Rather than suffering several chicken bus transfers, we broke down and splurged on a six-hour, $11 (each) tourist shuttle from Antigua to Copán, Honduras. This made things easier as we went direct, and the shuttle waited for us as we ran through a quick and efficient border crossing. However I never realized a shuttle could be less comfortable than a chicken bus. We were packed in, and as we left Antigua at 5am we were sleepy, but the seat backs were so low and the leg room so limited the only way to sleep was to hang your neck down onto your chest, which is never comfortable enough to actually sleep. The girl next to me was a good deal shorter, and still kept getting embarrassed when she would fall asleep and her head would fall onto my shoulder. The good bit was we had a nice conversation with a father and son traveling together and got some good recommendations of things to do. We also met a guy who owns the only locally owned (rather than foreigner owned) dive shop on Utila, where we are planning on diving. He is a real character, and we are definitely considering going to his shop.
The city of Copán Ruinas is just a small place, with the area around the town square lined with some hotels and restaurants that cater to all the tourists. Compared to other gateway towns to ruins though, it is decidedly quiet, a drab, dusty town livened up only by the tendancy of the local population to hang out in the town square. Guys in cowboy hats selling ice-cream and girls with carts selling fruit or a small homemade meal, and all of their friends who are just hanging out with them. In places without air con, it is almost always cooler outside than in, and of course is much less lonely and boring.
Our hotel, La Posada de Belssy, was a simple but clean and comfortable place, run by a friendly and helpful family. [BACKPACKER NOTE: Be wary of hotel reviews in the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides to Honduras. Each one we have stayed at has certainly been oversold. In this case the place was fine, but forget about "views of the city", and the rooftop terrace wasn´t much to write home about, although I might have felt a little differently had the small pool not been under repair. I think I was only disappointed because it didn´t live up to the review, not because I had any problems with the room itself.] An unusual perk was a TV in the room, so we watched the last half to "I, Robot" one night which was deliciously decadant. ;)
The first afternoon we went out to a bird park, which was set down in a river ravine a ways up into the forest. The first aviary we came to was the scarlet macaws. There were two pathways, one that led around the enclosure, and one that led to a door and path that went right through the center. Having spent a great deal of time at the San Diego aviary, and with no one around to ask (we were the only people there), we just assumed we could walk through. This was a little scary with over a dozen huge birds eying us as we snapped a few pictures. I was determined not to be intimidated, but I will admit our pace picked up considerably after one of the birds flapped its wings. Later in the day we saw another small group walking around with a tour guide, and he took them right down the path that led AROUND the cage. Oops! Glad I have both of my eyes still! Actually I don´t think we were in any extra danger, as there were several more of the birds sitting on the top of the cage on the outside, wild birds who had flown in to be near to their buddies I guess. All of the birds in the park are rescued from homes and smugglers and such and for whatever reason couldn´t take care of themselves in the wild, but these kinds of birds are all out there in the jungles just doing there thing.
The park was fun, with a bunch of different kinds of birds including some very young toucans, several different kinds of parrots (a few of which talked to us), and a couple of awesome bugs we dug up along the way. There was a swimming hole along the river that we soaked our feet in for a while which was nice too. However at $10 USD a head, we were just beginning to figure out that Honduras was going to massacre our carefully minded budget.
The next day we went to the Mayan ruins bright and early at opening time. At the gate we ran into a couple who had searched out a highly recommended local guide, and were looking for a few more people to join the group to defray the cost. We hadn´t ever hired a guide for the other ruins we´ve been to, but decided we could give it a try. Our guide was great, and led us around the ruins for about three hours. There are definitely pros and cons to getting a guide though. Besides the cost (we split his $40 five ways), we were tied to his schedule and direction, and there were several times I would have been interested to spend more time exploring some little nook or wandering off in a different direction altogether. On the other hand, he pointed out several things I probably never would have noticed on my own. Best of all, Copán is famous for its carvings, and he was able to decipher and point out what exactly we were seeing, which wasn´t always obvious to us. A crocodile here, a beheaded enemy there. There was a large round rock, and he said "This is where the winners of the ball game would be laid down and sacrificed, their blood running down this passageway to be caught in a bowl here." Grusome, but not something I would have ever known just looking at the rock myself.
Another fun moment was when we first walked in the gate to the park. About a dozen scarlet macaws were flying around in the trees, and they decided to give us a show, with several swooping down near us right at eye level. They are gorgeous birds, and their red feathers really caught your attention in the morning sun amongst all the green trees. Then we looked down and we saw several agouti running around. If you don´t remember them from your local zoo, they are big rodents, sort of like a hugely overgrown guinea pig or something. Just running around in the bushes. Awesome!
The couple we met were a pair of Brits, whom we met up with later for dinner. If you think David and I are weird for traveling out here for six months, these two are going for two years! They arrived here from Africa, and were talking about Asia coming up. So jealous.
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