Coincidence and Detours Ahead

---

It´s funny how when you´re traveling alone, you never really are.... I had barely left my cozy room with Matt and Maggie, when I met Mike on the ferry from Utila to La Ceiba. Mike just finished two years in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and is traveling back to California overland. We chatted for most of the ferry ride and somehow I convinced him that he should come to Copan with me, though I had barely decided so myself just the day before. Mike and I jumped in a taxi and two buses and about seven hours later, we felt like we had known each other for years.

We got to Copan and got a room together, asking repeatedly for two separate beds. We joked that the hotel owners probably thought Mike had messed up big time. Just before Terah departed Utila, he picked a restaurant for us to meet at in case I happened to make it to Copan. Well, I did so Mike came with me to meet Terah at Via Via. The three of us had an amazing dinner together, followed by drinks at a local bar. I said goodbye to Terah again, promising to come visit him in Providence or India... I´m hoping India comes first!

Copan is lovely. It´s like a smaller and more modest Anitigua, complete with cobblestone streets. It hasn´t been completely overrun by tourists, yet, and it´s much more humble. Mike and I crashed early, slept in, and the next morning we walked to Copan Ruinas. I had heard from several people that if you see Tikal, you can skip Copan. I completely disagree! Copan is once again, more modest and more humble than Tikal, but it is impressive in its own right and very different. In my opinion, the two can´t really be compared, but of course I´ll try....

While Tikal takes your breath away because of its grandeur, the height of its temples and complexity of its layout, Copan is incredible because of its artistry and the impeccably preserved detail of its carvings. The few temples that abound are much easier to scale than those at Tikal, and there were far less tourists. There are huge Mayan masks with expressive eyes and great protruding teeth, and tall and intricately carved stellas. The favorite, for both myself and Mike, was a trio of skulls sitting sort of hidden underneath a tree on a hill above an ancient throne. It was here that we met a local groundskeeper, who has worked on the ruins for 18 years and helped with the excavations. He gave us some tidbits of history and insights into the carvings and then went on about his day. In Tikal, I felt intrigued and slightly intimidated by the Mayans. In Copan, I was impressed.

After some laundry, e-mail and wandering around town, Mike and I decided that dinner the night before was too good so we returned to the same restaurant. We were staring sleepily at the specials board, when I heard a familiar voice. I looked over to see Andy, the third of my good buddies from Utila sitting exactly where Terah, Mike and I had dined the night before... It was too much! We sat down with Andy, ordered Salva Vidas in celebration of such an unexpected reunion and had another awesome dinner at Via Via.

Although Mike was planning to stay only one night in Copan, he decided to stay for two. And although I was supposed to leave the next day for Tegucigalpa to continue down into Nicaragua, this time it was Mike´s turn to convince me to go out of my way unexpectedly. He did and I did, and the next day we were off to San Salvador. Mike was headed to Guatemala next, so the detour through El Salvador really didn´t make sense for him, but he was intent on having his passport stamped by every Central American country. For me, the detour seemed slightly out of the way and added an hour or two of travel time, but l thought, hell, for a whole nother country and another stamp - why not?!

We were lucky enough to find out that there was a direct bus leaving for San Salvador the next day, and we could even sleep in and still catch it. Perfect! We went to the bus station and low and behold, the bus company was having some sort of promotion. The slightly expensive bus tickets were two for the price of one that day. Hot damn, we had hit the jackpot!! I was convinced this detour was meant to be....

---