The End of Utila....Onwards and upwards to Copan!

---

Seeing as Ellie and I hadn't gotten to bed till about 3am Monday Morning, there was no way we were going to be up for the 6.30am ferry back to the mainland on Monday morning. In that case, we decided to go for the 2.30pm ferry. I really didn't want to leave...Utila had been epic and I definitely felt lik I had gotten very comfey staying in one place for a loger period of time, but it was necessary that we started to head on as we only had 18days to get up to Cancun! Tom had decided to come with us for some of the remainder of our travels which we were excited about! As usual, we seemed to be leaving eveything to the last minute with only 15 minutes to get the ferry, ELlie decided that she hadn't got enough money on her to pay for her accomodation at cross creek. Hels and I thankfully had enough on us to pay for her otherwise we wouldn't have been leaving the island! Another isue arose when we got to the ferry dock as Ursulas ferry ticket wasno where to be found....luckily we jus had about enough money to lend so a new ticket could be bought leaving just a couple of minutes to board the ferry! Phew! At last we were on it! On theferry we bumped into one of the guys we recognised from Sunjam who I had been dancingwith on the stage with the DJ n the sunday morning. He in fact ended up being on the same bus as us and was such a dude! He was caled Herman and was from San Pedro Sula on the Honduran mainland so when I got chatting to him on the bus to San Pedro he said that if w needed anywhere to stay that night we could all crash at his. Anyway, they kindly gave us alift to the hostel Tamarindos which we had stayed at before comiong to utila and the hostel did indeed have space for us so we ended up stying there that night as it was more cnvenient but we hanked our Honduran friends and said our goodbyes! Maybe we will see them at Sunjam next year?? haha! Our hostel guy in Tamarindos recognised us again and just for tradition we took Tom to Baleadas express for dinner! He had to sample it! Ourbody clocks were obviously pretty screwed up from the non stop partying on Utila so despite the fact that we wre going to have to be up at like 5am the next morning to get the bus to Copan Ruinas, we didn't end up actually getting to sleep til about 2.30am. Not good! Tuesday morning came very quickly and the bus ride wasn't too bad to Copan. We were all feeling pretty shattered after Utila and just wanted to chill out really so when we got to Copan, all we really fancied doing was finding a hostel and chilling out!! We ended up findingthis groovy place called Cafe Via Via....it was recommended in Lonely planet (we were now able to look in a lonely planet as Tom had one....Note to self...do not lose your lonely planet guide half way through your trip..It proves very unuseful!). For just $7 a night each we managed to get our own private room with a bathroom for all 5 of us which was wiced and we also got free coffee lemonade and water which when you are on a budget is VERY benficial! Rain actually started to kick in that day so we just took a wander around the town, got our laundry done and spent the evening playing poker and then heading off to a wine br around the corner fr a couple of relaxed drinks. We had planned to go to the ruins the next day and the hot springs so when Wednesday morning came, we got up, had breakfast and headed on down to the ruins! Unfortunatey we had all slept in a bit that morning so we didn't have masses of time to spend looking around the ruins as we needed to be back at the hostel by 1pm so we could get the minibus to the hot springs. With time ticking y w thought it best to get tuc tucs back to the hostel so we were back in time for the bus. WIth the ipod speakers at the ready, we all hopped into the bus and got going! The journey wasn't actually that far, only 20km or so but the road we were travelling along was just a very bumpy dirt track so needless to say the journey took a fair amount of time! Once at the hotsprings, a local guy gave us a tour around in spanish. After probably about 15 mins of him showing us various hot and cold pools, we managed to get away as we got the general idea plus everything was sign posted anyway. They were so relaxing and with the rain pouring down above the tree canopy, we felt very much at one with nature! When we got back to the hostel, we found there was a power cut so no showers for us as they were power showers. We decided to have dinner hoping that the power would come back on eventually and that it did. That night at the hostel was Salsa night so we had a few drinks in the room and then headedout to meet Fernando the Salsa teacher who loed Ellie! After dancing the night away we headed back to the wine bar with some of the others from the hostel and ended up getting the worst drink ever recommended by the barman! This was some kind of shooter made from just alcohol and then set on fire...it was DISGUSTING!!!! That night we even ended up being on TV for a channel in El Salvador! The walk ome was also very very eeery! We came across two dead dogs on the streets, they looked as though they had been poisoned but earlier that day, Helen and Ursula had also seen a dog seriously salavating, indicating it possibly having rabies. However, the fact that 2 others were dead suggested that the salavating dog had also been poisoned and was on its way out. One of the dead dogs even had a protestors sign on it written in spanish. It was so horrid to see. to make the night even more spooky, when we were about 100 meters or so from the hostel, the whole town had a power cut and all the lights went out! We were on the streets in pitch black and could see nothing! Thankfully the security guard came out from the hostel with a flash light and helped us into the hostel...FREAKY! We all hit the sack when in the room and again, another nice early morning awaited as we needed to get he 6am bus to Coban in Guatemala!

---