To The Caribbean

February 24th to March 1st

We decide to spend one more day in Copan in order to visit a bird sanctuary near by.... the real reason is we can't tear ourselves away from this lovely little town. Our hotel doesn't help either... it's one of those places where the rooms are built round a lovely garden complete with poodle, toad and rat! (There's a nursery rhyme in there somewhere)

The old dear running it has a list of rules as long as your arm BUT it doesn't mention petrol stoves so we happily brew coffee. She came over for a look to see what we were doing, and rather than worrying about the flames, was just very impressed that you could cook on something so small! Clothes washing here is done in big cement sinks... all houses have them outside. It's basically a big concrete tank on one side and a washboard on the other. The more modern houses occasionally have washing machines but only for the richer families. The norm is to do things the hard way, but it's so nice to have clean clothes for a few days!

We backtrack 60kms along the Yellow River valley and over the shoulder of the Sierra del Gallinero range....

So; unusually for us we know where we're staying for the night. We pull up to the same little place we stayed at a week ago but the puppy and the chickens seem to have forgotten who we are!

Now we leave the mountains behind for a while and ride along a broad valley along Rio Chamelecon. For the first time in as long as we can remember we have a more or less flat day passing farmsteads and fields full of crops....

It's great to be spinning the legs again and it's an effortless 80km to Quimistan under cool grey skies. Businesses in Honduras run casually it seems when we find a hotel - not by spotting a sign, but by happening to notice numbered doors over a car park. The place doesn't even have a name. Travelling with a small toolbox pays off when I set about repairing the plumbing and suddenly we have water for a (cold) shower.

Continuing along the river it's another easy ride as the land angles gently down towards the Carribean Sea. The wild flowers at the roadside once again put the 'Ruta de Flores' to shame....

Our next stop is a town called La Lima, we've been told there's loads of hotels there so we're a bit surprised when we can't find any. We are told 'over the bridge' and all of a sudden we're in small town America.... lots of clap board houses all on neat lots though looking a little worn round the edges and in need of painting. It's all a bit strange. There's signs for bilingual schools everywhere and some are in English. Prices are suddenly in dollars too and super sized to match. Defeated, we retreat back over the bridge and find ourselves in another hourly rate place. We persuade the nice chap running it to let us stay a whole night, provided he gives us fresh sheets and It's possibly our most 'interesting' stop yet....

We find out that 'over the bridge' is a 'company town' for Chiquito bananas. Most of the American managers that used to live there moved out when Hurricane Mitch flattened most of the plantations in 98. Now much of the land has been given over to Palm trees for their oil which is used in the manufacture of fuel ethanol.

As we ride out, we pass through mile after mile of carefully laid out groves of palms. Their symmetrical patterns lend a hypnotic quality to the ride as you trace ever changing diagonal pathways through the trees. They look like green columns in a great natural cathedral....

Commuters take the tools of the trade to work - massively elongated scythes with wicked looking curved blades for cutting down fruits which are then pulped to extract oil....

The land has changed, but there are still large banana crops too....

Next day we make it to Tela and we're back in a tourist town again right on the Caribbean Sea. Amazingly, skies are still overcast, nights are almost cold and days are not up to lazing on the beach. It's a bit of a shock to see how ordinary a Caribbean beach can look under Manchester style grey skies. Instead there is the second largest botanical garden in the world to explore. The garden was set up in 1926 as a research centre for 'The United Fruit Company' a massive American organisation which has huge holdings in Central America. Here they developed different strains of fruit, ornamental and lumber trees to ascertain which would thrive in Honduras's climate.....

Nice place but a bit lost on us.... one tree starts to look pretty much like another after the first thousand, but it's a nice wander along shady paths through lovely gardens.

We plan to leave the next day but again I am struck down by some dodgy food and we kill a day drinking ice coffee on the beach. Back in town (a walk of at least 3mins) there's a demonstration just getting going in the central square outside City Hall. The police and hired guns turn up as per usual....

But it all passes off in typically Central American tranquillo style. Vendors are protesting at not being allowed to sell their wares along the beach in front of more up market cafes and restaurants. Tela, it seems is trying to move up the tourist food chain....

