HONDURAN HOSPITALITY
Trip Start
Jan 29, 2010
1
17
38
Trip End
Sep 13, 2010
Where I stayed
Copan, Honduras
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
After a 4am start, we arrive at Honduras immigration about 9am in the morning and the heat is already unbearable compared to the cool climes of the Guatemalan highlands. I thought I wasn't going to be allowed in the country with 20 questions from the immigration officer and him looking intently through the pages of stamps in my passport. Eventually we are on our way, but the unfriendly welcome from the Hondurans was going to follows us around.
First stop is Copan Ruinas, which is a quaint little town not far from the Guatemalan border. The heat is crazy, so after finding a hostel and some lunch, I visit a museum on the Mayan culture and then chill in a shady spot catching a breeze. I hit up the ruins the next day with Shannon, who I met on the bus, and get to them early in the morning to try to beat the heat. The Copan Ruinas are of a smaller scale than Tikal but have a lot of interesting carvings intact on the estellas, altars and pyramids. What I also find fascinating are the trees growing out the sides of the tall pyramids, with the roots angling down the long distance towards the ground. They are unable to remove the trees without completely destroying the ruins. We also get to see some Macaws- brightly coloured local birds.
In the afternoon we jump on a bus headed for a city called San Pedro, which is halfway between Copan and the north coast. We drive through some ugly towns, lots of banana plantations, have to slow down for several cows wandering aimlessly on the road and arrive in the most characterless city you could imagine. San Pedro is ugly and unsavoury, with all the hotels seemingly in the area where you should not walk around at night. It is late in the afternoon, so other than grabbing dinner we don't plan on doing much here. We get a taxi from the bus station to the hotel with 2 other people who are staying at the same place. The taxi driver says he can fit 4 people in the car, but didn't think about the bags - so two of the packs are strapped precariously on to the back with some rope. I can't help but turn around to make sure my pack is still there as we drive along with some part of the car scraping along the ground. The hotel is basic and expensive, so we try to bargain for a cheaper price and get a room with a fan only. There is an air conditioning unit, but we are told it doesn't work - it is ridiculously hot inside the hotel, but a fan will do. About midnight I start dreaming about getting rained on and wake up to find I actually am getting rained on. There are no windows in the room, so it takes us a while to work out there is a leak in the roof and the fan is spraying the rain across the room. When we tell the guy about it, he justs laughs at us, obviously knowing very well that there is a leak in the room and not caring to do anything about it. He suggests turning on the air con instead - but it doesn't work - ahh, it does work, the guy just has to switch it on from the front desk. Cheeky bastard. He can offer the air con to us only until 6.30am as it is too expensive to run it, meaning we would get woken up early in the morning sweating to death. How about we just switch rooms to one that doesn't have a leak. What crappy service and the hide of the guy to laugh at us! The Honduran hospitality continues to fail to impress.
