This small town of about 7000 is located in north central Honduras near the Mayan ruins of Copan. The white washed buildings with red tiled roofs along cobble stoned streets lend the town a wonderful atmosphere. We stayed in hotel Brisas de Copan, a small family run hotel with very clean rooms and Television in every room. Honduran cable is far superior to any we have encountered thus far showing good quality films on several channels at the same time. Turgay and Amy spent some time in Café Via Via watching Turkey and other teams play in the Euro 2008 soccer tournament Turkey won their match in penalties after scoring the tying goal in the final seconds of overtime.
Only a one kilometer walk from town is the archeological site of Copan. This site is one of the most important sites of the ancient Mayan civilization. Though not cheap (about $22 for the site and museum) it is well worth the entrance fee. Sometimes referred to as the “Paris of the Mayan World”, Copan is home to many intricate sculptures and hieroglyphics. There are many impressive Stelae depicting the Mayan kings of Copan, the originals are found in the Copan museum near the entrance to the park.
Also in the museum is a replica of the Rosario Temple which was discovered intact beneath a larger temple, through a series of archeological tunnels in 1989. This temple was so sacred that rather than destroy it the new temple was built over it thus preserving it. The most important ruin at Copan is the hieroglyphic stairway which relates the story of the kings of Copan. This site is well maintained, has a pleasant nature trail and is even home to a flock of scarlet Macaws.
In the park central of Copan we listened to music in the evenings and wandered up and down the small cobbled streets. Near the town are a butterfly garden, Enchanted Wings,
and a bird park, Macaw Mountain. The butterfly garden is only a few minute walk out of town and very informative with all stages of Butterfly development represented and a short tour included in the entrance fee. Macaw Mountain is a bit more expensive and is a 25 minute walk uphill out of town. The ticket covers an extensive personal guided tour and also allows you entrance to the park for three days. Macaw Mountain was established with rescued, injured and endangered birds. The setting is beautiful and there is a café which serves coffee that is grown, harvested, roasted and ground on the premises. We stayed for a total of three nights in Copan before boarding a bus to take us o the Caribbean coast of Honduras.
The bus departed early in the morning and was by far the nicest and the coldest bus we had been on yet. The reason for the overactive air conditioning soon became clear, in each small town that we stopped they managed to pack more and more people on the bus until a bus with a seating capacity for about 50 people was carrying at least 100 people. As we made our way to San Pedro Sula we passed through beautiful countryside and despite the number of people on the bus it was a comfortable ride. In San Pedro at the main bus station (which is enormous) we were able to locate the onward bus to take us to La Ceiba from where we boarded a ferry to take us to the Island of Utila.
{Macaw Mountain Bird Park}
