cont.. Honduras Travelogues, Copan
Sa 12-28
Since we were a day and a half behind technically we should have canceled the drive to Copan as Lake Yojoa -where our next nite stay was to be is the complete opposite way another 2 hours. Well, I worked my research magic (luckily in advance, I had maps printed, drive time research, the works.) I found we could squeeze both but sadly had to be very time conscious. I adjusted our schedule so we woke up and were checked out of the hotel by 8am. Ate granola bars and some juice we bought at the store the night before. Went out to our rental car that was perfectly safe with the machine gun toting guards. The security around here does not just have a pistols they all seem to tote machetes or machine guns.
I was a lil leary that I had chose this city to fly into after reading that San Pedro Sula has very high unemployment for young men and high gang member count. It's a more recent problem for Honduras as all the deportation of ex-LA gang members, come back home and start new ones here. I always felt safe enough just stay aware of where you are and keep on moving through briskly if you go somewhere you shouldn't be. Simple really.
We drove out of the city and headed to the hills. One thing I also noticed on our drive was that it was Sat am and soo many people were already up and doing stuff, selling papers at the corner, the markets were busy, people sweeping sidewalks that looked like that their effort was in vain, but poor or not all are up doing some work outside their home or shop, so different than here, I can go weeks with out running into neighbors, hell 6 months even. Everyone here seemed to be up chattin outside and doing busy work.
Drive:
The expansive rolling hills of the Mayan Valley are beautiful. I loved the drive to the mountains although it was hectic. You see there are no rules to driving here, you go as fast as you possibly can dodging and passing, bikes, motorcycles, chicken trucks, cattle and tour buses all the while dodging potholes like a bomb blasted road in Iraq or something. C loved driving like the locals, he always does, I almost think since he bikes everyday to work then vacation is where he gets to drive for fun. It was a wild 2 1/2 hour ride.
Steer:
By 10:30 we made it to the ruins, the line to get in was a half hour deep, shoot I didn't plan on that. ;)
The Copan Ruins
Wow I am so glad we did not axe this out of the trip, we cancelled our all day hike plan in order to come here, it was worth it to me. The ruins are carved with such creepy, cool designs I wish I spent longer just snapping off shots, there I also wished I had a better camera. Here a few:
Cyn on pyramid, Copan:
Copan pyramid:
Turtle:
Mayan statues:
Staircase:
We stretched our time the best we could which was only just over 2 hours, by 1:30p we were in the car slamming water and snacks I luckily had stashed there. Back on the bombed out road at record speeds to Lake Yojoa!
to be continued...
also more pix will be on my facebook as it's easy, the only thing that I do like about that site is that you can quick upload pix directly under my photos and I don't have to upload and link them. I will not journal on that site though.
Since we were a day and a half behind technically we should have canceled the drive to Copan as Lake Yojoa -where our next nite stay was to be is the complete opposite way another 2 hours. Well, I worked my research magic (luckily in advance, I had maps printed, drive time research, the works.) I found we could squeeze both but sadly had to be very time conscious. I adjusted our schedule so we woke up and were checked out of the hotel by 8am. Ate granola bars and some juice we bought at the store the night before. Went out to our rental car that was perfectly safe with the machine gun toting guards. The security around here does not just have a pistols they all seem to tote machetes or machine guns.
I was a lil leary that I had chose this city to fly into after reading that San Pedro Sula has very high unemployment for young men and high gang member count. It's a more recent problem for Honduras as all the deportation of ex-LA gang members, come back home and start new ones here. I always felt safe enough just stay aware of where you are and keep on moving through briskly if you go somewhere you shouldn't be. Simple really.
We drove out of the city and headed to the hills. One thing I also noticed on our drive was that it was Sat am and soo many people were already up and doing stuff, selling papers at the corner, the markets were busy, people sweeping sidewalks that looked like that their effort was in vain, but poor or not all are up doing some work outside their home or shop, so different than here, I can go weeks with out running into neighbors, hell 6 months even. Everyone here seemed to be up chattin outside and doing busy work.
Drive:
The expansive rolling hills of the Mayan Valley are beautiful. I loved the drive to the mountains although it was hectic. You see there are no rules to driving here, you go as fast as you possibly can dodging and passing, bikes, motorcycles, chicken trucks, cattle and tour buses all the while dodging potholes like a bomb blasted road in Iraq or something. C loved driving like the locals, he always does, I almost think since he bikes everyday to work then vacation is where he gets to drive for fun. It was a wild 2 1/2 hour ride.
Steer:
By 10:30 we made it to the ruins, the line to get in was a half hour deep, shoot I didn't plan on that. ;)
The Copan Ruins
Wow I am so glad we did not axe this out of the trip, we cancelled our all day hike plan in order to come here, it was worth it to me. The ruins are carved with such creepy, cool designs I wish I spent longer just snapping off shots, there I also wished I had a better camera. Here a few:
Cyn on pyramid, Copan:
Copan pyramid:
Turtle:
Mayan statues:
Staircase:
We stretched our time the best we could which was only just over 2 hours, by 1:30p we were in the car slamming water and snacks I luckily had stashed there. Back on the bombed out road at record speeds to Lake Yojoa!
to be continued...
also more pix will be on my facebook as it's easy, the only thing that I do like about that site is that you can quick upload pix directly under my photos and I don't have to upload and link them. I will not journal on that site though.