Advertisement
Published: April 29th 2016
Stela D
One of the more intricate stelas at the ruins.Shared taxis – like literally shared with strangers – are the norm here in Honduras and it was in such a cab that I made my way from the hostel to the ferry terminal, realising what a beautiful place Roatan Island is along the way. The place is a Caribbean paradise and it’s no wonder that the place has become over-developed and over-commercialised. There really needs to be a balance in places like this – enough development to give the place decent infrastructure but not so much that any sort of original ambience is completely destroyed by cruise ship passengers and hotel resorts.
Thankfully the ferry back to La Ceiba wasn’t anything like
the rollercoaster ride over here and I even managed to get some sleep along the way.
It was the second leg of a long journey across Honduras from the northern Caribbean coast to the border of El Salvador - after another shared taxi to the bus terminal, the fourth leg of the journey was the rather nice and empty, full-service Hedman Alas bus to Copan Ruinas. I think there were only five people on the entire coach. It was however, perhaps as nice or maybe nicer than the Cruz del Sur
Great Plaza
With Temple 4 - the first, impressive Mayan temple that I have seen in the middle of it. buses I took in Peru. You checked your bag in at the terminal - which was just left outside while waiting for the bus to leave - but rather than feeling peace-of-mind over my backpack, I found myself worrying about whether it was indeed loaded onto the bus and whether it was transferred to my connecting bus in San Pedro Sula, a connection that I didn't know I had to make. The good thing about the stopover however, was that I didn't have to leave the safety of the secure bus terminal in what is one of the most murderous cities in the world.
Annoyingly, I only got to watch 80%!o(MISSING)f two films that were screened during my journey. I wanna see the god-damn endings dammit! Firstly,
The Day After Tomorrow was inexplicably stopped before the finish, so that
Sahara could start; and then my journey to San Pedro Sula finished before Sahara could. You can't show me a film and then not allow me to finish watching it!
Copan Ruinas is cute little cobblestoned-street town that reminds me a lot of
Salento, in Colombia, but without Salento's colourful main street of Calle Real. It is slightly amusing
Scarlet Macaw
These beautiful birds greet you as you enter the ruins. how all the men here all wear cowboys hats. It adds to the character of the town.
The main draw to Copan Ruinas are the nearby Mayan ruins of the same name.
Considered one of the most important of all the historic Mayan civilisations between 250AD and 900AD, the ruins left over after the empire's demise are quite impressive and were the first that I had seen since
Panama Viejo and the only other ones I've seen in Central America so far. With Tikal and Mexico's Yucatan coming up, I've got a few more coming!
The place really did feel like a lost city and one annoying local tour group apart, the place was almost empty. Some of the
stelas (kind of like totem poles carved out of rock) were very intricately carved and the temples were reasonably sized - impressively so. Much more intricate than say,
Machu Picchu though not as much as the incredible
Angkor Wat.
A further 1km down the road from the Copan ruins, lies Las Sepulturas which was included in the price of our ticket to Copan. Possibly the residential area of Copan's elite, this set of ruins were disappointing in comparison.
Accompanying me from the hostel
East Plaza
Also known as the Patio de los Jaguares, thanks to all the jaguar statues that surround it. on my tour of the ruins were Swiss girl Francine and German girl Sigi. They were good company and Francine in particular has travelled about as much as I have and it was fun exchanging our stories and experiences.
The weather was just about perfect too - a nice cloud-covered day that meant it didn't get too hot during our exploration of the ruins.
The ruins, a pleasant square and some nice restaurants apart, there isn't really much else to the town. The mirador was pretty average and the Casa K'inich up there - a museum dedicated to the Mayan ball game of the same name - was closed, so we watched for a few minutes, a ball game better known to modern audiences that was taking place in the local football stadium. We could see the entire pitch from the mirador - so it was good for one thing, I suppose.
Likewise, Honduran food isn't really up to much to be honest. The standard staple is beans, but minus the riceI got further south in Costa Rica and Nicaragua although plantain and fried bananas (yum) are still typical, as is sour cream. The ubiquitous
baleada is the
Taking A Seat With History
Posing in front of a statue in the East Plaza. most authentic Honduran dish that you can find - and even that is just a variation on the burrito. A
pupusa is like an Colombian
arepa but thinner and with less filling.
And that was pretty much that. Perhaps the most amazing thing to happen in Copan was the fact that I ran into Sam, a guy I met at my hostel in
Encarnacion, Paraguay, about six months ago. As proved in
Santa Marta, the backpacker world is indeed a small one.
I had zipped through Honduras pretty quickly and I will now zip through El Salvador even quicker via the
Ruta de las Flores. So until then...
Hasta luego,
Derek
Advertisement
Tot: 0.555s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 42; qc: 137; dbt: 0.3774s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.8mb
