Copan is a really cute little town.  It has all of the colorful colonial style buildings, tons of bogevilla trees, a cute town square/park, great hotels, and nice cafes.  It is quite touristy, but also has a relaxed friendly small town vibe to it.  I only spent about 24 hours in Copan (because I was in a hurry to get to Guatemala City to drop off my passport and start the visa process at the Korean Embassay). 

I had dinner at a cute little cafe near my hostel.  I ordered a burrito and could not believe it when the waiter delivered it to my table.  It was at least a foot and a half long and filled full of yummy things (chicken, avacado, veggies, beans, rice etc.).  It could of easily fed a whole family!  And it only cost about $3, which was a welcome chage after spending 4 days in expensive Rotan where $3 wouldn´t really buy you anything. 

The next day, I woke up really early and walked down to the Copan ruins.  I was the first person to arrive for the day, so I had the ruins all to myself for about 30 minutes before the tour buses started showing up.  There were a bunch of really colorful parrots hanging out at the entrance of the ruins, which was really cool to see too.  The ruins themselves are quite amazing.  There are alot of intricately carved stones representing different Mayan gods and kings.  The Mayans built ruins on top of old existing ruins that had been destroyed by an earthquake back in about 600ad.  There is a tunnel going under the ruins so that you can see part of the oldest temples.  Normally you have to buy a second ticket for $15 to get into the tunnel part.  I didn´t know this, so I hadn´t brought enough money with me.  Luckily, I was able to bribe the guard with $6, to let me into the tunnels.  It was really amazing but very creepy too! One of the entrances looking like you are climbing dwon into a grave or something.  (The first thing you see is the tomb of an old king, so I guess I really did climb down into a grave!) 

After leaving the ruins, I hoped on a shuttle to Guatemala City.  It was the easiest border crossing ever.  (It maybe took 10 minutes.)  And the ride to Guat City went smoothly.  I wasn´t too impressed by the capital though.  It is the biggest city in Central America, and it is dirty, ugly, and sort of dangerous.  So I just checked into a Fenix Guesthouse and hung out in my room all night. 

The next day, I had to go to the Korean Embassay to aply for my work visa.  I ended up going to the wrong building (they haven´t updated the website with the new address).  So I had to take 2 expensive taxi rides to get there.  (It´s at Euro Plaza now, if anyone ever has to go there.)  The people at the embassay were really nice, but very picky.  They made me fill out tons of unnecessary forms, get new pictures taken (because my head didn´t fill up the right amount of space in my old pictures), and even have an interview.  But hopefully they are processing my visa as I type this.

Then I went to Antigua, which is where I am now.  I´m staying in a great hostel called Black Cat.  It has free breakfast, free internet, free movies, hot showers (a realy luxery), and clean rooms.  Yeah!

I got on my 5am bus from Managua, Nicaragua to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Everything went pretty smoothly, except the fact that the driver decided we didn’t need any food or water stops on the 12 hour journey!  On the bus ride I meet a lady who owns a hostel out on Rotan, one of the Bay Islands.  She gave me lots of good advice and I decided to amend my plans to go to Rotan Island instead of Utila Island (they are very close to each other but Utila is just for scuba diving, whereas Rotan has lots of activities plus amazing beaches).  (btw the lady is Valerie as in Valerie’s hostel, but I’ll get more into that later.)

Anyways, Valerie and I pulled into San Pedro Sula at about a quarter to 6 in the evening.  The last bus to La Ceiba (which we really needed to get on) left at 6 o’clock and was on the other side of the city, plus it was rush hour traffic!  It seemed impossible, but with our taxi driver weaving in and out of traffic, and a quick run after the bus as it was pulling out of the station, we manage to catch the bus!  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a seat so I had to stand up for most of the bumpy 3 hour trip.  (Plus we still hadna’t had a single thing to eat all day, and not much to drink either.)  We made it to La Ceiba, and got some chicken and rice and then I collapsed into bed in a very sound sleep.

The next day, we headed out to the ferry and had talked another guy from the hostel, Jason, into coming with us to Rotan and staying at Valerie’s hostel (instead of Utila like he had planned).  Everything went very smoothly and Valerie let me and Jason stay in the apartment part of the hostel, so we (theortically) had our own bathroom and kitchen.  In fact, the hostel was a dump!  Everything was broken and dirty.  Plus nothing worked.  (I think we had water in our kitchen and bathroom for about 30 mintues of the 4 days we stayed there.)  But we couldn’t really complain, because Rotan is pretty expensive and there are only 2 other hostels on the island.  So we stuck with the $5 a night place, and it worked out fine for us. 

The first day in Rotan, Jason and I took a scuba course at Native Sons dive shop.  The instructor was fabulous, and the theory/classroom part of it went really smoothly.  Then after we had geared up and got into the water, I began to realize that scuba is just not for me.  I was fine just sitting under the water breathing, but I never felt very comfortable.  Then when we had to start to do the skills like filling the mask with water and taking the regulator out of our mouths, I knew that I didn’t really want to scuba after all.  So I quit early, but at least I gave it another try. 

The rest of my time on Rotan was great!  I wandered down to West Bay beach a few times, which is one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen.  (Nice white sand, crystal clear turquoise water, coral reef only about 20 feet from the shore, so it’s easy to snorkel there.)  I also did a lof of snorkeling at Half Moon Bay and West Bay.  I saw an octopus and a lobster in Half Moon Bay, plus tons of colorful coral and tropical fish. 

My last day in Rotan was a bit rainy, but I had a great time.  I went to the dolphin experience, and got to spend about an hour in the water with the dolphins.  Petting them, learning more about them, and getting kissed and licked by them.  (Yes, I said licked!  They poise for pictures with you where you croach down in the water and the dolphin swims up at kisses you.  Our dolphin was really cheeky, and would always lick us!)  I loved the dolphin experience and was so glad that I was able to finally get a reservation for it. 

Today, I left Rotan on the 7am ferry.  I was able to tag along with some El Savadorian people who I had meet on the island (and were in the scuba class).   They had a car and were driving home in the same direction as I was going, so we had a little roadtrip today.  Then I caught a local bus the rest of the way to Copan Ruinas.    So now I’m in another cute little colonial town, that is right next to some ancient Mayan ruins.  Tomorrow I’ll go check out the ruins, and then the next day I’m off to Guatemala.