Copan Ruinas and the Macaw Mountain

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It was a very smooth journey from Antigua Guatemala to Copan Ruinas including a trouble-free border crossing which really surprised us! We stayed at the Garden Hotelwhich, although it looks nice and had a lovely riverside location, disappointed us to the extent that we wished we had stayed in a backpacker hostel for half the price. There were constant problems with water which they were (two times out of three) able to resolve within moments which suggested they had done something in the first place!

Anyway, let's not dwell on that. Copan Ruinas was a great place to hang out for a few days. It's a shame we didn't have better weather though. We wandered around as we usually do on our first day and really enjoyed the picturesque cobbled streets and the feel of the place. We also sussed out some restaurants that proved to be excellent both in terms of quality and value for money. Los Asados was superb and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening at La Llama del Bosque which we now know isn't named after the flames of a forest fire but in fact after a beautiful bright red flower that one of the local trees produces. A shoutout too for Cafe Via Via. Of course, we also sought out the local craft beer bar and were not disappointed, although our timing was off as it was only open on our first night. We also climbed up the steep streets to the museum at Casa Kinich but that, not entirely unexpectedly, was closed! Still, the views from up there were great and we did get to walk around inside the old prison building. We also got to watch a little bit of a local football game but the quality, believe me, was such that Russ might even have got a game if he'd brought his boots!!

The main reason for visiting is the Mayan ruins. We've never been to Mexico, and we left the Guatemalan ruins for another visit, so we thought they were quite impressive. We're led to understand that if you have done the others then they are actually a bit disappointing, although the rock carvings are far better preserved here. We visited in the rain. Now, we're not talking about a few light showers here. It tipped it down. It absolutely bucketed it down. This was the day we realised that both of us had inexplicably not packed our umbrellas! How very non-British of us!! We put up with getting wet for a while as it was too hot and sticky to spend much time in raincoats. The vast majority of visitors spent most of their visit underneath the tarpaulin which protects the impressive stairway to the Gods. We enjoyed not having the crowds around us but eventually we too succumbed to the shelter which was actually there to protect the ruins rather then the visitors. We did venture out into the rain and see the rest of the site but there's no doubting that the weather spoiled our enjoyment a little. Having seen all that there was on offer, we made our way back into town rather than trudge out to the second set of ruins. We did that the next day and you do need to use your imagination a bit more there. Not everyone goes that far so we really did have those ruins to ourselves most of the time.

The other thing to visit is Macaw Mountain. This may sound like a cheesy, touristy place, but it is in fact a very important place for the protection, breeding and reintroduction of the scarlet macaws, once plentiful and much loved by the Mayan society. We got a tuk tuk to take us there and he thought he would be collecting us 45 minutes later. Our instinct was correct and we spent two and a half hours in the park. Yes, there are birds in cages, but most of these have been rescued and would not survive in the wild. From the breeding programme there are various cages as the birds are prepared for release. It must be quite an emotional time for the keepers when their babies fly free. As well as the many different parrots and macaws, we particularly loved the toucans.

Moving on from Copan to the interior of Honduras involved a bus to travel the 177km to San Pedro Sula. The problem is that they leave at 0500, 0600 and 0700 meaning no breakfast for us even for the last bus. We were told that we could wait at the office 15 minutes before departure but at 0655 we gave up waiting and hot footed it across the cobbled streets and over the bridge to the bus station. There we caught the bus by the skin of our teeth. Six hours of relative hell lay ahead of us as about 50 of those 177km are taken up with one-way roadworks and the queues were horrific. A further 50km or so of the journey were on roads that were not really roads at all! The remaining 77km were fine and in San Pedro Sula we dined in style with Chinese food in the largest food court in Central America before trying to secure a taxi to take us the rest of the way. Uber does exist but for long distance journeys the drivers are not prepared to take you for the Uber price. When you chat to them, it's not at all surprising. We eventually negotiated a price with an Uber driver and cancelled the ride on the app making sure he got all of the cash. We tipped him generously as well because in the the end I would not have driven my car on some of the roads he took us on!

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

The wonderful World of birds
I am not a twitcher but appreciate a fabulous shot of birds doing their thing. Cracker pic indeed!!!

[D MJ Binkley]

The Beauty in the Details
This is a masterpiece.