Copan Hotels
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Hey its england! (and Cold)
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We got up yet again at some ridiculously stupid hour...4am to be exact! I was still asleep and not completely better. We piled onto a minibus and made our merry way to Honduras.
No problems except at the border, where the woman from the Honduras border refused to stamp our passports, saying it wasnt necessary. We werent convinced...but she wasnt having any of it. We still had to pay a fee....for whay...god only knows...just hope they let us out of the country in a few days time and dont lock us up! Still it wouldnt be a bad country to have to stay in as it turns out!
Were a little worried when we first drove into Copan Ruinas....looked a nothing place...but turned out to be really cool.
Tried to find the hostel we wanted...as usual the bus company would take you anywhere as long as it was the hotel they said! Was very hard as nowhere has street names here....we eventually managed to ask and found it. Its a little out of town, but then the place is so small...its hardly very far! Treated ourselves to a lovely little double room, bigger than most dorm rooms to date! Were surprised when the person we eventually found to let usin spoke english.
Was still feeling pretty dodgy and asleep...so we decided to go find some coffee....stumbled on a bar! Where it looked like they had good coffee and were greeted in english! Were very confused now...had we accidentally flown home without realising it?
Coffee was good. Then wandered a little....getting more confused by the minute by all the english signs. Spent some time on the internet...chilled in our room...i was exhauseted having not eaten for days. So tried to find me some food, for my poor belly. Wasn´t sure what i could manage...so tried somwhere that had soup. Of course the menu was in english and the woman owning it turned out to be the same english woman in the pub earlier!!! The place was only just opening...so food wasnt ready....but the woman convinced us to have the backpackers special...when it was ready! I just went along with it. Turned out to be very good food, and not a bad little deal. For $6 or 3quid, we got lovely homemade carrot soup and garlic bread....spag bol and amazing warm carrot cake. I didnt eat it all, so neils dinner was even more amazing in that he got second helpings of everything! Was still early but we were pretty tired had been a long day...so headed to our room, played cards, then went to sleep!!! Lovely bed!
Day 2
was feeling a bit betterm, and dreadfully hungry...so off we went to find breakfast. Had no idea where to go...ended up in a dead place...the food was kinda cool, but as soon as i started eating...i couldnt eat! Felt very guilty at wasting good food! Was inda wierd breakfast...a local breakfast...but kinda fun. Fried eggs with salsa on em, reefried beans, tortillas, avacado, cheese, cream and fried bananas. Sounds wierd but you cant diss it till youve tried it!!!! Neil was boring and had eggs and toast
Then we decided to go see the ruins. I had no idea whether i could manage it but i was sure gonna try! Was only supposed to be a short 1KM walk to the ruins, so we walked. Wasnt very far at all...passed a few cool statues on the way and then we were there!
Were greeted at the entrance gate by the usual men with guns and numerous parrots! Not sure why they were there but they sure were cool!
Paid our fee (bit pricey but hey) and went exporing. Now Copan aint anywhere near as impressive at first sight, but when you get closer its really cool! The buildings arent big, but its not abbout size, its about the amazing carvings...and they are amazing. There are loads of them, still pretty much in tact and so detailed. You can even see some of the colours they were painted. It was so cool. There was also the most amazing stairway, which they have restored, which is completely covered in hieroglphics. Its amazing, unfortunately it wa got quite erroded but its still so impressive....in its time it must have been gob smacking!!
We wandered round the rest of the site...wasn´t that big....but they are still working on it big time. You can see they are doing a really good job...restoring bits that are important....was fun to watch them work. Well actually most of the time they were just sleeping as it was siesta time!
Wandred round the completely undiscovered bit which was kinda cool...and then we were done. Only took a couple of hours, but was worth it to see the amazing carvings, missing from most of the other sites.
Back at the entrance we checked out the cool parrots...and saw some other cool birds...bright yellow ones were best...we also so some wierd huge rat like things...but much cuter!
We then decided to take the nature trail, to get our moneys worth! We are british afterall and have to get value for money! It was quite cool....in the forests...lots of information boards to read, all in english of course! What isnt in english here!
Then we headed back. We were hungry after all our walking so headed to find lunch. Had spotted a cool place the day before..so there we went. Turned out to be really cool. They cooked everything on a open fire...with huge bellows...and carried everything on their heads, including bottles of beer! I had lovely homemade soup with a egg in it and neil had a chicken burger and veggies!!! Actually managed to eat most of it too! Got to get my stomach back in order, cant be missing out on this great beer and food.
Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling. I needed to rest my poor belly!
Then we headed out to find more food! Like im sure thats what my belly needed!
