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PALACIOS BRUS LAGUNA AND AHUAS |
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 Sited on what was the British settlement of Black River, PALACIOS
lies just west of one of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve's three
coastal lagoons, Laguna Ibans. Served by regular flights to and from La
Ceiba, this is frequently the starting point for organized trips to the
Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve and a logical place for independent
travellers to set out from. Adequate rooms (both US$5-10) can be had in
the hotel run by local whizzkid Don Felix Marmol, who is also the Isleña
agent, or the Jungle Lodge by the airstrip, where the rooms are a little
better.
Dotted along the Caribbean shoreline around Palacios is a cluster of
interesting Garífuna villages, including Batalla , just to the west of
town across the Palacios lagoon, and Plaplaya , about 8km to the east,
where a turtle project has been established. Highly endangered giant
leatherbacks, the largest species in the world (reaching up to 3m in
length and 900kg in weight), nest in the beaches around the village
between April and June. There's a resident peace corp worker stationed
here to oversee the project, and volunteers are welcome. Raistá , the
next coastal settlement, three hours' walk from Plaplaya, is a friendly
Miskito village and also the base for a new butterfly farm (daily
8am-5pm; US$2.50, including tour), which exports exotic specimens to
other parks in Honduras and North America. There's simple accommodation
here (up to US$5) and the manager's wife cooks tasty, inexpensive meals.
There are more rooms for rent in Belén , right next door to Raistá on
the outer edge of Laguna Ibans, and in Barra Plátano , a two-hour walk
east from Belén along the beach. Boats to the Río Plátano reserve and
Las Marías can be hired in any of these villages, or from Palacios.
Thirty kilometres east along the coast from Palacios, on the
southeastern edge of the Laguna de Brus, is the friendly Miskito town of
BRUS LAGUNA . A basic hospedaje here serves for the relatively few
visitors who make it this far. Regular flights connect the town with La
Ceiba, and guides and boats can be hired for multi-day trips, travelling
up the Río Sigre (or Sikre) into the southern reaches of the Río Plátano
reserve.
A little under 40km inland from Brus Laguna as the crow flies is the
Miskito village of AHUAS , scattered across the savanna. The village is
only a kilometre from the Río Patuca, which forms the border of the Río
Plátano reserve, and narrow cargo boats take passengers on the four-hour
trip upriver to Barra Patuca on the coast. Rooms can be found by asking
around near the airstrip.
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