The Last Ruins

Copan
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We went back to the same hostel we stayed at in San Salvador for one more night before heading off to Copan, Honduras. It was going to be a pain to get there, we were planning on taking a total of 6 buses in 1 day to get to where we wanted. It took us 2 buses to get to the El Salvador/Honduras border. Once we were there we walked around a fence and tried to figure out where the customs office was. That's when we realized that the fence was the border, and the only building there must be the customs office. While we were walking to the office we spotted the Honduras guy we met in Playa El Tunco a few nights ago and he offered us a ride. After going through customs (no stamp again dammit) we got into his truck and he took us most of the way to where we wanted to go. It was a great car ride; comfortable, air conditioned, we got to listen to good music, etc, way better than chicken buses. He dropped us off at La Entrada and then we caught another 2 hour bus to Copan, which is near the border with Guatemala. Our first choice for a hostel was taken so we settled on another one, and it was still quite a good deal.

Me copying a carving
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The next morning we got up and walked to the main square to grab a taxi to the bank and the ruins. Copan is a really cool town, it's really hilly and has cobblestone streets and brightly painted old buildings. Once we got a taxi we told the driver we needed to go to the bank first, and he literally drove us in a circle around the square and stopped in front of the bank, we felt pretty stupid. He then drove us to Copan Ruinas, another set of Mayan ruins, the largest in Honduras. Each set of ruins I see seem to be completely different than the last set. While not as tall or deep in the jungle like Tikal was, these were still really cool. The coolest thing about these ruins was the hiroglyphics stair case. It was massive, and carved into the stairs was 400 years of history using pictures to tell the story. We also saw some real macaws in the jungle, they sure are noisy. Luckily we got out of the ruins just before a big tour group arrived.

I decided it was about time I did some laundry...

The story staircase
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After taking a taxi back to the hotel I decided it was about time I did some laundry, I haven't had my laundry done since Antigua. The laundry machine our hotel had was one of the old fashioned ones, with the washboard and buckets. I've never used one of those before and I struggled with it until Hiroto showed me how to do it properly. Dave started to feel sick, so he slept in our room and Hiroto and I walked around the town. Our hotel had a kitchen, so it was nice to make our own dinner for once, and much cheaper too. We went to bed early that night, Dave wasn't feeling well and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make the bus the next day with us. The bus to the capital, Tegucigalpa, was leaving at 4:30am the next morning.