Heading back to San Pedro Sula, Honduras

The news from my family was still in debate, although all my sisters were rally around me and made me feel very special and cared for, which was enough to encourage me to stick it out a little longer and see what would happen in a few days time.

I checked with the hotel staff and they said that there was no buses going down south across the border, not from Copan at least, but a bus was leaving at 5pm for San Pedro Sula which is considered the transport hub for Honduras and if anywhere I could find a bus going to El Salvador it was there.

5pm was a few hours away, so I spend it leisurely walking around the city centre, taking more photos and reading some of my recently aquired book in a room with the door open for light and ventilation after the power in my room dropped out a little after lunchtime.

After so many days of nothing but rain it was nice to have the glorious sunshine again, but equally so I had lost all the suntan and bulit up exposure to the sun so when the 30 plus degree heat beat down solidly on me for the first time in weeks I was caught gasping.

When it came to 4:30 I headed on down to the bus terminal, which was nothing more than a bus stop where all the through buses pass when they go through Copan and it was here than I was told my direct bus was actually not so, and would cost 45 Limperas just to get as far north as San Carlos.

I debated for awhile, as I couldnt quite unerstand what they were tyring to tell me, but in the end I gave in and after entrusting my bag to the roof yet again I sat in the back, privately still fuming after having to leave after I had paid for the second night but mainly cos I was worried that I would have to buy a ticket home and thus end my RTW trip before it really got going, or at least change it to a simple travel diary.

The trip to San Carlos was not too bad, and as it got dark almost onthe stroke on 5:30 it was hard to see what was going on and feared that I might miss my stop of my connection, but luckily even as one bus was pulling away I was pointed in the direction of across the road where a bigger and more modern coach was arriving which with another 80 Limperas took me all the way back to San Pedro Sula.

I could not remember the full address of the hostel Dos Molinos and it so I spoke tothe taxi driver who was hassling me at the terminal in San Pedro Sula to give me a minute, but he was in no mood for waiting and bundled me into the car along with another passenger before I could get myself all sorted out. I would have done so earlier, but it was dark and also the printout of the details for the hostel were packed in my bag and so I gave what I thought was the address, but the taxi driver was useless and after giving me the run around increased his price from US $3 to $4 for the confusion before he finally arrived at the right hostel.

Only thing was, it wasnt the one I stayed at the other day, and for the life of me I cant see how both hostels had my booking down for the same time, as the hostel owner was expecting me a few days ago ... something definetly screwey with hostelworld and hostelbookers, thats for sure.

Anyway, after a few minutes of chatting with the owner and a english speaking guest, I checked in and was able to get on the free wifi for a bit, but with all the fuss, the heat and the tiredness I just could not find the energy to write much for the blog.

I went to bed after having taken a trip to the local cash point and realised that it was only a few blocks away from the other hostel, but of course it was too late to do anything about that now.

I woke in the morning to receive lots of good news emails from my family, and the only thing that put a slight dampener on the day was that by the time I found out that I didnt have to return home to the UK just yet I had also already missed the only bus that left San Pedro Sula for El Salvador today, at the crazy early time of 7am.

So instead of being on a 7 hour bus ride I had to make do with spending another day and a night in San Pedro Sula, but without spending any money, as the extra night plus the delays were all costing me money that I would prefer to spend on other things.

Someone had anonimously left an address for a Lloyds Bank here in San Pedro Sula, so I figured I would go and check it out and see if they could finall put to rest all my problems, only to find though anexhaustive walk along the entire road that the address must be an old one as certainly there was no sign for a Lloyds bank when I went looking, so it was back to plan A and just hope that things go smoother than in recent days.

During the day I did try a local ice cream ( tasted foul ) a local chinese ( which I foolishly filled up on gassy coke so couldnt eat even half of ) and the local cinemas but all the films that I wanted to see were not out yet, so I just took a long route back and passed what could be just the local night life area, and maybe even a mini red light district as there were a few gentlemens clubs with 500 Limpera entrance fees, which is not high for European standards but again are way over the top for the locals and you can imagine it only being for rich tourists.

