travel blog - copan ruinas

so off we went
bright and early
at 4am
to copan...
*sCrEEch*
what am i saying?
it was dark as heck
and with the lamplight shining off the cobblestones
we could have been spies waiting in the gloomy shadows
to conduct our nefarious deeds
or something
anyways,
they managed to cram
(literally)
11 of us plus a driver
into one of these mini-buses
and the brief stop at the bate's motel for breakfast along the way
wasn't long enough for one's buttocks to recover
ok,
it wasn't really called the bate's motel
it was called hotel letty
but with the combination of a horde of ants
INSIDE the bottle of maple syrup
(which we discovered after some quick detective work...
there being no ants on the table
nor any on the food
until AFTER one poured the syrup)
to the dead fly that appeared in sarah's "orange juice"
(...it wasn't orange juice
and we're still not quite sure what it really was
to loosely translate - the waitress said it was "orange juice by the gallon"
whatever the heck that means in spanish or english)
it seemed but a matter of time till we found
a dead something else somewhere...
anyways,
we arrived in copan ruinas
the town just outside the ruins
and while standing around trying to orientate ourselves
so as to be able to figure which direction we needed to go
in order to find this hostel listed in the lonely planet
(it was listed as having laundry facilities
but they neglected to mention that they didn't have toilet seats)
when lo and behold,
the blind man who sees all
realized we were standing across the street
from the gelemos hotel
cool eh?
they chose the hotel
("they" being the ones sorely in need of doing laundry
which they did do on that stone thingy
which i forget the name for in spanish)
i chose the restaurant
llama del bosque
because the lonely planet had said they had "anafre"
a bean and cheese fondue which was "especially tasty"
and holy cow!
they were RIGHT!
that was definitely the highlight of my day
anafre mixto - frijole, queso y chorizo
(beans, cheese and sausage)
in a clay bowl
atop a clay thingy with hot wood coals inside
and served with pickled carrots, onions and jalapenos
oh yeah,
there were also these large homemade tortilla chips
sticking up out of the mixto
as the whole tasty concoction bubbled happily away
and it stayed bubbling until the last bits were gone
veeRRRYyyy tasty!
one other thing of note
fire-fingers mikayla was able to lift the burning clay bowl
straight off the coal brazier stand
reminding me of caine in kung fu
*inno*

after whiling away the rest of the afternoon
getting bitten by mosquitos
and eating ice cream
we decided to have soup for supper
i love soup!
we all love soup!
had some nice tomato soup
nothing spectacular
but nice and home made
rather than the powder mix stuff commonly found here

the next morning
we headed off to the site of the ruins
at around 8am or a bit before
a short 1.5km walk brought us to the site of the ruins
and we spent the morning and part of the afternoon
walking around the ruin site
being the first to sign the guestbook into the park
(i beat erin by 2 steps)
and amongst the only people there that early
we entered the tunnels
(at $12USD... when the main entrance fee was only $10USD)
3 of us with tickets, 2 without
and "they" didn't even know we were there
until we were in
at one point
i hopped a low barrier
(the other doors were barred shut down there)
and explored a little
and found a dark tunnel
with a light at the far end of it
shining white light
*ahhhh* (angel sounds)
i almost made it too
when i heard erin whisper-shout
(sort of like whispering VERY loudly in a panic)
that the man was coming back
and i half crawled back through the darkness
so i wouldn't hit my head
(i'd been crawling in the first place
looking for holes in the ground
which are very hard to see in the dark)
so i never really made it to the light
but it was a neat experience nevertheless

copan ruinas is tiny compared to tikal
and was a bit of a denouement to the trip
but we made up for that
by sitting at different sites
and listening to other tour guides lead their groups through
and learning about the site that way
it's not that we were too cheap to get our own guide
we just wanted to um.. umm...
hear ALL the versions of.. of...
bleh

at about noon-ish
we were all getting hungry
and all i could think of was
"anafre"
so return we did
and went straight from the ruins
to the llama del bosque
where we sat outdoors
(and were harassed by a scary cat)
each ordered an anafre
(5 pots on the table with glowing coals...
you should have seen it)
3 orders of guacamole
and a round of juices and licuado-type drinks
life was good
and the anafre was just as amazing the second time around
which is really saying something

something about travelling for a few weeks
without any major rest stops
is tiring...
go figure eh?
with that excuse in mind
i spent the rest of the afternoon
reading in my room
and taking the odd nap here and there
while the fan blew constantly over my body
to keep the mosquitos away
it was quite pleasurable
and then it was time for supper
where we found in the lonely planet
a place called carnitas nia lola
listed for it's tasty wood-fired roasted chicken
which was so jammed packed full of people
the food had to be good
and it was
and there was a lot of it
they even had anafre
which they gave us a complimentary sample of
but it wasn't hot and bubbly like the other place
and so there was no comparison
tho i must say
it was neat seeing one of the waitresses
carry an anafre on her head
as she limped up the stairs to the second floor
she also carried glass bottle of coke
when her hands were full
quite amazing
the wood fire grill thingy
was really neat
with a large hand bellows on a string
that they used to fan the coals
you could taste the "wood" in the chicken
and it was REALLY good

now
you may think
that all we did
was eat food on this trip
especially during these last couple of days
just remember
that this account
is from a kirby-point-of-view
and thus is wholly and completely
an unbiased account of what everyone else was really interested in
*nod self*
yeah... that's it
;)
hehehe
we left copan the next morning
on a luxury bus to san pedro sula
at least it started off that way...
more in the next blog :)