Central America

When we told the owner the night before that we would leave at 7am, and the owner had given us a funny look. We woke up at 5:30am to catch the 6am bus to Copan Ruinas. At 5:45, we realized why the funny look: he was nowhere to be found and we were locked in. We tried to get out to no avail. We walked around the hotel looking for a way out, even getting to the back parking lot, but no luck. (Incidentially, the hotel seemed to be renovating and building an adjacent and secure parking structure).

Finally, I found a way to the side that went thru an empty lot to a dirt mound that would help us jump a fence. I called to CR to get there and as he ran over, he fell into a hole and landed on his face. Luckily, no injuries, and we caught the 6am bus to Copan Ruinas. It took about 2 hours to get to the ruins.

On the bus I met a friendly little boy, I forget his name. He seemed genuinely curious of who me and CR were. We chatted a bit and I quickly let my guard down. He was warm though poor. I wish there was something I could have done for him. When he got off the bus, he said, very sweetly, "Que le vaya bien".

They Mayan Ruins 1km from Copan Ruinas were awesome. Mindblowing. We paid US$22 to visit the site and the tunnels and saw the carvings, pyramids, layers, and architecture of the Mayans. Only photos or being there will convey the majesty of the Mayan ruins. We also took the nature hike and saw many butterflies and birds, but no jaguars or monkeys.

We found a house that doubled as the Casasola bus terminal and ticket office, and around 4pm we took a Casasola bus out to La Ceiba. We were told it was "expresso" and "directo" to San Pedro Sula (SPS), but it turned out that the bus stopped frequently. I told the ayudante that we were heading to La Ceiba and he dropped us off at a terminal in SPS. Getting to the terminal, we found out no additional buses were leaving that day. Misinformed!

We went to the bathroom and started a highspeed run to the Hedman Alas bus terminal, overpaying a taxi to take us there "rapido por favor". Luckily, a bus was leaving in 30 minutes at 6pm, and that's the bus we caught. Tickets were about US$15. Waiting for the bus, we ran into someone we'd spend the next few days with, LRA. LRA was Spanish and worked in the Spanish embassy of Honduras in Tegucigalpa.

The three of us made it to La Ceiba around 9pm and went to get street meat and beers. LRA went to sleep afterwards but CR and I went in search of the legendary nightlife of La Ceiba, supposedly the party capital of Honduras. No such luck. We went home and went to sleep.