My first day in Honduras

Friday I woke up 3:30 to take a shuttle bus to Copan in Honduras. A 6 h. drive from Antigua, but when the border is crossed it is 15 min. inside Honduras territory in the north. The ride to Copan Ruinas was not without some scary events; we almost had an accident with a bus driving through Guatemala City in the dark. All I saw was hundreds sharp of flashing lights, and then two of them came straight at us. The driver of the shuttlebus was standing on the brakes, and I think we where just a few cm. from being flattened by the big red citybus. The citybuses of Guate (Guatemala City) are some of the main targets for gangs of bandits that are after some quick cash. I had to catch them when I went to the embassy and the immigrationoffice, but then I had no money or anything else to take, and I did not have money to go by taxis. The ride to Copan, Honduras were on some of the most dangerousley trafficated roads that I have seen. And I have seen a lot! The danger is the number of big trucks and busses that are plunging down the hillsides. Guatemala is all hills and mountains, so we climb up and speed down. When hills are rolling away undisturbed by human settlement, it is green and lush, especially now in the rainyseason. Unfortunatley the nature here has many scars, causing tragedy for the human population.  

The main attraction of Copan is the old Mayan site which lacks the massive pyramids further north in Guatemala and Mexico, but has some of the worlds best preserved carved stelaes. Records on theese stelaes, and ceramic evidence show that people have been living in the Copan valley from 1400 BC, but they must have been in the valley before that time. At its peak, Copan may have housed as many as 20 000 people. Today, saturday, I went to check the site out! When the Spaniards found the place in 1576 there were only 5 families living there. And they had no idea of the history of the ruins!! It might make us wonder if the people that are called mayans today really are decending from the mayans. The thing is that ALL the places I have visited were left long before the fleets from Spain came. They found ruins taken over by the forrest already everywhere. And I have heard a theory that the natives of this continent are decending from the islands, that they are secondary settelers. I am not going to argue any of that now, because I am not archeologist. But I know that all of the people I have been writing about in my blog are still mysteries to the scholars as to where they came from and where they went.

The pictures below are from Copan Tuins town. A really, really hot but friendly place where all thrillseakers hang out, go to see the ruins, go horsebackriding (I am going to try that!) and even go tubing and /or rafting in a river.

The church in the park.

The park 

Fountain in the park.