As Keith said it was an early start the next day as there was a mammoth journey in store to get across the border and to Copan in Honduras. I've kind of been planning our route based on what looks logical and realistic on the map, but a few occasions when the logistics manager (basically I've outsourced transport to Keith) looks at the journey the day before it hasn't quite been as simple as I thought! Obviously I take full responsibility and don't blame Keith for only looking at the journey once I've booked our accommodation even when saying it might be a good idea. Definitely not his fault ;)

Anyway back to the journey! We left early as both El Salvador and Honduras are known to be the baddest boy countries of Central America so travelling on local buses through some of the towns at night aren't the best idea. In the end it took 5 buses and 12 hours. Although knackering and at points incredibly uncomfortable it was definitely an experience to remember especially the last bus we took which had maybe space for 24 people but most of the 2 hour ride had at least double that. There were people riding on the outside of the bus with their hand through a window to hold on (should mention this was a windy and mountainous road), parents handing their babies to random men to hold onto and every 15 minutes or so about 5 people squeezing on to sell food, SIM cards and belts! All we wanted to do was take a photo but could only manage a pretty poor shot as we really didn't want to be spotted doing so.

So we finally get to Copan Ruinas which is a town 1km away from the Maya Ruins. The guidebook mentioned the ruins are the main reason people come to the area but soon fall in love with the beautiful, tranquil, friendly little town, realising it's reason enough to visit the area. They were certainly right with both of us quickly wishing we were staying a lot longer in probably one of our favourite towns so far in Central America.

This was going to be our fourth and final visit to ruins on the trip and had found previously going with a tour guide was invaluable, so off we went the next morning with our guide, joined by a really nice Canadian guy. Copan officially formed in 426AD when a royal family came to rule the city even though there were people living there long before this (from around 1200BC). The site was about 24sqkm and had 20,000 people living on it at any one time. There were 16 kings in total before Copan disbanded around 900AD (archaeologists are still trying to work out why but most likely cause is drought). The ruins are not as grand as Chichén Itzá or Tikal but boast a remarkable number of intricate sculptures and hieroglyphics that you can get really close to, including a breathtaking stairway of hieroglyphics (755ad). Possibly my favourite site was the Ball Court from 738ad and the second largest in Central America, as I was fascinated with the rules of the game. There were 5 players on each side with the aim of the game to hit a ball at one of the three Macau bird statues on the opposite side whilst not letting the ball touch the floor (it disturbed the sleeping gods in the underworld). Pretty simple. Well apart from the fact the ball was hard and weighed 8lbs, and players couldn't use their hands, head or feet to hit the ball. And the prize for the winner? Human sacrifice. The reason the rules are known is that the game is still played in Mexico today, just minor the human sacrifice prize.

So after our great morning we headed back to town for lunchtime drinks with Jay (the Canadian guy). Keith and I then traipsed around some tour operators to look into transport to Utila (an island) the following day (once again I must stress that I take full responsibility for the fact we discovered the day before that we couldn't get to the coast in time to make our boat connection to Utila! Hehe!). After sorting transport we went to a great little cafe that made it's own cheeses and proceeded to stuff ourselves whilst quaffing some wine. The cheese was awesome but the definite highlight were that there were the cutest pug puppies ever living there along with their dad. They got so much attention (OK I have my fair share) and we're absolutely adorable!

Without trying to make it sound like a pub crawl it sort of became that as we then went to a rooftop bar for sundowners to sort out more of our trip (including where we were going to stay the next night!). After that we moved on to and ended our night at a German microbrewery. We joined a table of different people from all over the globe. Tomas the owner joined us towards official closing time (we then had a lock in) and he was fascinating. His wife is Honduran and they lived with their 2 boys in Germany for 15 years before Tomas decided 5 years ago to swap his city job for turning his microbrewing hobby into a profession, and moving the whole family to Copan! He says they've never been happier. His beer using hops from Germany is fantastic....so much so that a German brewer buys his beer and ships it back to Germany to sell! Tomas also cleverly saw what a very special place Copan was and decided to buy property there a number of years ago which was a huge risk given the reputation of Honduras. Copan is however now known to be without doubt the most pleasant town in the country so the boy's done good! After a few wheat beers Keith and I headed for some street food which took about 30 minutes to cook and I have to say probably the worst meal I've had on this trip! This food, a hangover, the malaria tablets we're taking, the horrendous motion sickness or a combination of all of these resulted in me throwing up multiple times on the bus trip the next day. It really is a very romantic honeymoon when you're throwing up into bags and handing them to your husband to tie up and hold on to!

Chao for now!
SM