Copan, Honduras

Getting out of Guatemala this weekend was quite the hassle. It took about 2 hours just to leave the city limits. Once on the road this bus was possibly the slowest in Guatemala, and after another 3 hours we arrived in Chiquimula. Since it was around 530pm we were planning on staying the night here, but after talking to a guy in a mini shuttle, we decided we could make it to the border to catch another bus to Copan before the buses stoped running at 630. So we piled into this toyota minibus and headed to El Florido (the honduran border) for Q10. About half way to the border the guy says you can get on this other bus and it will be faster. What he didn't tell us is that they would try charging us Q50 to go 20km. After seeing Ryan get upset, the driver said, "don't worry, it will be fine. We'll take you to Copan." We got to the border just as the sun was setting thinking the guy was going to take us to Copan for another 10 or 20 quetzales because it was only 10km, but we were wrong. He said oh we'll take you for Q75 because we are tired and want to go to bed. WTH. I dont think so.

We walked up to the actual border which was a bar across the road and waited for someone to give us a ride. By this time it was dark. After 10 or 15 minutes, a guy gave us a ride in the back of his pickup for 50 lempiras or about Q20. So we arrived in Copan Ruinas and went to find hotel Gemaco. We werent inside the hotel for more than 5 minutes and the lights went out. So the rest of the night, the entire town had no electricity. After stumbling to our room we went to look for a restaurante in the dark. We ate at a steakhouse that had some mariachis playing (i dont know what they call them in honduras but it was good.)

The next morning i went to have some breakfast at the central park and then we headed to the ruins. It was about a 15 minute walk outside of town to the ruins. $15 later we were walking around the ruins of Copan, which was amazing. I highly recommend it. Getting there at 8 in the morning we missed alot of tourists while there were a fair amount of French roaming about, hahaha. After about an hour inside the ruins i decided to lose Ryan and wander around. I found you can get a fair amount of historical information without buying a guide and just nonchalantly following a group around. hahahah. After another a hour we headed back to town in a rickshaw. We then proceeded to take a number of minibuses to get to Chiquimula and finally back to Guatemala. The buses were hot and miserable, but it was worth it.

Playa Tunco

El Salvador

I left Guatemala City Friday morning only to forget my passport and remember an hour outside of town. I had to return to the city and meet Ryan three hours later in Jutiapa. In Jutiapa we got on another bus to the border where we switched again to get to Santa Ana, El Salvador. And finally a bus in Santa Ana took us to San Salvador where we stayed the night at Ximena's hostel on boulevard de los heroes in the north of the city.

Luckily we found out that the Central American cup was in the city and El Salvador and Costa Rica were playing that night. We hitched a ride with a Belgian and a Dutch girl from the hostel to the stadium. Ryan had to fight his way to the ticket counter by trampling Salvadorians to get us tickets. Once in the stadium, on our way to find seats the entire crowd around us starting yelling and cheering for us. More than likely because they thought Ryan was someone important, hahahah. Little do they know!!!! The game was exciting even though Costa Rica dominated. The crowd made it interesting with their antics and flying objects. After the game we went to a salsa bar near our hostel to have a few cocktails.

The next day Ryan and I walked around San Salvador looking like tourists. We went to the monument of the revolution and most of the parks to get some pictures. We went to the central market and ate some hamburgers after we were harassed by ladies running the stands. They all wanted our money i guess. I was pulled into a number of places where I was told to eat their hamburgers. hahahahha. Next we hopped on a bus to the coast. We stayed at Playa Tunco in the hotel tortuga, which was very nice and cheap. Went for a swim and ate supper on the beach. That night we went to a reggae/techno concert on the beach with a bunch of tourists and local surfers. Left to San Salvador again in the morning and ate some pupusas downtown and headed back to Guate.

Volcan Pacaya

Now that's hot!!!!

Chichicastenango

Pacaul abaj

El Quiche

Friday,February 9, 2007

After waiting for at least 30 min, I was able to get on a bus to the terminal. Upon reaching the bus terminal I found that i had to take another bus to get to the bus that would actually take me to Santa Cruz del Quiche. So about an hour and a half later i was on my way to Quiche. After another 3 hours, al ot of near fatal accidents, a whole lot of motion sickness, and plenty of dust in my face, I arrived in El Quiche.

I checked in to a hotel in the center of the city and went to find a place to eat. I found a small restaurante around the corner where i had a steak diner for Q18. The next day I woke up with the venders setting up there tables and goods at 430 in the morning. I went to the bus terminal and had a sweet roll and coffee at about 630 and then started on my walk to find the ruins of K'umarcaaj. It took me around 1.5 hours to find the ruins through the morning fog. They were located about 6km from my hotel. The ruins were basically a bunch of grass covered hills surrounding a slab of rock. On the outside of the hills there was a trail leading to a cave covered in black smoke. I walked into the cave but soon found it was extremely deep so i returned to the light before the spirits reached me, hahahah. After coming back into town i ate some breakfast for Q15, cheaaaaaap. I hopped on a bus to Chichi and walked around the market. After i walked up to the site of pascual abaj, the mayan king that turned to stone when the people went against him. I then walked back to town ate lunch and bought some brightly colored things. And back to Guatel.