Honduras

i won t wright much about santa rosa de copan. other then the town was pleasant, other then we had a fairly nice hotel that included a continental breakfast, writing more about it would be an excercise of creative writing. after all, this was just an over night, en route to copan ruinas town. a friend of mine mentioned, before i left, that tikal was to rome was copan is to florence. i got to know what she meant only on site, where, while visiting the museum of mayan sculpture, we got to learn that copan was the the city where science and arts (therefore all the scupltures) was at the centerstage of all activities. the ruins themselves are not less impressive. they might not have the heights and grandeur of tikal, but they surely rander a very well organized society. there are still at least 3 pyramids that are impressive, plus a channel of underground tunnels makes the experience a travel back in time, where you can see how while constructing newer pyramids over time they managed to preserve older ones.
such a rewarding experience was soon cooldowned with another full journey of chicken-busing. at 7am the next day we were en route to san pedro sula and transiting towards lago de yojola. the hotel we were aiming for was highly considered by my guidebook, and as marie-pierre was leaving soon, we were ready to loosen-up on those lempiras. turned out to be a shady, both nice and horror-picturesque-like in its mood, kind of hotel. the service was crap. the food, horrible. there was less then a handful of people around. i got sick on the next day and i suspect the chef from having done dodgy things to my food. we ask for a chicken sandwich before our excursion. turned out there was no bread. no bread, no sandwich. at night, they had a wine option, which we badly needed after an intense hike. turned out there was wine, but, the guy in charge of opening the wine scellar was not there. no wine. on the next morning, both of our plate lacked ham. it sucked. our loge sucked. fortunately, the view, on the lake, was fantastic. when the sun set, we had an intense orchestra of birds singing, which i taped.

the hotel was, minimally, situated between 2 national parks. at least we had good hikes around. transportation is present in this area but not common nor practical. we hitchiked a ride. susana stopped and drove us to a junction where we had to bride a bus driver to drop us even further at the entrance of this remote area which is parque nacional cerro azul meambar. the road that leads there stop to actually be a road half way through (i took picture of the workies making the cement tracks badly needed to get there). the hike was steap, sweaty, but fun. from up the mountain we had a super view of the surrounding and the lake. on the way back, a small to medium waterfall brang a welcoming breeze.

on the next day, susana, with whom i had exchanged phone numbers, picked us up right from our hotel. the women was a sweety-pie, driving us around to parque las naranjas, walking the walk with us in this swampy mangroove like environement. then drove us to another parc, catarata de pulhapanzak the main attraction here is a fat-ass 43 meters cascade and waterfall. impressive, noisy and wet comes to mind. up the waterfall, theres a nice break where we swimed before falling asleep to a comfortable and steady sssshhhhhhhhhhhh. we went back to a different city and hotel, wich wasn t out of fancyness. on that night, both m-p and i got stumick-sick.

next day was second to last for m-p. destination was tegucigalpa, where she was taking of the day after. we had the whole day ahead to get there and stroll through the city. but. what was suppose to be a usual easy chicken bus ride to final destination quickly morphed into a nightmare. not more then an hour after we took off, the bus stop. and so did everything else on the street. we patiently waited. for too long. after an hour of inactivity and very few info on what exactly was going on (there seemed to have been some sort of accident somewhere, with dangerous chemicals on the ground). small cars were going through, but not buses or trucks. people from every buses slowly started to get out on the street, in little groups, hoping a car would stop. we did the same, but seperated from other groups of people. we were lucky. not less then five minutes later, a young and dynamic couple stoped by: melissa and aaron. better news had yet to come: they were also heading to tegucigalapa ! they were super nice with us, entertaining, curious, two well educated (an architect and a psycho student) early 30ies, wealthy hondurians. what was suppose to be a 3 hours drive took, in the end, not less then 8. to make a long story short, at 4 am that morning, a nonchalant cow passed by the highway. a truck driver, probably fighting between a fried piece of chicken and the weel, saw it one second too late, abruptly turned the weel, with consequence of crashing the truck on the side, cracking the tank, and spreading out its toxic content.

on the next day, i found a newspaper that mentioned that the road we took had been blocked from 4am to 6pm. good thing we didnt waited in that chicken bus... our car got through by passing through a long detour on a dirty, bumpy road along small ugly-bizzare little towns. trucks and buses couldn t go through.

on the last night of our trip together, we booked a nice, leafy hotel, el colonial, right beside the cathedral. we went to a very popular local restaurant, which was loud with live music, heavy on karaoke, and packed with beers (and there drunk acolytes). m-p left on the next day, leaving me alone in honduras. on that day, i hired senor fuentes, a truly honest type with a pick-up truck. we were successful in finding at least one farm, which was very informative. an ancestral house was on the premisses and the farmer, really helpful and pro-active.

that was it for honduras. dunno yet, but not sure it will be my favorite country in central america. this statement is totally unfair, since i ve been here only for a very few days, but it s my feeling.
I ve now been for a single day in nicaragua and yet i love it. very promising.