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Published: December 30th 2008
Merry Christmas from Honduras!
As it turns out, this town doesn´t sleep on Christmas day! Almost everything seems to be open, and I´ve already been offered to go on a horse riding trip at least 4 times!
I had forgetten to include a few details in yesterdays blog, so after I am done here I´m going to go back and fill those in....nothing major, but I am writing this mostly so I later re-read this and better remember my trip. Just thought I´d mention it, for those die hard fans out there (anyone? no? ....lol).
Yesterday I left La Palma, El Salvador at about 930, and a chicken bus picked me up on the road right in front of the hotel. I had bought some more of those delicious cookies for the bus ride! I got a seat right away, which was lucky, because the bus stopped again about 30 seconds later, just into town, and the bus was immediately filled to overflowing. They really pack the people in on these buses, and the aisles were full too.
It wasn´t long to the border, maybe 45 minutes or an hour, and the border was very strange. The
Copan road
I really like cobble stones....until I walk on them for an hour....bus let you off about 1 km from the border, and I followed the others walking in that general direction. My spanish is still slowly improving, and I was able to ask a few times, ¨El frontera? Est el directo?¨(something like, ¨the border? is it straight ahead?), which kept me heading in the right direction. I tried a few different windows at an official looking building, but was waved away at each. I ended up at a small hut on a gravel road, where three officials in uniforms dozed in the shade. One looked at my passport, and then took me back to the building to a different area to pay a $3 entry fee, and then I was in Honduras and on my way. Again, no stamps or checks of the passport. I kinda like the stamps though....
On the other side I managed to use my spanish again, when I told the cab driver that $3 was too expensive for the short trip Nueva Ocotepeque where the busses left from, so we agreed that it would be collectivo (he´d pick up other passengers) and I would pay a dollar. I still overpayed, but not by much, so
I was pleased.
In Nueva Ocotepeque I found a bus bound for San Pedro Sula, and boarded, but it took over an hour before it left, and it was hot and tired. Worse, I wasn´t sure when it would leave (probably when full, but maybe at a certain hour too, its hard to tell here), and so I couldn´t get off or got to the bathroom. At least it was a pretty comfortable bus - larger, with air conditioning (not turned on as far as I could tell though!), and comfy seats. We didn´t leave until about 1pm, and the winding roads through Honduras switched back and forth through the mountains. There were several small towns, and a few larger ones, interspersed along the road, but there was a lot of wilderness too.
It took almost 3 hours to get to La Entrada, the crossroad where I switched busses. By then I had to find a bathroom, and I was starved!
Normally, I´ve found that the busses practically swarm with folks selling food and everything else. I don´t know if it was because of Christmas, or what, but there was almost no one that came aboard the
bus. I was glad for my cookies, (which I rationed!), and the bit of water that I had. I did share one cookie with a young man who sat behind me on the bus. When the money collector for the bus came along, I paid with american dollars. The cost of the bus ride was 90 Honduran Lempiras. The exhange rate is about 18 lempiras to one dollar, so $5 was 90 lempiras. He wasn´t very happy though, and from what I can tell, I think he thought I was underpaying. Unfortunately, when I didn´t understand, he just spoke faster, and LOUDER until everyone on the bus was staring....then the young man behind me said something that solved the problem, and everything was fine. So, I shared my cookies!
I was nervous by the time we finally reached La Entrada, as the last bus leaves there at 4 or 5 pm, and it was pushing 4 when we arrived. Luckily, there was one at the terminal, and I secured a seat before hunting around for a bathroom. The only one was in a comidor (resteraunt) and they charged me 2 lempiras to use it....a dirty toilet with no paper
and a door that opened into the resteraunt but didn´t shut completely. I didn´t care!!!
The bus didn´t leave for another 20 minutes, and dusk was starting to fall as we pulled out. This bus was an old school bus, but with ripped and stained brown bucket seats instead of the usual school bus bench seats.
Around the corner, the bus filled up into the aisle with people and their Christmas shopping, before pulling into a gas station (about $2 a gallon, if anyone is curious!). I sat at the window, and next to me was a young girl and her baby brother.
Most of the passengers got off in the first 45 minutes or so, and there was just a handful of us, 4 or 5, when we finally arrived in Copan at the end of the line. It was after 6, and dark, which always bothers me when I arrive in a new city. But I had my flashlight ready, and knew where I was going, so I walked off. I did get twisted around a bit, but I found Hostal de la Manzana Verde (Green Apple Hostel) within a few minutes. The gate was
open, and I walked up the sloping path to the veranda.
Sitting at the table was Fabien, who I´d met in Granada! I was so happy to see a familiar face! He is travelling with another French girl, who is also studying in Costa Rica, and they had also just arrived. We quickly made plans for a nice Christmas Eve dinner, and I got settled in the dorm.
The hostel is hilarious, with rules like
· free beer policy: see staff for free beer application form (application fee: 25 lempiras)
· friends are welcome, if they pay the friendly entrance fee of $5
· yes, we provide laundry service, the pila is out back, instructions on the side
· for help cleaning up your shit from the tables, our friendly staff will assist you for just 200 dollars/hour.
www.lamanzanaverde.com
I´m in the ¨world famous¨dorm, and my bunk is called ¨Freud¨...analyze that!
