07 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are now in Honduras. After much deliberation and arguing while reading our guidebook and scanning our bedspread size map of central america, we finally came to the conclusion to head east out of Guatemala and into Honduras. We had many wonderful options as to the direction and type of activities we wanted to persue, so it was a difficult 2 day decision making process.

Thus......we are now in the city of Copan, 1 Km away from the Copan ruins. We took the bus out of Antigua at 1 pm on what we thought would be a five and a half hour shuttle ride, which quickly escalated into a seven hour plus shuttle ride. Rule number one about central america, never trust an estimated word of mouth time schedule from the people selling you tickets. Always try and find a traveler who has actually made the trip.

Rule number two, never trust the prices given to you in the travel agencies sprinkled around town. We have come to find that there is usually one principle agency, and many more secondary agencies. These secondary agencies inflate costs to make a profit. After checking prices today for our voyage, prices fluctuated from $8 USD to $20 USD. Outrageous. Its difficult to take some of these places seriously when you look straight in their eyes and know they are ripping you off. Anyway, we paid 68 Quetzales ($8 each) for our long voyage. If you find yourself in this area, I recommend using Plus Travel Agency.

http://www.plustravelguate.com/

They have low, affordable prices - and they are not trying to rip you off. Their ad says it straight up - Dont Pay More. And I have to agree. There are several locations in both Antigua and Copan, and most likely other cities as well.

Okay, now onto the actual ride. Our driver was sorta insane. There were 12 of us inside, where 4 of those were a father, mother and two young children - while the rest of us were normal traveling personas. The driver kept passing cars on curves, hills, and any other location deemed impossible as a passing lane. But to his credit, it was happening all around us. When a car trying to pass finds itself face to face with an oncoming vehicle, plenty of frantic horn honking gets them back into the lane in the knick of time. Plus, around 6 pm the sun sets. This makes for an unusually frieghtening time. Curvy roads without street lamps in the dense mountains and high speeds. Its jaw numbing. Mari and I have sworn to never travel after dark again.

When arriving to a location I used to say LLegamos (we have arrived), but lately due to all our death defying traveling I have taken to saying Vivimos (we´re alive).

Okay, now its time to refer back home. What is going on in Seattle? Mari and I have both received news reporting pregnancies back home during our absence. Anyways.... congratulations to Michael and Olivia for their future offspring, and we would like to extend this same congratulations to Louisa and Jed as well. We cant wait to see these beautiful mixtures in baby form in the near future.

As for Copan, the guidebook really lead us astray. We checked out the suggested hostel here - Hostal en la Manzana Verde - and were highly disappointed. Althought the structure was nice, with a beautiful kitchen, the woman working the shift was rude and shifty. Anyways, we found a wonderful place called Hotel Mar Jenny, or perhaps Marjenny. I have seen it both ways. Private rooms, internet, hot shower - the works. And for cheap. We paid 190 Honduran Lempiras for our room. There are roughly 19 Lempiras in 1 USD, so its about $10 bucks. Not too bad.

Its now 10 PM. Mari started to get a headache during the trip so she is in the room trying to sleep. I just walked down to the town center and bought some local beer named Salva Vida. Hmmmm, just googled it, and although it got a C grade on the beer advocate, it tastes mighty fine to me.

Although its sad to cut the Guatemalan tour short, its nice to be in the 5th country of this trip so far. I hope Honduras is as wonderful as all the other places we have visited.

T