Last day in Copan so I had to get the tick in the box and visit the Mayan ruins at the edge of town. Poor little Liz cannot walk so it was just me.

Walking down the first thing that grabs you is how beautiful the countryside is. This formed a nice backdrop to getting sneaky pictures of the local men in their distinctive white broad rimed hats.

Tikal has the big Mayan structures, but Copan Ruias is the prime location for Mayan sculptures. Even before I got to the ruins I was seeing intricate Stela (slabs of carved stone) by the road and in the fields with only cows to keep them company.

Tikal has spider monkeys, Copan has Macaws. As soon as I paid my money there were a dozon of them just sitting on a fence. I thought they must be nailed to it as there were tourists right by them but thankfully they were free to go where they wanted. I have to say these are the most vivid birds I have seen and are incredible to see flying.

The temples were a lot less spectacular than Tikal but the Stela's were fantastic. As with the mighty Angkor Watt in Cambodia trees grew out of the temples and wrapped around the rocks.

As always I took a stack load of pictures but disaster struck - the memory became corrupted. This is scary I have 800 pictures of Central America at risk.

When we got back we went out to have a few drinks to toast Emily and friends back home.