Hola from Honduras

Two Macaws at Copan....leave captions on the message board

Now in Honduras in Copan Ruinas, about 10 km over the Guatemalan border. It's a really beautiful little town where my Spanish is already coming in very useful. Yesterday we visited the last Mayan ruins for this trip at Copan. These are set in a magnificent park which was very tranquil - where were all the tourists? It seems that less Americans make it to Honduras so already there is a sense of quietness around the place, and hopefully that will be the case into Nicaragua aswell.

Copan contains many elaborate stone carvings which makes them very different from Tikal and Chichen Itza. Although not as high and impressive in their stature, they have a more artistic feel to them. The highlight was the hieroglyphic stairway which holds the the longest known remaining text from the Maya civilisation. There are many stelae throughout the park, mainly depicting the 13th ruler called 18-rabbit between the years 711 and 736 AD. Altar Q was quite unique and has now been completely deciphered and it depicts each of the 16 rulers of the Copan dynasty. It is thought that over population eventually caused the fall of Copan.

Today I visited a butterfly and orchid farm which was very pretty and contained 100 different types of butterflies and over 250 orchids. The blend of colours was truely amazing.

Heading north to the coast tomorrow to check out the white sandy beaches and crystal waters of the Carribean. Don't be surprised if you I don't update the weblog for a while - I'll probably be too busy snorkelling, reading or topping up the tan.