Blogs from Western, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Days 13-14 I had to have an earlier night than the previous one as my shuttle was picking me up at 6 in the morning, why can’t they run these at sensible times – the reason is the poor driver has to do a return trip – 12 hours in one day on these roads – he earns every penny if you ask me. He drove us into my last new country of the trip - Honduras and from now on I'm heading back up to Cancun. El Salvador was a refreshing change as you didn’t have to pay to leave the country, however to get to Copan we had to cross into a bit of Guatemala first and then into Honduras, so had to pay a $2 exit fee to leave Guat and a $3 ... read more

We expected to be picked up for the 45 minute drive from Copan Ruinas to Finca El Cisne, the coffee plantation we would be staying on for the next 2 days, in a pick up truck, which was a little concerning considering the light rain that was falling. So when a mini van arrived, we thought this is good, at least we will stay dry. That thought dissipated very quickly when we were sliding precariously along extremely muddy, steep roads not far from town. Alex was a very skilled driver but when your van with no seatbelts, full of 4 Australians, 3 Americans, 2 French Canadians and 2 Hondurans is sliding sideways, just inches from the edge of a very steep embankment, you start to get very nervous. There were several times where we called out ... read more

Discovered that the pretty, little, cobbled town of Copan not only had sunshine, blue skies and Mayan ruins but also had a large selection of divine cheeses. Full of dairy, we set out to explore Copan. Had no idea where we were heading, we jumped in a tuktuk. Cobbled streets, tiny wheels and dubious driving skills complete with no suspension is interesting on the tummy. Picked up our mayan history the budget travellers way, by eavesdropping on tour guides. We enjoyed ourselves rather a lot in the cooling tunnels and tombs, in hindsight perhaps being rather too jovial for the situation. This was further clarified when exiting the temple the door mysteriously slammed shut and locked, preventing our return. Don't think the mayan spirits were impressed. Bit embarrasing Had a fabulous day out visiting Macaw Mountain, ... read more

Left the island and amazingly made it all the way to Copan. It was another 12 hour boat and bus day bit at least it was only one.  Two nights is all I stayed here but you could easily get sucked in. It's a very pretty town only 10k from the Guatemalan border and alot less touristy than most places I've been. I was surprised considering the Mayan ruins are the main attraction.  Arrived around 7pm and found a hostel straight away and found out the national park is 1k from the town so no tours necessary just a stroll out of town and pay the entrance fee. Armed with all the necessary info I headed for food and a wander around the town.  Next morning I headed to the ruins and they were just stunning. ... read more

After leaving the chilled relaxing ways of El Tunco beach it was up early again to catch the bus to Copan, Honduras, entering country number 5 of the trip. The shuttle bus was due in at 6am, and finally got there 7:15am…. We have now become numb to late running buses, and as long as they turn up at some point, we are happy. This journey to Honduras was to be a strange one, in that even though El Salvador boarders Honduras, we headed back into Guatemala to get to Honduras from there, as it would be quicker? I’m always happy when bus routes are amended to be quicker; however after our border crossing incident mentioned previously, we didn’t really fancy crossing two borders in the matter of hours! Turns out however that the bodge job ... read more