Copan Ruinas

Hey all,

Hope your all well. Well, this weekend was fantastic, we went to Copan Ruinas, which is very near the Guatemala border in the west. It took about 6 hours to get there, which was a mission, but we entertained ourselves and slept. To be honest that was pretty good considering the public transport in Honduras is very tempermental; it just turns up when it wants to.

So we set off friday at 8, which was nice - a lie in in comparison to normal weekdays (we get up at 6am!!! - I know what a shocker). Then we travelled, swapped buses at San Pedro Sula, where we had to trek through the city centre in the boiling heat (San Pedro is usually about 35 degrees C), which was not so much fun. We arrived in Copan at about 3, where we were at once persuaded by a bloke to come and check out his accomodation, though very sceptical we follow the guy and the accomodation turned out to be good (not spectacular, but thats not in our budget, but it had hot water - which to be honest is my only necesity for hotels after showering out of a cold bucket for 3 weeks - and a tv, double beds... we were happy). So we stayed there - it was 100lemps a night, which is just under 3 quid, plus it was situated right in the centre of town...Hooray!

Then we checked out the town, which is really quite beautiful. I wished we could have spent longer there. The streets were cobbled and the shops were full of dinky little bits of jewellery and woodwork. Plus the nights were actually warm there, I can not emphasise enough how cold it is here (got my here wrong first time, but changed it for you Jess) in Esperanza at night. In the day it is about 27/28 and really hot, but the nights are freezing, we are all in fleecys, plus there is no central heating anywhere. In copan you could actually go out in just a t-shirt all night, which was bliss. So on friday we found a lovely restaurant, I had spaghetti bolognaise, not a honduran dish I know, but there'd only so many times you can eat tortillas and beans. Unfortunately we weren't the only big crowd in the place, there were a load of church people there two, who sang a few songs at their table before they ate.

After that we found a really really cool bar, with tree stumps for seats and amazing wooden tables, lots of dim coloured lighting, and hoorah an american owner. Had a real laugh their, though unfortunately Louis smashed a pane of glass from a cabinet with his elbow in a spectacular fashion. Luckily the owner saw the funny side and insisted we go back the next night too (which we did), and the pane was only 2 quid to replace. Then he insisted we should check out Papa Changas, a bar which had swings instead of stools at the bar - much fun. Finally after that we moved across the road to a really good club we found and danced the night away, before trekking home in the early hours of the morning, a vast improvement from Esperanza in that respect, as the bars all shut here at 9.30.

On saturday we rose bright and early and went to see the mayan ruins. Incase you don't know Copan hosts a huge area of Mayan ruins, I think it is the biggest site in the world. The ruins are spectacular, very hard to really explain what it feels like to be surrounded by them without you guys actually being there. Hopefully the photos will help. The site is full of buildings and statues that are overwhelming. Many of them are huge in size and the detail is amazing. One of my favourite things there was a giant stairway which had hyroglyphics telling the story of the whole of Mayan history, all the way up the steps. The site itself is also full of strange insects and endless parrots. There are also so many weird and wonderful types of trees and flowers, its rather idyllic.

So we really enjoyed looking around there, soaking up the history, and using my guide book as a tour guide. After the ruins we went to some hot springs, which were less impressive. They were indeed hot and nice, but not as spectacular as any of us have been hoping. Still we had a laugh there and soaked up some sun - don't get too excited, I am still not very brown as you have to be really careful with sun cream, as the suns so strong here. We then strolled into town again, after having yet another hot shower - we really took advantage of that while we were there - and had dinner at a pizzaria. The pizza was lovely, though really filling. Me and Tom only managed half of ours between us, Amy ate a whole one to herself though, we were in awe. Saturday night we had an equally good night out, returning the Cafe Via Via (the broken glass bar), and then going on to a different smaller club. Here we all danced with the hondurans and had a really good time.

Sunday was, unfortunately, dedicated to getting home. So after getting back to the hotel and 3, we woke up at 5 in order to get the bus a 6. Needless to say we slept the whole way back, until our bus broke down...just my luck with public transport eh. Though we were soon picked up by another bus and carried on, getting home in good time.

So as you can tell we had a really good weekend. Everything was in a perfect balance - friends, history, sun, surrounding, nights out. It was also really nice to get back to Esperanza - which I have really grown to love. It truly is a great place, the people are so friendly and their way of life is generally spot on - unless your in a hurry. Well basically it's impossible to be in a hurry here, as nothing runs on time and everything takes ages. This weekend we're going to the bay islands (google them and feel jealous), so I'll write again after there.

Me and Amy have also now really settled into the teaching - today we were teaching by ourselves for the first time, which went really really well, if I do say so myself. But yeh, we are really enjoying it. I had to use your look today though mum - one of the kids is a bit of a trouble maker - it sorted him out!

Take care everyone, and keep in touch. Really nice to read your comments and emails.
Meg Xxxxx

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