm so if you arrive on an evening flight you will need to spend the night. Taxis in Honduras were expensive, especially from the airport where $15 is the suggested price to town. Hard bargaining can probably drop the rate. We were offered $12 which still seems steep. We stayed at the Hotel El Real for $17USD. It is near the town center and was recommended by our taxi driver. It was ok, but our fan was so loud we chose to sleep in the heat. We were also discouraged from staying out late at night for safety reasons. Even the corner bars were closed by 9pm, and no one was really out walking around which seemed strange for a Friday night.
Bus to La Ceiba: La Ceiba (pronounced “la say-buh”) is a jumping off point for trips to the Bay Islands and Pico Bonito National Park. We took the 6 am bus to La Ceiba for 90Lmps ($4.50) each, 3 hours. Buses depart the main terminal every hour on the hour until about 6pm. It appeared that 5am was the first bus of the day. It was a comfortable ride with open windows and a beautiful view of the countryside and common birds. No bathrooms on board, but we made two 10 minute stops at rest areas.
El Pino: Near highway marker 174 (~15 km west of La Ceiba) is the small village of El Pino. Depending on your bus you may be able to get dropped here before reaching La Ceiba, otherwise you need to take a taxi back ($20) or a minibus ($1). From El Pino you can walk to the Lodge at Pico Bonito, or some waterfall trails within the park itself. There are 2 options for accommodation, the first is Hotel Posada el Buen Pastor, which we were told cost ~250 Lmps ($13) but the office was closed since it was a Saturday afternoon and everyone was doing something at the church. This hotel is right beside the highway on the south side, just a few buildings east of the turnoff to the Lodge at Pico Bonito. We stayed at Natural View Ecotourism Park which was 1 km down the main road on the west side of El Pino. This place was great and cost us 300 Lmps ($16) for the night. There is a restaurant onsite, plus a pool which was great, and hammocks, a play ground, and other amenities for Honduran families (or foreign birders) relaxing on a weekend. There is also a tourist information office along the walk in, but it is closed on the weekends. Natural View has at least 4 cabanas with thatched palm roofing, private cold water showers, electricity, and mosquito nets. Ours had 2 double beds in it and the staff even brought us an oscillating fan when we asked! The turquoise-browed motmots and ferruginous pygmy-owls on the property come at no extra charge, but otherwise the grounds offered few birds.
Pico Bonito National Park – Rio Zacate Trails and Waterfalls: You can walk or take a taxi to the park from El Pino. The road to the waterfall trails is not the same as the road to the Birding Lodge. The trails are well known to the locals because of the waterfalls there and most people can point you in the right direction. From Natural View it is probably a 30 min walk. Between Km 173 and 172 (west of El Pino), there is a dirt road leading through a pineapple plantation. It is marked with a large metal yellow sign about private property, and 2 small, white, unobtrusive, hand-made signs that say Pico Bonito Park. On the other side of the plantation there are some power lines and a road running parallel to the base of the mountain. Take a right (west) when you reach the lines/road and it will lead you to a gate signed Pico Bonito near a small farm (where we found olivaceous piculet) where someone will likely come out to collect 120Lmps or $6USD from you. It’s probably about 1 km from the highway to the farm.
We proceeded down the trail towards the bathrooms and picnic tables. Up the slope to the right of the toilets is a trail that leads steeply up to a overlook platform and then levels out and continues back into the park for a long ways in nice forest, but I’m not sure how far it continues or where it heads. Highlights were rufous-tailed jacamar, red-capped manakin, buff-rumped warblers and a calling motmot that sounded like a keel-billed motmot but we could not get a view of it despite trying playback. Many northward-bound migrant warblers were also encountered. Back at the toilets, straight ahead is a short trail down to the river where a nice swimming hole is located at the base of a waterfall. The highlight here, aside from a refreshing dip, were white-collared swifts nesting besides the falls. If you cross the stream below the falls, a trail across the stream leads up and around a bend. We did not take this trail, but it sounds like it heads to a larger waterfall.
The Lodge at Pico Bonito: http://www.picobonito.com/
Much information is available on the web and in other reports regarding this wonderful birding lodge. With cabin rates starting at $240 USD staying here was not an option for us. However, for those wanting a few hours to access the property, guided birding tours can be arranged for $30/person + tax (and gratuity) and include a light breakfast of bread and fresh fruit after the walk. You NEED a reservation to do this and one can be arranged by calling the lodge at (504) 440-0388 once in Honduras. We paid someone 20lmps to use their cell phone to make the call just the day before. You will not be allowed to access the property without a reservation. We did not see any empty taxis on the road at 5:30am so one may need to be arranged the night before if you don’t want to walk. The lodge is located ~2km up a gravel road with a slight incline. The first km passes plantation and scrub, but the second km passes through secondary forest. Our guide told us the area outside the gate is good for cotinga when the trees are fruiting (Dec-Mar).
