Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Saturday 4th August

My favourite day so far!

We met Augusto at 8am and walked for about twenty minutes to reach Copan. There we met our local guide there: 75-year-old self-confessed comedian Antonio. What he lacked in teeth (he had about two) he made up for in jokes. For the next few hours he guided us around the ruins, which date back to 426 AD and consist of an acropolis, heiroglypic stairways, ball court, temples and excavation sights. Lots of the statues and carvings were replicas, the real versions of which are apparently housed in the museum, or else in America somewhere. (We didn't bother going to the museum.)

I was glad we went early, as it was starting to get very hot in the sunshine by the time we left at 11ish. Before doing so, Augusto led us on a 45 minute jungle walk, and we saw macaws, large rodents, butterflies and spiders. He pointed out lots of different plants along the way; apparently he has studied botany. He definitely seems to know a lot about it.

We walked back to the hotel and gave ourselves an hour and a half to relax before meeting at 1pm for lunch. The four of us (minus Augusto) went back to the place we were at for tea last night and I had a much better meal this time: grilled gouda cheese sandwich with a bit of salad, plus iced tea. Afterwards Rose and I wandered around and I got my Honduran Christmas decoration and flag patches for Guatemala and Honduras.

We were going to get massages or some kind of beauty treatment, but when we went into the cafe/tour information place to find out about it something else caught my eye: zip lining. It said that you could book with just half an hour's warning, and it was $45. It would mean going on my own, but I thought, why not? I'm only here once. I told the woman that I wanted to do it, she made a phone call and half an hour later I was back there and climbing into the back of a yute (is that the right word?) with a few guys wearing "Canopy Tour" t shirts.

We stopped at another hotel and picked up two families first. I was so glad that I wouldn't be doing it alone! One family was from Dallas, and one was from Honduras somewhere; the two mums were friends from college. They all seemed really nice and chatted to me as we bumped our way along the road and up the hill to the Canopy Tours place. On arrival, we got out and had to sign some kind of disclaimer; I decided to just sign instead of reading, so as not to freak myself out about all the things that could go wrong! The guys put harnesses on those of us that were zip lining: everyone but the two mums, including the kids who seemed as young as 11, so that was encouraging - if they were brave enough to do it, I definitely wasn't allowed to feel nervous. One of the guys took my camera and said that he would take photos of me while I was doing it.

The zip lines were incredible. We got back into the yute and drove up to the top of a hill to reach the first one, and they sort of zig zagged their way back down to the bottom. I think there were about sixteen in total, and some were over a kilometre long. Some were faster than others, too. Each time, the guys would hook you up to the wire (you had to lift yourself up and jump so they could fasten the hook, which I struggled with as I'm so weak, but they lifted me up, haha) and you had to hold at least one hand on the wire behind your head. There were special gloves to wear. To break, you had to lean back and pull down on the wire, using two hands if necessary.

I did quite well, with only one minor mishap where I didn't break quickly enough and sort of went slamming into the guy at the end! The very next one was the fastest one of all, so that time one of the guys went in front of me - obviously I'd lost their trust, haha. Most of the time, though, I did them on my own, and I even ventured to look down. It was incredibly high up - I have no idea how high, and I've tried googling it but can't seem to find any answers. The views were amazing, and it was so exciting; I'm really glad I did it.

I chatted to the families during, and because the zip line guys were taking photos of them on my camera as well (I don't think they realised we weren't together) I took down their e-mail address and promised to send them the photos. We were taken back to Copan Ruinas in the back of the yute and the guys dropped me off at my hotel.


I still had just under two hours until tea, so I pottered around online, looked at the zip lining photos and videos and had a short nap. At 7pm we met Augusto and Rose, Natasha and I all went out to dinner to Restaurante Carnitas Nis Lola, the cool place we were stranded at during yesterday's rain. I had been saving myself for tea there all day, and splashed out on an enormous vegetable kabob that came with rice, chips, refriend beans, salsa and cheese. It was delicious, and impossible to finish.

We walked home and I spent a bit of time repacking my backpack before bed, as we're moving on tomorrow. Instead of driving to El Salvador, we're going to go a slightly different way to avoid some bad roads, and it involves going back into Guatemala and out again, so no doubt I'll be getting more passport stamps. Poor Natasha is worried about it, as her passport is so full - she's been to loads of places in the last four years, and is covering 18 countries in this trip alone (she's been travelling for six months with two more to go) so her passport is nearly entirely full. I'm jealous!

Crossing the border to Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Friday 3rd August

The most uneventful day of the trip so far, beginning at 3:10am (shower and final pack) before leaving Antigua on a 4am bus. By bus, I mean a very cramped mini van with ten or twelve people squeezed in. The woman Natasha and I sat next to didn't seem to want to move up, so at first I was only partially sat on the seat. Lovely. Jeremy started feeling ill pretty quickly at the back, so I offered to swap with him, and ended up at the back in the corner. There was less leg room, which I didn't mind so much, but I was next to Ernesto. I managed to sleep for a while, but as soon as I woke up he proceeded to annoy me, wind me up and poke me for HOURS. There was nothing to do to make him stop! He really is worse than a child, and the bus journey was more than seven hours. I was so glad when it was over, and happy that we were to say goodbye to Ernesto once we crossed the border!

The border crossing was uneventful - got another passport stamp :-)  - and there was a 15 minute drive to our hotel in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. We're staying at a place called Hotel Patty, which makes me think of Spongebob Squarepants. We said goodbye to Ernesto and met our new guide, Augusto. He's mid-forties, from Costa Rica, and a lot more professional - I like him already. He's going to be with us until the end of my trip.

We were given a few hours to rest, shower (no hot water unfortunately) and then we met for a walking tour of the city. Copan Ruinas is quite small, with lots of steep cobbled streets and views of green hills. We walked through the Parque Central, and saw a photography exhibition of the first archelogical expeditions to Copan at the turn of the twentieth century in the municipalidad. We're going to Copan tomorrow morning - the Maya site that dates back to 426AD.

After parting ways from Augusto, the four of us wandered through Copan Ruinas in search of cold drinks. It feels considerably hotter here in comparison to anywhere we've been so far. We found a cool place with lots of pictures, license plates and records on the walls and things hanging from the ceiling. The waitress carried things - like Rose's pina colada - on her head up the stairs to us, which was quite impressive. We ended up sharing two plates of chips between us, and then the rain set in. It was torrential, to the point where we leave the mezzanine to take shelter downstairs, and the power cut off for quite a while. We didn't leave for at least two and a half hours, and by the time we got back to our hotel we were five or so minutes late to meet Augusto for tea.

Augusto took us to a nice-looking restaurant for tea. I wasn't feeling very hungry so just ordered something small - empanadas with queso (cheese) and a limonada con agua (lemonade with water - see, I'm picking up the language already, haha). Unfortunately, the empanadas weren't that nice, but there was lots of tomato ketchup available so I powered through. Jeremy insisted on paying for my meal because of how I swapped with him on the bus this morning (compensation for Ernesto!) which was really nice of him. Feeling pretty tired, we all went straight back to the hotel afterwards and I had a relatively early night.