ttraveler

We are going to be staying at the Omega Lodge for three nights. Any suggestions about what might be the best tours? We want to hike for sure. Has anyone done one of their rafting trips? Thanks

crmeador

Traveler -

I have rafted with Omega and it was a fantastic experience. Both Udo and Silvia, the owners are great folks. I have heard very good reviews of their Cacao Lagoon kyaking trip. Have fun!

Charlie Meador, Coco Pando, La Ceiba, Honduras

hopefulist

We loved everything we did: rafting (and our timing with the water was great - recent rain raised the river level), kayaking on Cacao Lagoon to a secluded Caribbean beach, and riding horses up through mountain villages. A week or 2 later I hiked to El Bejuco with a guide from my Spanish school and it was a really wonderful jungle hike to a 300' waterfall.

I think you've seen my photos but here they are just in case:
http://flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

Trip report please! Happy trails!

ttraveler

Thanks for your quick replies. I want to hike El Bejuco for sure. I will look into the kayaking trip as well, that sounds like fun. I am interested in the rafting too. Did you feel like it was safe? Thanks

hopefulist

Part of what we enjoyed about the kayaking was the drive through the lovely village of Cacao on the way. The beach was lovely and we had it all to ourselves - incredible, memorable spot for a picnic lunch that including binging on fresh pineapple.

We were impressed with the rafting guides and the equipment, but rafting is a more risky passtime. There were some huge drops and waves and we were warned that the chances were good we might end up in the river at some point; we were carefully instructed what to do and where to head if that happened. We have our own raft and equipment and do a lot of whitewater rafting in Oregon, so it wasn't particularly scary for us. The condition of the river plays a part so asking about it before you commit might be a good plan.

Happy trails!

ttraveler

Hopeful,
Thanks for the information about the rafting. I think we will probably pass on that. I think I mentioned before that I have a little boy who just turned three. My traveling has certainly changed since I have had him and although I still love traveling I just try to be a bit more thoughtful then before.. Kayaking sounds terrific. I really appreciate all of your advice.

hopefulist

All I ask in return is a trip report.

ttraveler

Yes, Hopeful I will do my best. I had grand thoughts for Nicaragua and started one and never finished it. I'm not a great writer but.. this time I will give it a good shot!

airwayvz

hopefulist,

Could you tell me a little bit more about the Cacoa Lagoon kayaking tour? I'm looking at that as an option...it looks pretty laid back, when compared with whitewater rafting and such. I'm hoping that's the case, as my wife is not big on adrenaline filled water escapades.

Thanks!

-Ryan

hopefulist

We drove through the beautiful Cacao Village and parked the jeep near a narrow dock that ran along an inlet in the lagoon. We just paddled through the lagoon and down channels covered over with jungle. We saw lots of birds, a few iguanas, a few monkeys, and some gorgeous blue morpho butterflies. Eventually we headed toward the Caribbean and pulled the kayaks out onto a narrow strip of sand separating the lagoon from the sea. We had a fabulous lunch (including incredibly delicious fresh pineapple), spent time strolling the beach, then headed back the way we'd come. Very laid back and beautiful - I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Happy trails!

ttraveler

We will have three days at Omega Lodge so we have decided to hike Bejuco, kayak and probably bike. We are still decided between the bike trip or horseback riding. Hopeful, did you get a chance to do either of those trips? They both sound wonderful. Looking forward to our trip. It's coming up in just about a month.

hopefulist

We chose to go rafting, kayaking on Cacao Lagoon, and riding horses in the mountains; I hiked to the Bejuco waterfall a week or 2 later with a guide from my Spanish school - all wonderful trips. There are 2 sorts of horse trips, beach or mountain. The beach trip has Sylvia's own string of horses and would be a memorable experience. We chose the mountains because we were splitting nearly 3 weeks on the islands later and wanted more mountain time. The horses were scrawny, sturdy, sure-footed little mountain ponies and my husband road a little mule, "El Macho". One of the horses had a foal that followed us the whole time. We passed through tiny villages in the jungle, crossed shallow rivers several times, saw beautiful little waterfalls and had a wonderful lunch - a great experience. We were hoping to make it to some petroglyphs but the trail had been washed out by recent heavy rains.

I can't speak to the biking trips; we considered biking and chose the horses - no regrets. We just watched a DVD I made last year that has slide shows from our 2006 trip. Sigh.....

ttraveler

Hopeful,
Did you feel like the horses are well cared for? I love to horseback ride but for whatever reason my knee always bothers me after a short time. The ride sounds just great. Maybe we will wait until we arrive to choose our last tour. I love looking at photos from my trips too. It seems I am just back from one and I already start thinking about another..

hopefulist

Yeah, I haven't completed my August trip and am planning one for the summer of 2009.

The horses we used were a string of mountain ponies that looked well fed but seemed really small compared to North American horses. They didn't seem especially tired at the end of the day or to strain with our weight, though, apparently accustomed to hard work. The beach horses would be more like North American horses.

We spent a long day on horses - the whole trip was 7 or 8 hours including some driving time on each end. Happy trails!