My Adventures in Central America
Part 4 - Honduras
Welcome to my fourth country in my adventure! We are making a short 3 day visit to the town of Copan Ruinas in Honduras.
Day 22 Antigua Guatemala to Copan
This morning we were all up by 7am to get ready for our departure. I packed yesterday so I just had to get dressed.
I went out to get a coffee and noticed there were a lot of military on the streets with big guns. A bit later, our new guide informed us that allegations of corruption have been made against the President of Guatemala so the streets are being flooded with military and police to prevent or control any protests that happen.
We packed our bus then had to go to the local printing store to get copies of our passports, covid vax certificates, Honduras immigration forms and screenshot of our health screening number. This meant that we ended up leaving at 8.45am instead of 8am but we needed those document printed apparently.
We said a very sad farewell to Liam, our guide for the first half. We will miss him so much! Our new guide Adrian has big shoes to fill! Liam has promised us that he told Adrian everything about us (food preferences, travel styles, medical etc) so fingers crossed everything goes well.
The first part of our drive was about 2hrs, to a servo on the other side of Guatemala City. Then we continued for anther 2.5hrs to a small place where our guide needed to get something printed. He dropped us at a mall with several food outlets, and most of us went to McDonalds. I had a trusty Big Mac.
The next part of our journey was 1.5hrs to the Guatemala-Honduras border. We were all armed with all our photocopies and 1 handwritten form. The first step was a health check. They took our temperature and checked our covid vaccination certificates. Then we went inside a building. It is the tiniest border I have ever been to. Inside the building are a row of benches with 5 desks. 2 of them are the Guatemalan immigration border & 3 of them are the Honduras immigration border. You literally only take a few steps to exit Guatemala and enter Honduras! After visiting the 2 desks, you pay your 30 GTQ then our guide did the luggage declaration. And that was it! Very quick and easy. And after all the kerfuffle with the paperwork was a waste because they didn't check a single thing other than my covid certificate & my passport.
From the border it is only 20mins to Copan Ruinas, our home for the next 2 nights. Copan is a small town and home to the famous Copan ruins. I was lucky enough to get my own room as the odd female out which was awesome. The hotel is very basic, with 2 single beds and a fan.
Then we went to the park in the centre of town for some information. We chose our activities for tomorrow & I'm doing the ruins but skipping the hot springs. I think I'm the only one not going but $50 USD is a lot for some hot water & BBQ meal.
I walked around the town looking in some shops with some of the others, and for myself a shot glass.
Then we went to a café for dinner. I was actually shocked that it was cheaper for a Bacardi and lemonade then it was for a bottle of water or Coke! I had a Bacardi and chicken fajitas. The cafe gave us a free shot (blue curacao base) and then gave us a shot of some local herbal stuff. It was awful.
Then I headed back to the hotel to use the WiFi and go to bed. The WiFi here is absolutely terrible so it was a slow process to send some pictures.
Day 23 Copan Ruinas
This morning I woke up early as it was very noisy and hot. I have a ceiling fan but it only has 1 speed...slow!
I got ready and went to a nearby coffee shop for a coffee. It was quite good!
Then 8 of us & Adrian met our local guide who was taking us on a tour of the ruins. It is about 1km from our hotel so we walked there.
The ruins are also home to a large number of scarlet macaw. They do feed them, which is not good, but it means visitors can get quite close. I’d prefer they didn't feed them and we have to look for them in the trees! It was feeding time just after we arrived so the birds were super noisy! After the feeders were filled, they kept coming down to the platforms to eat. We could get very close, about 1m away from them. There were also some other birds there and even a squirrel having a snack.
Then we started our walk around. A lot of the structures are underground. This is because when the king dies, the new king covers the existing temples and builds his own on top. One of the temples has 9 layers! We started in the jungle and saw some fallen pieces, and trees that had taken over.
We went through to a plaza where we could see some temples. We climbed up a couple of them to see the views over the city and the jungle.
There were so many stone carvings all over the place. The theme is to scare people so a lot of skulls and weapons feature in the artwork. There are also a lot of faces. Here are some of the carvings.
There are also lots of monuments. Check out the intricate carving work.
There is a hieroglyphic staircase as well, which is amazing. It is covered for protection from the elements and one day, they hope that people can decipher it and put it into the correct order. The are over 2000 hieroglyphs!
After the tour finished, we walked back to our hostel and chilled for a bit. Then some of us went for lunch at a local Cafe. I got a chicken Cobb salad which was delicious. Then Nat and I shared a piece of Snickers cake. I stayed in the Cafe for a bit longer as the air con was cold and the WiFi very good.
I went back to my room and played with the resident kitty for a while. She is so smoochy!
Then I went for a walk to visit the Tea & Chocolate House. On the way I stopped at some painted stairs.
The walk to the chocolate place is about 15mins with a decent hill. I had a Mayan iced chocolate, which was very nice. Not at all like the iced chocolate at home!
Then I headed back to town to wall around and chill out.
Tomorrow we are off to our next country, El Salvador. Honduras has a bed reputation as being unsafe, but Copan feels like a safe place. I walked around on my own both during the day and at night. Lots of people are friendly and say hola as you go past. Most people sick to the Caribbean side (I'm looking at you Roatan!) and miss the amazing Copan area.
Now that I've been here, I probably don't need to come back, but it's been nice to visit and see Copan.