Copan...

We are off to the Mayan ruins at Copan.
At the bus station in San Pedro Sula, I witnessed the only really unpleasant event to punctuate our trip. Two gringo girls were sitting in the bus, their window down to alleviate the heat. Just as the bus pulled out, someone - a kid I guess, ran up and snatched the baseball cap

off the girl sitting closest to the window and ran off with it down the street. OK, so it was only a baseball cap and no one was hurt, but still; theft in any guise is an unpleasant event which the World could do without.
An hour out of San Pedro Sula the terrain changes; we are no longer surrounded by lush jungle; much of the area is cultivation interspersed with small clusters of trees. Whenever the bus stops we are invariably inundated by children of all ages.

The engine is drowned out by their voices as they attempt to sell you newspapers, sandwiches, juice, green mangos, bananas and a plethora of other edibles. Most of them elevate their wares on poles and the products dance at the level of your eyes, like some macabre puppet show.

Upon our arrival, it seemed there were only two kinds of hotels in Ruinas de Copan; very cheap ones and very expensive ones. Arriving hot and exhausted at our destination, we cast about from hotel to hotel for a room.

Either by misfortune or by circumstance we are turned away from three hotels. Exhausted and tired we agree to a room in a grotty hotel with a grumpy desk manager. After I catch my breath I see that Laurenn is not pleased. Neither am I. If our relationship is going to survive the day I realize we must get out of this hotel fast, so I make a foray back onto the streets of Ruinas de Copan in search of cleaner pastures.

The Hotel Paty was reasonable in price and quite nice. If you drove in your own car to Copan, this is the place to lodge, as it boasts a large enclosed parking area. Furthermore, it is one of the closest hotels to the ruins which lie about one half a mile outside of town. It's only real downside is the laughable electric heated showerhead which supplies a miserable trickle of water, about ten degrees below blood temperature. Give me cold water anyday!

We were running out of time; our plane was due to take us back to the land of milk and honey in two days and we had to make our stay at the ruins "quality time". To that end we hired a guide called Mike who met us early next morning at the entrance of the Copan ruins.

I will not bore the reader with the details of these Mayan ruins (which are informative and truly interesting); suffice to say, there was a civilization here, then there was none. As I walked around looking at the stone carved relief's depicting sacrifice, self mutilation leader worship, I could not shake the feeling that a healthy proportion of the population were not all that upset to see their civilization take a hike.