It feels as if my time is running out and yet my days are getting longer. Is this a side-effect of spending more time in places? A sort of 'more haste, less speed' scenario that I've never really understood - does that saying really make any sense? If you take longer and do less, does that mean that you see more?
Some backpackers would say, that the only real way to travel is to spend a lot of time in one place. I don't disagree with this, but i know that it hasn't in general been what i want. My express train of a journey has been from a desire to see as much as possible, tempered by an unwillingness to leave a place until I'm ready...until now. I don't know if i want to stay here and i don't know where i want to go next. I've been derailed by the check-stop that's the reality of my trip ending soon. One of the reasons for coming to this town, was so that i could study some more Spanish. I've been here 4 days and i still haven't signed-up for a lesson - in fact apart from spending several hours seeing the ruins, I'm not sure what exactly i have done. I'm guessing the above reasons are why this seems to be the normal of late, and why I've been letting fate dictate where i go and how. How come travelling has just got difficult?
1 boat, 2 taxis, 2 buses and a bunch of fellow friendly backpackers sees me arrive around 9pm in Copan after 15 hours of travelling. It was cool to be part of a group for once and i had a strange morning with a Swiss guy i met - several hours in a cafe while avoiding national demonstrations and a security guard who wanted to 'f*** him up'. He demanded payment in food from my friend while we were in the cafe - that's an unusual occurrence, even by my reckoning. Still I'm in Copan now and this is a pleasant, picture postcard town. Pretty posados (inns), cobbled streets, a nice central square, mountains as a backdrop and the steep roads to go with them. There's also lots of tourists, gift shops, cafes and restaurants, a noticeable lack of rubbish, and yet again, it's not the kind of town that you would expect to find here in Central America. I like this place, it has a safe feel to it, people seem very friendly and it's within walking distance of its namesake - the ruins.
The Copan ruins are a lovely Mayan (AD 250-900) archaeological site, of a now present day heritage world UNESCO site. I spent a few hours just aimlessly wandering around the perfectly manicured grounds and clambering over what is left of the ruins. I always feel guilty for this. I decided to forgo a guide as it was $25 and i didn't feel like being part of a group, and I also decided to not pay the $15 entry charge to the tunnels as it was too expensive. Later on i bribed a groundsman to let me in - i feel a bit guilty about that too. I'd rather the money went to the upkeep of the site than into some guys pocket. $15 for less than 10 minutes of sightseeing is ridiculously expensive though. The museum (another $8) was almost as interesting as the ruins. A snake like tunnel for an entrance leads to an open quadrangle containing many of the original and best pieces. It's centre is a full scale replica of the Rosalila temple - the perfectly preserved temple that's buried beneath one of the ruins, which you can just get a glimpse of in one of the tunnels. I had a really enjoyable morning, but i wonder how long it will take me to get fed-up of seeing ruins?
I guess I'll find out over the next few weeks...maybe.
