Guatemala City to Copan, Honduras

After a lovely 2 days exploring Antigua with Stephane, we headed to Guatemala City where we stayed at a lovely Inn in zone 10...one of the few safe zones in the city. As we were getting ready for dinner, we heard what we thought must surely be a gun fight in the street in front of us...terrified, we ran to the window (yeah, I know...we should have hit the floor!). There, we enjoyed a wonderful fireworks display. We should have known it would be fireworks, since in El Salvador we observed a fireworks display almost every night from my friend Stephanie’s 12 floor apartment windows. Setting them off in Central America is a pretty popular activity.

The next morning, I said goodbye to Steph at the airport, took the elevator downstairs, and said hello to Joel. It was all really exceptional timing (well planned by me if I do say so myself!). Joel and I headed back to Antigua, and then the next morning headed off with our GAP Adventure tour for Copan.

The drive through Guatemala, and then Honduras to get to Copan was a beautiful one. The scenery changed gradually from high volcanoes and lush tropics to a hillier, mountainous, but equally lush, landscape. Poverty, though well hidden in the cities, is very obvious in the countryside. Joel and I were reminded of Ghana – both in climate and foliage. The site of laundry hung on trees and bushes beside tiny mud or cinderblock huts with corrugated tine roofs was familiar, as were the small cooking stoves outside and the orange sellers on the side of the highway.

Copan itself is a quaint city built on a hill that has a few quaint restaurants and hotels built around a typical Spanish plaza. The walk to the ruins was only about 20 minutes. For those of you who love archeology, Copan is a must see. I have been to several other ancient Mayan and Aztec sites before, both in El Salvador and Mexico, but this site was 10 times more spectacular. The largeness of the site, the detail of rock carvings (hieroglyphics) and even rock colour (not well viewed in the photos) was incredible. The trees alone are worth the trip to Copan. The large trunked tree in these photos is over 500 years old.

Enjoy the photos.