By Nyon Steede
I received an email from Ken Davis inquiring if I was interested in a collecting trip in Honduras in May. Since I hadn’t been on a collecting trip since Peru in 2003, I was more than ready to go on another one. On Thursday, May 3rd 2007, I was off to Honduras for my second collecting trip, with Howard Paynter tagging along for his first collecting trip. The other members on the trip were coming from the U.S. Howard and I had to overnight in Atlanta since the flight to San Paulo Sula was not until 11:00 a.m. the next morning. Friday morning we met Ken at the Atlanta airport and collected our group ticket and money for Honduras. Ken advised all of the collecting party prior to the trip that he usually takes about $500, which I sent to him two weeks before the trip, to exchange to Limpera. With the exchange rate that Ken got, I ended up with $10,000 Limpera. We checked in and walked to the gate to meet the other members of the collecting party for the first time.
Once at our gate to board the flight to Honduras, I met Eddie (the organizer of the trip), Warren, David, Kyle, Gene and Terry. Up to this point, all of the communication had been via email and once I was with the other party members I was not sure if it would be a fun trip. I must say that the old adage ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’ was never so true. After the initial warming up period and small talk, my apprehensiveness was starting to subside, which was a good thing because I had an eight day collecting trip with these “strangers”.
We landed in San Paulo Sula at approximately 12:00 p.m., colleted our bags and went to the car rental company, eager to start our adventure. This experience was a case of ‘hurry up and wait’ and turned out to be the motto for our trip. It took us about 2 hours to get our vehicles even though they were reserved. Eddie had decided to check to see if he could get a cheaper rate from a competing rental company. Eddie achieved his goal, but for a 2 hour wait, the savings of $7 a day hardly seemed worth it. The funny thing about the whole ordeal was that the rental company that we got the vehicles from had to rent one of the vehicles from Eddie’s original rental company due to their lack of vehicles. We loaded up the pick-up truck and mini-van and started on our journey to Copan.
Six hours later, we arrived in the rustic, historical city of Copan having encountered washed out roads and countless mountain uphill road climbs. We had a quick sightseeing tour of the old city, as we drove around and around trying to find our hotel. After driving around for about 25 minutes in the narrow, cobble stone streets of Copan, we finally found the Hotel Marina Copan. The hotel was very nice compared to some third world hotel accommodations. It was reminiscent of a quaint place that you would find in the tropics. We were all tired after the long drive but food was our most prominent driving force. So, after quickly checking into the hotel, we headed to a restaurant at the end of the street. Once we got the menu, I could hardly believe the prices. The average price per meal was about 225 Lempira, which works out to be about $11.25. At these prices, I knew that I would enjoy eating in Honduras.
The next morning we all met in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Eddie was complaining about eating there due to the price because he knew a place close by that was cheaper. It was at this point that I realized that Eddie was extremely frugal. The breakfast at the hotel cost $6 which consisted of a saucer of fresh fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs and sausage with toast or pancakes and bacon and toast, and tea or coffee. The place Eddie wanted us to go for breakfast charged $4. After breakfast, Eddie gave the plan for the fist day of collecting. We briefly retired to our rooms to gather all of our collecting gear and other items and were ready to load the vehicles by 9:00 a.m.
Eddie had planned for us to collect in the Rio Copan and the Rio Blanco on the first collecting day. Once at the Rio Copan, we quickly unloaded our nets and other supplies from the vehicles and proceeded to the river. The water of the Rio Copan was only about knee to thigh height but moved very swiftly and was lined with a rocky bottom with some bigger boulders scattered about. The bank of the Rio Copan had some grassy areas but the fish were in the rapids behind the plentiful rocks that extended out of the river to break up the even flow of water. The water temperature was 80 degrees F with a pH of 8.0. As we eased into the water with out nets, Warren perched himself on a big boulder to get a few throws of his cast net. After about two to three hours at this location we had a few Chuco microphthalmus to show for our efforts and a 13-inch Tilapia. The majority of the four Micro’s that Warren netted were about two inches, however, I got lucky and out of frustration from not catching anything swooped my net behind a medium boulder and came up with a six-inch Micro. As usual, Howard was ‘hating’ on me because I caught the biggest fish and he didn’t catch anything.
