Honduras Travel

On April 10th, James and I left lovely Roatan and sadly parted ways. We took an early flight (a scary propeller flight again) to San Pedro Sula, a grubby hole of a town on mainland Honduras (nice airport though). I had a bus to catch in the city centre and James decided to tag along as he had time before his next flights to Costa Rica.

If you can believe it we both hopped in a taxi to take us to the centre and about 10 minutes in James said something about our bags and I realised I´d left my rucksack AT THE AIRPORT! I had totally forgotten to get it from the luggage pick up!!! WHAT AN IDIOT! So the driver turned back and I had to convince the security guard to let me back into arrivals. Unfortunately, there was no way of looking cool at that point as the guards all laughed at me.

I bought my bus ticket, and after a meal in a weird ´Scandinavian´ American 50´s diner (don´t ask) James left me at the bus stop to catch his plane. It was a sad goodbye as we´d had such a laugh the whole 2 weeks without so much as a single strop to be had! A great travel buddy (miss you JJ!).

So there I was…on my own for the first time, in a grubby Honduran city…feeling a little anxious. UNTIL, in walked a Dutch guy I´d met diving in Roatan the day before who was also on his way to Copan.

So we spent the next 2 days keeping each other company and it was a good laugh, not to mention comforting since Copan was a bit of a culture shock to me when we arrived. It´s a stunning little rural village, very primitive, set in the mountains. All the men wear cowboy hats and some ride their horses along the cobbled-stone streets.

Arjan, my new Dutch friend (from Zoetermeer, near my old home in The Hague!) and I checked into a family run hotel where we each paid $7 a night, then headed off for a bite to eat. Again, this typical primitive Honduran village had FUNKY BARS! Crazy. We found a gorgeous cosy restaurant where the Honduran waitresses were carrying plates and beer bottles on their heads to customers (don´t ask me why… but it did look cool). Arjan was particularly taken with all the flavours of coffee to choose from (he´s a coffee and ice-cream fiend!). We got an early night as all the electricity went out (first time I got to use my torch this holiday!).

*By the way, I must digress and tell you that the music in Central America is soooo good. I feel like I´m listening to XFM! Right now in this internet cafe the radio is blasting The White Stripes, and earlier it was Oasis, The Killers, The Bravery, Nirvana, Chilly Peppers, Pumpkins, Depeche Mode…and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Haha! It was the same in Roatan. Impressive.*

ANYWAY… the next morning we made an early start for the Copan Ruins – about a KM walk along the highway. At the entrance to the ruins we were greated by beautiful Scarlet Macaws (Giant red parrots).

The ruins were breathtaking. Spent about 3 hours walking around them and taking over 100 photos. We got there early so avoided the crowds. We also took a walk through the surrounding jungle to see how the Mayans lived near the ruins. After lunch we walked 2kms along the highway to visit more ruins at Sepulturas. It was HOT (37´c) and we were knackered by the time we got there. It didn´t help that those ruins sucked.

Arjan´s highlight was seeing a cow in the bushes. Mine was hearing the craziest sounds I´d ever heard: the insect noises were so loud I had to cover my ears at one point. They sound like my tinnitus but LOUDER! And there were some strange bird calls too. It all sounded like a horror filmscore.

Eventually we stumbled upon some interesting ruins: Mayan homes. You could see the layout of their houses – their bedrooms, kitchens, lounges, computer offices (hehe) – it was really cool. We walked on top of them until we saw a sign saying not to walk on top of them. Whoops.

We then got lost and circled around the jungle a few times arriving at the same point each time – I was reminded of The Blair Witch Project where they keep going around the woods in circles before they´re eventually killed – but luckily there was no witch, so we soon found our way out.

We couldn´t find a vehicle to take us back to the Copan Ruins so had to walk the 2kms back in the blazing sun. Arjan´s watch said it was 42´c in the sun. Ouch! Eventually our weary legs could take no more so we flagged down an Indian tuk tuk (they actually are imported from India!) back to Copan town where we spent the rest of the afternoon taking photographs and freezing our arses off in an air-conditioned internet cafe. Dinner at another funky (I need a new word) Belgian restaurant, then sleeeep.

The next morning, after a scrumptious pancake breakfast, Arjan and I parted ways. He was heading for El Salvador and I to Guatemala.