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.

Honduras: The Ruins of Copan

Since many people have asked me to write my blog in English I took the opportunity to do so after I was (brutally) robbed of my dear Lenovo laptop, and am now stuck with a Spanish speaking laptop. Sometimes it speaks Spanglish as well, if I am lucky, but basically now I HAVE to learn how to read Spanish with its technical terms.

The film that is above is where I am going in the next couple of days, and I am really hopeing that this trip will snap me out of the my deep crisis after what happend! It is not that I am not fine! Even if the thought of going to Honduras seems more dangerous now, because Honduras is a country that has seen a rise in violence through 2009 /2010, than before, when the whole world was my safe Disneyland, if one can use this kind of expression. Now I am faceing some existential questions, and I think the only thing keeping me on this wnow is stubbornness. But I know that I want to come back to Latin America when I leave here one day. So dangerous and so beautiful, this se two expressions go hand in hand most places I have been on this planet, and I guess that I, reluctantly or not, fall in love with just that.

I will come back with photos and info on Honduras and Copan. Photos if I find out how my Spanglish speaking camera works. It even has a touch screen! It sounded so hip that I had to have it. It is cheap however, and will have to do for the rest of my travel. The Republic of Honduras is south of Guatemala, bordering El Salvador in the west and Nicaragua in the south. Before the Spanish came in 1524  it was home to many native tribes, among others the Maya. The main interest of the Sapniards were silver mining, and the natives were used to do the job. The natives, however died of disease brought from Europe, so slaves were brought from Africa to replace them. The decendants of the slaves now form the Garifuna culture along the Carribian coast, with their own constructed language, food and colourful garments and festivals. Like all countries in Latin America Honduras has had a lot of problems. One of the reasons of the violence and poverty is that it was made one of USA bananastates in the 20th century, with little economical growth for Honduras, but with US fruit companies controlling substantial land and infrastructure in the north. In addition the hurricane Fifi 1974 and Mitch in 1998 both caused destruction in the country. Especially Mitch that caused 50 years of progress to reverse, according to president Carlos Roberto Flores, with its massive and widespread destruction of nearly all bridges and secondary roads, 70 % of all crops and 33 000 houses.      5 000 people were killed.

More on Honduras next blog.