Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Copan Ruinas

So, I did eventually make it back to Honduras after my week in the States. Kate and I ended up going to the beach in Ocean City for a few days which was very nice.

I then was in Honduras for about a week before I left for Belize. I ended up going to Copan Ruinas for the first time with my neighbor, Melanie, who was updating the Honduras chapter of the Fodor´s Central America travel guide. It was definitely an experience just getting there.

We left Ceiba a little late, not until like 11:30, and thus missed the last direct bus from San Pedro Sula to the town of Copan Ruinas. We were convinced by the ayudante of one of the buses, that all we have to do is get on the bus to La Entrada, and then we can catch a bus to Copan. So we get on the bus and off we go, arriving in La Entrada during an aguacero, aka torential downpour. As we get off the bus, the ayudante tells us, ¨oh, looks like you missed the bus to Copan.¨ How nice. We hide under a gas station roof for awhile and make our way over to the little bus stop (it´s still raining), and get a taxista (the taxi was little more than a tin box on wheels), to take us to Copan for L.200 each, about $10. It took a good hour a half or so in the dark, pouring rain, and more than once, I thought that we were just going to topple off of the mountain side and never be heard from again. About half way up, we hit a bit of a traffic jam. There was a little landslide blocking most of the road. Our taxista said that it´s been there for 10 or 15 years. Since it had been raining, it was pure mud. I thought that we were going to have to turn around since other cars were getting stuck, but the taxista said, Este carro anda! (This car goes!) and off we went.


When we finally got there, it wasn´t raining, but soon started. It was about 7:00 or so, and we wandered around town for a bit until finding a hostel that had beds available, called En la manzana verde. Very clean, quite nice, and only $4 a bed. We changed out of our soppy wet clothes, and went to treat ourselves to dinner at Twisted Tanya´s, a restaurant that does 3 course meals. The food was amazing, but pricey. The drinks were huge, strong, and quite cheap. It is a cute place, and I would highly recommend it if you are not penny pinching.

The next morning Melanie found us a free room in a hotel called Don Udo´s (since she is doing the tour guide thing.) It is immensely cute, moderately priced, and very comfortable. I went to the see the ruins in the afternoon. I didn´t get a tour guide, just took a nice 2 hours or so to wander around them by myself and went into the sculpture museum too. The ruins aren´t impressive because of their height; they are impressive for the sculpture and hieroglyphics. The stellae are so detailed and intricate, but the most impressive part of the whole site is the hieroglyphics wall/staircase. I overheard some other guides who were by the staircase, and they said that the bottom 15 steps are thought to be in the original positions, while the rest of the 70 some stairs are still being placed in the correct spots. It tells the history of the site and of the kings, and one guide even went as far as to compare it to the Bible.


We ate dinner at Cafe Via Via, which I would highly recommend. It´s a friendly place, with good music, and a nice atmosphere. The owners are awesome. There are inexpensive rooms there in addition to the bar and restaurant. The next day, we went home, and luckily the trip back was much less eventful than the trip there.

That is enough for today, but I promise to talk about my Belize trip soon. It was Unbelizeable! haha.