Dona and I left Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, at 08:30, headed for Copan, Honduras. It's not all that far -- about 300km, or 200 miles. We carried our stuff down to the road near our cottage, where we flagged down a 3-wheel taxi and paid him 5q to take us the mile or so to the bus stop in town. There we caught a chicken bus to Guatemala city for 30q apiece. We arrived about 13:00. Fortunately, we new where we needed to go from here; we paid a taxi 40q to take us to the Litigua bus terminal. The litegua bus is pretty good; it's the one I take from Guatemala City to Rio Dulce. To get to Copan, we would get off sooner at a place called Rio Hondo; and it only cost 30q apiece. Once we got off at Rio Hondo, we asked around about buses to Copan and learned we had to get a bus to Chiquimuela, and then another bus from there to Copan. We had just missed the bus to Chiquimuela, but within a few minutes a chicken bus appeared and for 15q apiece we were headed to Chiquimuela. Things were looking pretty good. Once there, we paid 25q each for a mini-bus to the border, but it was getting late in the day and things started to go south. The bus we bought tickets on wasn't very full, and when it got to a place called Jocotan, everyone got off except us. That meant going to the border was expensive for the bus company, and they didn't want to lose money doing it, so they decided the bus wasn't really going to the border, and that this was the end of the line. At least they arranged for free tickets on a competitor's bus, but we ended up waiting another half hour before that one left. We finally arrived at the border at 18:45, after sunset, and were informed by the driver that the bus didn't go across the border to the town, which was about 10km further. He also informed us that because of the late hour, there weren't any other buses coming up from the other side. In other words, we were stuck. Except, for the outrageous fee of 50q each, he would take us over the border and down to town. We balked, and considered walking. If we hadn't been lugging my friend Casey's saw, we probably would have. But we were also a little apprehensive, as it was dark and we weren't familiar with the area. There was a woman from Holland who had gotten there by another means who was in the same boat. In the end, we agreed, at which point the price went up to 100q each; the woman from Holland only had to pay 50q. I guess we treated. In retrospect, we should have gotten off and started walking. Everyone who works at the border lives down in town, and it would have been easy to hitch a ride in a truck when they quit work. Live and learn, and don't carry too much stuff with you.
Copan is a picturesque town, now a fairly prosperous tourist destination. Things have been cleaned up and fixed up; it's one of those "just like the postcards" kind of places. We found an inexpensive hotel and were happy to have a place to crash for the night. We walked to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed dinner outside.
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| Wall Sculpture | Stairway |
Because of the time it would take to sail up to Belize, we were under a rather tight time-schedule. We had two things we wanted to see in Copan -- the ruins, and a butterfly farm. There was other stuff too, but given our limited time, we had to pare things down. The next morning we headed for the ruins, which you can easily walk to from town.
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
