Having parted ways with Australian friends it was time to meet up with the Gap tour group I'd be traveling down to Costa rica with. After 40mins of wandering around Antigua City fully laiden with all my bags I finally found our meet up Hotel. After an introduction meeting we headed out for a meal together, then quickly headed to bed after hearing we were setting off for Copan in Honduras at 4.30 in the morning.
Today's chosen mode of transport
By mid to late morning we had reached our first border crossing. One member of the group, a Northern Irish lad called Simon, had a slight fright when his passport wasn't where he expected. The crisis was averted as he found it moments later, but the panicked look on his face was definitely enough to remind me to always keep tabs on important documents (not always my strong point).
Welcome to Honduras
We reached Copan by about lunchtime and after checking into the hotel, all headed to the main attraction, Copan ruins. Copan is one of the best and most extensive of the preseved Mayan ruins in central america and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A model in the information centre showing the site as it was
Now my actual knowledge of Copan isn't massive by any means, especially as our group decided against taking a guide, as our Gap leader had said they can range quite alot as to how good their information is. So instead we just wandered around and marvelled at the various complex's and plaza's etc. In this regard I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures for you to see rather than trying to explain what each photo shows etc.
One of the main attractions at the site is the hieroglyphic stairs. When the ruins were discovered approximately half way through last century this section was in a far worse state. Archeologists have since reassembled it, and climbing the staircase is now completely off limits to tourists in order to halt any further erosion as best they can. Its also under a giant protective canopy, again to attempt to limit the effects that the weather conditions can have on it. Overall it was an amazing thing to see.
The Hieroglyphic staircase
At the exit we found a few friendly maccaws, well they seemed friendly
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