The next stop for the day was the Rio Blanco where we caught the Parachromis “Tiger” motaguense and a few Cryptoheros Spilurum. We caught quite a few ¼ to ½ inch Moto fry in the in the tall grass that lined the bank of the river. Again, Warren caught a few larger specimens with the cast net. The water parameters of this river had a temperature of 80 degrees F and a pH of 8.4. The water of the Blanco was very clear with a muddy bottom. With nine people moving around in the river, as you can imagine, the river sediment got stirred up and soon the visibility was gone. After we caught a reasonable amount of Moto’s from the Blanco, it was time to head back to the hotel for an early dinner and a stroll around the town of Copan.
We rose early on day two of the collecting trip (Sunday), had breakfast and checked out of the Hotel Marina Copan. With the vehicles loaded, we drove about ten minutes to the Mayan ruins for a bit of sightseeing. At the entrance of the ruins, the sight of eight to ten Scarlet Macaws greeting visitors with the vibrant colours of their plumage enthralled me. Once in, we had to walk along the ¼ mile path that led to a large opening where the pyramids and stone monuments stood to tell the stories of the Mayan people. Even through the ruins were not what I expected, I would recommend to anyone who makes the trip to Copan to stop by and take a walk back in time.
We left the ruins around 12:00 p.m. and started our long drive to the next collecting location in Trujillo. During our drive I passed sights that would break the hearts of any cichlid enthusiast. We passed rivers that were completely dry due to the large acre upon acre of pineapple fields that were bring grown to supply the demand of Dole foods. I love pineapple as much as the next person but I never knew the effect that the growing of pineapples was having on the fish that have brought me so much pleasure. By using the river water to water their crop of pineapple, growers have killed every fish species in that water shed and if the species of fish was only found in that watershed, then they are now extinct. My sadness was compounded as we traveled further and further and I saw more and more dry river beds. I kept thinking about that species of fish that probably lived there that we will never see again.
Finally, around 8:30 – 9:00 p.m., we reached our destination in Trujillo. Casa Kiwi was run by a very nice lady named Kass who hailed from New Zealand. Since she was expecting us, she had the cooks stay late so that we could get something to eat before we retired to our dwellings. Howard and I shared a quaint, one room bungalow with an adequate separate bathroom. I was a bit turned off when I looked at my bed and saw what appeared to be mouse droppings. Later the next day, I found out that the gifts left on my bed were not mouse droppings but rather the droppings of small lizards that lived in the wooden exposed rafters of the ceiling. Since the lizards ate the mosquitoes that invaded my dwelling, it was easier to accept the daily removal of droppings. The mosquitoes were not as bad as the little insects that the locals fondly refer to as “no-see-ums”. They are adequately named as they are so small that you can’t see them. These insects pack a terrible bite for their size. Kass told us to cover our legs with the Baby Oil that she had resting on the bar. According to Kass, the “no-see-ums” were so small that they drowned in the Baby Oil. Since Kass had lived there for some time now, I took her advice and wouldn’t you know, it worked!
On day three of the collecting trip we left Casa Kiwi around 9:30 a.m. and headed to a nearby river system named the Rio Claro. This river system had a water temperature of 84 degrees F, with a pH of 7.2. Shortly after I entered the river, I came across 18 fry eating algae on the side of a boulder. I used a regular 10” aquarium net to catch them. It was easy to catch these fry as they must have been conditioned to return to that particular part of the boulder. It took me about four scoops before I had collected the whole group that was feeding. Ken thought that the fry looked to be baby Parachromis loisellei. We also caught Cryptoheros Cutteri and an assortment of Mollies in that same Rio. We spent a good part of two hours in this river and the group was getting hungry. So, we headed into Casa Kiwi to take the fish back to the rooms.
