Now to Honduras

Into Honduras. Upon arriving at Copan Ruinas, just a few minutes from the boarder with Guatemala, I was looking for a bit of a chance to slow down the travel, as I had been going rather quickly for the past few weeks. And that is what I have done. I spent a bit of time in Copan just relaxing and taking in some of the sights around town without really doing a whole lot. Copan is a sleepy little town set on the side of a hill. A beautiful place to stay for a bit. A few casual walks here and there, taking it pretty easy was what I wanted from it. I figured that with being so close to the Mayan ruins that the town takes its name after, I would be a bit of a fool not to go and see them. I made my way from the town about 2kms out of the centre to the ruins which lay beyond. Now most people say that if you are going to go to Copan you should do it before Tikal, because the scale and grandeur really does dwarf that of Copan. I did it the other way around. After paying my ticket, which was a fair bit more expensive than I had expected ($15, when Tikal was $20) I made my way into the park. Tikal is known for it massive building and the grandure of all the construction. Copan on the other hand is more know for the artistry and carvings that scatter the land in that area. Tikal made it big, Copan made it beautiful. All round the grounds there were "stelas." These are large, beautifully ornate statues that depict stories and rulers of the Mayan dynasties. These types of things are all over the property. There are still a few buildings in the area that are quite nice, with one stair case being the largest hieroglyphic stair case in all of the Mayan world. The one thing that surprised me the most and I think was just as impressive, was the number of Scarlet Macaws that few freely around the park. These are the beautiful red parrots that you usually would think of when a parrot comes to mind. Besides having a terribly painful call, they were so beautiful and could easily be found in the trees, often in groups of 3 or 4. So I spent the afternoon in the park walking around and admiring all that was there, stopping occasionally to read a book for a while continuing on with the relaxed nature of the trip. The next day I decided to move on to Los Naranjos, near the Lago Yojoa, further in land from the boarder, and this meant another long bus day. When I arrived to the place it was basically a continuation of Copan in the sense of relaxation. One day I did make my way to a waterfall near the area, which was rather nice to see. 42m's of cascading water, and some swimming that followed was a nice way to break up the time there. After a few days of relaxing there and a lot of reading I moved off to La Cieba, on the Carribbean coast of Honduras. This was to be my staging area for the jump to the Bay Islands. So far I would say that my time in Honduras has been really nice, not all that eventful and I am sorry because that makes for a boring blog post, but now I am on the Utila, one of the islands off the coast and am getting ready to do another dive course here. Hopefully that will be able to produce a bit more of an exciting read for you all.
I hope that you have enjoyed so far, and any comments or questions please feel free to let me know!

Thanks

Bye for now

Mike