Hola Amigos
I have finally started to make my way south and am currently in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. So I have finally left Guatemala for good. I ended up spending a lot more time there than I had originally planned. I guess that means that I enjoyed my time there more than I was expecting to.
It has actually been a little bit of a slower couple of days since I last wrote. I spent 2 nights at a farm that I had heard really good things about in a town called Poptun. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that good and I just didn’t a good feeling from the other travelers there. So I just sort of hung out, got a lot of reading went for a sort hike, and then got out of dodge.
After that I spent 2 days in a town called Rio Dulce which is right on the Rio Dulce river. The place I stayed was really amazing. It was a small backpackers place tucked away in the middle of the mangrove swamps. In order to go to the bathroom you had to walk along a raised platform over the swamp. It was really very neat. One day I went to a hot waterfall and swam around there. It was really amazing to swim in a cold river to get to a waterfall that has been heated up by geothermal energy. The other day I took a sailboat cruise down the Rio Dulce river. It was a very relaxing trip and I got to see some very pretty riverside terrain complete with pelicans and egrets. I didn’t realize that pelicans roost in trees for the night. I also experienced my first Central America travel snafu. Apparently the local boat captains don’t like the fact that the sailboat is owned by an American so they had the military come out and make our boat turn around. Unfortunately this meant that we had to sail an hour out of our way before then hiring another boat to take us back to our hotel. All in all it all worked out fine and is a funny story, especially since the American guy paid for the extra boat ride.
From Rio Dulce I came to a really small and cute village of Copan Ruinas in Honduras. I spent today at the Mayan ruins of Copan. They were very different from the ruins at Tikal. Where Tikal has massive temples, Copan is known for the intricate carvings on the temples as well as on stelas (basically blocks of rock similar to statues). The site is also significantly smaller than Tikal but still very impressive. Similarly to Tikal they have identified around 4500 ruins many of which are built on top of other ruins. Overall it was a really cool site and I’m glad that I made the effort to come here. Unfortunately the pictures don’t do justice to the carvings so you will have to take my word for it that they were very impressive. I also went to a 2nd site which is where the villagers lived so I got to see the ruins of their houses and kitchens. Copan was only used as a ceremonial site so no one actually lived there. This will be the last Mayan ruin I see as this is the southern most boundary for the Mayans. I also realized that I really enjoy seeing ruins especially when the forest has started to reclaim the site. It was very cool to see giant trees growing (and starting to destroy) on top of the temples.
Tomorrow I leave Copan Ruinas and head to an even smaller village called Gracias. I’m going to spend 2 nights there and visit a national park where I hope to hike in a cloud forest. I have heard a lot about cloud forests so I’m excited to finally experience one. After that I will say adios to Honduras…yes another short but sweet stop…and head to Nicaragua. Don’t know exactly where I’m going there yet because I haven’t done any reading yet. I guess that is what I will do on the 4 hour bus ride tomorrow. I should be in Nicaragua by Sunday at the latest.
It appears that I will escape Hurricane Wilma as it sounds like it is not going to hit Central America at all. I had heard that we were supposed to get rain today but we never got any. Knock on wood.
Hopefully I will be able to find a bar or hotel on Saturday so I can watch game 1 of the World Series. Go figure the year the White Sox finally make it to the Series and I’m going to miss it.
Love
Scott
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