We decided to give Tikal a miss as some travellers we met en-route said it was a bit like a theme park and instead headed for Copan in Honduras. This was good for us as ultimately we were heading for Roatan via San Pedro Sula. After paying our $3 entrance visa fee we crossed the border into Honduras and soon after arrived at Copan. This is a sleepy border town with the typical square, church and surrounding buildings. We thought we were in a safe place but we did notice a local guy with a cowboy hat nicely complimented by holster and gun! One of the local bars on the main square that looked a nice place to watch the sunset had its own guard standing at the door with the obligatory pump action shotgun – very re-assuiring. Still we watched the sunset there, we figured it was as safe as anywhere. We figure that by travelling very light (hand luggage) only on these trips we look so scruffy most of the time no one will try to rob us or kidnap us – more likely have pity on us! Just off the square are lots of local places to eat and drink and after a quick recce we settled for “jumbo camarones” and at $6 for a full plate of jumbo prawns along with salad, potatoes, veg and bread we were more than impressed. Paul even brushed up on his spanish to manage “la comida era muy buena, por favour gracia al chef” which we hope meant the food was very good – compliments to the chef and on the way out Lynn managed “hasta la vista baby – we’ll be back” said in a deep Arnie type voice – we got some funny looks!
The next morning we got to the ruins very early and had the place to ourselves apart from our guide Tony who was 72 years old, spoke over 100 languages and is apparently in the Guiness Book of Records. The ruins are really well preserved and it is not a ceremonial place but an actual community with houses, temples and football pitch. Tony explained how at the time of celebrations the custom was for the queen to draw blood from her tongue and the king to draw blood from his face, finger and testicles! Paul decided that his first job as king would have been to outlaw all celebrations….
That afternoon we found a place we desperately needed call “La Casa Todo” – this is roughly the house of everything so imagine a B&B that has a souvenir shop with a book exchange and a cafe during the day that turns into a bar in the evening and oh I forgot to mention the laundrette…. Paul had the “plato typico” – empanadas with porky scratching – I’m serious!
This was actually our last port of call travelling through Central America, so fed, watered, book in hand and freshly laundered we headed off to Roatan for some well earned R&R and hopefully scuba/snorkelling with whale sharks…