As I had mentioned in this post (nearly a month ago), we had checked into the Hotel Marina Copan in Copan Ruinas, Honduras after being rained out at the Copan Ruins. On the desk at the check in was a sign advertising a tour of a local coffee plantation for $25 per person which included lunch.

Having never been to a coffee plantation before and I couldn’t be sure when I would have the opportunity again, I booked three spots for us for the following morning. The hotel clerk made the reservations and told us to be in the front lobby at 9 AM the following morning to be picked up for the tour.

After a great breakfast we all gathered in the lobby and were met by our guide, Ricardo. He introduced himself in Spanish and asked if we wanted the tour in English or Spanish. We decided on English and headed for the bus. Well the term bus isn’t exactly appropriate, it was a mini-van fitted out for tours (i.e. full seating, air conditioning and windows all the way around). Getting in the bus I asked how many more we needed to pick up for the tour and he informed us that we were the tour! No-one else would be coming.

It took about 30 minutes to drive up into the mountains to the plantation called Finca Santa Isabel (where Cafe Welchez Coffee is produced). The start of the tour is at the nursery where the new coffee plants are nurtured until they are big enough to be planted on the mountain.

The next part of the tour involves getting back into the van and getting driven (thankfully) up the mountain to begin the walk down along groomed trails through the rain forest. This finca uses the shade-grown coffee which allows for the natural habitat to co-exist with the plantation. During the tour we saw plenty of wild birds and butterflies among the coffee plants as the plantation protects the natural trees as they are needed to produce the canopy of the rain forest, which produces the necessary shade. Additionally, herbal medicines are also grown between the coffee plants.

The tour was very informative and the guide’s English skills were excellent. He was able to answer any and all questions that we had. The plantation also had created 3 rest stops along the trails where the finer points of coffee production was explained by the guide and the use of large signs. This one explained the eco-system of the finca and how they are very aware of the effects of the finca on the environment and how the environment effects the coffee plant.

Halfway through the tour we were served lunch which was traditional Honduran food with coffee, of course.

After lunch, we toured the actual production facilities from were the coffee bean is sorted and fermented when it first comes off the mountain to the actual roasting and packaging facilities.

If you are like me you really don’t appreciate the hard work and effort that goes into a cup of coffee. I don’t look at a cup of coffee the same way now that I have been on the tour. If you ever get the chance to tour a finca that produces shade grown coffee don’t pass it up. The experience is amazing and with that new found knowledge you now know what it takes to make a cup of coffee.

After getting rained out at the Copan Ruins we decided to find a hotel in the local town and get to the ruins the following day. We headed into town and found a very nice Honduran National Policeman that directed us to the Hotel Marina Copan.

This hotel is located just of the central square in the heart of the town. It was cheap – $115 a night for the three including a pool and wireless internet. There was a restaurant, bar and gift shop all inside the hotel so even if it was raining (and it was) we had no need to go out in search of food etc.

I recommend this hotel without reservation. It was very clean with big rooms and very comfortable beds. The pool is quite big for hotel in Central America and the restaurant and bar were very very clean and served excellent food. The staff were excellent and even spoke enough English to be understood and understood enough English for me to get my point across without having to butcher the Spanish language.

At check-in I noticed a sign on the desk that mentioned a tour of a coffee plantation that was run daily and I asked the clerk if he knew of this tour and how did I book it? He explained that it was a local operated tour and they picked us up at the hotel at 9 AM. He would also book it for us. Five minutes later we had the tour all booked and settled in a good night’s sleep.

Next post will be about our tour of the Finca Santa Isabel  coffee plantation.

Finally made it to the ‘Mother of all Mayan Ruins’ – Copan. After we left the Parque Arqueologico El Puente, it was only about another an hour and half to the Copan Ruins. We had timed it perfectly. Just as we were entering the parking lot the skies opened up and the afternoon rains commenced. I made a dash to the gift shop and to check out the restaurant while Isabel and Rico stayed in the truck. After about an hour it started to slow down enough for them to get out of the vehicle but we decided that even if we were lucky enough to not have any more rain, it was too late to do the site justice.

The guide that we talked to said that you should plan on a minimum of 2 hours just to view the ruins. In my earlier post I had a comment that Copan did not have a museum. That is incorrect. They do have one but we did not see it. I will explain why later in this post.

A decision had to be made. Do we skip Copan and make a run for the border or do we find a hotel and see the ruins the following day? We decision was an easy one. Find a hotel and see everything tomorrow. (I will do another blog post about the hotel that we stayed at).

The following afternoon we arrived back at the ruins. Paid for the ruins and the museum and found ourselves a guide. The guide was $25 for the three of us. We had our choice of what language we wanted to the guide to speak (English and Spanish among others) and got started.

