Copan Ruinas, Honduras

I never thought I would visit Honduras. The news out of Central America during my teenage years was pretty grim, and even now, things are a bit dicey in certain parts of Honduras. In particular, the cities of San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba are really dangerous. One of our property managers in Belize is Honduran and he flat-out told us not to go to either of those places. We did careful research and decided there were two places we really wanted to see that seem interesting, fairly well-touristed, and safe:  Copan Ruinas, right near the Mayan site of Copan, and Lago de Yojoa.

Our 4:00 am shuttle from Antigua to Copan was very convenient, but the terrain became increasingly mountainous and the road increasingly winding as we neared the border. Our driver, like all Central American drivers (as far as I can tell) was a complete maniac and drove about 1,000 miles per hour at all times. We were sitting in the back of the van, and poor Liam became so car sick we had to get the driver to stop so he could puke his little guts out on the side of the road. I think the driver felt pretty bad, so he slowed down a bit, and Liam and I sat in the front. That helped a lot.

Apparently Optimus Prime lives in Guatemala

A mountain that looks a bit like King Kong

We crossed the border with little trouble and were in the town of Copan Ruinas within twenty minutes. The town is surprisingly charming, with a cute little park in the middle of town and close-packed buildings on the hilly streets. There were also men with guns EVERYWHERE--police, military, private security guards, you name it. We must have seen over 100 guys carrying weapons within this tiny town. I think they are trying really, really hard to get a handle on the security situation and Copan Ruinas is a very important tourist destination. It was a bit unnerving, but it actually did make me feel that if I had a problem these guys would come down on the perpetrator like a ton of bricks.

The weather was quite sunny, and given our experience in Antigua the previous day, we decided to head straight for the ruins even though we were all tired from our early morning.

We made it!

Downhill view from our hotel room

Uphill view from our room

View of the Copan valley

Enjoying the national brew of Honduras

We walked about 1 km to the ruins, paid our entrance fee, and hired a guide. We have visited many Mayan sites, and I felt like we didn't really need a guide, but I'm actually glad we hired one. Copan is quite a bit different than all of the other sites we visited. It is not noteworthy for massive temples, but rather for an abundance of intricate carvings.

However, what made it most notable for us is that Copan is the site of an intensive effort to reintroduce the scarlet macaw. There are have been several reintroductions, and there are numerous birds and a handful of breeding pairs flying wild and free in and around the ruins. When we first saw them, it was truly magical--they are such startlingly beautiful animals, it almost doesn't seem real when they zip over head or land in a tree just a dozen feet away. We spent a long time looking at the birds, photographing them, and just watching them fly around.

Our guide did a great job explaining the meanings of all of the carvings and answered all of our questions quite thoroughly. He lead us through most of the important excavated structures and carvings. The structure that made the biggest impression on me was the 'history temple'--a building with steps that tell hundreds of years of history of Copan and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, when archaeologists first discovered the site, the facades of the steps were all in a heap and covered with vegetation, and they put them back in place in random order. They are now going through the painstaking process of reassembling the steps correctly and interpreting what it all means. It was very interesting.

We had a delicious Honduran dinner that evening and sacked out early to catch up on sleep.

This is the stone they would use for sacrificing humans. The channel carved along it is where the blood would flow. Seriously.

In front of one of the many representations of 18 rabbit

At the ball court

One of the history steps

The history steps

Lochlan doing the Silly Jaguar dance

The next day we decided to walk up into the hills outside of town to visit Macaw Mountain, the bird sanctuary that is spearheading the effort to reintrocude the scarlet macaws. The center was founded several years ago by an American businssman. Apparently he ran a fish processing and freezing plant on Roatan (a Honduran Caribbean island) and his wife was passionate about birds and bird conservation. She had amassed a huge collection of tropical birds, particularly of parrots, but when they got divorced she moved back to the USA and he was left with this huge collection of birds. He bought the land for Macaw Mountain and they are still going strong. The facility is in a beautiful setting, up in the mountains with a stream running alongside and through the property. The enclosures are all very well constructed and the animals are clealry well cared for. All of the birds are donated, and they are either former pets or injured animals that cannot be reintroduced to the wild for one reason or another. Our guide showed us dozens of parrot species, hawks, and owls. We ended the tour at the interaction area where we all got to hold scarlet, blue and gold, and great green macaws. That was fun, but a little intimidating for me. The boys also made friends with a keel-billed toucan who seemed to take great joy in attacking all of our shoes!

The boys and our guide on a bridge across the creek

We walked back home in the blazing sunshine as a storm approached, and watched the torrential downpour from the safety of our hotel's rooftop deck.

When it rains, it REALLY rains

We were all really impressed with Copan Ruinas and the surrounding area. If we'd known it was so cool we definitely would have stayed an extra night or two.

Antigua, Guatemala

We have said goodbye to Belize, but we are not yet finished with Central America. Part of our plan from the beginning was to spend the last month of our time away from Seattle traveling. Early in the morning on the last day of May, we said goodbye to our house for the last time and took a taxi to the San Pedro/Belize Express Water taxi (after a quick stop at The Baker for cinnamon rolls). We got on the 7:30 boat to Belize City. Our journey through Central America started here, when we bought bus tickets to Guatemala City.

Our first bus took us from Belize City to Flores, Guatemala. We stopped only once, to cross the border. This went very smoothly and we were back on the bus, heading west. We arrived in Santa Elena/Flores around 4:00 (only 1.5 hours late, not too bad!) and had some cold drinks. We spent some time walking along the waterfront, then had a proper dinner before walking to the dirt lot where we were instructed to meet the bus. Confusingly, we had tickets on the 9:00 overnight bus, but it let Flores at 8:30.

