Agony Ant!

When I decided to continue travelling through Central America, I hadn't planned on visiting either El Salvador or Honduras. This was mainly due to safety reasons as Mr Foreign Office had told me they weren't safe right now. What I hadnt factored in was that in order to get to Guatemala - somewhere I really do want to go to - I would have to go via El Salvador or Honduras. Given I am no longer flash packing it, flying unfortunately wasn't an option. After much deliberation I decided to go via Honduras as I figured the Mayan ruins in Copán which are near the Guatemalan border would be worth a visit. The border crossing into Honduras from Nicaragua turned out to be very straight forward and my first impression of Honduras was that it looked like the love child of Bolivia and Colombia in that it was very poor in places but with an abundance of rolling green hills. 


I stayed one night in San Pedro Sula which instantly blew my theory of all of the country being poor out of the water - the owner of my hostel picked me up in his new VW Beatle car and drove me to his really nice hostel which incidently was, in true Latin American fashion, razor wired up to the hilt. 


From here I was supposed to catch the bus to the Mayan ruins of Copán, however due to there being more than one town in the area called Copán(?!), I ended up going to the wrong one. Not a good start. The bus company I had travelled with had stopped running a service that day to the correct Copán so I had no choice but to get a local chicken bus (the second hand American School buses I told you about) to the next big town where I would have to get another local bus to the right Copán. All fine, except the last email update I had received from Mr Foreign Office had said the following:


"We advise against travel on public buses (i.e. repainted US School buses) for security reasons. There has been a marked recent increase of armed attacks by local gangs in bus drivers and conductors, often resulting in serious injury or death. There have been reports of violent muggings, including assault against foreigners on these buses."


Needless to say, had I had the option of travelling on the same gringo friendly luxury bus I arrived on then I would have taken it, but given I didn't, I had no choice but to once again go against Mr Foreign Office's wise words. Thankfully I wasn't travelling alone, but either way the journey was a little apprehensive. 


We had no issues, other than my foot getting hit by a massive bag of rice by some locals who were loading the back of the bus up with their groceries - they were loading it up as the bus was pulling away so were a little frantic in getting everything on board.


The second bus we caught was in worse condition than the first - you could see the road through the floor in some places - but again nothing major happened other than a tree falling and blocking the road due to the thunder storm that was taking place outside. 


FINALLY we arrived in the right Copán. The town itself is one big nightmare for high heels - its cobbled streets all the way and the hills are almost as steep as those I saw in San Francisco in the USA. Not that I had anything to worry about, its been six months and counting since Ive slipped my feet into anything other than a flip flop. With the exception of the six inch heels I tried on in the Panama City branch of Zara...*sigh*


I got up too late the next day to visit the ruins in Copán - its best to get there early as it gets too hot in the day. So instead I went to Macaw Mountain which is a park and sanctuary for Macaws (Parrots). The sanctuary was started by an American who found out the birds were often killed here and/or smuggled out of the country only to meet a similar fate. The park now rehabilitates birds coming from harsh situations.
The birds are awesome to watch albeit they are all in captivity. That is until the staff let them out to show us tourists. I was just expecting to see them up close but before I knew what was going on I had two Macaws standing on me. The bird handler then decided that one wasn't enough and place another one on me. I had no idea each bird weighed as much as it did, my arms were shaking with the weight of all three. They were also digging their claws into my arms which was actually pretty painful. Much to the dismay of the bird handler I couldn't wait to get them off of me which made me feel bad as its not every day you get to experience these exceptional birds of paradise.  Im clearly never destined to be a committed Twitcher. (Thats Birdwatcher to all you non British folk).

Smile for the birdy

The look like they have big 80´s shoulder pads!

Spread´em

The rest of the sanctuary was also interesting. In addition to Macaws, there were a wealth of other exotic birds. Naturally I felt obliged to capture them with my camera. What I hadn't noticed was that in my attempt to take a picture without the bird cage wire showing, I had leant in and unknowingly trodden on an ants nest. You can guess the rest. The little terrors obviously defending their territory set off to attack me in full force. I managed to shake the majority of them off but a few managed to go up my trouser legs and one even managed to make its way on to the little finger of my left hand?! I cant tell you how painful ant bites are. They sting like you cant believe and the affliction seems to go on for eternity! I have learnt to watch where I put my feet from now on...

I think the final pic was worth the pain : )

The drama of the day unfortunately crept into the night. My hostel was up on a hill and had an amazing view over the valley. I went to bed almost as soon as my head touched the pillow. At about 11:30pm (Copan isn't a party town so I was in bed by 10pm!) I got awoken by what sounded like gun shots. Now I cant be certain but my fellow traveller also heard the noise. The pair of us were sat in our beds anxiously waiting to hear whether they would sound again. They didn't, that is until 2:00am that morning. These shots were even louder than before and sounded like a rifle going off. Needless to say the pair of us couldn't sleep and spent the rest of the night arming ourselves with whatever weapon like item we could find. All probably useless if a gun is aiming at you. After what seemed like an age the time to get up finally came around. We immediately spoke to the owner of our hostel who laughed it off and said it must have been firecrackers being set off by the locals. He seemed to think that overlooking a valley the noise would have ricochet and sounded even louder and closer than it was. That may well be so but upon doing some further research my friend Mr Google told me that other travellers had also heard gun shots on several other occasions. Just saying that's all...


The next day despite not sleeping much I managed to get myself out of bed early enough to go and visit the ruins in Copán for which the town is famous for. Luckily the owner of my hostel also turned out to be a tour guide at the ruins so he expertly showed me around. The ruins themselves are prized for their carved statues of ancient rulers of Copán and the well preserved hieroglyphics found on the stairway which is one of the main attractions of the site. You can climb most of the ruins, which whilst strenuous at times in the heat was actually worthwhile as the views were stunning. 

Immaculately kept lawn

The sites famous hieroglyphic staircase

Interestingly there were wild macaws flying around the ruins. Their rainbow coloured feathers looked surreal against the vibrant green of the trees above me. 

Pretty Pollys

The museum at the ruins was actually quite impressive - on the inside that is. The entrance to get in was tiny and completely inconspicuous. 

Blink and you´ll miss it entrance

This temple exists underneath another temple on the site & apparently made a cameo in the fourth Indiana Jones movie!

One of the famous statues of previous rulers of Copán

Other than the ruins and the Macaw Sanctuary, there really isn't that much to do in Copán. Within a few days I soon made my way to Guatemala. 


Once again the border crossing was straightforward and after seven hours and a quick change of vehicle at Guatemala City, I arrived in Antigua - my first taste of Guatemala : D