The ruins cover a very large area and there are hundreds of statues and carvings on display along with many buildings and caves. Make sure when you go you have water and bug repellent as both are very much needed. Water due to the heat and the activity involved in getting around the site. Bug repellent due to the large number of mosquitoes and other flying annoyances. In the dry season, I would suspect that the bug population would be reduced to a level where they are just an occasional nuisance.

The guide was truly amazing and I am sure that without him we would have wondered around seeing but not understanding exactly what we were looking at and why it was significant. Well worth the $25 we spent and the tip we gave him at the end of the tour.

When we were getting close to end of the tour the rain started again and we ran to get a taxi to take us back to the hotel which caused us to miss the museum but to be truthful, by the end of the tour I had so much information crammed into my brain I doubt I would have been able to digest any more information. I would have been walking around looking but not understanding the significance of what I was looking at.

If you ever get to Honduras, it is worth the trip to see these ruins. You will not be disappointed.

Oh and if you ever wanted to be the best player on your sports team just be thankful you are not living during the Mayan period. The top player from the best team was sacrificed at the end of the tournament!

After a good night’s sleep and great breakfast in Santa Rosa de Copan, we headed off to see some Mayan Ruins. The first stop was about 2 hours away at a small site called Parque Arqueologico El Puente.

This site is much smaller than the world renowed Copan Ruins (which I will blog about next). Unlike the Copan Ruins there is a very interesting museum with lots of artifacts that had been discovered on this site. I have lots of photos in my photo album located here. (Search for ‘Parque Arqueologico El Puente’ to narrow down the number of photos.) This site served as a very good introduction to the Mayan culture and religion and formed a very solid basis for the much more amazing Copan Ruins.

As I mentioned above, this is a very small site with 3 main buildings and some smaller artifacts on display in plaza (see picture) but it should not be missed. Being small you are not rushed to get thru the museum nor are you under any pressure at all to rush from building to building. The are no restrictions on climbing the stone buildings and if you are up to it, the views are amazing and provide a totally different perspective of the site than one could ever get from the ground.

After recharging our batteries at the Marriott Hotel in Tegucigalpa for the night we decided to head for the northwest corner of Honduras and visit some Mayan ruins. Only about 150 miles away so we should be there in plenty of time to see the ruins for the afternoon and hopefully get into Guatemala before nightfall.

Well it sounded good anyway. The roads were terrible – other than the main road out of  Tegucigalpa which was a beautiful paved highway the rest of the way was dirt roads or maybe I should say tracks. The trip from Tegucigalpa to Comayagua was quick and easy (once we had found our way of Tegucigalpa ( a severe lack of road signs )). Once past Comayagua we had to get off the highway and use local roads as the highway didn’t go were we wanted to go.

We went thru lots of little towns such as La Esperenza and La Paz just to name a couple. Lovely little towns out in the middle of nowhere. When we stopped for directions or for something to drink I was stared out constantly. It was like they had never seen a Gringo before. The kids would point and mutter something that I am sure wasn’t very complimentary before hiding behind their mother or other kids.I am actually quite used to that as I have been in places where no Gringo has ever been in living memory. It makes for some funny moments for me and I am sure, quite memorable moments for the kids.

Anyway, the next leg of the trip was to a little town called Gracias (which means Thank you in Spanish).We stopped as there was a sign on the main road that pointed us to the ‘historic centre’. Being abit of history fanatic I just had to see it. Well, it was a little disappointing as most of the central park area was being renovated with the streets all torn up and the actual park fenced off while they did the work. We did talk to a very nice young National Policeman who asked us if we had been to the Castle yet. After a brief discussion of what castle and where, he offered to take us up there. We put his bike in the back of the truck and he directed us up to a beautiful old fort that must have been originally used by the Spanish to guard the area. It was up on a hilltop with amazing views of the surrounding area. Once again, the Honduran Police showed us how helpful they can be.

During this leg we stopped and picked up a few of locals that were walking down the side of the road going back home from the market. They were very thankful for the ride and offered to pay us for the trip. Of course, we refused and they went on their way a bit confused as to why we didn’t want any money.

We were headed for Santa Rosa de Copan, the last major town before we hit the ruins. Well once again, we were caught up by the impending darkness and decided to find a hotel there and continue in the morning. We did find nice little hotel with a pool and wireless internet. We booked for one night and then went to eat on the patio beside the pool. The food was good but the service was a bit slow but acceptable.

After a quick dip in the pool it was off to bed and a good night’s sleep. After breakfast we were off to the see the Mayan ruins which I will blog about in the next post.

After our journey to Nicaragua, we decided that rather than returning by the same route we had taken to go to Nicaragua, we would venture into Honduras for a few days (that turned out to be seven days but that is another blog entry).