Anyhow, I dumped my stuff and we headed out, looking for a good place to eat. Along the way, I saw two girls, reading a guide book on the street corner and looking lost. We invited them along for dinner with us!
the forest around the ruins
so of the trees, "Saber Trees", had huge, thick roots - a hundred metres long! Sasha and ¨Mo¨ (she has a lovely name but it was hard to remember and pronounce, and said that ¨anything with ´m´ was ok!) are from Slovenia, but they speak excellent English and Spanish too! So the five of us (the 2 Slovenians, Fabian and I, plus Charlotte, Fabian´s friend) ended up at Cafe ViaVia. There, they were offering free drinks and soup with any meal, and a salsa lesson at 9pm.
We at well, and drank the free drinks (which we think were probably gin and tonics - who knows, but yay for quinine!) plus wine and beer. We had just finished dinner as the dancing started, and 20 or 30 young tourists crowded into a tiny space to learn some salsa steps. It was fun and fast and sweaty, and after 30 minutes or so, the floor was mostly given over to some pros, who were pretty impressive.
During dinner and dancing, the streets were literally afire - young boys (mostly) were lighting off fireworks and crackers and bangers - some so loud the windows rattled. It went on all night!
We left by about 1030, with plans to meet the Slovenian girls again early
in the morning at the square to head to the ruins. I climbed the fence to unlock the gate, and let everyone in, and we went to bed in the warm dormitory, with crackers going off just outside.
This morning we woke early, and Fabien beat me to the shower. I had the last laugh though, as my shower was so hot it almost burnt me, and he only had a trickly of cold water (I think the guy was washing the patio outside during Fabien's shower!). We went out at about 720, and met Sasha and Mo at the square. After hunting around for open shops for food, water and coffee, we finally set off on the short (1 or 2 kms) walk to the ruins.
Copan Ruinas (Copan Ruins) is an important Mayan site, with many excavations and restorations, and was home to as many as twenty or thirty thousand people! We got there just after it open at 8, and were among the first tourists. We paid $15 to enter, and also made arrangements for a guide. We paid $25 for the guide ($6.50 each), who explained many of the significant items and historical facts.
We walked along a broad path to the gate, where 15 or so huge and brightly coloured parrots sat on the fence greeting visitors.
From there we wandered around the ruins, some dating from almost 2000 years ago. They were fantastic! These are the first ruins I´ve seen, and I can´t wait to see more. There were temples, and a ball court and a number of excellent carvings and stair cases. There were also some huge trees, called saber trees, whose roots were up to 100 metres long, and as thick as trees themselves.
We spent about 2 hours at the site, and although it was amazing we were hot and sweaty by the end. Even still, we walked another 2 kms up the road to Sepulchuras, which is a partly excavated area where it is believed that many of the people of Copan resided. It was very peaceful there, and we only saw two other tourists in the entire time!
Sasha and Mo wanted to see the museum, and I was tempted, but I was more tired and hungry. So Fabien and I walked the 3 or 4 kms back into town and had lunch (again
one of the carvings
it was called, "old man" at ViaVia!). We also checked out prices on the shuttles (I want to head to Tikal, in Guatemala, tomorrow). Back at the hostel I washed a bunch of my clothes in the pila (stone wash basin) out the back, in hopes that they´ll be dry for tomorrow when the shuttle leaves at 6am! Cross your fingers it doesn´t rain!
We agreed to meet Sasha and Mo in the square for dinner, and I ran into some new people to the hostel and invited them along too. So a big group of us tromped around Copan, looking for somewhere to have Christmas dinner. Viavia was the first choice, but it was back and there was a 90 minute wait for a table. Many place were closed, and after 30 minutes of searching, we found a small local place with the doors open and room for our big group of 10 or so.
We should have known better, really. The place was empty. It seemed typically local in decor and we thought it would be good. We ordered from the laminated and greasy menu - sharing the only two menus between the whole group and writing our order down on
a bit of notepaper for her.
Drinks arrived first, and having ordered a banana shake, I was a bit puzzled by the bottle of banana flavoured pop that me and another in our group got. We tried to sort it out but without luck. The food arrived in dribs and drabs, and was pasable in most cases. The rest of us were done eating by the time Sasha's order finally arrived. Shortly after, the banana pops were replaced by glasses of water, with mushed pineapple mixed in. As my glass had a fly still kicking around in it on arrival, I declined to try it, but the guy across the table tried his. The look on his face made me glad I didn't fish the fly out and try mine.
In the spirit of Christmas, we didn't complain, but we did find it hilarious! Fabien and I laughed so hard that we were in tears.
We paid her, and went to Viavia, which by now had tables free, and had a few drinks before heading back to the hostel. With an early morning shuttle, I wanted to have enough rest!
Merry Christmas!
Eileen
Christmas Dinner
Thats the chef and owner, to the right in the skirt
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