Hopefully tomorrow we can ride for Ceiba about 90km away. From there it's a short 20km ferry crossing to 'Utila', one of the Bay Islands renowned for the second largest reef in the world and an abundance of diving schools....

Copan

February 19th to 24th

Glowing beacon of the Mayan civilisation. The numbers are impressive. In it's heyday at the end of the late classical period around 850AD it was alleged to have been home to over 25000 people all supported by the lush farmland of the Rio Amarillo (Yellow River) valley. Then came disaster and collapse, the people fled and these great buildings were quickly abandoned.

Times tide washed over them. Dust blew in and caught between the cracks. With it came tiny seedlings - micro agents of destruction. Dust turned to soil and finally a seedling took root. Tiny at first, then burrowing inexorably through gaps in the close fitting stone. Time passed and the years turned to decades, the decades to centuries. Those tiny seedlings became the trunks of fully grown trees and finally, tortured stone came crashing down. The great temples and stairways crumbled....

Few people were left to bear witness and Copan passed out of common knowledge. When it was first rediscovered by the Spanish in 1576, it's population was reduced to just 5 families living simply amongst the ruins of former splendour. They could shed no light on Copan's history, Spain's king took no notice and the story was forgotten once more.

It was not until 1841 when 'Travels in Central America', a book by 2 American explorers was first published did the world turn it's attention back to the Yellow River valley.

After the site was uncovered, Copan was not spectacular temples like Tikal and it was not an imposing fortress like Monte Alban. Those places are the expressions of religious and military might. Copan is more a display of the mind, of beautiful sculptures and intricately carved hieroglyphics, an early style of writing depicting tales and dates of the great events of the day. It is a place of ancient artistry....

This is what has attracted armies of archeologists to the site over the last 150 years – the lure of unravelling the code of hidden meaning behind the glyphs and deciphering these ancient writings.

They tell of a dynasty of kings stretching back to 426AD when a great leader 'Quetzal Macaw' came to the area with a host of men and subdued the current king and took over the valley. Despite there having been a settlement here since around 1200BC, he is credited with founding the city and was revered as semi divine with direct affinity with the gods. Great banquets and sacrifices were held in his name.

Tradition dictated that the early kings of Copan built on the foundations of previous kings and their monuments and achievements were largely covered up and lost to history. However their fame was immortalized when the 16th and final king Yax Pac created an alter depicting carvings of previous rulers. This showed his ancestry stretching all the way back to Quetzal Macaw, probably to strengthen his legitimacy as king whilst Copan's power began to wane....

Central America's 2nd largest ball court is built on the foundations of 2 previous ones and there are other smaller 'training' ball courts outside the main site where players would practice and dream of the centre stage. The ruined stairway leads up to the 'Temple of Inscriptions'....

Stone carvings of Macaws at the top of the sloping walls were probably significant and placed in honour of the cities founder Quetzal Macaw who may have been named for the birds that inhabit the surrounding jungle....

The most famous surviving monument is the 'Hieroglyphic Stairway' – 63 steps made up of thousands of stone blocks each carved with glyphs describing the glorious history of the Royal House. The story is still unfolding as more glyphs are translated, a task not helped by the fact that many blocks had fallen from their original place and lay in a jumbled heap. A rather difficult jigsaw puzzle made from delicate and priceless pieces, in 3D and with no diagram on the box....

There is the magnificence of the carved 'stelae' or statues depicting individual kings after a big event but everywhere you look there are smaller carvings on the blocks that make up the walls and when you consider it would all have been colourfully painted it must have been an incredible sight.....

In total, about 3500 structures have been discovered around the principal site which is what archeologists base their estimates of population on. Ironically it was only as recently as the 1980's that the modern day Copan could boast over 25,000 people and you have to question whether that number could ever have been achieved without the enduring mystery of the ancient city drawing people back to the Yellow River Valley.

Today Copan is an attractive cobble stoned streeted town that nicely balances normal day to day life with it's influx of tourists. There's a museum about the site with many of the original carvings and interesting explanations of the Mayan culture. We spend a couple of days around the central plaza with it's collection of bars and restaurants.

Taking time out from all that history, we visit a butterfly reserve just outside of town and while away a couple of hours in beautiful tranquility watching colour flutter by....