Copan

Trip Start Aug 04, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Honduras Copan, Honduras
Friday, October 17, 2008

We bid farewell to Antigua and headed off to Honduras. Unfortunately, we had to go through Guatemala City to get there. It was raining when we left, so the first thing I did was drop my bike on the slick cobblestones while backing it into the street. Ugh! Next, off to the city, where we promptly got lost, due to the complete lack of road signs. We rode around for almost 2 hours, trying to use the GPS to guide us directionally (it has no road maps, only major arteries, and these can be off by miles), and at one point were on a dirt road in a pretty sketchy area... But finally we found an English speaking man in a gas station who volunteered to lead us to the right road in his car.

The border was also a bit sketchier, but we got through OK, and pulled in to the town of Copan Ruinas, right outside of the actual Copan ruins, before dark, and found a hotel. This town is very small and really serves just tourists headed for the ruins. The next day we saw the ruins, which are impressive but for some reason not as striking as either Monte Alban on a hilltop, or the man-made hill of Tonini. We were done with the ruins by about 1:00, so decided to take a guided horseback ride through the countryside in the afternoon. Unfortunately it started to rain soon after we started off, and despite rain jackets we got totally soaked over the 3 hour ride.

That evening we found a bar with a bunch of US college kids from Notre Dame who were there to build a bridge, and a really nice UK couple, and also an 18 year old kid from West Virginia who was working at an orphanage. I bought that kid a drink, he was really nice, but unfortunately I've lost his name and email address.