Honduras
We caught a ride from the Guatemala/Honduras border with a soccerplayer who had nicked over the border for a game with his neighbours. He dropped us off for a small fee to the center of Copan Ruinas where we found a room that was clean and reasonbly quiet. It was reccommended by our first choice - the lush looking Cafe Via Via, but alas their rooms where all full and we weren't keen for dormitory beds. Copan Ruinas is a lovely little town from which you can walk straight to the Copan Ruins themselves.
We decided to hire a guide for our last Mayan ruin experience and were able to share him with 3 other tourists to lower the price. He was quite good given his English abilities and we found that we weren't learning more but rather consolidating what we had already discovered. The Mayan people were warlike and had take on board the Olmec religion that requires human sacrifice. The Copan Ruins were the most artistic of all the uncovered ruins in SA and had incredibly detailed stelaes. The public areas were full of altars for different sacrifices and contained a ball court for the infamous ball game of whose winner gets the privilege of being sacrificed.
We spent the morning at the ruins but hunger called us back into town for a large hamburger lunch. On returning to our hotel we discovered a children's birthday party in full swing. A young man swung a pinata while the children had turns smashing it with a stick. It was amazing none of them got decapitated as they ran in to retrieve the falling candy. We had a nap then went out on the town. The highlight was a place called Fred Frog's Bar. It was being run by a young North American who had bought it off the internet. We met an Irish couple who were teaching English in a small country village which actually sounded really rough. They didn't even have running water most days. We went home to our bed for the night late and it wasn't till we got there that I realised I had left my glasses in another bar we had visited earlier. It was a disappointing moment as when we went back it had closed for the night and our bus in the morning left at 6am.
The bus took us out to La Ceiba named after the large shady trees in the area under which traders used to sit with sea merchants and do business. Now it is one of the world`s largest drug ports so we didn`t hang around there too long but instead took the sea ferry to Roatan. Roatan is one of a small group of Caribbean Islands named the Bay Islands and is known as the cheapest place in the world to do your dive certificate. We shared a taxi with some other tourists down to the popular West End and were dismayed to find it a money hungry pit where everything was priced for the American tourist. We had been warned it was like this but the reality was worse than we expected. We ended up staying in a divey hostels best room which had it`s own bathroom - kind of - a shower that didn`t work, then when it did the kitchen water mysteriously stopped working and no hand basin. But it did have it`s own balconey with sofa to look out over the ocean. Or at least where the ocean would be if broad leafy tree branches didn`t block the view. The best thing was that it came with a mosquito net, it is amazing how much we are being bitten. It is a good thing we are taking malaria pills because repellant doesn`t seem to dissuade the insects much.
The next morning we rented snorkel gear and walked around the beach to West Bay where we discovered why Roatan is so magical in reputation. It was the perfect beach with white Caribbean sand, crystal clear warm water and palm trees set back a little for shade. Even better from our perspective was that it was free from hustlers. We snorkled all morning and into the afternoon burning ourselves to crisps. The sea life was incredible - as good as any dives I have done. We were both shocked to discover a stone fish as we thought they only lived in Australia. It wa funny listening to the parrot fish munch on coral. Underwater they were so noisy.
We went back to our room that night tired but very happy and very sunburnt. We spent the evening cooking pasta in our room and coating ourselves in after sun gel.
In the morning we were up early again to catch the 7am ferry back to the mainland. After taking a malaria pill with some other medication I was violently ill. At La Ceiba we got on another chicken bus to go south. We ambitously hoped to cross the border down into Nicaragua and stay in the town of Leon but it was too far for one day so we stopped in Tegusigulpa - the seedy capital city of Honduras. While I felt unsafe and uneasy in Guatemala City, Marty felt those feelings in Tegus. We stayed in a dodgy hotel close to the bus stations which was once again a bit pricey for what we were getting. We had to share one half sized towel though the old tv did pick up an English news channel or two. We did sleep well after a basic chicken meal in the taqueria next door. It was a relief to lie down and let my body recover a little. Marty on the other hand was as right as rain.
The sun brought another day to spend on chicken buses. We were able to get a bus that stopped near the border then take a directivo van down to the border. We are finding the vans so much better to travel in as they don`t stop and start as much as the buses so arrive a lot quicker to our destinations. At the Nicaraguan border we were immediately surrounded by a large crowd of hustlers trying to get us to change our money or ride in their bicycle taxis. Somehow we did manage to find ourselves on a bike being pedalled to the exit office for Honduras. The money changers followed us in. We were charged 14US to leave so Marty asked for a receipt as this apparently lets you off made up fees. The border guard said no problem and wrote out our receipts so I guess that one was a genuine fee for once. I hadn`t imagined that we would leave Honduras soil on a bike. But Francis Freddy as he told us his name was, took us over the bridge into Nicaragua.