Celebrating our arrival in Flores with some cold fizzies

Gallo, the national beer of Guatemala. Not bad, but not great. Kinda like a slightly better version of an American mega-brew.

The Night Bus

The overnight buses used by Fuente del Norte are pretty interesting--ours was a double-decker 'tourist bus' with the majority of the seats on the top level and sleeper seats on the bottom. We paid a little extra for the sleeper seats, but it was worth it, because they are much larger and recline much farther than standard bus seats. The bus was equipped with a toilet, but it didn't exactly work--there was no seat, no TP, and the 'flushing mechanism' was a bottle of water. I decided to wait and use the bathroom at the Santa Elena bus terminal.

In retrospect, this was a mistake. The bathroom was absolutely revolting, but I had to go, so I found an open stall. The toilet was already quite full, the tank (which was missing the lid) was empty and apparently broken, and there was no latch on the door. But one must answer when nature calls, so I was doing my thing, when the door swings open and I am confronted by a big, sweaty Guatemalan. He just stood there staring at me for a couple of seconds, until I said 'occupado!' grabbed the door and swung it shut.

After that experience, sleeping on a bus seemed like a piece of cake.

We awoke shortly before six, a bit groggy, and enjoyed the view of the extremely mountainous terrain as we approached Guatemala City. The City itself is a sketchy, scary looking place, particularly the area around the bus terminal. When our bus parked, we were greeted by a line of identically dressed, identically mustachioed, smiling Guatemalan taxi drivers with hopeful looks on their faces. We had already bought tickets on a shuttle bus to Antigua and had to say 'No, gracias' about 17 times before they left us alone.

Just part of the line of cab drivers trying to get us to ride with them. Apparently, mustaches are mandatory.

The drive to Antigua took about an hour and went through some pretty countryside. We saw a surprising number of cyclists on the road. The weather steadily improved as we approached our destination and by the time we arrived it was mostly sunny and we had a good view of (most of) the two big volcanoes that dominate the skyline. We walked past the colorfully painted buildings on the cobblestone streets to our hotel, just a couple of blocks north of the main square/park.

Cool fountain in the middle of the central square

Enjoying the city and the nice weather with my boys

Liam making silly faces from inside our hotel room

Amy, boys, arch, and volcano

Some of the very cool crafts we saw in the markets

We bought a blanket from this very friendly woman

Lochlan in front of La Merced Church

Full view of La Merced Church

There are cool knockers all over the city, this was one of my favorites

Guatemalans love to pimp their buses

There are many cool and imposing doors in Antigua

The place is gorgeous even at night

We spent the day enjoying the sunny weather and taking in the sites of the city. Antigua is a very old city, founded by the Spanish in 1543 (it reminded all of us very much of Campeche, but with more culture and a heck of a lot more people actually living within the city). It is at a fairly high elevation, just over 5,000 feet, and consequently the temperatures are much more comfortable than I expected for Central America in June. It is a beautiful city, with cobble stone streets and brightly painted buildings. There are three enormous volcanoes dominating the skyline, and we were able to see two of them fairly well. We visited many of the historic structures located throughout the city, some of which are still standing and are beautifully maintained, but many have been destroyed and still lie in ruins. Antigua has suffered several devastating earthquakes, and many of the cathedrals and monumental government buildings were destroyed and rebuilt several times. After a particularly catastrophic quake in 1773 the city just sort of gave up and the territorial capital was permanently relocated to Guatemala City.

One of the most impressive ruins we visited was the old Cathedral. The facade has been restored, but the balance of the structure is maintained as a ruin, including some really cool but slightly creepy underground chambers.

Interior of the ruined courtyard

Taking it all in

One of the underground rooms

Liam checking out the Leaves Of Unusual Size growing inside the ruins of the cathedral

We also took advantage of the presence of stores with affordable imported merchandise to catch up on some much needed shopping--new shoes for Lochlan, new headphones for everyone, etc. It had started to rain in the early afternoon while we were visiting the ruins, but by mid afternoon it was raining quite hard. Naturally, we had left our nice waterproof jackets in Seattle, but since the temperature had now dropped to 53 F and the forecast was 100% chance of rain for the next several days, we invested in some new North Face (!) jackets. This proved to be a good investment because it absolutely POURED the next day.

We had hoped to climb the Pacaya volcano and roast some marshmallows, but the rain was coming down so hard all of the tours were cancelled. We spent the day touring more historic sites and ruins, drinking hot chocolate, and eating warm soup! This seemed strange to us, but given the weather, was very satisfying. We made the mistake of stopping at one last craft market, and since this is the slow season to begin with and it was pouring rain, we were the only people there. It quickly became like some sort of horror movie, with dozens of merchants approaching us with their wares in their outstretched hands, walking like zombies, asking us to "BUY, BUY, BUY!" It was pretty uncomfortable and we got out of there in a hurry.

Liam on the second story of the Church and Convent of Capuchinas

Amy and the boys taking refuge in one of the courtyards of the Church and Convent of Capuchinas

Lots of cool and creepy religious imagery throughout the Church and Convent. This one reminded me of Papa Emeritus from Ghost.

Our next stop was Copan Ruinas. Unfortunately, the only shuttle directly from Antigua to Copan Ruinas left at 4:00 am, but we really didn't have any other options so we tried to get to sleep early and managed to catch the bus with no trouble.