The heat and the release of stress worked their usual magic on me and I was yanwing by around 6pm, though I struggled on til around 9pm just so that I could get a full nights sleep before setting my alarm for 6am and much awaited bus ride to El Salvador.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras, Central America

There are some places that one you visit, they move you and leave an ever lasting impression upon you. Copan Ruinas is such a place.

As yesterday I had bought a map of both the town and the ruins, I knew that the entrance to the Ruins Archaeological Park was only a kilometer away and that the best time to visit was early morning, just after it opened at 8am.

I checked my emails and my bank account in the city centre, and found out that my bank was still playing stupid games, but I did my best to clear my mind and be at peace befor I made the short stroll to the entrance.

The road to the park is on the east of the town, and in the early morning it was nice to walk down semi deserted streets and then along the road, passing fields, stables and piles of rock and stone recently quarried for sale.

I arrived at the main gate at a little after 8:15 and the place was open and there were aready a number of tour guides eagerly awating their first guests of the day, but being short of funds and prefering some peace and quiet I ignored their offers and went directly to the ticket booth, which was a little further up.

You can get a park ticket for US $15, a museum ticket for US $7 and a tunnel ticket for US $15, but as there are only two 100 meter tunnels I decided that I wanted to stay out in the open and so visited the park first.

Having visited both, I feel that for once it would actually be better to visit the museum first, as it is smaller and holds a lot of the ornate stonework and statues that have been removed from the park, for matters of restoration, and once you see them they are a great appetiser for the main park itself, which you will want to give yourself at least 2 hours to slowly walk around, though you could rush it in an hour but why would you come all this way to rush it!

The forest walk to the entrance to the park was beautiful and serence, surrounded at it was on all sides by tall trees, and I had picked the day perfectly as the sun was gleaming bright overhead and a partly cloudy yet blue sky was a perfect setting for what was about to come.

There is a fairly reasonably priced and well looked after restaurant by the entrace, just inside the main gates and a little further up there is a clearing for picnics, but of course I was only interested in the park and the structures themselves at this stage, so even walked past the nature trail and a few meters further I caught my first glimpse of one a temple pyramid, at the far end of the path in a lush green clearing.

I almost ran once I saw it, eager as I was, but the moment I reached the edge of the clearing I stopped and stood still, trying to take it all in, but it was impossible.

Possibly the clouds, the rain, the tour guide and the hundreds of other tourists had somewhat diminished the power that struck me when I first saw Manchu Picchu, but here, completely alone, bathed in glorious sunlight and only the peaceful sounds of the forest around me was truly magical.

In the far distance I could see the occasional gardener with rake in hand, pulling the leaves and cut grass into small piles, but they were too far away to be anything more than a feint background blemish on an otherwise perfect vista.

I walked to the first of the pyramids and even as the due was still fresh on the cut grass, almost a lawn beneath my feet, I set up my camera with tripod ( I am soooo glad that I remembered to bring it this morning ) and happily snapped away taking shots of just the buildings and then of me.

But I did so almost in silence and I ensured that I drank in every sensation and feeling as I walked around and made my way to the next pyramid, even taller and just a few hundred meters away from the first.

Without having previsited the museum, it was a little harder to image the bright and vivid reds, blues and greens of the paint work that would have been all around me during the time of the Mayan civilization, but what I did envisage was a peaceful and happy place where children played with hoops and dogs while the adults made work during the day and held lively and energetic dances and ceremonies in the evening time, overlooked by a supreme ruler, fed and fanned at all times by his servants or slaves.

The although the road into the park was fairly level, the site itself was at the edge of a hill and the view from the side walls overlooked the lush green hills far into the distance and it must have felt very good to be a Mayan at the height of Copan's power.

