I’ve just spent the last week at a field camp called Guanales. Fiona came too for a couple of nights. Guanales is about 1.5 hours walk from Base Camp, up a gradual hill, then down a very steep hill. It’s at around 1250 metres above sea level, so is warm and sunny-ish.
The best thing about Guanales is its showers - hollow bamboo pipes extending horizontally from the top of a small waterfall direct a powerful jet of water outwards creating the most powerful shower I have ever experienced. Privacy was somewhat lacking, but the setting was marvellous.
A close second to the showers comes the newly created play park. Bex, an invertebrate person, learnt the Spanish word for a see-saw, so asked the Honduran forest guides if they could build one. They were happy to oblige and created a fine see-saw from forest products with machetes. This see-saw is special however. It has the revolutionary new feature of rotating on its pivot, as well as going up and down in the traditional fashion; a see-saw crossed with roundabout, if you will. It goes fast too. Every play park should have one.
The play theme continued with the introduction of an adult sized swing and a pull-up bar (would you believe I am near the top of the chart of number of pull ups in one go - I am a super hero after all). Guanales even has its own custom made Opwall Monopoly, again made with natural forest products. Science seemed to take a back seat to play for a while as herpetologists and bromeliadologist combined forces to make chess pieces from bamboo. Once complete I suspect a chess board will be etched on the dinner table.