The tour began at 6am and lasted about 3 hours. Our guide, Jose, knew his birds and where to find them. He also carried a scope. Information suggests that lovely cotinga is regularly observed at the lodge in the winter but April is not considered prime season so I tried not to get my hopes too high. Luckily, Jose found one for us from the valley overlook tower! Other highlights included black-cowled oriole, white-collared manakin, and great potoo. The staff and grounds were really amazing, it would be a fun place to stay and we could have had it to ourselves, as they did not have any guests at the moment which was atypical and blamed on the economic recession.
Ferry to Utila: http://www.aboututila.com/TravelInfo/Utila-Princess/Index.htm
We took a taxi to the Ferry terminal for the Utila Princess 2, which is located east of La Ceiba. The ferry costs about $21 each way and leaves from La Ceiba daily at 9:30am and 4pm. No reservations are needed, but it’s good to show up at least 20 min early. The ride lasts just over 1 hour. Birding from the ferry is not ideal, the cabin is enclosed (and air conditioned!) and the windows are tinted. There is a very noisy back deck near the engines are and you might be able to go out there, but you probably wouldn’t see anything you can’t see from shore.
Utila: Utila is known for its affordable dive certification courses (apparently the cheapest in the world), but outfitters remain professional and seemed safe. I have little insight regarding the birds of Utila. Supposedly the islands have Smooth-billed Ani while the mainland only has groove-billed, but I didn’t look at more than a few hummingbirds from my balcony. Canivet’s emerald and green-breasted mango were both common in town. We spent a day diving and paid $55 each for two dives and snorkeled with a whale shark during our surface interval!! Utila is famous for its whale sharks, but seeing one still takes some luck! We dove with Utila Dive Center and felt their staff was great. I would recommend bringing your own mask if you just want to do a fun dive since most of the best equipment seemed to be in use by the multi-day dive classes.
Accommodation is very cheap and caters to backpackers and divers. We stayed at the Bavarian, a 5 minute walk inland along the road that leads straight up from the ferry dock (private bath, fan, 250Lmps/$13US). It is across from Mango Inn which has cheap dorm rooms available (~$3us/free if diving through them). The fish meals were great at Evelyn’s Bar-BBQ (~100Lmps/$5) and drinks were strong and reasonably priced at Munchie’s Café just a few doors west.
The trip was a complete success, and if cheap airfares from Miami to SPS continue I hope to return soon.
Jason Fidorra (jfidorra “at” hotmail.com)
102 Species; LP-Lodge at Pico Bonito; RZ- Rio Zacate Trails (Pico Bonito NP); U-Utila; H- heard only
Little Tinamou LP H
Wood Stork
White Ibis U
Cattle Egret
Great Egret
Magnificent Frigatebird U
Brown Pelican
Black Vulture
Black Hawk sp U
Ruddy Turnstone U
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern
Rock Dove
White-winged Dove
Ruddy Ground Dove
Blue Ground Dove H LP
Olive-throated Parakeet LP
White-crowned Parrot LP
Groove-billed Ani
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
Great Potoo LP
Common Pauraque LP
White-collared Swift
Chimney/Vaux’s? Swift
Stripe-throated Hermit LP
White-necked Jacobin LP
Green-breasted Mango LP, U
Canivet’s Emerald U
Violet-crowned Woodnymph LP
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
White-bellied Emerald
Black-headed Trogon LP, RZ
Green Kingfisher
Amazon Kingfisher
Blue-crowned Motmot
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Motmot sp? Keel-billed? H RZ
Collared Aracari LP
Keel-billed Toucan LP
Olivaceous Piculet RZ
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Chestnut-colored Woodpecker LP,RZ
Rufous-tailed Jacamar RZ
White-collared Manakin LP
Red-capped Manakin LP,RZ
Masked Tityra LP
Lovely Cotinga LP
Eastern Wood Pewee
Social Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Streaked Flycatcher LP
Tropical Kingbird
Great-crested Flycatcher
Bright-rumped Attila LP H
Barred Antshrike
Wedge-billed Woodcreeper LP
Ivory-billed Woodcreeper LP H
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Lesser Greenlet LP
Brown Jay
Barn Swallow
White-breasted Wood Wren
Spot-breasted Wren H
Tropical Gnatcatcher LP
Gray Catbird
Swainson’s Thrush
Wood Thrush LP
Clay-colored Robin
White-throated Thrush LP
Tennessee Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Buff-rumped Warbler RZ
Chestnut-headed Oropendola
Montezuma Oropendola
Spot-breasted Oriole
Black-cowled Oriole LP
Baltimore Oriole
Melodious Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Bananaquit
Blue-black Grassquit
White-collared Seedeater
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Passerini’s Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager
Red-legged Honeycreeper LP
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Red-throated Ant-tanager LP
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Blue-black Grosbeak RZ
Indigo Bunting
House Sparrow