Copan, Honduras

Day of arrival was entirely a travel/ transit day. We ate hurriedly at Pollo el Campero, which Ben thought we didn’t have in the US but I had recently driven by one. It is the KFC of Central America…nasty stuff. We never to returned to that place the rest of the trip and chose instead to eat street food which constantly made me ill to various degrees but I persisted. We were picked up by a local as we stood under the cover from the pouring rain; he drove us to our bus station. I don’t understand why but stations change locations frequently and there are several stations so there is no guarantee that the bus station will be where you think it is. I was only slightly drenched because this young professionals kindness. During this route we had several buses and shuttles. It ended up being a long day.
We learned very quickly that the natives wanted to rip us off on every turn. I will mention this only once because it became routine. We learned very quickly to carry small change around during travel days especially. Ben would ask the locals when we got on the bus how much the ticket costs. When the ‘money/ticket collector’ came around we handed him nothing but that amount and didn’t give him an opportunity to up-sale (double the cost; it happened a few times) and take advantage of us. “Principle” became the definition for our actions per Ben. The only other place that was this bad was Peru he said, and I’d have to agree.

My first night in Guatemala was a special treat which I will share with you in detail because looking back it strikes me as funny. Our late, rainy arrival to this small border town gave us little option to continue our journey. Ben and I joked about walking across the border in the dark of the evening because unfortunately the border closes at 7PM. This little non-touristy almost ghost town with 1 hotel is where we stayed for the night. A little lady who I thought was so kind gave us the initial price of 90 Quetzals for the room. We agreed,left our stuff in the room, and went down to the restaurant. After ordering our food I went but up to use the restroom and discovered two things. We didn’t have running water and on the backside of the door was nailed room prices from the Guatemalan Tourist Commission.


The woman has overcharged us for our room. I ripped it off the door and showed this to Ben. The woman’s response is if you have a TV you are charged extra for the room; see that is what it says on that paper… which clearly it didn’t read anything like that. I am laughing to myself because our TV is between 14 to 19inches. She continues to be head strong which in turn makes Ben furious. We just decide together to pay the difference for dinner, and leave her short of what she overcharged us for the room. We proceed to our rooms after dinner, and while we are getting ready for bed we hear a knock on the door. The little woman walks into our room over to the TV. She unplugs the TV and carries it out of our room.

Ben and I are laughing about this, just when we thought we were rid of her she knocks again at our door. Similar to the newspaper boy in Better off Dead, she insists that we still owed her money for dinner. Right, exclamation, so if you give us the money you owe us for the room, we will in turn give you your money for the food. She wouldn’t budge, maybe it was her pride or maybe she wasn’t intelligent enough to understand logic. I can’t think of a word to describe the scene that took place. Afterwards I was afraid the woman was going to come back and strangle me in my sleep. Ben teased me about it.
Let’s just say the next morning we weren’t sticking around for breakfast.

Copan Ruinas/Copan Ruins
After our small border town experience we hustled the next morning to Honduras where we visited Copan Mayan Ruins. At the border we paid an exit and entrance tax, even though we were just going over for the day. Lame. We dropped our belongings off and walked the 1 km to the ruins. The town is called Copan Ruins which is a bit ridiculous, they must have got lost in creativity. The ruins were really beautiful. I’d never seen any Mayan ruins before. It was very well manicured with green grass, and very clean.




Archeologists predict that about 20,000 people lived here. There was a specific area for housing, and plaza for entertainment. There was a sketch drawn of what it possibly looked like back then.







Other events of the area: World Cup game US vs. England which was tied huge error by the English goalie. Cheap mangoes, good street food.


There is a bit of discrepancy of a very significant event of my trip. Ben and I still wonder if it was that awful hotel on the border or Copan Ruinas that gave us our little friends that we battled the rest of the trip. Ben and I contracted a lovely little bug called a mite, or scabies. Initially when Ben diagnosed himself I was in denial that I had it. I claimed that mine were from the bug bites at Copan. It wasn’t until we got to Livingston that I was convinced and the torture ensued. Scabies is skin condition caused by a highly contagious/contractible microscopic bug, spread by contact with those infected or by sharing clothing or bedding. The mites cause scabies burrow into the skin and deposit their eggs, forming a burrow that looks like a pencil mark.

Treatment: Jabon Scabidcida, and Invermectin (a single dose oral pill to ensure you’ve killed all those babies). Let me give you a rundown of what how the rest of my days in Guatemala were spent. Generally, with the exception of a few days because we lacked running water, in the morning I would take that soap into the shower with me. I would scrub my skin vigorously, and the same with the clothes I was wearing with that soap. That soap smelled something like paint thinner and I was rubbing all over me. After a couple days my skin started to peel off. Some days I would spot treat, hands, feet, face, neck, or shoulders because the shear torture of the possibility that it was spreading. After my shower I would put back on the wet bathing suit and clothes I just scrubbed and go for a walk. I would walk until my clothes were dry. I wore the same pair of clothes for most of my trip. Why did I do that? It is highly contagious, if I touched something or wore something that I had the mite I would infect myself all over again. This happened. I did really well with the itching most days, but one day in particular brought me to tears when it had spread up my neck to my face where it became swollen and more intensely itchy than any other day. I got a miracle that day. A pharmacy brought out this magic little cream. I thought would just take the itch away but the next morning the spots were gone as well. I went and bought myself another tube. For those who think that getting scabies rarely happens, well this is your forewarning. Get some premethrin spray before you travel…there are some dirty backpackers out there. 