Mountain roads and a Cigar factory
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2010
1
330
366
Trip End
Jul 13, 2012
Where I stayed
Hotel San Jorge
Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras
Monday, April 9, 2012
We reached the border around 12pm, exited El Salvador, changed some money then walked across to Honduras immigration where we paid our $3 entrance fee (with receipt) and caught a taxi to Nueva Ocotepeque. As soon as the taxi driver stopped, we were whisked to a waiting (ex tourist) bus and spent the next three hours climbing up and down mountain roads to Santa Rosa. With the steep hills and bad roads the bus didn't go that fast and seemed to take ages to get anywhere, but it was a bit more comfortable. The bus stopped for a while by a house at the top of a hill and a few young lads carried round a few 25 litre barrels of diesel and poured some into the bus. About five barrels later we had enough, the driver paid and we got on our way. Also on the way, we saw quite a few broken down vehicles including a gas tanker with the driver laying on a hammock hung up from the tanker, well if you gotta hang around waiting for a mechanic, why not. Once in the outskirts of Santa Rosa, we caught a taxi up one of the steepest hills I've ever seen, to central park. I then got Cat settled in the park and went searching for a place to stay. We finally settled with a nice (on the top end of our budget) hotel run by a very nice (well English spoken) man called Jorge. His hotel is called Hotel San Jorge http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g789367-d1588279-Reviews-Hotel_San_Jorge-Santa_Rosa_de_Copan.html and for 600 Lempira ($32-33) we got an en-suite with 2 double beds, cable TV, hot (for tea) and cold drinking water and a buffet breakfast. Once we'd dumped our stuff in our room, we went out for something to eat and tried Pupusas. Pupusas is basically a tortilla with cheese and whatever else you want in the mixture and served with chillied carrots and red cabbage (well that's what came with ours). We didn't go much on it and headed back to the hotel to try out their burgers. Good choice as they were delicious and we had one each. After dinner, we went back to our room to watch some cable TV with a cup of tea and biscuits before hitting the sack. The biggest problem was choosing which double to sleep in.
Tues 10th Apr.
Got up at 8am and had a nice breakfast of fruit and scrambled eggs on toast. After breakfast we had our hair cut a few doors down and then had a wander round to find the lavanderia in the rain, we couldn't find it so went back to the hotel to wait it out. When it finally stopped we walked up the road to a Sarita shop and had a strawberry milkshake. After that we walked down towards the main road to the cigar factory and had a tour round. It was quite a fascinating hour and luckily for us a German couple we met yesterday were also on the tour and translated for us. At the end of the tour us guys got given a free cigar as a souvenir, then we bid our european friends farewell as they were catching a bus to Gracias. We then walked back up the hill to the hotel and had a rest in our room. Half an hour or so later we were disturbed by a loud engine noise and smoke coming in our window. We discovered that the hotel was having a fumigation and Jorge thought that everyone was out. He said tha15531-25488949t it only effects the bugs and should clear in an hour or so but he was having the whole hotel done and we would have to stay out of our room for a while. So we headed downstairs to let them finish and then around 5.30pm went for pizza. This was probably the best pizza (very tasty) we've had in Central America but not as nice as we get at home. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to watch some TV and then got to bed.
Weds 11th Apr.
Up at 8am and after some breakfast we walked down to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Gracias. http://gracias.hn/3/the-history-happiness-and-hopes-of-gracias/ We arrived around 11am and our first impressions were that we should get on another bus back. At the bus terminal someone was selling multi-coloured chicks, I don't know how, but there were blue ones, orange, yellow, pink and green and looked so cute for only a dollar each. If we were at home, we'd have the colours of the rainbow. Boosted by this, we walked to the center which was very nice and decided to have a bit more of a look around. First was the usual very nice church, followed by the also nice La Merced (If what I've read is correct, It is the first Latin American church, built by the order Mercedaria in 1552.), http://www.angelfire.com/ca5/mas/dpmapas/lem/gra/gra.html then we had a look at an arch carved in the side of a house called the audiencia de los confines, which was the superior court in the area of the new world empire of Spain. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Audiencia_of_Guatemalaepire After that we looked at a more normal looking church called San Sebastian and then walked up the hill to the fort, Fuerte de San Cristobel. At the top we enjoyed some fantastic views of the city and surrounding park land Parque Nacional Celaque. Also by the impressive white fort were some rock sculptures that were pretty cool. We then walked back down and caught a bus back to Santa Rosa which was quicker as we caught a smaller faster bus. Once back in town we checked at the bus terminal the times for our bus to Copan and whilst we were there, there was a strange man playing with himself out on the street. We tried to ignore him, but he decided to follow us with his manhood out! After we managed to tell him to go away, we walked back up the hill and to the hotel via Sarita for an ice cream. After a rest, I went down to collect our washing and then we went for chicken and chips for dinner. After dinner, we rested in the room watching more cable TV before getting off to bed.
Thurs 12th Apr.
Got up at 8am, had breakfast and then had a wander up to the main square as we could hear music playing. We found out that it was two men on a xylophone and one on drums playing next to some market stalls. We then headed back to the hotel to check out and caught a taxi down to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Copan Ruinas.
