Central America

The next morning we took the 29A minibus (costing $0.24) to the bus terminal and headed off on bus 119 to the bordertown of El Poy. It was a chicken bus, meaning it stopped on the highway anytime someone waved their hands. It took us about 3 hours to get near El Poy, between El Salvador and Honduras, when the bus broke down. CR and I got off, and met Jessica from the Peace Corps. The three of us walked down the hill to hitch a ride and we made it to La Palma, about 20 minutes from the border.

CR and I stopped to get a bite and walked around the town a bit. The town is the center of production of Salvadorean art. We got to El Poy, cleared migracion, and found three other travellers waiting in a collectivo taxi to go from El Poy to the bus terminal in the next real town, Neuvo Ocotepeque. The 6 of us crammed into a car meant for 4 people. Arriving in the bus terminal, we had a wait and chatted with Johan, Stew, and Bill. I also used a disgusting toilet, the first of many. Luckly, CR had packed toilet paper.

CR and I got on the bus and headed towards Santa Rosa de Copan, hoping to get just a bit further into La Entrada to make our push towards Copan Ruinas and the Mayan ruins there. We got into La Entrada and decided to stay there. I was a bit frightened by where we stopped: an empty lot. We walk for not very long and found the intersection of CA4 and CA-?, and found a hotel quickly.

Later, we headed out to get street meat and realized that despite the crummy appearance, La Entrada was a safe place to stay. The 3 or 4 food vendors on the main highway street were totally friendly, as were the people, and the young people had nothing to do more than just walk around the dirty main highway. Off the highway, it seemed scary because the streets were dark but CR and I walked down one and they were all just people's modest homes. Few homes were more than a wooden box and there was the smell of burning trash, but we never felt unsafe.

We went to bed early, planning to catch the early bus to Copan Ruinas.

posted by yh  # 9:36 PM