Cyclo-Camping in Parque Nacionál La Tigra

After our detour into the capital city of Tegucigalpa for bike repairs, we decided to take the long way out of town by climbing up to La Tigra National Park. We couldn’t find any details for a rideable route through the park, so we just decided to show up and find out.

Screen Shot 2013-09-11 at 19.39.00

We arrived at Jutiapa Visitor Centre in the early afternoon and asked about taking our bikes up the service road which leads to El Rosario on the other side of the park. Initially, the park guides said it was prohibited, but after some further prodding and a call to his boss, he said we could pass with our bikes in the morning.  We paid $10 USD each for entry to the park and an additional $7.50 USD each for camping. Both of these fees are ten times the rate for Honduran residents. We didn’t have much option other than turning back, so we decided to accept the fees and setup camp. In retrospect, it was totally worth the fees.

Aside from being a touted as a magical cloud forest, La Tigra is a paradise for bird nerds with a decent network of hiking trails. The forest is thick with exotic birds, but I have no idea what to call them. Apparently, quetzals and other rarities can be spotted in the morning before the noisy niños arrive on the minibuses. There are some interesting little mammals running around too, but most of them are pretty hard to spot. We saw some little badger-pig-dog creatures with big eyes which reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Also, for the first time in months, we were able to see the stars on a dark night with very minimal light pollution. We both agreed we had not seen stars like that for a very long time.

We survived a massive downpour inside our little tent before rising to explore La Tigra’s trail network. Stupidly, we didn’t bring any food with us on the trails and found ourselves crawling back to the visitor centre where they serve basic baleadas (and nothing else). Over the course of 18 hours, I ate eleven large baleadas; I think Jenny ate seven.

After five hours of hiking, we could’t face getting on the bikes for the 6km hike-a-bike through the forest, so we ended up camping a second night (for free). We gobbled some more baleadas for dinner and got ready for a start in the morning.

Cycling through the park was an absolute pleasure, but not without some tough pushing. The recent rains had turned the old mining road into a rocky stream. Most of the trail was rideable, but it ended up taking us a few hours to travel the 6km through the park to El Rosario centre on the side.

From there we road down to once prosperous mining town of San Juancito and then climbed back up to tourist friendly Valle de Angeles for some much needed showers and food!

2013-09-05-014.jpg

A view of sprawling Tegucigalpa on the climb up to swanky El Hatillo on our way to La Tigra

2013-09-05-015.jpg

The streams are lined with these water lilies.

2013-09-05-001.jpg

Our campsite for two nights at La Tigra

2013-09-05-020.jpg

Magic blue shrooms

2013-09-06-030.jpg

Each of the trees seemed to have their own ecosystem growing up the sides.

2013-09-06-036.jpg

magic niño teleporter

2013-09-06-039.jpg

We found trees and plants in all shapes and sizes …

2013-09-06-045.jpg

… including these surreal little surveillance creatures…

2013-09-06-041.jpg

… and a closer look.

2013-09-06-046.jpg

We were told that the water from the creeks in La Tigra is super clean and considering what we’ve been drinking recently, we couldn’t stop chugging the holy water of La Tigra!

2013-09-06-054.jpg

La Cascada de La Tigra

2013-09-06-067.jpg

Another teleporter, this one is adult size.

2013-09-06-072.jpg

The view from one of the miradors on La Cascada trail

2013-09-06-075.jpg

No idea what these are!

2013-09-06-083.jpg

These guys hang from the sky and love to hitch a ride on your nose.

2013-09-06-087.jpg

Amazingly diverse underbrush…

2013-09-06-090.jpg

… and thick cover above

2013-09-06-092.jpg

One of the many disused mines at La Tigra

2013-09-06-096.jpg

Clouds rolling in give warning of the evening showers

2013-09-07-098.jpg

Sadly, we managed to crack a tent pole on our MSR Hubba Hubba…

2013-09-07-103.jpg

… so we devised a high tech repair.

2013-09-07-109.jpg

Most of the trail between Jutiapa to El Rosario is rideable, but there are a few sections which forced us to use some different muscles!

2013-09-07-110.jpg

A much needed rest station…

2013-09-07-114.jpg

… before another hike-a-bike

2013-09-07-121.jpg

… to the next rest station.

2013-09-07-126.jpg

Amazing tree ornaments…

2013-09-07-128.jpg

… some look like they might crawl away.

2013-09-07-133.jpg

A mossy tree tunnel at the top

2013-09-07-136.jpg

Stopping to listen to the chatter of birds

2013-09-07-140.jpg

We stumbled upon a gaggle of kids piggyback racing in a clearing at the top (2100m). Needless to say, we didn’t see or hear any animals around here.

2013-09-07-142.jpg

…They were starting another round as we made our way through the comotion…

2013-09-07-150.jpg

… and back to the peaceful safety of the mossy tree tunnel.

2013-09-07-154.jpg

Jenny has really improved her mountain biking skills on this trip…

2013-09-07-155.jpg

… and I am learning to admit defeat on sections which I would normally attempt (without the touring weight).

2013-09-07-163.jpg

Another spooky, drippy mining cave. Given my claustraphobia, I let Jenny investigate.

2013-09-07-168.jpg

Not so sure about slippery bridges yet…

2013-09-07-174.jpg

Jenny declared a biscuit celebration as we reached the mirador near the Rosario park entrance.

2013-09-07-175.jpg

View from the mirador above the Rosario mining settlement and San Juancito visible below

2013-09-07-184.jpg

A delapidated old house at the now disused Rosario mining settlement

2013-09-07-191.jpg

Looking back at our route out of La Tigra

2013-09-07-196.jpg
We met a group of keen XC riders on their usual Sunday ride at the top of the climb before Valle de Angeles.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: