Copan Ruinas

Yesterday morning we started our journey to Copan, Honduras at 5 a.m. We walked through the empty streets of El Progreso with bags in hand. The streets were empty and all was calm as we walked from our apartment to the bus station. We took one bus from El Progreso to San Pedro Sula. We were told that we could catch a bus from SPS to Copan at 7 a.m. We called to confirm the time and checked the website; yet, when we arrived and attempted to purchase our tickets we were told that the only bus to Copan was at 11 a.m. We had an extrememly long wait time until our bus so we walked around the bus center for a while, bought some smoothies, then I fell asleep at the table in the food court while everyone else chatted. After a while, they woke me up and then we decided to go to the terminal to sleep some more. About 3 hours later...we arrived in the beautiful, quaint city of Copan Ruinas. We checked into our hotel and ate at ViaVia, a little restaurant nearby. The entire city of Copan is made of very steep hills, and instead of taxis, they use these tiny 3-wheel vehicles that are popular in Europe as I was told. I have a picture of them on facebook. After lunch we decided to go horseback riding into the mountains. We all anticipated just a short ride to see some scenery, but it was so much better than that. We rode way up into the mountains to Hacienda San Lucas de los Sapos. There is a beautiful yoga hut on the mountain side along with a bed and breakfast and lookout over the mountains and river. We could see everything from their, even some of the ruins of Copan. I believe this is the most breathtaking view I've ever seen. We were all so at peace we were giddy just to have the opportunity to see the beauty of nature; and I especially was in awe of God's artistic ability when designing the landscape. Many people think of Honduras as just a dirty place, but it is full of captiviting mountains, clear blue skies, and mysterious forests. I hope you will take a look at the pictures because I really think they speak for themself and better represent the beauty I would love to be able to describe in words. After our wonderful, relaxing, rejuvinating journey via horseback we returned to the hotel, cleaned up, and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant. One of our friends is taking Spanish classes in Copan so he helped us find the best places to go.

This morning we had breakfast at Picame a small restaurant near our hotel, then we went to purchase our tickets to minimize confusion in departure time. It's a good thing that we went when we did because again they did not have their printed information correct and the only bus that would take us back to SPS was at 2:30 pm not 5 pm as we had hoped. Anyway, we bought our tickets and headed straight for the ruins. In the past 24 hours, I'm almost positive I've done more walking and physical activity than the whole time I have been here; it was refreshing and invigorating. We paid to have a tour guide at the ruins and I'm not sure if I can possibly describe what it was like being there, other than amazing. We saw many tall pillars with hyeroglyphic etchings, plazas, ball courts, sacrificial alters, the staircase of hyeroglyphics that is the longest of all the Mayan ruins, and so much more. Again, I feel that pictures will do a better job representing what I saw. Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I'm so happy that I had the chance to go to Copan, even if it was only for about 24 hours. I feel we made the most of it, and I'd love to go back to stay at the Hacienda in the mountains and show others the ruins of Copan. Buenas Noches a todos!