Day 24: Ruining & Coffee-ing in Copan

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Today we didnt have to meet too early thankfully – 8.30am and 'the bridge'. No one knew where the bridge was as our tour leader hadnt elaborated on 'the bridge'. So we all ended up at Welchez Coffee shop for breakie as Jacob had recommended it. It took ages for food to come out cs we all arrived at similar times so we changed meeting time till 8.45am. We both had an omelette and ben got a smoothie and I had a coffee. All was good and we were stuffed full to start the day. Thankfully as we were debating where the bridge was, our guide for the ruins walked in looking for Jacob and then walked us there himself. He was brilliant. His name was Saul – like China he claimed! He says he learnt all his english from the beetles and other music. He hasnt had any english lessons! He had such good english too and was very animated and funny. He said that he did guiding for a bit of money but was a musician and that is his passion. He said he would sing for us but we didnt get the pleasure unfortunately.

We arrived at the Copan Ruins which he told us were approx 2000 years old and from back in the Mayan times. I really feel like we were so spoilt in Egypt cos while this was impressive it wasnt even close to the amazing temples in Egypt that we saw. They had an amphitheatre and some pyramids with steps going up rather than like in Egypt and some pretty cool statues where the men looked slightly asian! Saul told us a few stories and we ran around taking pics and I tried to find shade as I wasnt feeling very well today. Really nauseas so the humid heat wasnt ideal! We caught a few cool snaps including the amazing pic of the day by ben handstanding on top of a pyramid! The best handstand he has ever done with the guidance and coaching of moi! His arms were straight and everything! I was such a proud teacher! We then got left at the ruins and told we had free time until tomorrow morning. There was the option of seeing more ruins or dooing a jungle walk on the way out in hoope os seeing some more birds. On the way in we had seen some awesome macaws and ben had fallen in love with them. We were ruined out so we headed intol the jungle and didnt see a single bird but were getting bitten by mossies so raced around the 1 km path and outta there!

We went for lunch back at the same coffee shop we had breakie and I still wasnt feeling great but the air con in this place was amazing so started to feel better quite quickly! I ordered a slice of carrot/banana cake that was recommended by our tour leader and ben got a beef roll and chips. The cake was absolutely sensational! Ohhh soooo good! One day im gonna try make it! Haha yeah right! Bens wasnt too bad but a wee bit salty. We hung out there for a bit cooling down and then went back to the hotel to freshen up for our coffee tour starting at 2pm.

The 2 of us got picked up at 2pm for our tour in a van and he told us something in Spanish that we just nodded and smiled to. We think he was telling us how long it would take to get there and we def need to brush up on our Spanish! I thought he said 20mins but it was close to 40mins and it was really windy bumpy roads the whole way! Ben enjoyed it but cos I wasnt feeling fab it wasnt great! I was pleased to get there. A very metro, smooth central american with good english met us off the van and told us he would be our guide. He showed us to a tractor with a big tram looking thing attached to the back of it which we sat it. The tractor driver drove for about 20 mins up into the mountains and we thought the van ride was bumpy! Gee wizz! We were rolling all over the place while trying to listen to our guide telling us things aboug the way they grow their coffee and the diff kinds etc. The type of coffee they grow is always on the mountains as it needcs altitude and shade to produce the best beans. It was a pretty cool view up high and when we got there our guide lead us down this path made for the tourist groups. He showed us the coffee berries and ben even tasted one of them and said it was very jelly-y on the outside. There were red and yellow ones and they even had a very chai ones which are used for chai tea and lattes but they dont make these here. We saw banana plants also with gigantic leaves! They were pretty cool. It was quite interesting but a lil awkward cos there was only 2 of us we felt like we had to keep asking questions! But we did learn quite a bit. On the way I felt burning on my left foot and ankle and looked down and was being attacked by ants which were apparantly toxic ones that cause a burn for about 5 mins. I had stepped in a bloody colony and they were all over my jandals and on both feet and ankles and it was bruing like crazy! Trust me! 5 mins later I felt my tummy burning and found a sneaky ant down my dress!!!

After the tour through the mountains he said we would be having a cup of their coffee which we were looking forward to. We arrived and he said “so you havent had lunch have you?” ahh yes we had had lunch and he told us they had prepared a3 course meal for each of us! We thought dinner was included but instead it was a late lunch and we were still so full! So we shared a main and picked at the rest which was a shame cos it was such good food! We wished our tour leader had told us not to have much for lunch! After coffee and lunch he showed us the machinery and how they got the berries dried out and made into roasted coffee beans. It wasnt harvesting season so there was no workers around and the machinery was dirty and empty but we were able to see the process that was done. Afterwards we bought a bag of coffee to take home! Crossing our fingers it gets through customs. It was really good coffee though I thought a bit strong! We enjoyed the tour but wished that we had got to taste a few diff types of coffee along the way. But it was still interesting!

We got back to the hotel and wandered the streets for a bit, found some more country flags we needed and even bought a really funky beach bag as taking a backpackto the beach isnt ideal! We decided we didnt need dinner and just had an icecream each and then headed back to the room to get an early night as we are off early tomorrow to start our journey to Roatan Island.

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Photos

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our enthusiastic guide Saul at Copan Ruins

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Attempt 1: FAIL

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Attempt 2: SUCCESS!! :-)