Exploring the Copan Ruinas

Having kicked off the Honduras leg of the trip by overnighting in the capital Tegucigalpa, we hastily moved on from the city hustle (and what a dull city it was) to see the Mayan ruins at Copan Ruinas, a small town 12km off the Guatemalan border. I find it worth mentioning that the accommodation here has a hot water shower :) It's been almost 3 weeks since our last (in San Jose, CR) and man it's been way overdue. As for the dengue, the fever seems long gone now after a week of misery, what remains is a almost full-body rash which is starting to fade away as well. Good riddance.

20 minutes by foot from the town, the Mayan ruins cost 15$ to see but are worth it. Then again why would one be here if not for the ruins? We were the first ones to arrive that day and thus had the whole site all for ourselves for the 2 hours we spent there in the morning. Due to the somewhat overcast weather the pictures didn't turn out as good as I was hoping.. the primary group isn't exactly The Lost City of the Inca or Angkor Wat, but it makes quite a nice sight nonetheless. The total lack of crowds made it much better. In the evening there was some kind of a biker party in town, as lots of HD folks had come down for a meeting. Live bands on the streets and such, and we enjoyed our first night out since my getting sick over a week ago.

The next day we rode a mototaxi up to the Macaw Mountain, a bird sanctuary set up some 4km outside of town. They boast dozens of bird species, rescued from illegal animal traders around the country. Most were caged since they had never known any other kind of life and would not survive in the wild. The birds were very lively and colorful - and talkative - especially the the macaws, parrots and tucans that you could approach and even hold if that was your game. We just admired them from a distance.

Tomorrow we're leaving for Guatemala and El Salvador, with a plan of returning to Honduras in the end of the Central American leg of the trip to dive on the Bay Islands.