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Published: June 23rd 2007
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Cobblestone streets of Copan
Cobblestone streets of Copan When I booked our flights to fly to Honduras on TACA, I had my doubts about flying on that airline. We quickly saw the pattern seen in many third world countries, where the new infrastructure is leapfrogging "first world" countries, whether it is airplanes or cell phones. The TACA planes were brand new and the service was better than many U.S based airlines and cell phone reception in many remote parts of Honduras was better than my cell phone reception in the heart of Silicon Valley.
After a long day of plane and bus ride, we landed in Copan Ruinas, a quaint little town in a verdant valley dotted with white adobe buildings and cobblestone streets. It has the same relaxed atmosphere as Antigua, Guatemala. A perfect place to start your vacation as time seems to slow down significantly here. We stayed at Don Udo's , a bed & breakfast place operated by a Dutch-Honduran couple.
Copan is a world heritage site and is known for its Mayan Ruins with remarkable stone sculptures. We spend half a day walking through the ruins with a local guide , hearing stories about the achievements of Mayan rulers like Smoke Jaguar,
18 Rabbit & Smoke Monkey. I still don't know how the archeologists deciphered the kings names to funky animal names. The ruins are not as grandiose as Tikal, but the intricate sculptures and the presence of colorful macaws around the ruins makes it special.
We visted the Mayan museum in town, which had some skeletons that were excavated from the tombs. The Mayans believed in life after death and hence, placed their dead in the fetal position with food, ornaments etc. so that they are reborn properly.
We toured the local bird sanctuary that had many colorful birds, including large macaws. The highlight of that tour was our 11 year old guide, Stephanie. She refused to be treated like a child and provided us plenty of entertainment during the tour. Later that evening, we dined in candle light at "Hacienda San Lucas" overlooking the Copan valley and river and we were treated to a four course delicious mayan influenced food.
After Copan, we headed to La Ceiba on the coast. We stayed in a jungle lodge run by a German couple in Pico Bonito National Park. We were delighted with our cottage that had splendid views of
the cloud forest on the banks on Rio Cangrejal. We met Scott, a Luke Wilson look alike, who worked there as a river guide and entertained us with stories of Honduras. We did a day hike into the rain forest with a local guide. The hike started with crossing the river at a shallow point and got us right into thick jungle. As we were hiking upto the waterfalls in the jungle, our guide told us that the jungle is known for its green poisonous snakes, but we shouldn't worry as he has a first-aid kit!
The hike was strenous as we had to scramble over slippery rocks near the waterfalls. Along the way, we jumped into a small waterfall to cool down before continuing our hike. At one point, it rained cats and dogs getting us completely drenched and scrambling over rocks in this weather was not exactly safe. Our guide exclaims "Adventura ! ". We managed to finish our hike without any broken bones despite a few slips along the way.
That evening, we met Iman, an Egyptian American Doc from New York, and we ended up traveling with her to the Bay Island, Roatan. We
Finally, the hike is over !
Alison happy at the end of the strenous hike in the rain stayed at CocoLobo's, a brand new bed & breakfast place with large ocean facing rooms with hammocks, pool and sumptous breakfasts. Roatan is part of the barrier reef extending from Belize through the Bay Islands. Roatan is at inflection point and is likely to skyrocket in terms of real estate and tourism.
The days in Roatan were very relaxing. The day started with a large breakfast followed by diving until lunch , which was followed by a nice afternoon nap and then it was time to clean up and go for dinner ! I dived with Luis of Seagrape Plantation Resort. The water was emerald in color, 82 F and I did my first diving without any wetsuit. It was awesome as we saw many colorful tropical fish, eels, barracuda, stingrays, turtles, lobster and giant crabs. I did my first wreck dive at 110 ft and it was exciting and scary as I was manuevering inside the wreck at that depth. It felt like being inside the Titanic movie. While I divded, Alison and Iman were hanging out on the white sandy beaches and devouring delicious seafood.
By sunday, I was in a very relaxed, almost vegetative state
Sunset in Roatan
Alison with Iman and it was also the end of our short vacation. The B&B in Roatan is owned by a retired BBC journalist and her stories made Alison & I contemplate running a B&B as a retirement option!! For now, we need to get back to making some money.. back to work..
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