On the way back, we decided to check the small pools of water on the side of the road. To our surprise, we found a pool that had Gold Managuense. By the time we had finished collecting in the pools, we had captured about 30 specimens.
After the fish were settled, we left Casa Kiwi with Ken driving the truck heading to Rio Toro, before getting lunch in Trujillo. Eddie was delayed a bit as his driving skill broke a wooden post as he backed up. As we drove down the driveway from Casa Kiwi, we saw the sailor who we met the night before as we ate dinner. His sail boat was anchored just off the beach and he was carrying two gas containers. Eddie decided to do a good deed for the day as the nearest gas station was about 10 miles away and not that far from our destination. On the way back from the gas station, Eddie was speeding, as usual, in a rush to go nowhere. In Honduras, they drive on the right side of the road. As we sped along, Eddie decided to overtake a car that was going about 70 m.p.h. As Eddie, now in the left lane, was about to round the car, I noticed a young horse in the distance some 200 yards away, about to walk across the road from the left side. I said to Eddie, horse......horse!.....HORSE! Eddie dipped in front of the car he was overtaking and hit brakes when he was about 100 feet away from the horse. We slid the whole 100 feet and, you guessed, hit the horse. We hit the horse in his hind quarters going about 75 – 80 m.p.h. sending the horse spinning into the ditch on the other side (right) of the road. The horse sustained two broken hind legs and the van sustained a big dent in the hood and a cracked grill. Villagers from nearby swarmed to the scene to see what had happened. To add insult to the horse’s injuries, Eddie blamed the horse for the accident! He said that he thought that the horse was going to stop.
After dealing with the horse incident, we finally got to the Rio Toro where Ken and the other three had already started collecting. The look on their faces when they saw the van was one of complete disbelief. Terry told us that since we had taken a long time to get there, they were joking that we must have hit a cow. After we gave them a blow by blow account of the incident, we joined in the collecting. In this river, we caught the Gold Cutteri and Parachromis dovii fry as well as more mollies. The amount of Cutteri pairs that were in this river was unbelievable. Since the water was very clear, as was the case with all of the rivers in Trujillo, I was able to snorkel and get some underwater shots of the fish. The experience would have been a tranquil one had it not been for the hundreds upon hundreds of Mexican Tetras that bit at every dark spot on my body. They are such beautiful Tetras but also a pain (literally).
Wednesday, May 9th was day four of the collecting trip and we decided that the group would split up with one venturing to collect in the western part of Trujillo and the other would going further north. I went west with Ken, Warren and Kyle. We stopped at just about every river along the way to see if it had any interesting fish. The first river we stopped at was the Rio Zarco where we caught Amphilophus robertsoni fry. We didn’t spend much time at Rio Zarco due to the few fish that we saw and the fact that we wanted to collect in as many rivers as we could find along the way. The next river that we collected in was the Rio Limoncito. This was another swift moving river that had a few deep spots. After about a half hour, Warren spotted a pair of fish in the shallows. Upon closer inspection, we saw that it was a Veija maculicauda (Black Belt) pair with fry. The unusual thing about this Maculicauda was that it did not have the distinctive black belt from which this fish derived it common name. We caught half of the spawn and moved on.
Next stop was the Rio Tabasco where Warren caught a breeding pair of Robertsoni that must have been either guarding fry or eggs. We also caught some Gold Cutteri. Less than two miles from the Rio Tabasco was the Rio Monga that was home to Cryptoheros sp. Honduran Red Point. We caught a few pairs of these very attractive little fish and decided to find a place to get a bit of lunch.
We found a small town in Limon and drove around to find a place to eat. Our choices of eateries were very limited as there was only one “restaurant” in the whole town. This place looked like a cross between a dwelling, bar/club and a restaurant. As soon as we entered, a young girl started pulling pots off of the shelf, even before we asked if this was a place where we could get some food. The menu choices were as limited as the dining location in this town. The choices were either fish or chicken. I guess since they had a monopoly on the industry, they could afford to have a limited menu. It’s not as though they had to improve the menu to ward off the competition! After what surprisingly was a very tasty lunch, we collected in a small canal just outside of town. Being so close to the ocean, the canal water was brackish. We saw a few Mullets swimming around and even caught Robertsoni, Uropthalamus, Managuense, Gambusia and a few Mollies.
