Catching the bus out of La Ceiba, we headed towards La Union, a small rural community 40km up the coast. Our first ride on the 'chicken bus' (the old American school buses) was slow but fun, we tried some local pan de coco and chatted with the locals who were keen to teach us about pineapple harvesting.
From La Union, we had heard the best way to get into the reserve was to take the old "banana" train left over from the days when the only transport in the north coast was the train. The train track still seemed to be pretty handy for the local people who had farms and shacks along the track - good for transporting people, squealing pigs and pineapples! Cutting straight through wetlands, farms and cattle ranches, it was a fun ride.
The Cuero y Salado refugee encompasses the Cuero y Salado rivers and meets the Caribbean coast. Protected by the WWF and a local NGO due to poaching, the river has a unique mangrove system where salt water meets fresh water from 15 different river basins.
As you can see from the snaps, the refuge is really beautiful. The park protects animals like jaguars, manatees, crocodiles and monkeys as well as 200 types of birds. We took a boat up river with a guide and did some serious 'twitching', binoculars and picture book in hand we saw beautiful kingfishers and lots of different types of herons and stalks. We also saw clusters of really cool little bats that were stuck to the trees and sprung to life when the boat got too close!
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