Crossing Honduras

I decided to leave the jungle lodge after the first night. I met this Canadian couple who were going in the same direction as me, and we all decided the lodge was a bit on the pricey side. Not compared to Canadian prices of course, but just relative to how much we could be spending elsewhere in Honduras. We took the lodge's transport to the mega mall where I again availed myself of a frosty and fries from Wendy's. My new friends were a little to enthusiastic in their order and they ended up not  feeling great all evening. We spent an evening at a hostel in the Garifuna part of town. We didn't have much desire to go exploring there, especially because the entrance of the hostel was very air conditioned and that wasn't a delight we had been exposed to in a while. So we sat around, played cards, and drank weak Honduran beer. As the evening went on, a few more groups of travelers came by, most of whom were Canadian! I haven't met a ton of Canadians on my trip, just a few here and there, but everyone else always tells me that Canadians are everywhere. So it was fun to have a bunch of Canadians to hang out with. We left the hostel early the next morning to get the bus to Copan.

I have been in Copan for 2 nights, staying at this lovely little hostel just on the outskirts of town. Copan is a colonial mountain town, so it feels a little like Antigua or San Cristobal, but much much smaller. Like those two cities it also has amazing coffee, so I have been drinking a lot. The coffee in Utila was horrible. However, unlike those other two cities it is HOT. I thought I was used to the heat from Utila but its different somehow, more opressive. I guess because you don't have the breeze off the ocean. But also there are no sand flies, so its a trade off I guess. Most people come to Copan for the ruins. I hadnt seen any mayan ruins in over a month, so I figured it was about time to see some more, before I leave Mayan territories for good. The ruins in Copan aren't particularly spectacular, but the carvings are pretty awesome. Its incredible to think about people carrying these giant blocks of stone over any distance. I also visited a bird sanctuary where they are working on reintroducing macaws and other parrots back into the wild. They had a huge collection of birds in a beautiful park. Some of them we could hold! Today I went to the butterfly sanctuary, which was pretty unimpressive compared to the one in Niagara Falls, but it was still nice. I learned a bunch of new words in Spanish.

Tomorrow at 4am I am leaving on a shuttle for El Salvador. I wasn't going to go there, but I have a few days before I have to start my job on the beach in Nicaragua so I think I will check it out. People who have been there have raved about it. I was going to take the shuttle directly to Leon, Nicaragua, but it would take 16 hours and the shuttle goes through El Salvador so I figured I am paying the entrance and exit fees anyway, I might as well take a break from traveling for a few days. I am going to stay over in a surfing town called El Tunco with another friend I met in the hostel here.