Day 11 - 12 Copan Ruins

  Copan, Honduras
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Day 11 - We left Antigua around 9am and headed off for Copan in Honduras. Where a 300km journey ended up taking 7 hours, not helped by traffic in Guatemala City. Compared to the busy market border crossing into Guatemala the crossing into Honduras was very bland, and 15km past the border we arrived at the quiet town of Copan. Otherwise we dined out again and had a drink to clelebrates Andre's birthday but since we are in Honduras for less than 24 hours and most people having very little local currency there was no big party.    
 

The Hoduras town of Copan

Day 12 - In the morning we visited the Copan Ruins, where we were greated by colourful parrots at the entrance. This Mayan site is small but impressive and within an hour everything had been seen. The hieroglyphic stairway dating back from the 8th century and the tunnels underneath one of the temples are the two main highlights. But the to enter the tunnels aren't cheap but if you are in a group you can haggle the price down. This is also another site that you climb over alot of the Mayan ruins and its isn't as crowded with tourists as the previous 2 sites (Chichen Itza and Palenque).
From the Copan Ruins we re-entered Guatemala and continued the drive to Lake Izabal, where we ended up camping along its shore. Nothing special about this campsite, however it is good enough for the 1 night.     


Some of the Copan Ruins


Lake Izabal

N.B. Mike is still waiting to be reunited with his luggage and despite the flight company 'Mexicana' offering to fly it to Guatemala City Airport, Jennie (the tour leader) told Mike we weren't going anywhere near the Airport to pick it up. However the group weren't impressed as we passed through Guatemala City and within close proximity to the airport. But credit to Mike he kept his positive attitude and he did finally get reunited with his luggage at the end of the trip back in Cancun.