Saturday, March 6, 2010

Goodbye Guatemala, Hello Honduras

Goodbye Guatemala, we truly love you. As anyone who read anything in this blog knows...we love Guatemala. After about 7 weeks, we have finally left. What a wonderful place....full of beautiful places and wonderful people. Here is a picture of our new Guatemalan family...Back row from left to right...Chiquita, me, Gustavo, Rob, Odie, Dona Amanda...front row...Gustavito and Naomi. We will really miss them. After a week with my parents and then a week with them, we enjoyed being with people who love us.


Moving on....we took a bus this morning at 9am from Guatemala City to Copan Ruinas, Honduras. All of these people who love us, were concerned for our safety so we promised to take the nicest bus with the best reputation today...Hedman-Alas. It was pretty pricey but a big comfy luxury bus with assigned seats, a bathroom and a tv. All of the seats reclined. A few minutes into the trip, the bus stopped and the assistant came on with huge boxes of Burger King breakfast sandwiches...what a treat. It was an interesting crowd...about 2/3 locals and 1/3 tourists. With Metallica being in town last night, there was a group that obviously had not stopped partying since the night before....at least we knew that their rowdiness would stop quickly and they would sleep the whole way. About an hour into the ride, the bus pulled into a gas station and shut down...broken. The guy told us it would be about an hour. A few of us got off the bus and chatted, enjoying a view of the volcanos and hoping that it would be fixed quickly. Thankfully, in about an hour the bus was back on the road. The countryside was beautiful and the AC was kicking. We finally arrived at the border and had a quick and painless crossing. A few more minutes on the bus and we arrived here in Copan Ruines.

Our first impression is that the town is adorable...very cute, cobblestone streets...lots of tourists, mostly an older crowd and less backpackery than most of Guatemala. Its almost like a tiny Antigua without as many locals. I'm excited that our friends will be joining us here in a week, this will be a perfect introduction to Central America and perfectly safe for the kids. We still arent sure if we will spend the week here or leave and check out some nearby towns for a few days. We will definately stay at least 2 nights so that we can scope out the perfect hotel room for our big group.

As great as our experience in Guatemala City was, we are very happy to be back on the Gringo trail. Guatemala City really is not a nice place. Its big and dirty and not a safe place at all. Its nice to be back outside after dark watching children playing in the street.
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