In Ruins…

Another disclaimer… this post is going to be long as well… but we kinda had a jam-packed weekend.

So, after being stood up by one of the teachers last week (he was going to take us to Gracias, and then never showed up), Thalia and I decided to take our life into our own hands this past weekend and travel to Las Ruinas de Copán (the Copán Ruins) by bus… figuring at the very least we would have an adventure.  We left on Friday morning (11:00 bus) with the plan of… well… very little.  We knew were the bus station was, that there was a bus that would take us directly to the Copán Ruins, we had the name of a hotel that had rooms available (and the names of a couple of other hotels that we weren’t sure about), and we had some activity ideas… going ziplining, going on a horseback riding tour, and traversing the ruins themselves… but absolutely nothing was set in stone. 

Thalia being sat on in our cramped
rapidito

We got to the bus station here in Santa Rosa, and after asking around a little bit, found the Rapidito (basically a van that was built to seat about 12) that was leaving at 11:00 for the Ruins.  I would upload the picture I took of the bus terminal… but it doesn’t do it any justice as to how crazy it actually is.  At first we thought that we were lucky… we were the first ones on the bus and had a significant amount of room; however, they just kept piling people in.  The first leg of the trip (to La Entrada) wasn’t bad… it only took an hour, which was expected, and there were only about 15 people in the Rapidito.  However, from La Entrada to the Copán Ruins, the driver kept on stopping to let more people on… so I’m pretty sure we had more than 20 people in the van at one time.  One guy kept on practically sitting on Thalia.  Anyway, we made it to the Ruins after about 4 and a half more hours (it should have only taken around 2 and a half!).

We then went in search of the hotel that we knew had open rooms and was rather inexpensive… after traversing the city, and asking another hotel (they had to call La Madrugada – the hotel we were looking for – to find out where they were located) and then a couple of people on the street, we finally found it… it was a nice hotel, but the hotel manager, after hearing what we wanted to do, recommended we go to Hacienda San Lucas because a lot of tours go out from there, and he told us that it would be similarly priced.  So, we took a moto-taxi to Hacienda San Lucas.  It was a really nice hotel, but slightly out of our price range as one night would only cost us a measly $150!  Needless to say, we found another hotel.  However, the taxi driver, Cesar, who  took us back into town to the hotel became our personal tour guide/chauffer.  He knew absolutely everyone and was willing to make reservations for us through his connections, so we were able to do absolutely everything that we wanted to do!

Thalia and I ziplining together

We left our hotel at 7:00 in the morning to go Ziplining.  It was a ton of fun!  Supposedly this zipline run is the longest in Central America with 16 different lines.  The two ziplining guides even let Thalia and I zipline together on one of the runs (it took a little convincing though)!  We were roped together with our harnesses and carabineers and I was in charge of braking us… Thalia literally put her life in my hands, the fact that anyone would willingly do that completely floors me! 

Chula doing what she does best:
stopping and eating

After our ziplining adventure, Cesar took us to a place that offered horseback riding tours.  Thalia and I rode two horses (Thalia’s horse was named Princesa and mine was Chula).  We rode to a little town that was near the ruins of Los Sapos (the Frogs) – there was a carving of a frog and a crocodile as well as the fertility god.  There, our tour guide told us some of the background of the Mayans and the ruins of Los Sapos.  Apparently, this was a woman’s hospital – where the woman of the town would give birth.  Every year, the last child born that year was sacrificed on the alter above the carvings.  After seeing the ruins, our guide took us to a small scarf-making shop in the town.  Some Japanese women had visited the town about 5 years ago to teach the Honduran women how to weave scarves and make dolls out of the corn husks that they could sell to tourists.  With the money that they earned, the small town was able to buy some solar panels so that they could have electricity.  Additionally, our guide told us about the two schools that are in the town, one is for the kids (originally, the children had to travel to another town to be schooled) and the other is for adults.  The kids have your normal math/language classes, but the adults learn their indigenous language in order to keep their Mayan heritage alive. 

The ruins! 

The crocodile 

Thalia and I then traveled to the big Archeological site (you know, the one that everyone who goes to the ruins goes to see).  The main archeological site is where the kings lived, so it was full of palaces and giant tombs.    It was really cool to see all of the temples, alters, and sculptures of gods that the Mayans built (and learn about the Mayans by listening in to some of the tour guides that we didn’t pay for!).  We then walked the two kilometers to the second site, which was where the nobles lived.  There was a Sun temple there and a bunch of what looked kinda like wood piles that one of the tour guides told us used to be houses. 

So, after our long day at the Ruins, Thalia and I caught the 2:00 bus back to La Entrada, where we waited at yet another bus station (really we were just waiting on the side of the street) for another bus back to Santa Rosa… needless to say we had absolutely no idea what we were doing.  Luckily (and I use the word VERY loosely) I am a Gringa, and very apperantly, so one of the guys who was announcing what  busses where which more or less helped us out when getting on the bus.  And we rode a converted school bus back to Santa Rosa. 

Needless to say, we had quite the adventure at the Ruins, but it was a ton of fun, and we were exhausted when we got back… we didn’t even have the energy to watch a movie like we had planned.

Loves to everyone at home!