Blogs from Copán Ruinas, Western, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 6

To get to Copan from San Juan we had 19 hrs of bus journeys and two stopovers in Managua and San Pedro Sula. Copan were our first Mayan ruins of the trip and they were quite awe inspiring. There was a huge grand central staircase in the ruins that looked incredible and there were several big pyramids dotted about. The ruins were surrounded by hundreds of square miles of rainforest, the views from the pyramids were cool. Also in the rainforest we managed to see several Scarlet Macaws. The town of Copan Ruinas was a nice quiet town high up in the jungle. It had narrow sloping cobble streets and nice buildings. We left after one night to head to the Bay Islands. As we left the headline in the paper was "massacre in Copan". We ... read more

M - Copan Ruinas is a pretty and interesting little town with two added bonuses. The first, and currently more famous of the two, is the Mayan Ruins which are just outside of the town. The second, not so well known, is the locally brewed German beer. Yes, if you wonder down the back streets you can find a low volume but extremely professional German very Micro-Brewery. We have promised the brewer, Thomas, that we would not write anything about his establishment on TripAdvisor as he basically doesn’t want to become part of the tourist trail. He currently brews his beer as a hobby/small business and his Honduran wife cooks German food and they don’t want to be overwhelmed. Good luck to him on the latter. I lived in Germany for 6 months and I can ... read more

The Mayan ruins are quite impressive and span around 27 sq km. People have lived in this area since at least 1200 BC. Macayla really enjoyed the ruins and it sparked her fantasy of becoming an archaeologist again. We spent the entire morning there before hopping on a bus to Guatemala. The plan was to head toward Esquipulas where there is a grande basilica that holds the Black Christ. Supposedly the Black Christ has healing powers and because of this people travel to this destination in large numbers sometimes entering on their knees. There was no direct way to get there and by the time we made it to Chiqimula, it was dark and the buses stopped running to that location. Maybe after Spanish school we can head back there. ... read more

The plan was to go by ‘Tica Bus’ from Leon to San Pedro de Sula in Honduras arriving on time for the last bus to Copan Ruins. Unfortunately a small group of Indian travelers severely held up the border crossing and then later again at a random police check point. The poor guys were made to line up like in a firing squad and have their pictures taken one by one holding a placard with their personal details written. This put us well behind schedule forcing me to spend the night of 3rdMay in San Pedro de Sula at the well over-priced Hostel Tamarindo. Given the length of time I spent in Nicaragua I had to abandon the plans I had of heading up to the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras. I was ... read more

Everybody sing! Now I'm hiding in Honduras. I'm a desperate man. Send lawyers, guns, and money. The shit has hit the fan. It took me about 4 or 5 hours to make the drive to the Honduran border. I didn't find a transito to take me under his wing at this relatively remote border post so I was on my own to navigate the red tape circus. I elisted the help of an Italian man named Marco who just happens to hail from the same city where my (imaginary) friend Teresa lives. He helped translate which was a very big help because my command of the Spanish language has proven to be totally inadequate in these situations. Even with his help it took at least an hour that seemed like three. I hate borders! I gave ... read more

It was a six hour mini bus trip from Antigua to Copan Ruinas in Honduras. We were all crammed into the bus pretty tightly. The first couple of hours were terrible - we drove through Guatemala City and the pollution from other cars and trucks was very heavy. We had been warned constantly by locals not to go to the capitol city due to violence and robbery issues - even the residents of Antigua hate visiting the place. Even after leaving the city boundaries the pollution didn’t decease as we were in the middle of a constant stream of trucks belching fumes. We were all pretty pleased to get to our half way point to stretch our legs. Thankfully the scenery improved from there - hilly rural country with lots of banana plantations and tiny dry ... read more