We did a whistle stop tour of the ruins in Copan, the ruin with the best stone carvings of the Maya and an amazing stairway of hieroglyphs. We also managed to get in the tunnels through the pyramids (for a small bribe which was 1/3 the normal price). It was cool seeing how they built them in layers on smaller pyramids with chambers until they became huge.

The next day we headed towards the Carribean coast and La Ceiba, an ugly modern town, but we were there for the jungle that surrounds it, Pico Bonito. The next morning we got an ex-military beast of a truck into the jungle to stay at an eco-lodge where Andy went white water rafting on level 2-5 rapids. I was suffering from a bad back (I know what a Granny i sound like, i blame the yoga instructor in Guatemala for screwing it up) so I did some zip wiring across the river and canopies and a trek with a local guide, who practically ran up the side of the hill, to a huge waterfall. He had some great quotes "When there´s tranquillity in the jungle, there´s peace in my heart" and "Everything in the jungle that is beautiful is dangerous. I´m a man, I love beauty, but I respect danger". He walked barefoot swinging his machete as he went, banging things to check for snakes and chain smoking. He also made me eat a strange plant (tasted like really sour celery) and some termites (good actually, kind of herby taste) and pointed out loads of beautiful plants (danger!). I also saw a jaguar footprint, just what you want to see when spending the night sleeping in the jungle (they are night hunters).

Then there was a huge downpour just as I was getting back and we were stranded till the next day in the lodge, playing cards with a 9 year old we ended up babysitting, she taught us Uno with some very bizarre rules... We hitched back to La Ceiba and feasted in a great restaurant (you have to stockpile for those hard times!) and killed time beofre we got the 4 o´clock ferry to Utila from the port and it was bye-bye rainy mainland and hello rainy Carribean island. Don´t you just love the wet season, great for the tan.