Copan - Another country, another culture
Trip Start
Sep 09, 2008
1
21
86
Trip End
Aug 17, 2009
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Copan,
Honduras
Thursday, November 6, 2008
We didnīt explore the town too much on the first night, just a few beers and something to eat. Coach journeys do tend to take it out of you as the miles build up. It was a good journey though, the scenery well worth the cramped bus conditions. This morning I went to the market and bought some eggs and other goodies for breakfast and once our bellies were filled we jumped onto a local chicken bus and headed for some hot springs. The bus ride was the bumpiest yet, the road we traveled on being a dirt track at best. As in most cases here though, the worse the road, the better the ride. The countryside surrounding Copan is wild, untamed. Although much of the jungle has been cleared for farming, there is still plenty to capture the imagination as you travel through the villages, rolling hillsides and valleys, with their raging rivers and waterfalls. I love traveling on the chicken buses because it means traveling with the locals and thatīs a special experience.
We arrived at the Agua Caliente, and couldnīt wait to jump into the hot pools of water that were being fed by the underground volcanic thermals. We lazed around in them most of the day, sweating out every bus journey and easing our backs form every bad bed we had slept in over the past few months. Just below the pools was a river and so we went down to explore and cool off. Within the river itself, there were more hot pools, this time mixing with the cold, mountain water and so we lazed in these and enjoyed the refreshing mix of hot and cold. For two pound each it was a day well spent. On our way back we realized we had missed all the buses back but were fortunate enough to get a ride back into town in a guys pickup. We sat in the open back for an hour and a half, enjoying the fresh air and grinning with content. To me, this is what traveling is all about. You miss your bus but manage to find a more pleasurable way of reaching your destination. A small problem often turns into a wonderful experience.
I cooked spaghetti in the evening and then we headed out to a local bar for some drinks. After much discussion, we have decided to travel north and head along the Caribbean coast. Weīve been told there are some nice places to see up there. We are confident that the hurricane that is lurking dangerously close to the northern coast is heading north and not south. We will leave in the morning and hope that the winds and rain have left too.
XXX