Wandered round lots, checking out the cool places....nowhere grabbed us though! Went into the Green Frog to get a drink while we decided...and guess what it was english!!!!! The person running it was a friend of the owners, who is english of course, and the place was in chaos! We ordered a cuba Libra to be told they had no coke? Er yeah okay...so had a beer instead...dreaming of it being a pint of real english ale! It was like being in england too....damn cold...thought we were on a summer holiday but turns out its actually winter!
Ended up back in same place as we had lunch. Was very busy, full of groups. Decided to keep the food simple, i had a burger, neil had some fried steak...was good, i didnt eat it all but nearly! Getting there...had fun watching some dutch girl taking about a week to disect the biggest kebab you have ever seen, kept us entertained anyway! Then it was 10 o`clock, which is bedtime here...so as the place had shut around us...decided it was time to go home...no i mean back to our room. Was freezing in our room and i went to sleep shaking like a leaf!!!!!!
Woke up feeling hungry...wayhey....i have my appetite back again! Went for break....yeah at the same place again...was a bit disappointing tho...bread was worse than Tesco value bread (its called Bimbo bread - which i think says it all, right?)...coffee was nice tho.
Then we decided to over induldge and go to Mawcaw Mountain....a bird reserve. It sounded cool and is a good cause to, cause they rescue injured and unwanted birds and even breed them, so we reckoned it was worth the money. Started walking there, but it was all uphill, and the roads are pretty dodgy so tough to walk on, so when a tuk-tuk passed we couldnt resist jumping in! The ride was interesting. They are funny things...they seem very precarious, specially when the raod drops away at the edges....but they are way cool...Neil wants one when we get home...now that would be funny!
Paid our $10 to get in, everything is in US dollars here, its so wierd, cause we always have to ask what it is in local currency! We were pleased to know that included in our $10 was a free english speaking guide...now that is value for money cause guides are always a huge rip off here!
Our guide was cool, and took us round all the cages of amazing colourful birds...mainly parrots and mawcaws. He explained about they do at the reserve and about which birds where endangered. He is clearly very passionate about the place, which is cool to see. He is also the one, who hand rears alot of the baby birds and stuff. We saw loads of Scarlet Mawcaws, which are amazing....and so big! They are the huge red, yellow and blue ones you see in all the pictures. They may have been in cages...but they were huge cages and pretty much part of the natural environment....and its so cool to be able to see them up close and personal. We actually got to see them even more up close later on. They have lots of birds that were once pets and which they let out freely...we got to hold some of the huge mawcaws and have them sat on our shoulders and nibble our hair!! Was really cool. They arent at all scary...even though i know you wont agree with me mum!
Neils favourite were the Toucans...they are amazing....they had different ones too....different colours, and some of them were very playful!
We also got to see the coffee plantation they have at the reserve. Not huge, but cool to see what a coffee plant looks like. It doesnt look anything like you would expect! Coffee beans look like little green berrys which turn red when they are ripe, which turned out to be right now. A fact for you, the higher up a hill you grow the coffee the better it is. Got to sample some freshly roasted and ground beans...they were lovely! Gonna have to look out for some Honduran coffee when we get home!
Our tour done, we wandered round on our own. The place really is lovely, set in a valley, with a pretty river at the bottom, which they have cleverly set up a little damn which they can close to create a little swimming area when its hot! Its beautiful.
Talked to the parrots, but they werent talking back, we did get one of them to sing the first line of happy birthday before it got bored and went back to sleep! apparantly its a bit cold for them at the mo...i couldnt agree more! Took a little nature trail which was cute, and then it was time to leave. Was a cool experince, they have done an amazing thing with the place.
Walked back and it didnt seem so far going back. My stomach was rumbling big time....its still so empty....so we headed into a cool cafe for some beer and nachos...mmm yummy.
Spent the rest of the day chilling....is that starting to sound familiar to anyone?
Then went off to find Pizza. It was Thanksgiving today, in case any of you didnt know that....and due to all the americans out here, you could get a thanksgiving dinner. It sounded so tempting....roast chicken....but unfortunately the prices they were charging were extortoinate for here....so were good and had pizza instead. I mean $20 for a 4 course dinner might be cheap in the US, but here it would be like 2 days accomodation.
Anyway i wasnt companing the piza was amazing....an everything pizza...just how they should be! Finished the evening with a couple of cuba Libras....nice string ones too!
Time to move on tomorrow...
Got up....slowly! Went to get some money...but the cash machine wasnt working...went to book our bus tickets but the place was shut, thought oh well lets have breakfast...but then decided to just limit it to coffee and enjoy lunch later...as breakfast here seems to be a disapointment...and the rest of the food is so good! After a nice coffee we managed to buy our tickets....but still couldn´t get any money! Decided to go waste some more hours on the internet, and then hopefully we could get money to pay for our rooms....unfortunately as it has happened yet i cant tell you what happened, but im sure it will all be fine!!!
San Pedro here we come....
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