Honduras - Rio Tinto-dugout canoe on the ocean at night- not a good idea !!

     While in Honduras, we helped a good friend start a new work in the remote town of Rio 

 Tinto  . His name was Jose Cerrano.  He is one of the smartest black men I know.   He could speak : English, Spanish, Carrabian , Greek, and Hebrew.  He was very poor and lived in a straw  house with a dirt floor.  He was in his 70's  and was a great man to be around .   

     He had waked 8 hours down the coast to the town of Rio Tinto on several occasions .  It is a small town on the coast with no roads to it and no airport.  The only way to get there was by walking nor by boat.   The first couple of times that he went there he was actually stoned and forced to leave.  He wasn't seriously hurt and he wasn't afraid either.  He kept visiting , and little by little had won so many people to the Lord that the only bar in the  town  shut down for lack of business.  Things were going so well he asked me to go with him one weekend in the dugout canoe to have a special dedication service of the new work there. 

     So we went to Rio Tinto.    We drove to the end of the road in the town of Baja Mar.  And got all our things in the 20  foot long hollowed out log (dugout canoe )  .  The sides of the boat are only 18 inches high.  And remember we are going on the ocean not a smooth river.  They had  an outboard motor attached to the back of the boat,  which was better than paddling.  And right from the start we had a problem.   We got the dugout canoe out on the ocean latter in the day than we wanted to.  It was now about 6:00p.m. and the town was about 2 and half hours 

away.    But we went anyway.   Things started out good enough but than it got dark.   And shortly after that a small storm came up.   The waves were now coming over our short boat and  they were filling the boat with water.  We were able to use a paint can to bale it out and stay a float.  It was one of the few times I have been really afraid.  If you think you are a brave person you need to take this test.  Fianally, we made it safe and sound to the town of Rio Tinto..  All went well, and we returned to Puerto Cortez the next day.   I don't mind the canoe - ocean trip in the day time , but that night trip in a storm isn't for me.  Oh, yea, on the way back the motor mount on the back of the boat broke and we almost dropped the motor in the ocean.  Fortunately , the guy holding it was strong enough to hold the running motor even though it was fastened to the boat.   We walked the rest of the way , about 1 1/2 hours.   The others had to paddle the boat back to town.  That took a long time.   Now that was a strange trip in a canoe.