Copan

After our stay in the Jungle we decided to head for the mountains.  We travelled across the northern part of the country over to the very west near Guatemala to visit the city of Copan.  Copan is home to ancient mayan ruins.  Ronnie and I had been here the last time we visited Honduras and decided it was worthy of a second visit to show the Moelns some pretty neat culture.  Besides the insane car ride I think it was worth the trip.  Speaking of car rides, you can see some pretty interesting sights as you drive through the streets of Honduras...

 The bank security

 Selling a parrot on the side of the highway

 There are military check points everywhere.  We lost count of how many times we passed them  They don't have flaggers or caution signs, instead they have these cardboard cutouts in the middle of the road telling you to stop.  Hilarious and creepy all at the same time.

But we eventually made it all in one piece and were welcomed with cooler temperatures at the Yat Balam Hotel.  It was a great place to stay and very accommodating.  We were greeted with fresh lemonade after returning from the ruins and enjoyed tasty liquados or smoothies made by the sweet ladies in their cafe.  They even picked us mangos off the neighbors tree after we asked them what kind of tree it was.  Never mind they were totally sour and hard... it's the thought that counts right?

Copan is such a unique and beautiful city.  I am so grateful that Matt woke up early one morning and took these pictures of some of the surroundings.

 The first day in Copan we headed out to the Ruins.  It is an amazing sight and crazy to think about how these people built such grand structures so long ago.

 Our trusted tour guide

 Scarlet Macaws are the national bird of Honduras.  They greet you as you enter the park.

 Ancient ballcourt dedicated to the macaw diety

 New since Ronnie and I visited were the underground tunnels you could enter and see parts of the inside of the pyramids including the "toilet".  Also, new rulers would build their pyramids over the old rulers pyramid in a sort of bigger and better fashion.

"can I crawl like a baby"

Yeah, they were steep!

 The Hieroglyphic stairway

Probably our most favorite bird was this Oropendola which made the craziest noises like a video game and wove these super awesome hanging nests. 

 After climbing pyramids in the hot hot sun we were all a little tired and hungry so we headed back into town to find some Honduran pupusas.

They are delicious and Pupuseria Mary provided us with many tasty choices.

 We also ventured up further into the mountains to find the Luna Jaguar thermal hot springs.  They have made a progressive spa experience where you bathe in the different temperatures of water and experience killer "foot massages" and scalding hot "back massages".  It was quite the experience.  But we all liked the mud ;)

Muddin up and showing off his snorkeling war wound from the coral- ouch!

 The "foot massage" consisted of walking around this rock formation 13 times on a bed of rocks... what!?!?  Don't they look amused?

 And the back massage was trying to stay as long as possible under water that fell from the super hot pools at the top.  

Not quite what we expected but fun none the less.  However, I am pretty sure we could sit in the mud pretty much anywhere and have fun with these dirty mugs.

 And probably one of my favorite memories from Copan...  We got all ready to go out to dinner and started walking along the narrow cobblestone streets.  The sky opened up and a huge torrential down pour hit as we dashed to our restaurant.  It was warm but we were soaking wet within seconds.  I remember holding Ronnie's hand as he pulled me along,  laughing hysterically and running along side a never ending line of honking cars before finally finding our restaurant.  We choose to sit out under the covered patio and eat our nachos while listening to the rain and making friends with the dogs under the table. We also made friends with two brothers selling bracelets and earrings they made themselves.  We had the "12 dollars will mean so much more to him than it does to us" conversation.
  Yes, yes we did.
Oh Honduras...  

 As we left Copan to travel down to the capitol city of Tegucigalpa, I remember feeling a little sad.  We were headed into the last few days of our vacation that I never wanted to end.  But I am pretty certain this won't be our last stay with Copan.