Adventures in Central America: Copan Ruinas, Honduras

My day started probably earlier than any day of my life has, at 3:40.  I do not want to ever do this again, but, given the terrible time, my 4:00 shuttle from Antigua to Copan Ruinas, Honduras, went superbly.  I was the first passenger picked up, so got to sit in the front, which meant both greater comfort and superior view; the trip was two hours less than I feared it would be; and the border procedures went super smoothly!

I have seen a lot of confusion online about Guatemala and Honduras entry/exit taxes, so I may as well add my two bits: Guatemala had no exit tax (may have had an entry tax, but it would have been included in my flight cost); Honduras has a fee for what I thought was a tourist visa (but actually seems more like a receipt when you read it, except that it was inserted loosely into my passport), that clearly indicates $3.00.

Interestingly though, I was told I had to pay in either quetzales or lempiras.  This was no problem for me (in fact I wanted to get rid of some quetzales), but it was still odd; also, I was charged 30 quetzales, which is more like $4 USD.  Something else that was interesting was both Guatemalan and Honduran officials made certain I was going "only to Copan," so for some reason that mattered to them.

I should also comment on money changing, because I know I find these types of observations helpful.  First, I was pleasantly surprised at the rate these somewhat sketchy looking people (including two women) were giving as they sat on plastic chairs outside of the passport control office.  As I check the rate online now, I see they were maybe taking as much as a 5% cut, so obviously they do alright for themselves.  But, the rate they gave was 3 lempiras for 1 quetzales, so nice and uncomplicated, and I felt like it was good service to be able to change my money right there while waiting for my fellow shuttle passengers to get their passports stamped.  However, I do think the man I dealt with tried to short change me by 10 quetzales/30 lempira (which is only a couple bucks, really, so even if I had let him get away with it still not the end of the world).  I had my calculator open on my phone to calculate along with him and showed him his mistake and he fixed it politely (it is, I suppose, possible it was a genuine error, but I doubt it).

Once across the border, Copan is just ten more kilometres, and we arrived at 10:00.

I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and also dehydrated and hungry, because, although we did have one stop prior to the border, I had not eaten or drank much, and it was far hotter than it had been at any point during my few days in Guatemala.  Actually, it was not even that hot, but the sun was extremely intense.

Copan is small, so after applying sunscreen diligently, I walked across it and I checked in at my hostel, the Iguana Azul, which seems lovely.

This is my nice, quiet, street:

The owners also have a bed and breakfast next door, and when they told me they were still serving breakfast, I decided I better do that.  I drank over a litre of water, and had a big cup of coffee, and freshly squeezed orange juice, eggs, bread and marmalade, and so on in the bed and breakfast's garden, and it was wonderful.

Then I showered and lay down for an hour before deciding I better make the most of my afternoon.  I walked along the outskirts of Copan towards the main highway.

Along the highway there's a bit of a pedestrian path out of the town and to the main ruins (there are minor Mayan ruins all over the countryside around Copan), and even in the heat of the day it was quite a pleasant walk.

I bought my ticket at the ticket office ($15 USD) and entered the park.

Before reaching the ruins, there's a nature walk off to one side, and I decided to take that path first.  

It was really peaceful and the shade was nice.  I disturbed countless lizards and a frog or toad, but actually did not seem much in terms of wildlife.  

I enjoyed the walk anyway and eventually I reached a spot where I could see the Copan River gurgling by.

I looped back to the main path and entered the gates at the ruins.  The first thing I saw here was not Mayan relics but macaws up in the tree!  I watched them for a while before finally carrying on, but it was not my last encounter with these incredibly gorgeous birds!

More serious tourists than I would have hired a guide or else joined a tour of the ruins, but I just clambered around on my own and read the article about them on Wikipedia.  

There's little point in me trying to recall what I read in a Wikipedia article, and the pictures give a good idea of what the ruins are like visually.  

I think for the most part the artwork (see jaguar, for example, below) is at least partially reconstructed.

Obviously there has been less reconstructive work on the temple structures such as this one with full grown tress growing out of them!

This staircase is by far Copan's most significant Mayan ruin (again largely reconstructed), because of all the hieroglyphs (which the picture doesn't capture).  Because it is so historically valuable, the staircase is permanently covered by the canvas, whereas the other ruins are entirely exposed to the elements.

This structure is part of a sports field (the bird's head you can just see towards the centre left is apparently where one team scored their points).  I overheard a guide tell a large tour group that little is known about how this game was played.

After seeing what I wanted of the ruins, I headed back towards the gate, and lucky me, it was macaw feeding time!  The macaws are being reintroduced to the area, so they were born in pseudo-captivity (there is a macaw sanctuary near Copan) and are now in the archaeological park free to fly as they wish.  At least daily and maybe more often, however, the macaws are fed by humans, so presumably few have much incentive to go far from the park.  They are tame enough to allow people to get quite close.  I might have spent as long watching the macaws as I did looking at the ruins, because they are both (obviously) colourful and have incredible (mostly obnoxious and grouchy) personalities! 

Once I tore myself away from watching the macaws, I walked back into Copan.

I had not eaten since the late breakfast at the hostel, and now it was about 16:00, so I stopped for a late lunch of pupusas.

Then I climbed to more or less the top of the village (Copan is almost entirely on a hill, with the Copan River at the bottom) . . . 

. . . to where there is an old fort . . . 

. . . and Catholic shrine . . .

. . . as well as a view of the valley.

When I came back down the street . . .

. . . and into the centre square, I was in the middle of a political rally, that was clearly the highlight of this early Sunday evening.