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The people of Honduras greet travellers with friendly and smiling faces, and the infectious nature of the locals quickly wins you over. This is a country that doesn't see many tourists, but the warm hearted locals make for a very pleasant stopover. My friend and I started our visit with a bus journey from beautiful Leon to the Nicaraguan border through an undeveloped area of the country. We were puzzled to see three very well dressed chicas jump on the bus in the middle of nowhere, only to jump off the bus after an hour or so ... still in the middle of nowhere! That experience will be filed under the category of a travel mystery. We crossed the border into Honduras with a high five while riding on a triciclero, which was certainly a new experience, and then proceeded to line up for immigration. I nearly went to another official because his line was shorter but noticed his uniform was slightly different, and then did a quick read of the badges. How wonderful, the two officials from Nicaragua and Honduras were literally working side by side ... stamp out, crab walk five steps, stamp in. That has to be the easiest country hop ever!

We jumped on a local bus to Tegucigalpa, dear reader , which is the capital of Honduras and arrived in mid afternoon. Our plan after the commute involved strolling around, having a good meal, and then relaxing back at the hostel. It's nice to be crewed up again, as I believe us humans are basically gregarious creatures, and I was surprised to see another American traveller at the restaurant in Tegucigalpa who I'dd bumped into previously in consecutive Central American countries. We chatted about itineraries which happened to coincide, and now we are a crew of three which is even better. The next morning we caught a chicken bus to La Esperanza, and then got on a crammed and squeezy minivan to the charming mountain town of Gracias by early afternoon. It's amazing how many people they manage to fit in these vans in Central America. It was nice to be off the beaten track again, and we were the only tourists in the town. We strolled around town for the afternoon and greeted the friendly locals as they passed.

Honduras has largely escaped the terrible violence that beset neighbouring countries during the civil wars of the 1980´s. The Honduran people are known in Central America as being laid back, and as an Aussie I can certainly relate to that! The next morning we were up early, and we needed three connecting chicken bus trips to arrive at the gorgeous little town of Copan Ruinas. The town is only one kilometre from the famous Mayan ruins of the same name. We had the whole afternoon as downtime, and went out that night with some people from the hostel for dinner and a few drinks.

We got up early the next morning, and strolled the kilometre from town to visit the world heritage listed archaeological ruins of Copan. I find going to ruins first thing in the morning makes the optimal experience, as you can beat the crowds. It's serene and peaceful and gives every opportunity to stroll around, and take pictures at your leisure. The ruins are up to 1500 years old, and it's believed Copan supported up to 20,000 inhabitants when the city was at it´s peak. This has been my first experience of Mayan ruins in Central America, and I was a snap happy tourist for the morning. In the afternoon we caught a bus back to Santa Rosa, which is another pretty colonial town in the mountains.

The people of Honduras have made us feel welcome during our stay in the country; providing vivid memories including men walking around in white stetsons, and chickens brought on the local buses with their legs tied together. As a friend from home put it in an email to me: " I know why the chicken crossed the road ... but why did it catch the bus?" That's a nice one mate! Of course there's also the famous Mayan ruins of Copan to explore so, basically all of you should be here now!

As I continue my travels, until next time it's signing off for now

Tom

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