ATV Adventures (Night 2)

Chapter 2: The Researchers and Ernesto 

Monday night, beach patrol was out of the question as our area of Honduras was under a hurricane watch. Other than rain and lack of internet, though, Ernesto didn't really affect us. Oh, I guess our TV did limit us to about six channels due to signal disruption but in "affect us," I mean lasting and/or permanent damage.

On Tuesday, Robyn and I showed up at BICA at 6 pm, per normal, and Lindsey, Robyn, and I headed towards the beach a little later. Chel hadn't met us at BICA like normal but we weren't sure if that meant beach patrol was or was not happening since we hadn't heard from her since that morning. We figured we better go down to the beach just in case she was down there. 

The road was, well, no longer a road. Huge puddles were everywhere. Anywhere that wasn't rock had turned to mud. 

Not the best driving conditions but it's going to take weeks for all this to dry out so we might as well get used to it. 

When we got to the beach, we turned off the ATV and walked out of the wooded area to see what tropical storm conditions had done to the beach. Chel, of course, was not there. As we felt the first drops of rain, we decided it was high time to head back to our dry apartments and climbed back onto the ATV. It was then we realized we had a problem--again. 

Yes, it was the exact same problem as two nights previous. This time, we didn't even bother with the rock banging. We recruited the help of a part-time BICA volunteer who lives nearby to tow the ATV to his property and store some of our gear there overnight. Then, Lindsey, Robyn, and I set out to walk the three miles of dirt road. (There is about a mile of paved road after that, but it's easy walking and not flooded currently.) The entire way, Lindsey kept pointing out, in increasingly pitiful tones, that, "It was not raining when we left!" The sky, irregardless, kept raining as we slipped and slid our way out and our spirits were significantly less dampened overall than our physical beings. Yes, I fell, yes, there is a photo. I have to get it from Lindsey, though. 

Other than being wet and muddy, we made it back without incident. The next day, we contacted the rental guy who said he would change the battery in the ATV and bring it back to BICA--nicely setting the stage for Part 3 of our story.