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Published: February 12th 2009
Tim Version:
* Entered Guatemala through Anguiatu, beautiful easy crossing, and bussed to Chiquimula.
* Checked out the Copan ruins with its incredible inscriptions, and Esquipulas.
The version that already misses El Salvador:
I entered Guatemala from El Salvador (A country that I miss already!) from the Anguiatu border crossing, near where Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala meet, and it was a beautiful easy crossing. Very early, 7am so no-one around to hassle and the border officials all quite happy and unjaded. Its a pretty border crossing over a short bridge, and it has mountain views on either side. Once again though it is El Salvador that has the nicer buildings and more helpful workers.
Today I knew was going to be a hectic day, so I enjoyed the slower bus ride from the border to Chiquimula, where I got a hotel for very cheap, a good little private room. The guy spoke English and Spanish too so I got to ask a few translation questions, always useful! By 10am U was on a bus from Chiquimula to the Honduran border El Florido. Microbuses everywhere here, zippy, fun and easy!
Entering the Honduran border, no
issues... the hassling money changers as always were there, but they're easy to ignore or remove. Just instantly demand a ridiculus rate for a very small amount of money and BAM none of them want to know you =) Then the hassle started on the bus... the guy's Spanish I could not understand well, and the quoted bus fare was half what was asked for when moving. Myself and another protested, but ended up having to pay... some things are not worth it. The nature of Hondurans here already I've found the same as last time - aggressive and generally just pricks. For a short bus ride it cost me more than the much longer Guatemalan side, but it got me there.
The town of Copan Ruinas is about 1km from the ruins, a pleasant shady walk that even has a Stelae on the walk. The town itself is beautifully clean and centres around a nice little park, but is fake as hell when you know the rest of the place. Still, it can be a welcome break. I would imagine here that money is the best language over Spanish or English or any other.
The Ruins themselves
Just lazing around
This little uy was keeping me company while I waited for the busare crazily clean, with an entry price that is a bit high. They, to me, felt a bit fake entering but upon the main plaza noting the granduer of the place, you forget the other tourists and the perfectly manicured grass and pushed back forest to just stand in awe of some of the work of the Mayans. Descriptions of the Copan Ruins can be found everywhere, as can pics, so I won't go into detail, however the detailed carving, the steps with the carving, and the incredible ball court are the highlights I think. That and just how bunched up much of the area is, differing to other sites I have seen and what I have heard that Tikal is like. It is amazing to see such large scale detailed carving, thinking about the logististics of moving such large brittle fragile objects. I had to rush a bit as I didn't get to Copan as early as I wished, but I still got to see what I wanted and all the main architecture. The museum is small but brilliant, again housing many carvings, with some very interesting demon vampire bat looking ones that I loved. This place did make
Copan ruined steps
Ruined temple steps on the right as you enter me realise something though - anthropology, not my thing! I like the structures, but as for the story of the people, I'm not so interested... sometimes I like to hear about why they perished and the hardships they had, but thats because it relates usually to environmental conditions and damage which interests me. Noticing I was thinking to myself "I wonder if they still treated their dogs like rubbish" while viewing their grandest works really confirmed it heh.
Leaving, the bus ride to the border was another rip off, with the workers just as surly. By this point I'd had enough of Hondurans, but then one more decided to try some shit on me... the border official. Blunt and without any manners, he yelled for me to go over to him, then grabbed my passport, and took a while reading it. He then went into his office, and passed it to the Guatemalan guy. After getting it back from the Guatemalan guy he demanded an exit fee - one that doesn't exist any more. I had had enough by this point though so I told him in my best Spanish that it doesn't exist, that its a lie, that
I'm not paying it, and that basically he can go jump. He kept asking for it and it got me pretty angry, and my speech turned to Spanglish. After a little he angrily waved me through with a wave of the hand while looking away, and I left. Freakin Hondurans man... I know I've only met a few pockets of them, but really their nature is shite, and I don't enjoy their company, so today confirmed my dislike and disinterest in Honduras. Then people say "Well what about the bay islands?". Yeh, they're cool, but for what I wanted the Corn Islands in Nicaragua were much better, and the nature of the people and infrastructure around the Bay Islands would not be typical of Honduras due to the turistic influence, so I barely think of it as being Honduran. Once over the border, the bus back to Chiquimula was a breeze and the Guatemalans much happier and easier to deal with and my shoulders dropped with relaxation again... glad I saw the Copan ruins, but when leaving with negative thoughts in my head like "I wish I hadn't of given Honduras any of my money", it's not healthy and isn't
Copan Central temple
Right in the centre of the open grass what I'm here to experience so no more of that..
The other day trop I did from Chiquimula was to Esquipulas as I didn't feel like moving town that day and its an easy one. Its claim to fame is a grand white church, the Basilica, with a famed Christo Negro (Black Christ), that I saw there and went up close to see. The christ itself, with not a christian bone in me, was plasticy and kinda like a 1950s doll to me but it was fascinating seeing how reverred it was as to me it is a basic man-made materialistic object.. As people line up to it, walk around it, pray to it (often in teary weeping outbursts), and then walk away from it, they always stay facing it, including leaving the area walking backward down a ramp, so I did the same out of respect. There is even a smaller version outside under a cover for when the line to the central one is too big. It has a queue set up like a ride in Disney World! Outside it is immediatly visible how much of the town's economy is built on this thing - everywhere are
people selling small plastic and wooden Christo Negros, various other effigies, candels, and even Tshirts with the church on it. Anything religious that want to buy can be found here. I got to witness a Guatemalan funeral inside the church too with some beautiful singing by the choir. After checking out the rest of the town and chowing down on some awesome local street vendor food, I caught my bus home, catching the exact same bus I arrived on so I had a good laugh and chat to the guys running it.
Back in Chiquimula at my hotel an older, 50 maybe, very dirty looking (and it turned out dirty natured too) Italian Chef who works on a cargo shp came and made friends with me. He spoke 5 languages and was a part time amatuer tattoo artist, trying to convince me to let him give me a tattoo heh but his looked pretty shonky. He tried to get me out for some drinks with some of his friends but I didn't really feel like it so skipped on that, though when I went out for food later I found a wicked bunch of locals that I did end
Incredible Stelae
They're all around Copan and highly intricate up having dinner and a few beers with! Lots of funny shit going on, one of them had a new motorbike and was taking everyone for rides up and down the street while the others made fun of him... at one point a younger guy pulled out a gun that I thought was a cap gun, and pointed it at the guy on the bike as he was coming back. Laughing thinking it was just a cap gun, the guy raised it a bit and let a bullet fly thinking it was funny to scare his mate with it, and they all had a laugh and joke, but I kinda had a sickening feeling when he then shot another one off, then picked up the empty shells and put them on the table - it wasn't a damn cap gun at all. Crazy...
Enough excitement for me I retired for the night and decided I'd check out Quirigua tomorrow to see the ruins and small town there!
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