Copan Ruins

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I woke up early this morning and caught a cab to the bus station in San Pedro Sula arriving at 6:45. Found out though the bus wasn´t departing until 8AM. The ticket counter wasn´t even open yet so spent awhile wandering around the bus station. It´s quite a large place and pretty new, it only opened earlier in 2008 I believe. Finally the ticket counter opened, 110L to Copan Ruins. I grabbed a bean quesadilla for breakfast then boarded the bus. It departed on time at 8AM but promptly parked and we sat until 8:30. Finally we got underway.

The bus was nice, but I had little legroom, I have long legs and always have problems with legroom on buses and planes. The landscape was very lush green, and very humid out. The ride seemed to take forever just getting to La Entrada, the turnoff to Copan Ruins, yet from there it was still another 1.5hrs to Copan. Arrived just before noon, and had a hotel tout attach himself to me. S. and I had a few hotels we planned to meet at, but ended up running into him on the street! He had just arrived too from Antigua, so that was excellent timing. The original hotel was full, so we ended up at another just down the block. Copan Ruins is a colonial style town, but restored well with lots of hotels and restaurants for the tourists that come here.

We wandered down into town, grabbed some lunch and stopped by an ATM so S. could get some Honduran money, then we walked the 1 mile or so east to the ruins. Copan is one of the great Mayan cities like Chitzen Itza and Tikal. I have visited Chitzen Itza and Tulum in Mexico previously. Entry was a bit steep, $15, then they wanted another $7 for the museum and $15 to enter some tunnels under the ruins.

The walk through the ruins is through jungle, passing a group of bright colored macaws. There are mounds to the left and right that hold still-unexcavated pyramids. The trail opened up into a huge courtyard, with stelae all around. There is a good sized pyramid in the middle and a ball court over to the right. Copan is known for its heiroglyphics, which are everywhere, on the stelae and on a huge staircase which is protected by a tent. .

We decided to not visit the tunnels or the sculpture museud, instead spending a few hrs wandering around the ruins before heading back into town. We ate dinner at Twisted Tanya which has a Backpacker special, 2-1 cocktails (HUGE) and bread, spaghetti and dessert for like $6.. good deal. We didn´t do much tonight as we planned to get up early to catch the 7AM bus to La Entrada, then two more bus changes to reach the town of Gracias.

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Photos

World's smallest Burger King?
San Pedro Sula bus station