We took an overland trip to Copan, Honduras. Getting there and back is half the story. There were 6 of us and we had planned to take the 2 hour chicken bus ride to San Salvador but managed to hitch a ride in the back of a small pick-up truck. When in Rome! Conveniently there was a traffic slow down near where we needed to get off so we all jumped out and made our way across traffic to the side of the road.

We were picked up by the shuttle service that we had hired to take us to Copan. The van was first class and we thought that we would be continuing our good luck. The driver dropped us off at a gas station where we were told to wait for our 1 pm shuttle to Copan. Since it was only noon, we headed across the street to a burger/chicken joint and had lunch then returned to the gas station before our 1 pm departure. We found the correct van and thought that our luck might be running low because it was a small, slightly smashed up mini van. Our luck further deteriorated when they moved our van into a mechanics garage. The van only needed brakes but we had to stand out in the hot parking lot of the gas station for ½ and hour while they did the work. Finally around 1:30 we were on our way. Now we KNEW our luck had run out because we had an agressive driver. Gas, brake, bas, brake, jerk the steering wheel, brake, gas, jerk the steering wheel. We endured 5 hours of his rotten driving but finally made it safely through 2 border crossings (Guatemala and Honduras) and to our hotel.

The following morning we went to Copan Ruins. We hired a guy (Marvin) who gave us an excellent tour of the ruins and taught us a little bit of how to read their pictorial language. The picture says 13th king after the first king.

There is a place in Copan called Macaw Mountain who have been breeding and releasing native Scarlet Macaws and we saw several of them in the trees at the ruins. We visited Macaw Mountain the next morning where we saw dozens of Scarlet, Great Green and Blue and Gold Macaws in a breeding program. There were about a dozen Scarlets who were given daily free flight time and are being readied for release in a couple of months. Along with the Macaws, they had several Amazons and a few Toucans.

Speaking of Toucans, at the end of the park there is an area where some birds can be held and interacted with. There was a Keel-billed Toucan who hopped out of his cage with a piece of fruit in its beak. It walked over to my friend, Mke and was hopping around his feet. Mike didn’t react so the bird went over to Holly and hopped around her feet. When she didn’t react the bird came over to my feet. I reached down and grabbed the piece of fruit and it let go! The silly bird was offering us food! After I took the food, it went back and got another piece for me.

There are natural hot springs about an hour ride outside of Copan so we headed there for the afternoon. There were several pools of various temperatures and we spent a few hours moving from pool to pool. One pool offered mud and we had fun spreading it all over our skin. I am now fully exfoliated and soft.

The hot springs empty into a river so we ended our time at the park by playing in the river where we could find places where one foot would be in cool water, the other in hot. We ended up soaking in a warm area of the river, playing with a local girl and watching the locals enjoying the river downstream.

The next morning we got up at 3 am in order to catch our 4 am shuttle ride back. Unfortunately it was the same reckless driver only he seemed angry this time and his driving only got worse.