On the road to Trujillo from Limon, we decided to stop at a ditch that was covered with “Water Lettuce” to have a look to see what was there. The water in this ditch was clear but with the amount of mud-like sediment, you sank past your knees. So, standing on the rocks at the banks edge, I dipped my net under some “Water Lettuce” and hit the mother load. My net came to the surface with 60 half-inch Managuense fry. After this haul, it didn’t make sense catching any more Managuense for the rest of the trip. We were surprised when Warren caught two 3 ½ inch Tilapia. Since Tilapia is a predatory fish, Warren showed his disgust for them by tossing them onto the highway above.
On day five, Eddie, who was now smitten with Kass, decided to change the plans for the days collecting site. Kass had told him about a place that had a big waterfall that she knew of with big fish in the pools at the foot of the falls. It was the mention of big fish that sparked Eddie’s interest so off we went in search of the spot. A half hour later, we drove into the area described by Kass. We were greeted by a young man in army fatigues. He informed us that the place was a national park so we would not be able to collect fish in the park. However, the lure of big fish was still on our minds. We asked if we could wander through the park to find the falls and were told that we must be escorted. Fifteen minutes into our hike in the park, we came to a small waterfall which was definitely an anti-climactic sight. Our guide mentioned that there was a larger waterfall which was about a 45 minute hike deeper and higher up through the forest. After a brief moment of deliberation, we were on our way up into the forest. Ken, who “obviously” came prepared for a 45 minute hike removed his flip-flops and decided to walk bare-foot.
On the way to the bigger falls, we were passed by three mules loaded with Mahogany being led by two men. We were all a bit puzzled. We were not allowed to catch fish in this “national park” but others were allowed to come in to cut down Mahogany trees! After following the trail up hill deeper into the forest, we finally came to our destination. Another anti-climatic sight as far as the waterfall and big fish were concerned. The area was absolutely beautiful and the hike was invigorating. However, the waterfall was almost nonexistent and the only fish were small tetras. Ken became very nervous when an armed military guard carrying an M-16 appeared from the brush.
After a brief stop to snorkel and swim to cool down from the hike, we headed back down to the vehicles. Ken, Gene and Howard left ahead of the group to get a head start. Half way down, the rest of the group caught up with Ken and Gene but Howard was nowhere to be found. Once at the vehicles, and with Howard nowhere in sight, we informed our guide that Howard was missing. In an instant four armed military guards dashed into the forest to look for Howard. Five minutes later, Howard eased his way toward us. We told him that the military men had gone to look for him. When Howard told us about his find, we knew why there were armed guards in the park. Howard informed us that he had stumbled into a marijuana field on his way down to the vehicles. He said that he walked into the field, saw the “weed” and quickly backed out. Good thing Howard was not discovered in that field, I would have hated to have to call his wife on his first collecting trip to deliver bad news.
Day six of our trip meant cutting short our stay at Casa Kiwi to allow for two days collecting in La Ceiba and to reduce the travel time to the airport by 2 ½ hours. We loaded up the vehicles, said our goodbyes to Kass and were on the road by 9:30 a.m. on our way to La Ceiba. After our three hour drive, we arrived at the Coco Panda, a hotel owed by Charlie Pyles who is well known on the ACA circuit. After getting settled in our rooms and unloading the vehicles, we ate lunch at the hotel. Shortly after lunch, we were greeted by a very familiar smile. Our good friend Rusty Wessel had flown in for the last two days of our collecting trip. This was a treat for us as Rusty had been in Honduras the week before we arrived.