The border crossing from Nicaragua was a breeze. I have done this some many times now that it is routine. Basically line up to pay your money to leave and then line up again to get into Honduras and you are set. Even at the busiest time it has only taken me 30 minutes tops.

Like the other Central American countries there are police everywhere doing roadside checks. Never really figured out what they are checking for but they ask for vehicle info and driver’s license etc. Honduras is a different situation. They are everywhere. In fact, they even build little buildings for the police to wait in. No standing or sitting in the sun for these guys. They sit in their chairs at the checkpoints and wait for vehicles to come along.

Anyway, in the first 3 hours we had 3 checks. Two where routine and took less than 2 minutes but one (with a rather large building at the side of the road) they pulled us off and wanted everyone out of the vehicle, wanted to see passports etc and then searched the vehicle. When they were satisfied that we weren’t one the most wanted list they let us continue. The next vehicle to come in as we wre leaving was a big highway cruiser bus. I would hate to have been on that bus. It must have taken over an hour for them to check everyone’s ID and then search the bus.

The drive from the border to Tegucigalpa took us about 6 hours and it was dark when we arrived. I hate driving in the dark here as most vehicles don’t have proper (or any) lights and the number of animals (cows, dogs, horses etc) on the road is amazing. I swear that somehow ‘herd of cattle’ and ‘roadblock’ mean the same the same thing. Anyway, the drive that day was long and we arrived to Tegucigalpa in the dark. We stopped for gas and directions to a good hotel and the people working at the gas station couldn’t help us.

We decided that the best plan of action would be to head to the city centre as most cities will have some sort of accomodation available there and all towns in Central America have a central park where business is greared to tourists. Well in the dark we couldn’t find anything and we were all getting tired and patience was getting rather thin.

We saw a police vehicle parked in gas station with the officers standing around so we stopped to ask directions. We must have found the nicest cop in the country or maybe the most bored as he offered to take us to ‘good’ hotel not that far away but he had to get his tire fixed first. OK that sounded good so we waited for the repairs to be complete. He even gave us a choice of two different hotels. one not so good and the better one. Of course we picked the better one.

When his truck was fixed he motioned for us to follow him. Well he hit the lights and siren and guided us thru the downtown core. When we arrived, his partner jumped out of their truck and stopped traffic so we could back into the parking garage. Talk about royal treatment!

We get the truck parked and go into the lobby of this ‘hotel’. Well to give you some idea the cost for three people for the night was $38 US. I would hate to see what the second choice was! The room was on the 2nd floor and the elevator sounded and felt like it really wasn’t going to make it but it did. The room smelt terrible and we had to open the windows to try and get some air into the room. The hotel was next to the local market and the small form the market was better than the smell in the room – just to give you some idea.

That night we decided to find a better hotel for the next night and spend some time exploring this city. Well, the city is a nightmare to drive in. Like most Central American cities there are no street signs and there were loads of one way streets that made getting around very difficult. I think that the city has some very interesting sights and would be worth a day or two just to explore.

The next night was at the Marriott Hotel. Now this is a nice hotel! The room had the standard items plus a free mini bar and wired internet access from the room. When I wanted to work from pool side it was possible via wifi with a code that was provided when I first logged in. Room service was excellent- fast and friendly. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a good night’s sleep and a little pampering.

The next day we were off to the Copan Ruins in the north western part of the country. My next post will be about the journey and the little treasures that we found along the way.

Before I left and during my trip I would watch CNN or BBC News and the most important news story other than the US elections seemed to be the rising costs of gasoline (or petrol for my UK readers).

Well, in Central America, the cost was about the same as in Canada (about $1.30 per litre) except for Honduras. The cost worked out to be about $5 per US gallon or cost to $1.40 a litre and that was in larger cities. In the smaller towns and villages it was closer to $1.50 per litre. Diesel was more expensive than that.

This is a picture of the the gas pump at an Esso station in the capital city of Honduras, Tegucigalpa and the price is shown in lempira. With the conversion the price turns out to be about $4.98 Canadian dollars per gallon. Good and cheap.

I have been very busy this week hence the lack of blog posts. I have been to Nicaragua and Honduras for the week. Three days in Nicaragua and seven days in Honduras.

It was great to be back in Nicaragua. It seems like home away from home for me. Honduras was very interesting – beautiful country (lots of mountains) and I visited a coffee plantation and learned all about how coffee is grown and processed. I also visited the Mayan ruins at Copan. What an amazing experience!

I will posting in more detail about the trip when I have some time to sit down and put my thoughts to pixels.

A couple of highlights include very helpful Honduran National Police, corrupt Honduran Police, very slow immigration officials in Nicaragua and how to drive safely in Honduras, hotel reviews for the Crowne Plaza Managua and several others in Honduras including the Marriott Hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras .

Hopefully that will keep you interested enough to come back