We're heading into Guatemala at lunch time today. I can't believe that we've already been gone for a month. As is so often the case with travel, it feels much shorter and much longer all at the same time.

It's quite fascinating; after being told about how awful Honduras would be, and experiencing such an unpleasant start, I'm amazed to say that I've fallen in love with the place and wish we had more time here. The town of Copan Ruinas turned out to be nothing like the big cities. It's pretty and friendly and safe..and even the food has been excellent!!

We arrived in Copan Ruinas, not just the name of the archeological site but also the nearby town, around lunch time- our two and a half hour bus ride having taken just over four hours. We ate baleadas for lunch, which are like Latino dosas, and decided to walk out to see the Mayan ruins that afternoon. It was hot and sunny, but the ruins were only a twenty minute walk away.

We first went into the sculpture museum where the more ornate carvings were moved to in order to preserve them. They were quite remarkable, but I found it difficult to picture things in their original locations- especially having not seen the outdoors site at that point. What I really enjoyed about the carvings was how very different they were from the other ruins I've seen. The Mayan aesthetic is unlike anything I'd come across in Asia, and was even quite distinctly separated from the Incan buildings I'd visited in South America.

We spent a couple of hours wandering around and climbing up and down old ruined buildings and platforms. The beauty of how the jungle has grown back up around the stones adds a magical feel to the place and even better was the tranquility. There were so very few tourists here that we could hardly believe our luck. A cheap and delicious dinner of pupusas (sort of like stuffed corn pitas) and then early to bed.

Gotta go catch our bus…I'll finish this en route…

Anyways, we're now crammed into a tin can of a mini-bus and it's sweltering hot. The border crossing went very smoothly, so back to writing…

We were met by a "cowboy" named Carlos in the morning. He drove us out to his farm- Finca El Cisne; it was 24km away, but because of the winding hills and terrible quality of the roads, it took a full hour to get there. He showed us around the farm- his cacao trees, and various fruits and flowers. We got to eat a few of the things he was growing including fresh cocoa beans- yum!! Then we dropped off our bags and set out on a three hour horseback ride through his coffee plantation and cattle fields. It had been a few years since I'd been on a horse. Much like last time, I found it incredibly painful, but I loved it! In fact I've realized that of the now four times I've ridden horses, every one of them has been in a Spanish speaking country. Perhaps I should try it at home sometime. Maybe without the language barrier they won't hurt my butt so much!!

Carlos' mom cooked us the most amazing meal we've had this trip. Ola and I were both ready to give up Canada and work in exchange for food and a hammock. He didn't think we'd be very good at cattle herding. After lunch we lounged for a bit and went walking around the coffee processing plant. I couldn't get over how much coffee was being stored in one place!!

Everyone was very excited about the football game that was taking place in San Pedro that day, Honduras vs the US in the first qualifying game for the world cup, so we had Carlos drop us off for a few hours at the Jaguar hot springs so he could go "get some work done". The springs were the best I've ever seen. It was set up so beautifully. We covered ourselves with mud and jumped in and out of tubs of varying temperatures, from very cold to hotter than we could handle.

We arrived back in Copan ate a late dinner and turned in. This morning, Ola walked out to find another set of ruins that we hadn't had time for, and I finally sat down to deal with some bureaucratic crap I'd been putting off involving phone calls to Canadian government offices- fun.

We should be in Guatemala City in about an hour. An hour after that we reach Antigua and, fingers crossed, we'll find somewhere to stay. For now I'll give the netbook a rest and get back to my sweating…