Central America - Honduras

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First stop in Honduras was Copan Ruinas. I arrived in the evening at a pretty B&B just outside the centre to stay in a room called Luna (the moon) which had a lovely terrace to view the night sky. Not many street lights so I could see all the stars! I went to a local restaurant and luckily they managed to make me some dinner before the electricity cut out. It was quite windy so I ate my dinner using the torch light of my mobile rather than by candelight but it worked! Apparently they were doing some work on cables in the town so the electricity cut a few times whilst I was there. I had more great views from the B&B in the daytime as they have a lovely garden and the terrace overlooks some hills. The town itself was pretty with cobbled streets and a central plaza. The surrounding area is rural and there were a lot of men wearing stetsons (cowboy hats). I went to visit the nearby Mayan ruins which have very beautiful carvings. The museum was also very informative and housed some of the original stonework and a full scale painted replica of one of the temples. Sometimes it´s easy to forget that originally the stone ruins would have been painted in bright colours! The mayans made sculptures of different animals with certain attributes or significance in their culture. The scarlet macaw represented the sun god and today the scarlet macaws are still living near the entrance of the ruins. They have been released recently from a local rescue and breeding centre. In addition to the ruins I went on the nature trail and saw La Ceiba tree which was sacred for the Mayans. I also saw an agouti (large rodent) and several colourful birds (red and gold/black). One afternoon in the plaza I saw Kate who I´d met in El Salvador. These random meetings happened with quite a few people I met on my travels, it´s a small world! We had the local tortilla dish baleadas, tacos and hot chocolate in the evening. We also saw the Christ statue being carried in the streets to a corner decorated in the streets and people knelt down to pray. It was then carried to another place where people followed to pray at the next stop. This was probably a re-enactment of the stations of the cross in the run up to semana santa (holy week / Easter). On my last day in Copan Ruinas I visited some Aguas Termales (hot springs) in the countryside. I met Jonah, Alejandro and Adriana and we visited a mud bath and different pools, some with hot and others with cold water. It was a nice relaxing day! In the evening I stopped off at a baleada cafe for some dinner and met Alex. He runs the family international law firm with several offices in Honduras. He´d recently moved to Copan to escape the heat of Roatan Island and was in the process of opening an art gallery and cafe in the town. He told me that Copan is very safe and it is described as a "Magic Town" in tourist brochures!

I travelled to La Ceiba on the coast with Kate, Miles and Milan with a stop in San Pedro Sula. The bus station, hostal and burger joint had security and/or barbed wire so I think we were no longer in magic towns anymore! We got the ferry to Utila island but I felt nauseous as there were quite a lot of waves. However the island is another magic town so it was a safe place once we got there. Utila islanders are english / creole speaking due a history of pirates, rebels banished from St Vincent and freed slaves or settlers from other Caribbean islands. However half the population is now spanish speaking due to more recent migration from the mainland. I stayed in a place run by Milady which was in a more rural, quiet location away from the centre. She had used a lot of recycled objects like glass bottles in the construction and decoration of the rooms and her paintings adorned the walls. She had recently lost a loved one too. It felt like we had a lot in common and we talked about grief and art amongst other things. There was a lot of flora and fauna there. On my first night I discovered a tarantula on the outside of my door. It gave me a shock at first as I only saw it once I shone the torchlight at the lock to open the door. However it moved slowly and calmly so I didn´t mind in the end. I also woke that same night to discover a gecko next to my pillow. During my stay I spotted scorpions, iguana, striped spider, hummingbird and lots of butterflies. I went on a few hikes with Milan to Pumpkin Hill, caves, airport and coastal paths on the other side of the island. We also managed to get a coconut from the tree by me standing on his shoulders! There is a theory that Utila island is actually Robinson Crusoe´s desert island and we saw some posters where a local writer had made comparisons with the story and the geography of the island. There was one rainy day where I did some drawing and helped Max with one of his sculptures. He is a local artist who collects interesting pieces of driftwood, sands and polishes them. He has chosen to live a hermetic existence in an uninhabited part of the island. He was an interesting person to talk to and told me a lot about the island and a natural remedy for scorpion stings which is cayenne pepper and lime! By Milady´s account he has the least in terms of material things but he is the happiest. In the afternoon the rain had lessened so I visited the iguana rescue centre to see the spiny tailed species endemic to Utila nicknamed "Swampy". It was discovered in 1901 but forgotten by the scientific community until 1994 when it was rediscovered as endangered. Utila is known for diving but as I have asthma I went snorkelling instead. There are beautiful beaches here and lovely clear water with reefs not far from shore. One location was called Neptune´s and to reach it we had to get a boat through some mangrove. I met some Honduran and Canadian ladies and had lunch with them at the restaurant there. They were disappointed to find out that alcohol wasn´t being sold due to election day. It´s prohibited so that people are not under the influence when they vote and to avoid aggressive disputes. They invited me to visit them in their hotel later as they had luckily saved a bottle of rum! However that evening some of my neighbours were having a barbeque so I stayed at home instead. I went on another longer boat trip to some cays. One of them called Water Cay was like a paradise island, people visit it to swim and go snorkelling. The other cay was inhabited and there were lots of brightly coloured buildings and boats. That evening I went to a local comedor and ordered a "super baleada" which had lots of fillings. They had a TV there and I watched a nature program set in the Andes. It was in english but an enthusiastic local man called Carlos decided to give us some alternative commentary in Spanish. He was a little confused at times though as at one point he thought they were filming in Australia! My best snorkel was on the last day at Coral View. I went with Kate plus Marissa and Laura from her dive school. The sea was calmer on this day and I felt confident going out further as I was with experienced divers. I saw many fish including Kate´s favourite, the bright blue spotted disco fish!

I got the ferry back to La Ceiba and saw Dom, Ollie and Markus who I´d met earlier on my travels. I spent the night in the same hostal as previously and met some English guys Richard and Max travelling the world in two old cars. They are documenting it on www.globalconvoy.com and have picked up several people along the way. They have been across the breadth of Asia and down from North America so far. I also met a bus driver so got his shuttle the next day to San Pedro Sula and then got a local bus from there to Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa is the capital and a lot of people had tried to put me off visiting as it´s currently ranked 3rd most violent city in the world (San Pedro Sula is 2nd). However logistically it made more sense to stop there before travelling to Nicaragua. I stayed in a hostal in a safe area of the city where the embassies and consulates are located so I was informed that it was safe for me to walk to the local baleada place for my evening meal. In the morning I went to El Picacho, a mountainside viewpoint with Federico from the hostal. We had a great view and the city is quite picturesque as it´s nestled amongst mountains. In the afternoon I met Alejandro in the plaza. He is from Tegucigalpa and we´d met earlier on my trip to the Aguas Termales near Copan Ruinas. He kindly offered to give me a tour of the city so we went to the Cathedral, Military Museum and Museum of National Identity. We then had coffee and biscuits in a local cafe. I had planned to leave for Granada the next day but the Tica bus tickets were sold out and it was a bit far to get there by other means. The owner of the hostal had a drawing on canvas which he wanted painted. He said I could stay for a few more nights for free if I painted it. I could only stay for one but I moved into a private room that night to avoid the guys snoring in my dorm room! So I spent the last day painting which was nice as I hadn´t had the opportunity to paint for a long time. All in all I´m glad I visited Tegus as it is known locally.

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