Blogs from Copán Ruinas, Western, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 15

Copan, 01 marzo 1990. We bribed some of the guards so we can camp here overnight. Peter is still dressed in his dirty blue jeans and sweaty T-shirt, half drunk on Salvavida beer and skinning up the first joint of the evening while Rona, his afro-american girlfriend, is busy eating the last of the food we took with us from the village this morning. The main topic of tonight, and that what gets us all very excited, is lying on top of James' sleepingbag....a big transperent bag full with dried mexican Magic Mushrooms and nine light green cactus pods that were wrapped in a yellowish old mexican newspaper and Peter claims are Peyote buds. While taking a few drags from our joint - mexican pot, what else can it be? - I can feel my head ... read more

Copan Las ruinas, 28 febrero. This border crossing called Agua Caliente, might be in the middle of no-where but it's a busy place with Indio women carrying huge packs on their backs full with handicrafts they probably hope to sell at Copan. Their inevitable babies tied to the top of their loads, their menfolk most likely back at the home village getting themselves drunk in the village bars. We're surrounded by money changers, all of them vying for our attention, their hands clasped around huge wads of currency, Quetzales, american Dollars and local honduran money called Lempira. The banks only offer you 2 lempira for one dollar but they'll give us 4.50 lempira as they willingly tell us. James is trying hard to get the unofficial black market exchange rate even higher but I can't be ... read more

Last week we spent every morning in the school, cleaning, organizing, and planning. I met some co-workers: Miss Maria who will be teaching part of the classes taught in Spanish; Miss Fatima, the girl who knows everything there is to know about everything at the school; and Miss Marina, one of the Secretaries. They are all really nice ladies and I am glad to be working with them. I learned more about what sort of job I´ll be doing. As the schedule stands, I´ll be teaching Reading and Spelling to 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades, in English. I am one of the two English teachers at the school, so all my classes are taught in English. Also I will be teaching Science for the 3rd grade. That amounts to 7 or 8 classes a day, quite ... read more

28th Julio - San Salvador, El Salvador Arrived in San Salvador - hot tropical smell was the first thing that hit us. Found sweet hostel easily and passed out. 29th Julio - Lago de Coatepeque Next morning, using our fluent Spanish to navigate the bus system we travelled half an hour in completely the wrong direction. Chuckled at our stupidity, got off, crossed road, got onto same bus travelled another hour in wrong direction. Last people on bus in middle of suburbs somewhere so forced to get in a taxi and use map pointing instead. Didnt like San Salvador at all, many mutilated beggars, filthy, blaring music, staring people. 3 hours later very relieved to arrive at the tranquil Lago de Coatepeque, a beautiful crater lake. Hostel run by bearded transvestite, featured a restaurant precariously balanced ... read more

I visited the Copan ruins today, $15 entry and another $15 to go into the tunnels.I didnt bother with the tunnels. Im very limited to withdrawing money out here so being cautious how I spend now. The ruins were nowhere near as good as I expected and left feeling deflated about whether I should see any others like Tikal but other people have suggested I should. It was nice to climb the main ruins and get a good view of how it all looks from above. I cant imagine how the Mayans lived back then. One of the first things on my list of returning home is to watch Apocolypto. Sorry for the lack of photos, it takes so long to upload one its not worth me sitting here all day. Photos on Facebook if anyone ... read more