Copan - Mayan ruins, coffee plantation and aquas calientes

Semana Santa (Easter week) is a big event here in Honduras.  I'd say it's 'bigger' than Christmas.  Most companies close for the week and even Keith's company closed for a few days.  So, we jumped in the car and like most Teguc residents we got out of town.  Our destination was Copan Ruinas, in the west of Honduras (on the Guatemalan border). 

We went via San Pedro Sula (north-west) and stayed with a collegue of Keith's there.  I'd not been to SPS before and welcomed the stopover.  SPS is the commercial capital of Honduras.  As it's close to the beach it's also a popular arrival point for tourists.  In fact most international flights arrive in SPS rather than Tegus.  The city is very modern and laid out in a grid system with a ring road around it.  We didn't see too much of it but first impressions were that it would be a nice city to live in, and easily navigated (unlike Tegus).  It was a lot hotter and humid though, bearing in mind that we live at 1000m in Tegus and effectively have a very pleasant micro-climate.

From SPS to Copan it was only a few hours.  The journey was nice, lots of mountains (hence curves) and often following a river.  I always find it amusing to see that most rivers become swimming baths for the locals, especially when it's hot, and car wash areas, where they drive their car into the water to clean it.

Copan Ruinas is a very charming town, made of cobbled roads and low-rise buildings.  We stayed at a lovely little boutique hotel (Yat B'alam: http://www.yatbalam.com/) which was one block away from the main Parque Central.  We enjoyed exploring the local bars and restaurants but were especially spoiled by the Easter celebrations. 

They blocked off one side of the main square and laid out sawdust to create the alfombras (carpet).  Then over the evening and overnight they created pictures with coloured sawdust representing Jesus and Easter.  I got up early in the morning to see the end result and it was very impressive.  In the evening there was a procession from the church, through the town.  It finished off walking across the alfombras which I thought was a shame as then all the designs were ruined.

Our main reason for being in Copan Ruinas was to see the Mayan ruins that are there.  We got up early one morning and were some of the first there.  This was great as we saw Macauw birds roaming around.  The ruins are impressive and expansive.  We had a guide who took us round for about 2 hours, explaining some of the markings and buildings.  We both found it interesting.

There are plenty of other sights in the area.  One is the Macauw Bird Sanctuary which is home to many Honduran and Central American birds.  Some of breeded there but they also take in birds that have been abondended or found for sale along the road sides.  The Sanctuary is nicely laid out and interesting to visit.

We spent an afternoon at the Aquas Calientes.  It was a windy journey from Copan Ruinas but very beautiful.  Then we found the hot springs.  They have some public pools that were popular with families who had come for the day and had picnics.  Then on the other side of the river are the Aquas Calients.  You can walk along the river and dip into the various pools.  The top ones are extemely hot (almost boiling) and the further down you go the more they cool off.  We spent a while there, enjoying the mud baths and then rinsing off in natural waterfalls or just enjoying the pools of warm water.  There is a spa there too, for those who want massages etc.

Copan is known for its cigars and coffee.  We didn't get a change to visit a tobacco plantation but we did get to go to the Finca Santa Isabel which makes Welchez coffee (http://www.cafehonduras.com/).  We were shown around the plantation and were surprised not to see rows and rows of coffee plants.  It seems there are all grown on the mountain side and hand picked when the time is right.  We were taken to the top of the finca and then walked down along paths surrounded by coffee plants.  At the end they also showed us how the beans get processed to eventually be roasted and packaged.  They explained that for wholesale distribution they don't roast the beans as that gets done by the buyer to make it their unique roast.