A Broad Abroad

Chichi Market, Guatemala, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

Chichi Market, Guatemala

Chichi Market, Guatemala, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

Yes, the name literally means old.  I need to investigate when and why this town acquired the name, as it surely wasn’t always old.  The little history I have doesn’t address the nomenclature.  One thing everyone can agree on is that it is a beautiful colonial city.  It’s had its UNESCO heritage designation for several decades so long ago it buried its power lines and has since evolved into an extremely cleaned-up version of a central American colonial city.  It’s gorgeous, clean, has fabulous food and shopping and is generally an incredibly comfortable place.   Many people I have met think it’s too touristy.  Indeed there are many gringos but when you mix it into a 5 month central American trip, it’s a really nice ingredient.

I was dropped off in the parque central (7 hours from Copan) and made my way to “the yellow house” hostel up by iglesia merced.  It’s a clean, quite place and my single room with shared bathroom was $10.  The bathrooms are spotless and there is free purified water.  The water is solar heated so hot showers are between 9am-2pm – not exactly in my ideal range so that was a down-side.  The single room was SMALL (I could not fully extend my arms without touching both walls) but clean, with cable TV and nice décor….as much décor as will fit in a room that small ☺.  I was only spending 2 nights there – enough time to understand the town better and figure out going to lago de atitlan.  I also wanted to scope out some other places to stay since I’d be passing thru Antigua again.

I’ll have lots of time here later (semana santa) so won’t go into much detail now, but I did find an incredible little restaurant across from la iglesia de la merced.  There is no sign out front but it’s run by hector and is next to an asian-fusian restaurant.  It has a handful of tables and a beautiful atmosphere.  I sat at the tiny bar which looks over the tiny kitchen.  To say “kitchen” is a stretch since it’s basically a gas grill and stove where all food is cooked to order.  The food is stunning!!  Track it down.  It’s worth it.

Copan Village, Honduras, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

Copan Village, Honduras, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

It may look simple, but honduran men are pretty particular about the way they wear the 3 critical pieces of their wardrobe: hat, collared-shirt, jeans. they are quite proud of any flourishes they can add like a carefully wide-open collar or rolled-up jeans. I have a number of “men in hats” photos on flickr so you can visit to see more :).

The village of “Copan Ruinas” is incredibly quaint. There are also heaps of other things to do in the area, since it is set in lovely mountain range. I’ve had some English conversations and am feeling a bit more fortified. I have a great $10 room at Posada del Bessly and I feel pretty good about settling in for a few days. I need a few good salads, maybe a good steak (I am iron-deprived), and a good pasta dish or 2 as well. I better not try to fit this all into 2 days ☺.

Because this place is very picturesque, I plan on breaking out the “big camera”. Mostly I’ve been bringing the point-and-shoot and it just doesn’t cut it. This is yet another reason I’m eager to move into Guatemala – with its colorful mayan textiles. Since I am people-oriented I feel like there hasn’t been a lot of variation in Nicaragua and Honduras and that has contributed to my photography dry-spell. tho I know there are some colorful indigenous peoples like the lenca in Honduras, I am not going to make it these places. This town does have a bit of a ranchero look so I think I’ll do a “men in hats” series ☺. Those would be cowboy hats. The women dress pretty plainly.

A short walk out of town are the Mayan Ruins of Copan. I really enjoyed them. The weather is lovely and cool in the mornings and it’s not a place where you have to battle the crowds. Certainly there are more dramatic mayan ruins but these are still impressive. Mostly I liked walking around and imagining what it was like when the temples were painted and the site of massive ceremonies and sacrifices. What was it like to stroll thru the sun court on an average day? What did people wear? Nearly 30k people lived in the immediate area during Copan’s hey-day, between 400 – 800 AD.

There are still nice forests surrounding the ruins so visits are accompanied the squawks of many, many parrots and while I lounged on the picnic tables outside the ticket booth I spotted tons of birds like mixed flocks of orioles and tanagers. There were parts of the ruins where I could sit for 30 minutes and not see another visitor. Pretty cool.

Other than the ruins, I also visited a butterfly farm outside of town and hiked the area surrounding town. In the afternoons when things heated up, I retired up to the roof-top veranda and read in a hammock. I’ve had some fantastic meals, like the tequila shrimp with chili-garlic pasta at Twisted Tanya. it wasn’t cheap but it was sooooo good and necessary. The night before it was some yummy pizza with a Canadian couple traveling with their kids. Tonight I’m searching out that red meat!

Tomorrow I am taking a by-reservation collectivo direct to Antigua, Guatemala. There are several places in town that offer these – all for around $12 – a GREAT deal as far as I’m concerned. It’s a pretty long trip and this way I don’t have to deal with Guatemala city, something that I think would be mandatory for any option outside of a very expensive helman-atlas bus. And while I won’t spend much time in Antigua immediately, since I will be there for semana santa in about a month, it is a good launching spot to other parts. Just not sure which parts I’ll do first. I’ve been picking lots of brains about guat so I’ll figure it out.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

Some of the intricate stelae found at Copan. These ruins are known more for the art than grand edifices.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

The “ball court” at the ruins

Not sure if it was Tegu or my mood, or more likely both, that did me in after a day. It’s quite a bit more chaotic than san jose and a day of walking will leave one’s lungs protesting from the exhaust fumes. I decided by the end of the day to take the fancy Hedman-Alas bus in the morning to Copan Ruinas, via San Pedro de Sula. Granted, this leaves most of Honduras untouched by the soles of my feet, but as I said, i’d resigned myself to doing the most interesting bits, like the moskito coast, later at a slower pace.

I’ve also been looking forward to entering the land of the Maya and Copan Ruinas, a major Mayan city (in its day) and the southern-most, made perfect sense. I could get there on a 7 hour, air-conditioned bus and it’s very close to the Guatemalan border. As soon as i arrived i realized this was a very good decision. I was in need of some gringo influence (yeah, thai curry is a gringo influence). I hate to admit it, but it’s true.

While here I will also try to do a little trajectory planning. In a month I need to be in Antigua, guatelmala for semana santa. I had wanted to see most of Guatemala before this, leaving me a month for Chiapas and the Yucatan before I head back. So many people I have met loved guatemala and I had hoped to have a full month there. This means leaving Honduras with much unseen. It looks as tho I may only see the area around Copan Ruinas and Santa Rosa de Copan and maybe a stop on the way there to Lago de Yojoa but that’s really not on the way. Sheesh!

One thing I know I won’t be able to do it the northern coast of Honduras. I’ve reconciled myself to this being a trip unto itself another time. The moskito coast intrigues me and I think it would be worth it. In fact, Lago de Yojoa is on the way to the coast so maybe I can leave that for later, too. I must admit I never thought I’d be crossing broad swaths of a county off my itinerary! But knowing that I do not like to rush from one town to another I think this is best.