Wandering round the park on my own, the tranqulity and serenity set my soul at ease, and had I the time and a picnic I feel that I could have just sat, ate, drank and sketched to my hearts content for hour upon hour, or at least til there were so many tourists that it became impossible.

Once past the first few pyramids I climbed up high and through the trees, and looking up I spotted the long thin strands hanging down the branches overhead, and the images it conjured up in my mind really reminded me of the movie Tomb Raider in Ankor Wat, and although they are continents apart the architects of the cities I am sure felt similar ideas and a desire to link the buildings and the nature together, being as similar as the are.

High up on the top of highest pyramid, I was able to sit where the Mayan ruler would have sat, overlooking his city and subjects, and it felt reassuring and safe.

I continued my walk and took more photos and all the time my mind was wandering in time and space, the worries of the day forgotten and at times I was not even sure If I stayed long enough if I would lose myself completely, but of course the longer I stayed the more tourists arrived and it was they who ended my reverie and brought me back to the here and now.

As I sat on the lower steps on the great wall, in the shade of a tree just like hundreds of Mayans must have done thousands of times in their life, the loud voices of a group of middle aged American Tourists caught my ear, along with the complaints of their aging father. He was not moaning about the sun, the mosquitos or the fact that the statues in the musem should have been left, no, he was saying that he had to phone home to ensure that they cleaned out the litter tray for hit cats. Typical, trust an American to have nothing more spiritual on his mind that cat litter when he is in surrounded and immerced by a history so profound that it had silenced me utterly for over an hour.

However, once I was back in the here and now I knew that once again felt the pangs of hunger so I headed back to get a breakfast and then to visit the museum.

The museum was partly hidden by trees and the entrance led you down a shallow winding tunnel that opened out into a mini open air stadium, the walls filled with sections of the city, restored and rebuilt to its former glory and in the centre was a huge temple painted bright red and must have been a sight to behold in the full sunlight.

Aparently the Copan that I had just walked around was a city build directly over an earlier version of itself, including, overlapping or just enlarging the structing already there, and it is in the original temples and walls, directly beneath the present city that the archaeological tunnels take you, and here in the museum they had removed and then fully reconstructed one of the major temples here in a clearing and then built the musem around it to preserve it for future generations.

Wanding around the museum, again without the need for a guide, I marvelled at the artwork, not so ornate or miniature, but distinctive, original and flamboyant in its designs.

Everywhere I looked could be seen sections of walls, temples or buildings that had been carefully transfered to this bunker and then like a jigsaw reconstructed back til it was one of the most impressive museums I have ever seen.

More photos ensued and even here, the wildlife of crickets, lizards and birds were free to roam just as they had for hundreds and thousands of years.

It was almost a shame when I had to leave, heading back to the hotel, or more accurately to an internet cafe, to see if there was any progress on my bank problems.

Copan Ruinas Museum, Honduras

Photos of Copan Ruinas, Honduras

I went to Copan Ruinas, the the Mayan settlement there, and it was breathtaking, truly amazing.

In the early morning, just after it opened I was the first one there and wanting to be alone with my private thoughts I refused the offer ( for a price ) of a local guide and just went around on my own in peace and tranquility.

With the sun beating down on me, the Macaw's and grasshopers adding their soundtrack to an otherwise silent and empty morning it was not difficult for me to imagine how this place would been during the time when the Mayan's were actually still living here.

Of course, you need to have seen the museum first, you really do, as there are so many ornate carvings and bright colours that it seems to be alive even now.

A few more photos on San Pedro Sula

A day in San Pedro Sula, Honduras

My local friend I' still had not replied to any of my messages and so it looked like yet another blow out, but I was in too much of a good mood to let this slow me up, so instead I just had breakfast and enjoyed another long chat with my new Honduran / American friend M' til around lunchtime when he had some private stuff to do, at which point I sorted out my plans to visit to Copan Ruinas and then thought about visiting the city centre.

