Copan Ruinas

Copan Ruins is the most famous archaeological dig in Honduras and one of the most famous in all of Mayan history. It is huge, covering a lot of territory. I have visited a number of Mayan ruins including Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico and I have to say, this was pretty incredible. If you are in Honduras and have the time, it is well worth the visit.

Leaving Sigautepeque in "la fiesta bus", we went to the airport in San Pedro Sula to pick up Trey's parents and his fiancée who were flying in to spend Thanksgiving here. From there we headed towards Santa Rosa de Copan, retracing the road we had entered Honduras on in February. The pothole situation had not improved. Turning towards the Guatemalan border and Copan Ruinas at La Entrada, we drove through beautiful, mountainous countryside. The road was curvy with quite a few potholes and because darkness was fast approaching, we scooted along as fast as I felt comfortable going, which was pretty fast. Because of the isolation and blind curves, this is not a road I would recommend driving on after dark as it leads to a known tourist destination as well as a border crossing and would be a very easy place for car jackings to occur. Time from La Entrada to Copan Ruinas is an hour, 15 minutes.

Shortly after we left La Entrada, I pulled to the side of the road to allow a Toyota Land Cruiser ambulance, lights flashing, to pass. We do not see many ambulances in Honduras, especially in rural areas. Several miles later, we came around a curve and found a 6 wheeled truck completely upside down in the ditch with a crowd of men standing around as it has obviously just happened. To our amazement the ambulance drove right by, never slowing down despite the yells from the men.




All of us were ready to get out of the van by the time we arrived in Copan Ruinas. The constant pounding over potholes or lurching from side to side as the driver tries to avoid them meshed with the left, right swaying of the van around the endless curves gets very tiresome. If you are prone to motion sickness...you are in trouble.


The town of Copan Ruinas is ancient, quaint and reminiscent of Antigua, Guatemala with it's narrow cobbled streets, central park and low key touristy air. We stayed at Hotel La Posada de Belssy two blocks off the Central park. Rooms were very reasonably priced at about $16 USD per night, and although the rooms were small, they were very adequate. On the roof there is a place for love birds to snuggle, to relax, do a little cooking if you want and even a small swimming pool. Interestingly, the entire hotel is only 15 feet wide, which intrigued me for some reason.

The town is very well lit at night and has a safe feel to it, at least in the central area. We saw quite a few foreigners, mainly other Americans, but also a large number of Europeans. We wandered around town for a bit and eventually found ourselves in a restaurant eating beef, grilled over a wood fire. It was very pleasant sitting there in the cool evening air getting to know Trey's parents and catching up with Laura.

Back to the hotel for an early night. We all woke the next morning, some more refreshed than others, ready for a day at the ruins. Trey and Laura made an early morning foray into town to find fresh semita bread for breakfast, while Barbe and I went in search of a good cup of coffee.

We had decided beforehand to take moto-taxis to the ruins instead of la fiesta bus, mainly for the experience. I had met and talked with a moto-taxi driver the night before and had found out some interesting facts about these cute little three wheeled taxis found round the world. In Copan there are only 100 moto-taxis. If you are lucky enough to own one of these numbers, you are worth at least $10,000 USD. The rate per person to ride around town is 20 Lempiras or $1 USD. Tires cost $25-30 USD and last about 3 months. They are powered by a 175 cc motor and run all day on 3 gallons of gas. I love interesting tid-bits of information like this, for some reason.

 I'll do another post on our time at the ruins in a few days.