One of the best hotels in Trujillo was the starting point of our adventure.
When people think of Caribbean vacations, images of beach bars and hammocks dance through their heads.
Do not get me wrong, this is part of the allure of a Caribbean vacation, but if you step of the beaten track just a little, you can find something a little bit more.
My wife and I have been vacationing in the Caribbean for a few years now, but last year we decided to try one of the undiscovered gems of the Caribbean, Honduras.
Honduras offers something that many other Caribbean destinations do not.
It has the pristine un-spoiled beaches, the palm trees and of course the hammocks, but it also has the benefits of a Central American landscape.
A fantastic example of this is our recent trip to Trujillo Bay.
Trujillo Bay is a totally underrated spot on the north coast of Honduras, very near the more famous Bay Islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja.
One of the best of these is the Capiro and Calentura National Park, located behind the mountains which seem to flank the Trujillo bay area.
The park is a protected which is fantastic and something that does not happen enough when countries are in an upward development spiral.
You need a guide, but I recommend an official one, as the park is very out of the way! We decided to dump the car pretty early on and hike as much as possible.
Capiro and Calentura is a refuge for wildlife, but they do not stick around if you drive through in a vehicle which kind of defeats the purpose! Macaws and Howler monkeys (known as Micos locally) are plentiful here.
How close you can get really depends on how deep into the park you go.
There are problems with poaching in Honduras, even in protected areas, so the monkeys are sensible to be a bit wary of us humans! Very quickly you feel surrounded by the lush tropical vegetation, which seems far more Amazonian than Caribbean.
The plant life is amazing, I had never been to a rain forest before and I was blown away.
The highlight for me was (nearly) coming into contact with a large cat.
The guide said it was a panther but I'm not sure, whatever it was it quickly reminded me I wasn't in Kansas anymore! We were able to cool off from our hike in a series of really pleasant waterfalls which follow the line of the Rio Negro up the mountain.
This revitalized us for the final push to the top of Calentura - well worth the effort.
The view is outstanding, the beach front stretches for miles and the Bay Islands seem amazingly clear from up there.
We had to rest before the hike back down, but after that experience, who can complain? So when you are thinking of your Caribbean getaway, think outside of the box and get more than just a beach.
We stayed in one of the beautiful hotels in Trujillo called Banana Beach, which is around 40 minutes from centre of town.
Although it is advertised as a hotel, it offers far more than a congregation of rooms.
Rather than one main building, the accommodation is separated into secluded little bungalows which can be rented per room, or as we did, lock, stock and barrel.
At the resort you have the beautiful beaches, the friendly beach bar and interesting locals that have made the Caribbean experience so famous.
But it can also be used as a base to explore some of the more Central American aspects of the area.
vacation.