If I had another few days free doing nothing it would have been worth checking out the Bay Islands, as they have been highly recommended by everyone that has been there or has heard of them, but on my tight schedule I knew that it would be a waste to have to arrive and leave on the same day, not giving myself any time to relax into the scene.

My plans to visit the Archaeological Museum were greatly expedited when the hotel owner offered to run me into the centre of town in his van, and say that I could either walk back or grab a taxi, depending on what my plans were after the museum, and all for no extra cost which I thought was extremely helpful and generous of him.

The hotel is a little family run business and M' had earlier told me that the owners take pride in doing their best to help their guests in any way they can, and certianly judging from all the proactice help I had received thus far I could see where he was basing his information on.

When I arrived at the museum, I wasn't expecting too much as it looked quite small from the outside, but inside was like a Tardis and it was so well laid out and presented with plenty of information cards in English for me to read that I had no problem at all wnadering around on my own and making sense of the things I was seing.

For just US $2, or 38 Lempira which is the Hondurian currency, I thought that it was great value and one of the guide books also say that if you arrive on the first Sunday in the month the entrance fee is waves, which is good to know if 'you have a few days here and arrive easly in the month.

There was the whole history of Honduras timeline on display, from the Mayan culture right through to Spanish occupation, pirates and up to the mid 1800's, but my favourite pieces were the recreated huts, the huge paintings and some of the tiny scultpures. I was also impressed to read about the Mayan language being partly cracked by a Russian and then finally completed by an American in the last couple of hundred years, using techniques that up til them were not thought as workable.

In the museum courtyard that was a nice large intricately carved colomn that I liked a lot before I headed off into town to see what central downtown San Pedro looked like, and unsurprisingly it was much like any other downtown with its casino's hotels and shopping malls all being barely a few houses away from falling down buildings, street markets and the beggars who seem to think that because I am white that they should make a bigger play to get my lose change than they should of the locals.

There were a few nice buildings, but the maint thing that stuck in my mind during the day was when I stopped off to get a bite to eat in the local foodcourt and noticed that the guy next to me was shadowed by two rifle wielding security guards at all times, so I have no idea if he just loved the cheap food or he was trying to make a statement that he was just like anyone else!

The other thing I noticed was that I seemed to have the eye of all the local young women, as whereever I went I could spot that at least two or three locals were looking at me favourably at all times, and I guessed that they don't get many Europeans who chose to say in San Pedro, as the tour guide said that most of passing travellers use the city only as a convenient and well organised transport hub before shooting off to wherever they planned on spending a couple of weeks.

I found myself wandering in an ever increasing loop til I got bored and considered getting a taxi back before spotting that I was only a few blocks away at this point, so I just straightened out and made my way back to the hotel.

Arriving at the hotel the owners wife said that if I had any time left I should check out the Mega Mall just a few blocks up the road, and as I was at a loss for what to do and the sun was still shining I decided to go check it out and ended up buying a 60 Lempira cinema ticket, which has almost got be the cheapest cinema ticket I have bought since in my life, and it was a nice cinema too.

I had over an hour to kill before the film started, so I went back to the hotel and started sorting out my photos before returning to watch half an hour of the most boring and routine police drug drama film and then walking out in disgust.

It may have got some good actors in it, but the story had nothing knew whatsoever, it had failed to make me give a damn about any of the characters in the slightest and I could already tell that before the end a few were going to die and then the end credits would roll up, so I figured I wasn't really missing much at all.

In the roof of the Mall there was a live open air trance / base gig being pumped out loud and also over the radio, and I think it was exactly the kind of mainstream trance music that I like but most DJ's hate. I had half a mind to stay there all night to listen to it, but I had left my wallet back in the hotel so I didn't even have enough left on me to get myself a couple of drinks and also it was now dark and so I didn't want to push my luck more than I had already.