Honduras
July
12, 2012 - Our next stop was Honduras. Despite all the
warnings I'd heard about lengthy border crossings, things went pretty
smooth, if a bit drawn out.
Our only true stop in Honduras was Copan Ruinas, right across
the border from Guatemala. The cobble stones were gigantic and
the streets improbably steep. Copan Ruinas is the town right
next to the Copan ruins, our goal for the next day.
Fresh fruit shakes prepared from the back of a truck.
The town is small and a few tourist spots are compressed around the main square.
I finally found the statue called "why is there so much noise?", expressing a desire for silence in a country rife with competing boom boxes from clapped out cars and nonsensical blaring stereos in empty establishments trying to attract tourists. Causality is not well understood in most of Central America I think.
The first thing we spotted at the Copan ruins were these guys.
The Copan ruins are a lot smaller than Tikal, but in a lot of ways far more enjoyable. There were masks and faces, larger statues as well as monumental structures. Tikal is grander, less refined but maybe more impressive at first sight. Although it's hard to compare, the Copan ruins felt like Banteay Srei, a smaller set of temples at Angkor Wat. Exquisite and intricate without trying to dominate in size.
From Copan Ruinas, we went to Comayagua, a nice little town where we arrived too late in the day. We enjoyed the main square briefly and were then urged by the hotel staff to park our bikes in a gated compound down the street. At night there wasn't a single vehicle to be seen in town, which gave pause. In the hotel rankings, the place we stayed in ranked at the bottom of the list so far on this trip.
The next day we headed into Nicaragua.