10th September 2009 - 12th September 2009

We decided to take the next leg of the trip in 'style' so we paid the extra money and hoped on a luxury coach to Copan Ruinas, about 7 hours away. The first bus was amazing and you literally sunk into the seats. It also had headphone jacks for you to listen to the movie so that was good news as well. I slept most of the way but Sammy enjoyed 'Night at the Museum' and we were halfway through our trip in no time. We had to change buses in San Pedro and had a two hour wait before hoping on another bus which wasn't quite as nice.

We arrived in Copan and were immediately surrounded by Tuks Tuks wanting to take us to our hostel. We picked one and were taken to a nice place called Mar Jenny. We immediately arranged to do a horse riding tour in the morning for US$20 each for 3 hrs and after a nice dinner we hit the hay.

After the 'typico' breakfast the following morning we headed out on the horse ride with our guide and another traveler called Damian. Damian was from England and he was at the end of a month long stint in Honduras where he was working as a medical volunteer as he's studying medicine back home. It was great having him along as we could talk to him about his interesting adventures and find out some information for my brother Josh who's also studying medicine and interested in working OS.

Our first part of the ride took 1 and a half hours and we ended up at a Mayan hospital site (ruins) where the guide very funnily reenacted with us how the hospital worked and in particular the birthing of a child. It was very funny as he encouraged me (Nikki) to spread my legs and pushhhhhhhh the baby out whilst he caught it in his hat. We were also trying to interpret his Spanish as well so it made for an interesting time. After that we visited some rural areas nearby and a weaving shop where we were unsuccessfully meant to buy things. It's hard being taken to places where the locals are trying to sell their goods but we're unable to buy them because we'd be broke and with heavy backpacks if we bought at everyplace we were encouraged too.

On the ride back it was fun to get our horses to trot along and for us to bounce up and down trying to get the rhythm right. The horses were funny too as they'd try and cut each other off. My knee was continuously being pushed into the other horse's bottoms because my horse wanted to get past.

We were dropped off at the ruins and after saying goodbye to our guide we debated as to whether or not we should go inside. Sam decided yes seeing we'd made it this far and we're all glad we did. The ruins were amazing as usual, and although similar to the other ruins we've seen (Tikal and Angkor Wat) they had enough to offer in their own right. We also got to see some cool wildlife including McCaws, these weird guinea pig/squirrel animals and a super cool golden frog that jumped in front of Sammy's path that we picked up and took some awesome shots of.

After heading back, showering and chilling out that afternoon we headed out for dinner to a great restaurant called 'Twisted Tanyas' where we paid $6USD each for a delicious three course meal. It was a fine way to end our Copan experience and the following morning we headed off to El Salvador, saying goodbye to our friend Damian.