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COPÁN RUINAS: November 30 - December 2, 1999 (no entry, covered in
Gracias entry) GRACIAS December 2, 1999 We have been in Honduras for three days now, and so far, I am very pleased with this Central American country. Along its beautiful landscape, one can see rivers and many rolling hills and mountains covered with beautiful vegetation, including ferns, banana, apple and orange trees, coffee plantations and more. The people of Honduras are very friendly. Furthermore, the food is excellent. We are now in Gracias, which is an authentic little town that actually in its heyday was one of the most important cities in all of Central America before other cities like Antigua came along. It is difficult to believe that as I sit here on the porch outside of our chalet-like room watching the sky grow dark around the beautiful green mountains and the town below me that has already grown quiet. This town is still a secret to most tourists. Rich and I walked around the dirt roads of Gracias most of the afternoon and only saw two other gringos, besides ourselves. We really like our hotel, Los Guancascos. It is run by a Dutch woman named, Froni. It sits upon a hill overlooking the town of Gracias. The rooms surround a nice little garden and most have great views of the mountains and the city below. Upstairs, there is a nice open air dining room. The rooms are very clean and decorated with light wood doors and windows which open up to a porch. This one definitely ranks up there for hotels. Oh and by the way, it costs less than $10 per night. We began our visit to Honduras in the City of Copán Ruinas which is a charming little town with cobblestone roads and well manicured buildings. There are many great hotels and restaurants to cater to the tourists that come to visit the Copán Archeological Site. Luckily, however, it is not tourist season now so we did not have to share the town with too many other people. Soon after arriving, we met a group of three young Dutch people: Giji, Robby and Anco. They wanted to know if we were interested in going to Aguas Calientes (Spanish for hot water) hot springs with them that evening. It sounded pretty good, but we were not sure since we just arrived. After a great lunch (Have I told you how much I love Honduran food?), we hiked up to Los Sapos to see ancient Mayan sculptures. The Maya people ruled this area of Central America as well as the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from sometime before Christ to around 800 AD or so. The entrance fee to Los Sapos was 30 lempiras (approximately $2 usd) per person. This was a rip-off since there were only three stupid rocks that you really had to look at to figure out that one was shaped as a woman giving birth, the other a toad, and the third, a turtle. The cool thing about Los Sapos is that the Mayan women would come up to this spot to give birth to their children. The area definitely had karma. Additionally, the owner, a young woman whose family owned the land for a long time, points out a small little nature trail and is in the process of building a cute little inn. Finally, there is a great view of the town from there, so we were glad that we visited Los Sapos. While up there, we saw our Dutch friends again, so our decision was made for us...we would go to Aguas Calientes with them. It was a great decision, as we had a great time! The drive to Aguas Calientes was very scenic as we passed mountains covered with lush green trees and coffee fincas. We arrived to the springs at 6:00 p.m. mas o menos (more or less), just as it was getting dark. The two hot springs are fed hot water from the mountains. One of the pools is deep, while the other is shallow. We dove into the deep waters and swam a little and then sat in the shallow pool, which acted as an Olympic size hot tub. We had a great time singing songs and drinking refreshments. Those Dutch kids sure had a lot of energy and spunk! We were also joined by our guide, Peter Hughes and Juan, a native Honduran, who conveniently became our guide for the Copán Archeological Site the next day. After an expensive dinner in town ($11 usd total...way more than our room cost), we retired for the night. The following day, we visited the Copán Archeological Site. The Mayan sculpture work was so intricate and impressive. I also learned a lot from Juan about the Kingdom of Copán and Mayan history and culture in general. I really enjoyed the outing. For a detailed account of our visit to the Copán Archeological Site, see 2 Go Copan Photos, but only after reading the rest of my travelogue. After our visit to Copán, we enjoyed a big lunch. I ate something called Anafres, which is a black bean and cheese fondue with fresh tomatoes and chili peppers on the side and fresh, hot corn tortillas for dipping. It was absolutely delicious. That same dish ended up being my selection for our next three meals in Honduras. Have I told you how much I love Honduran food? We laid low for the rest of the afternoon and evening, as we were really tired from the night before and also from walking around the ruins all morning. The next morning, which is today, we headed into Gracias. December 3, 1999 This morning, our second day in Gracias, we woke up early to go hiking in the Nacional Parque de Celaque, which is just outside of town. Our 8 and 1/2 hour hike started out and ended great. We stopped at a little coffee finca just outside the gates of the park and had a delicious home cooked meal by the mother of the house. She made us beans, eggs rice and tortillas. She also made us a cup of coffee....which I swear is the best that I have ever had...sorry Starbucks...but this little old lady blows you away! Angel, one of the sons, showed us the coffee plants, orange trees, apple trees, pepper trees, banana trees, and more, growing just outside their back door. It was a cool experience all by itself. Our hike inside the park was a lot of fun. We had to cross over rivers on little log bridges, we saw many waterfalls, as well as great vegetation. Furthermore, we were one of the only ones in this forest. We stayed there all day. We had to walk 10km back to the hotel, but we were not too tired, until we hit the door. That is when we realized that we had done a lot of walking. I think that the magnets that our friend, Mark Brochu gave us really helped a lot. Thanks Mark and Josie. We ended our day with a great dinner in the open air dining room. Guess what I had...anafres. Have I told you how much I like Honduran food?
Anafres. It tastes better than it looks!
Tomorrow, we will jump on a bus to the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. The following day we will make another long trip on a bus to Managua, Nicaragua.
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