Copan was the capital of a major kingdom in the southern Mayan empire from the 5th to 9th centuries AD. It was a cosmopolitan city, with inhabitants of many different ethnic groups from the surrounding region. The city fell around the 800s due to epidemics striking the heart of the nobility and causing the collapse of this once almighty powerful Mayan city state. From then until the Spanish conquest, villagers not kings made home in its opulent courts.

The Mayan people are in fact still around. There are 6 million of them, largely centred in the highland areas of the Mexico-Guatemala border. However, they are far less powerful today as they have faced centuries of repression by the minority Spanish elites of their post-colonial world. The Mayans once a huge empire, although unlike the Incas and Aztecs it was never one state. Instead it was a network of city states, like Copan, with their own gods and kings.

Copan isn't the largest Mayan ruin, that title belongs to Tikal - deep in the Peten jungles of Northern Guatemala, but its the Mayan ruin with the most intricate carvings. I got there at 8am, just as the gates were opening, and before the hoards of Honduran school groups and American tourists descended on the site.

It's a mighty impressive place.

Although there's no signs with information to guide you, a basic map means you know roughly where the royal courts and residences were, and where the peasants stayed. Copan is fantastically preserved, with extensive Japanese help in fact (yet another example of Japan exerting soft power across Latin America) but best of all it really is in the heart of the Honduran jungle. The trees are growing amongst and even through the old temples and courts, and the hawking scarlet macaws just add to the Indiana Jones-esque feel to the place.

Once the Honduran school groups descended on the place, it was time to leave, not to mention how hot it was getting. The rest of today i've decided will be a chill day, with me getting the rest of what I want from my short visit to Honduras tomorrow.

Honduras, appears to be a country of quirks. There's no coins. Like, literally no coins - there is however a 1 Lempira note which is worth a grand total of 1/30th of a pound. Everyone, and I mean everyone, appears to be wearing a fadora. Copan, a nice colonial town, is also a town of a million red tuk-tuks.

But Honduras is also a country of crisis. It is the archetypal Banana Republic and for the last ten years roughly 80% of all the cocaine in the United States has past through the country. This makes Honduras's big cities horrifically dangerous and a major source of migrants - including many undocumented kids - stopped at the US border. It's a beautiful country but its plagued by violence and political instability. Copan is an island of piece close to the Guatemalan border. Maybe with more time and company I'd forrow further into this fascinating country but for now this is how I'm getting.

So yeah, other than calling home to confirm my status as alive before Mum heads to hike the Great Wall of China, and buying a Mayan carving for my peck set (for only 4usd! - it's massive!) today's been wrapped up.

Vamos!