Since Rusty had made some other plans already for that afternoon, we decided to head into the town of La Ceiba for a bit of shopping. That evening Rusty took us to a nice restaurant that used to be a regular spot for the U.S. military station in Honduras. The food was good and just as inexpensive as all the other places that we dined in. After dinner, we took Rusty back to his hotel to drop off a few things and then we set our sights on sampling the night life that La Ceiba presented. “Ironically,” we did not have to go far since there was a club right next to Rusty’s hotel. We spent a good hour to an hour and a half there making sure that we had a chance to fully absorb all the club had to offer. After spending what was the equivalent of one week’s salary to most people in Honduras, I was ready to see how the other spots compared. We found a nice dance club that paled in comparison but met our needs for the time being. After spending a few hours at the club, it was time for some much needed rest and relaxation.
At 9:30 a.m. the next morning we left the Coco Panda on our way to the Rio Congrejal. This was the spot that Rusty was keen to collect so we happily followed his guide. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the fastest flowing river that we had encountered during the whole trip. The water was crystal clear with enormous boulders lining the edge and breath taking scenery. Warren was the first in the water and before long he had happened upon a female Theraps wesseli with fry. This was a special treat for us as well as Rusty, as this was the first time that either of us had seen Wesseli with fry let alone catch Wesseli fry. Rusty, armed with his underwater video, asked that we allow time for him to get some footage before we came in to have a look for ourselves. Donning my mask and snorkel, I waited for the okay from Rusty. It was amazing that such little fry could keep up in extremely fast moving water. The water current was so swift in some places that had it not been for Rusty, I probably would have been swept down the river. The fish gods must have definitely been blessing us because we discovered yet another Wesseli with fry and this time it was a pair that had been trapped in a shallow pool when the waters receded.
Having fully taken in the experience at the Rio Congrejal, we made our way to the Rio Belaire after taking our prized catch back to the hotel so they wouldn’t bake in the sun. That afternoon our collecting efforts in the Rio Belaire were rewarded with the collecting of more Cutteri and the first Swordtail. It was surprising that the fish could survive in the Rio Belaire because when I took the temperature of the water, the thermometer read 90 degrees F. We didn’t collect there long as the light was not working in our favor and we wanted to get in one more site before heading home the next day.
At the next collecting site, the Rio Hueron, we spotted and caught our first Cryptoheros nigrofasiatus (Convict Cichlid). Rusty, during his snorkel and underwater filming, found a school of catfish under a log. According to Rusty, this was another first for him. He said that in all of this time coming to Honduras, he had never found catfish in the river. Catching the catfish proved difficult and after a few tries Rusty gave up and called it a day.
On the drive back to Coco Panda, Eddie was stopped at a police checkpoint because he overtook at a spot where it was not permitted. The police inspected our coolers of fish and then asked for our permit. Good thing Rusty was with us as he was the only one who understood and spoke Spanish. Since we didn’t have the permit with us (it was at the hotel), Rusty offered the police 500 Limpera ($25) but the police wanted 1,000 Limpera ($50). Since Rusty felt that they were asking for too much, the police continued to hassle us for another twenty minutes. Having reached a stalemate, the police took Eddie’s license so that he would return with the permit. Rusty said that police really want Eddie’s passport, but in these parts of the world you NEVER give up your passport!
The next morning we had breakfast and all met in Ken’s room afterward to divide the fish. Ken had volunteered to take care of all of the fish that were collected; doing daily water changes for the fish Ken had very few fish fatalities. Ken did an excellent job with the fish and due to him, we all enjoyed the trip that much more as we did not have to worry about taking care of fish. The distribution process went smoothly and saw everyone get the fish that they really wanted. We retreated to our respective rooms to pack our fish so that we could head to the airport. Once there, we unloaded the vehicles and Eddie went to explain about what caused the dent in the van. It was a smooth boarding process and before long we were back in the U.S. We said our goodbyes, wished each other well and started to peal off in our various directions.
I must confess that this was a wonderful experience. The fact that I was able to snorkel and see the fish interact in their natural habitat was the icing on the cake for me. Now I am preparing myself mentally for the collecting trip to Uruguay with Spencer Jack in November.