Day 53 - Arrival in Honduras

11th March, 2003

So last I wrote we were in Guatemala, in a riverside lodge just outside the town of Rio Dulce. We enjoyed our river trip, kayaking, and chatting with fellow travellers and retired, eccentric American's with their yachts, but had to leave our funny little place by the river, picked up Herbie, and set off on the road again.

Before making our way towards the Honduras border we wanted to find a thermal spring waterfall we'd been discussing with other travellers. With only a rough idea which direction to head, we set off in search of the falls. After a lot of wrong turns, and driving straight past the place at least once down roads that could barley qualify as dirt-track, we eventually found what we were looking for; a spring river meandering through the jungle hills, intersected by an underground spring that rains-down from rocks above, heated by the geothermal processes beneath to about 80°C (176°F), creating fantastic rock formations, and giving the air an effervesance of steam and sulphur.

Hot waterfalls falling into the spring fed river in the jungle.

We played here in the hot waters, getting our feet nibbled at by tiny fish, for an hour or so, basking in the naturally warm & crystal clear waters.

Once dried off, we returned back to Herbie, and back down the way we came along the awfully slow and degraded road to continue further on our journey towards the border with Honduras. This morning adventure took more time than anticipated, and so making the border crossing that same day was now very unlikely. Instead we headed for a border town called Esquipulas, a small town in the mountains with a large Basilica, and a shrine called 'the Black Christ' (apparently one of the most revered Catholic shrines), a place of Pilgrimage for Catholics all over the world. We arrived amidst the dying minutes of a day-long celebration, but we couldn't figure out what it was for and and only got to see the aftermath left in the streets. The town had a huge market selling all kinds of really trashy religious paraphernalia that the migrating pilgrims obviously lap up. With little else to do in this town we arose early to make our border crossing attempt.

Me relaxing under the hot spring waterfalls.

We encountered the usual amount of border 'leeches' that try to offer you unnecessary services helping you across the border, charging you 4 times what everything actually costs. But after dealing with these guys, we found the experience to be quite pleasant, if not a little drawn out. It took nearly two hours of brilliant negotiating by Lukas to get all the paperwork signed off and stamped, pay the duties, get through immigration, but with a cheeky smile, and a bribe of some foreign coins (Czech Republic, Euro's, and Sterling) we made it through our third border crossing with Herbie in one piece. Brilliant! Most of the people we encountered were more interested in our car, and tales of our journey and what we did back home, than ask us with any border-related enquiries.

Once we entered Honduras, the landscape and people noticeably changed once again. The mountains here are just stunning, incredible scenery stretching as far and as high as the eye can see. Small villages nestled in the hills, mostly farmers, with people reacting to Herbie as they did in other countries unfamiliar with a Beetle, with kids and families waving as we pass by.

Fantastic scenery encountered everywhere on our journey so far in Honduras.

The drive was more difficult then we anticipated, being used to driving along relative flat terrain and straight roads for so many weeks, we'd almost forgotten how much time the mountains take to pass. It took the rest of the day to reach our destination of Copan Ruinas, a small town near the ancient ruins of Copan; the reason for our visit here. Updated visual journey map.

The temples and surrounding landscape

Thought to be occupied from as early as the 9th century BC, it later grew to a city of over 20,000 inhabitants; it's eventual downfall, depleting natural resources until the population became unsustainable. Regarded as one of the most important archaeological sites in the Mayan world due it's remarkable sculptures and hieroglyphics, unique to Mayan cities excavated to date. It was an interesting site, not as large as anticipated, but the excavated tunnels under the main structures were a fascinating insight into the way they used to build greater temples over the top of older, smaller ones; for the current king to make his mark/leave his legacy. These tunnels allowed access to layers of older temples beneath what could be seen on the surface.

Example of the relief sculpture found everywhere throughout this site.

Likely to be our final st of Mayan ruins we have time left to see. Time is getting very short, and we also still hope to make it to El Salvador for a few days after less than a week here... Not enough time, so many countries to see...

Wildlife encountered at the ruins site.

In the afternoon we ventured through town up the nearest large hill, to see how far the town extended (far), and to get a good view of the valley. Everyone we met en-route was incredibly friendly, we're really starting to like this country!

Over the next few days we hope to do some tours through farmland and coffee plantations, and meet more of these wonderful people.

More pictures from Lukas.