Even though we were only in Honduras for a couple of weeks, it seems like we did quite a lot. Usually, we go pretty slow, but we went faster this time because our four country visa expires July 11 and we have to get into Costa Rica by then. This means we did what most people on their two week vacations do. We did the Copan Ruinas area, went to the locally famous D & D Brewery and Resort near the north end of Lake Yojoa and took in nature stuff around there, checked out La Esperanza and Gracias, then split for El Salvador. Fast and nasty, but perfectly fine.
If you are on the two or three day tour of Guatemala and Honduras, you would probably go from Antigua to Copan Ruinas on the shuttle and come back the next day. We took it one-way and continued on in chicken buses. There are two main things to do there. One is to see the Mayan ruins. The other is to go to the hot springs.
The ruins are significant and interesting because of the good condition of the sculptures and inscriptions. The structures are far less impressive than major sites like Tikal, Pelenque, Chichen Itza, and so on. I don’t really care about the historical details, so here are just a few pictures with little verbiage.
The archeologists consider this stairway a treasure. Inscribed on it is the dynastic history of the area over it’s three hundred year glory days.
This altar and statue of a bird with a fish in it’s mouth are in the site museum.
After so many posts about Mayan stuff, I’m going to leave it at that, even though we have many, many more pictures. You’ve kinda seen it all already.
I think the better thing to do in Copan Ruinas is going to the hot springs. They are 23 km and an hour away on an awful road, but worth it if you don’t have to stand in the back of a pickup the whole way. It was developed beautifully in the forest by an Italian hydrologist. This has to be one of the very nicest hot springs I’ve ever been to. And that’s saying something.
You go over this bridge and through the trees, and you’re there. The pools get cooler as they go down.
Here’s the area for massages.
There’s even mud for your do-it-yourself facial. Man, it really does make your skin feel good.
D & D’s is a favorite place to base yourself for a few days while you partake in the many activiites around Lake Yojoa. It was started and continues to be run by a 27 year old guy, Bobby, from Portland, Oregon. What a great job he’s done, and at such a tender age! He make four different beers which are available on tap. The food’s decent and the beds are cheap.
From there, we did three of the things to do, visit a falls, go on a birdwatching boat trip, and take a nice 7-8 km walk in a nearby national park.
Pulhapanzak Falls is right nearby and reached by a short walk. You can drive if you have a car. It’s just a couple of views and a zip line in front of the falls.
Next up was the birdwatching. Actually, there is an ecopark area along the canal. We walked that the day before.
Okay, here are ther boats and the ride. The guide was essential for spotting the birds. We’d have missed the frickin’ toucans without him! No toucan pictures here. They are too small. The other bird pictures are hardly National Geographic quality, so here’s just the boats and some water lilies.
The last thing we did from D & D’s is take a day hike in Meamber National Park. It’s basically a forest shlep up a mountain into the cloud forest and back down. Most of it is jungly.
There are miradores of the lake from the openings.
After descending, there is a fall right close to the entrance anybody can reach with ease and is a popular swimming hole.
That’s almost it for Honduras. From D & D’s, we went around the south end of the lake and looped back toward southwest Honduras near Copan/northeast El Salvador. On the way, we spent a day in La Esperanza. It’s a peaceful place of no particular interest. We did have a very nice day with a very nice American/Korean couple. Myung identified the woman as Korean right away. (There aren’t many Koreans in this neck of the woods.) She chatted with her for awhile, and we ended up going over to their house to watch the US/Belgium World Cup match and having lunch. La Esperanza is forgetable. Meeting these people, John and Ana, is what we will remember about La Esperanza.
We spent a day in the equally calming but forgetable town of Gracias. For a short time in the 16th century, it was the capital of Spanish Central America, but that was then and this is now. Time has passed it by.
From there we went to El Salvador, where we are now for a few days. We’ll stay in this one place, Juayua, on La Ruta de las Flores, and go through Nicaragua to Costa Rica by this Friday. Then we’ll slow down again.
As always, be well, all of you.