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The bus came to the hostel just after 4am.. I had to wake up the guy who works there who acts as a kind of guard and sleeps by the door! Was a bit scary sitting on the street alone! A drunk guy stumbled past so helped him out. Wasn't too bad though because tourist police drive around all the time. There were only three of us on board the mini van and we were pretty stoked until we stopped to get 7 other people!!! It was so crap- I had to sit next to some older Mexican lady who was travelling with her husband, daughter and son in law. The son in law kept looking at me and she was so gay and retarded!! We stopped at some crappy little town for about half an hour where all they had was no food and lots of mozzies!! Got to the border and had dramas with paying to get into Honduras. The money changers didn't have enough US dollars and she wouldn't let me pay with Guatemalan quetzals or let the money changers swap $5 US for the hundreds of $1 bills she had on her desk. It ended up costing me a bit more and an English guy gave me a dollar in exchange for some Honduran lempiras which was nice of him because US dollars are hard to come by here!
Got to copan ruinas- simply known as Copan.. It is 10km from the gautemalan-honduras border. Found somewhere to stay but for about 2 hours neither of the towns ATMs were working so I was a bit starving and bothered!!! Eventually it was ok but dispensed $500 lempira notes (about $28) which nowhere would accept except for expensive places so I decided to go to the ruins. Was quite a nice stroll out there although I thought I had taken a wrong turn. Wandered around for a little bit, sat under the shade and climbed some ruins. They were different to Tikal bcos they were separated by grass and less dense jungle and not as big in scale but had more carvings/sculptures in them than Tikal. Was quite relaxed until I was checking out the pics I had taken and realized all my photos from guatemala and a fair few of Belize were gone!!! Must have been transferred over to the computer I used in Antigua. I had so many amazing ones so was pretty devastated!!!! Went back to copan to use the net and look up the name of the place where I had used it yesterday but had no luck. Emailed the hostel but they weren't the greatest staff I've ever experienced in a hostel! Contemplated going back to Antigua but the bus left at 12pm so would have to wait till the morning. Hopefully I can get some off the other guys I was with in Tikal at least! :((
Thought I'd have a shower to relax, but realised I'd left my towel on the bus!! My good microfiber one too :(( what a s*** day- I need to be careful with my belongings- already lost so much and it's only been 3 weeks!!
Went for another walk and found a place with a menu that was cheap! My spanish isn't good enough to ask street sellers! There were lots of flies around but she got her daughter to get rid of them with citronella or something like that and it was nice and chilled, a tiny little shop that they might even live in. Ordered two enchiladas which were completely different but better than ours at home! Two guys from the bus in the morning came past and had already discovered the place- one ordered a delicious fruit drink that is a Honduran thing i think- icy juice with pieces of watermelon, pineapple etc finely chopped. Was delicious. In total it was L30- basically $1.75!! Went with the guys to a souvenir shop then I used the net for a bit and came back to the hostel. Told them I might come have a drink at their hostel but I really couldn't be bothered!
Felt like I had slept for sooooo long even though I got up just before 6:30. Went to bed pretty early anyway and went with the German guy to the bus terminal (he's older and a bit of a nerd and thinks he knows everything- but good to follow because he speaks Spanish) where the bus was a bit less coach-like than we thought!!! Was one of the chicken buses (bright old American school buses!!) but an upmarket version with comfy seats. I was annoyed because id paid L280 and Jens had paid L50 less! We picked up and dropped off people almost every 5 minutes, literally. It was retarded!!! I could not believe the state of the Honduran landscape- such a beautiful country destroyed by the attitudes of it's residents and lack of respect for the country by rubbish EVERYWHERE. Compared to any other developing country I've been to this was the worst!! I saw a river of only rubbish (mostly bottles) moving, as if the rubbish was the water. Made me angry when a lady through her bottle out of the bus window!!
Finally got to San Pedro Sula where luckily we didn't have to change bus stations- just buses in the largest Central American bus station! Had an hour and a bit wait so I (finally!!!) got some food and found some wi fi. The next bus to La Ceiba was more coach like so had my hopes up for a quick and air conditioned ride. This hopes were soon diminished once we got going!! We left at 12 and the ferry left at 4pm sharp so the lady in the terminal had said we would make the ferry easily (like everyone she said only what we wanted to hear!!) yet after a long ride dropping everyone off as they pleased we arrived into La Ceiba at 3:35- with a taxi driver ready to drive us to the ferry terminal- 15 minutes away! It cost us L50 each which is pretty steep but he called the ferry to tell them that we were coming so was worth it! Got on board after paying the L425 fare (about $22) and was in for the ride of my life!!! We hadn't even left the harbour and the waves were huge!!!! Jess K had told me of the ride to Roatan (the main of the bay islands) but this was worse than I had expected by far. My camera went flying and I prepared for 1.25 hours of ultimate hell!! But we made it with no trouble- unlike one of the guys I had met in guatemala or Belize that said they had to sit out in the ocean with no land in sight for 2.5 hours waiting for the police because they had passed a body floating face down so nothing quite like that happened! It was raining quite heavily when we arrived so was desperate to find somewhere to dive/stay. A guy from Altons Dive Shop was the first to get my attention- he told me the first nights accom was free and obligatory free to dive also! He said the open water course was $270 so I took it up to get out of the rain anyway and then ended up deciding they seemed alright- and were described in the lonely planet as a fun group. Went to the shop with the Korean girl in my room and made myself noodles for tea- thrilling but nice to have some form of kitchen to use!
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