Kyla and Jay's Central America Travel blog: November 2006

Hello!

Since we last spoke.. Kyla finished her next Bridgehead blog. Check that out if you like (brigeheadblog.blogspot.com)..We said goodbye to Estelli and spent a long day traveling to the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. Tegus'- if you're cool. It involved 4 different modes of transportation and took about 6 hours including connections, but we arrived in one piece. Or two, I guess.(random aside- Its really amazing how no matter where you go in Central America, you are guaranteed to be somewhere near a rooster. You can be staying in the country or the middle of town, or in a bigger city- but you can be sure at around 11pm, 2am and 5am, roosters will call out to each other and start their annoying chorus for a least 10 minutes. It's weird, but Ive come to enjoy it. Especially when the roosters sound especially pathetic.)

As soon as we crossed the border into Honduras, the landscape immediately became much more lush and dramatic. Reminicent, I'd say, of some areas of Alberta and maybe a bit how I imagine Montana to be.. lots of hills and valleys. And tall pine trees, which we have not seen thus far. We arrived into Tegus' and found it to be quite the pleasant town.. Of course there are dangerous areas, but the downtown core felt very protected and we spent the day walking around checking out the markets, various jesus-related stores, churches (something we've been enjoying lately) and eating some weird chinese food whilst cringing to high volume regga-ton.. We also spent our first night in a dorm room as the privates were all booked. It was fun to get to know our dorm-mates, especially when the Bermudian fisherman exclaimed he was off to San Jose the next day to hook up with his 2 wives! (dont ask)

NExt we took two buses (via San Pedro Sula) to get to Copan Ruinas. An amazingly cute little town in northern Honduras, with a very prosperous vibe.. about 2 kms from the actual Mayan Copan Ruins. The place we wanted to stay was booked up, so we followed one of the bus station trolls to his family's place. It was ok i thought, really cheap and up a big hill. I could put up with the saloon doors on the showers, the stink from the bano, and I didn't even mind the gash I got on my thigh from the protruding springs in the mattress. But when the owner started playing Traditional Honduran folk songs at 6am- I took issue. I emerged in my underwear, at Kyla's insistance, from our room and asked the man in the cowboy hat, (sporting a gun in his belt), standing atop the balcony overlooking the courtyard (where our room was) to 'Senor, Por favor, alto la Musica!' I probably wasnt making much sense as I was half asleep, because I had to make the hand signals of me covering my ears and turning down the volume knob for him to understand....

Anyway, we got an early start. Had a lovely few days there (after changing hotels), went to a bird sanctuary which was great, as well as the Ruins themselves. They were a little on the expensive side, but we really enjoyed the tour.. Especially learning of the rulers of Copan and their various periods.. Some of our favourites were, '18 Rabbit', 'Tiger Lilly Jaguar' and the best of all- 'Butz Chan"- we laughed about those a little too long.

From Copan, we took a transfer to Antigua, Guatemala- where we currently reside. It was long day, with a stop in Guatemala city, but we had an interesting crew of people who made the ride fun. Antigua is yet another colonial town with cobble stone streets and many churches, except it has a lot more hipness than the last few. We went out for our first splurge meal in a while, to this place called Las Palmas, and ate like royalty for 25.00. We were both hooing and hawing- best food weve had yet.. Since then we've been doing lots of walking around, checking out the markets, visiting some of the awesome ruins and sights in town and relaxing. We went to an 18th Century convent called 'La Cuchinas' yesterday.. so cool. There is a circular courtyard area surrounded by the individual nun's chambers. Below the courtyard, there is this huge circular room with a massive pillar in the centre and dome shaped ceilings. The resonance and echo in the room was so amazing, we hung out there for like half an hour signing and playing echo games. It was FUN.

We've realized that were down to our last month, so we're really trying to take it all in. Tomorrow, we head to Panajachel from where we will launch a week or so visiting different towns around Lake Atitilan.

And now.. I think I've got a computer fast enough to add some pictures, so take a look at a few selections from the last 2 months....