Exploring around Copan Ruinas—August 8-9, 2022

 I returned to Antigua and joined up with the Intrepid tour that I would be with for the next 17  days traveling through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and finishing up in Costa Rica where I would spend another two weeks after the tour.

We had a tour meeting at 6PM with our other travelers along with our guide, Denis, who gave us a summary of the upcoming trip as well as some does and don’ts as we travel. We introduced ourselves and I learned that among 16 travelers, they are from Italy, Canada, the UK, Sweden, the USA, and Australia.

Stefano, from Italy,  is my roommate for the trip.  We had met before the Intrepid tour on our bus from Lake Atitlan to Antigua.  

We walked around the corner to a local Guatemalan restaurant that featured local dishes such as Pepian — a thick meat soup filled with vegetables including corn on the cob with a side of rice.

We learned that it would be a long day of driving starting at 3:45 AM because there were some planned demonstrations to block our route to Copan. As it turned out, we made it past the blockade within 40 minutes of  Highway 1 being shut down until 6 PM.

The drive was very windy and hilly as we passed hundreds of trucks filled with produce heading to other countries, especially the United States.

Our guide was able to bribe our way through immigration to Honduras and cost only about 10 Q each for the bribe and $3 USD for the entry fee.  Otherwise, we would’ve individually had to stand in line along with our bags which most people had packed on top of the bus wrapped in a tarp.

After checking into the Calle Real in Copan, most of us visited the bird sanctuary, and the Hot Springs plus a delicious kebab lunch by the river.

The Macaw Mountain Bird Park’s mission is to breed macaws.  Many of them here have been confiscated by the police from owners who have illegally obtained them.

There were also other birds here as well like owls, toucans, and parrots.

After seeing all of the caged birds we came to an area where the macaws were sitting around a seated area where we could take our pictures with these birds who had been domesticated by previous owners and were unable to be returned to the wild. 

We stopped for lunch at a nearby Riverside restaurant where we were served ample portions of bbq meat and vegetable kebabs and then headed to the Aguas Termales.

To enter the Hot Springs we first went through the “uterus“ of Mother Earth.  We first enjoyed the mud scrubs in the first pool we came to and then explored other pools as well.

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It was a good way to relax for an hour-long and winding drive from Antigua.  The following day we toured the Mayan Copan Ruins, UNESCO World Heritage Site which dominated the area between 250 and 900.  People have been living in this area since 1200 BC.

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