John, please feel free to use, alter, delete as appropriate.  We hope this information is useful/interesting/helpful to others.  We are, obviously, having a wonderful time.  I am currently working on this material as we sit on a ridge overlooking Lake Arenal in Costa Rica.  We are watching rain clouds roll across the valley in our direction.  It is beautiful and not too ghastly hot.  If no one shows up and kicks us out, we will spend the night (and the directions and coordinates will show up in a future message!).

I am also sending along some additional listings for places to stay and shop.  Feel free to use as appropriate.  Many aren’t covered in the text.  They are at the bottom of this lonnnnng missive.

John:  (1) in Guatemala your notation of the spot near the El Florido crossing is still there and still looks just fine.

(2) your listing for the Tracasa truck stop near Comayagua, Honduras looked pretty bad as an o/n.  it was filled with stored trucks and had a big for sale sign in front.  We passed.

I am picking up this message where the last one left off. 

We are in Coban, Guatemala and have decided to change our plans and make an abrupt right turn, instead of continuing to explore Guatemala.  It’s the old getting-the-mail-forwarded dilemma.  As we have figured we need about 3 weeks lead-time, and we need the mail to include some medications, it’s complicated.  The spot we were hoping to use, a brewery we wanted to visit in Honduras, wasn’t answering their phone or returning our e-mailed questions.  So that was out.  What to do?  We finally decided on, and made excellent contact with, a finca in eastern Guatemala that would be happy to receive and hold our mail.  But we weren’t expecting to continue to be in Guatemala for that much longer.  So…..hey, let’s go to El Salvador while we wait for our mail!  It’s small, it will take about the right amount of time, and we want to go there anyway. 

So we headed off toward El Salvador (or El Sal-ba-DOR as they say).  We left Coban and got about 50 miles.  And stopped for a hopeful search for Quetzals, the beautiful bird that is the national symbol of Guatemala.  Our road took us through a lovely cloud forest and quetzal sanctuary corridor.  Guatemala is working hard to develop this area as an eco-tourism destination.  The corridor stretches for many miles, and has several stopping places, either at land owned by the government, or by private parties adjacent. 

We stopped at two different sanctuaries.  After hiking up and down and up and down through the first one (where we had stayed the previous night), we were treated to tea/biscuits/fruit by the lady of the house.  She was absolutely charming, and thoroughly made up for our disappointment at not seeing a quetzal.  We moved 50 yards down the hill to the federal Quetzal Sanctuary, and trekked through their part of the forest keeping our eyes peeled, but we weren’t that lucky; we did see other birds, and some lovely flowers, however.  Oh yeah, and an interesting young lady on a Saturday outing who walked the whole trail in high heels that matched her metallic burgundy two-piece strapless outfit with very tight pants - we were in hiking boots.  (Rick said, “she was wearing heels???)  We spent the night at the sanctuary, in their parking lot.  We were all alone except for the security guys, who were very interested in our rig and what we were up to.  We spent a lot of time talking with them, and made some new friends, particularly a man named Esias, who even let me take his picture.  (You can see him at www.flickr.com/photos/kathyrickpics .)  It’s these real-people connections that we treasure. 

Tell me:  what’s the difference between a cloud forest, a rain forest, and a jungle?  We are clueless.  And wet.  We’ve decided that these areas have their own weather rules.  But…..you only get wet once.  And yes, jungles do have bigger bugs and, well, I guess cloud forests are more… foresty.

Despite the lack of quetzals we had a good time at the sanctuary.  Early the next morning we waved goodby to Esias and his buddies and made for the border.  For the first time in quite awhile we were on good road, and Rick found himself doing all of 45 mph; he got quite excited.

Down, down through the cloud forest; we dropped out of the highlands and found ourselves in an area that looked like the Baja: dry, dark brown, with few trees.  We were between mountain ranges, and down to 650 feet; pretty darn dull we decided.  Later in the day we climbed up again, over 3800 feet, ending at about 2000 feet in Esquipulas, with a very famous (but boring) basilica.  The town was an absolute madhouse, as it was Sunday and the faithful were lined up for blocks going into the basilica to see its version of a “black rice” (Black Christ) statue.  On Monday all had quieted down, we were able to enjoy the town for a couple of hours, then arrive at the El Salvador border in good order.  We crossed on February 18^th. 

We’ll tell you about our El Salvador experiences later.  After 8 days in that country, we returned to Guatemala through the same border town where we had exited, and drove back up to Coban, very much appreciating the increasing beauty of the country as we approached the quetzal sanctuary corridor/cloud forest again.  We returned to our same campground in Coban, and, amazingly we were shortly joined by a sturdy rig with Arizona license plates!  We spent a couple of days sharing experiences with Don and Kim, who are amazing trekkers; they’ve been in many countries and had lots of information for us.  They had recently shipped into Panama from Australia, and were on their way back to the United States for a bit.

Parting company, we resumed our Guatemala adventuring.  While our mail began its journey to catch up with us, we turned our faces to the north, and the magnificent Tikal Ruins.  Our journey toward the top of Guatemala took us back into areas of more traditional dress, at least somewhat.  We’ve found that once you leave the western highland area, you are much more likely to see people wearing clothes just like in southern California.  The guidebook says “European,” we say “just like us.”  But aside from clothing, the sights were as expected:  lush fields with corn and cows at lower elevations, coffee at certain levels, even some papaya plantations.  We crossed a large river (the Rio la Pasion) on a barge.  Well, it was a ferry, but sure looked like a barge to us; very reminiscent of the Northwest Territories, oh yeah, and a great little ferry crossing the Mississippi on a back road near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  The whole scene was so evocative of rural Latin America; guys washing vans in the river, kids swimming, lots of vendors selling treats to those in line for the ferry, and summarizing the entire make do attitude you find down here, the ferry is propelled and steered by a couple of outboard motors.  Great scene.

Further north, we entered Flores late in the afternoon.  Flores is the jumping off place for day tripping to Tikal.  It’s a nice little town on an island in the middle of Lago Peten Itza.  We wandered the quiet streets, enjoying the water, a nice meal, good internet, and the constant buzz of tuk-tuks going past.  We spent the night along the waterfront right after crossing over to the island.  Shortly before we got there, I (Kathy) was wandering in the back while we were on the road, and said “Oh, oh, Rick, I think you need to stop.  I think we have a broken window.”  One of the two front windows on the overhead cab had caught a rock and was shattered.  Well, many phone calls and decisions later (thanks to good internet), we had a new window on the way to us from South Carolina, being sent to the same place as our mail.  More excitement (and cost) than we anticipated on the day.

But on to Tikal.  The ruins here are the most famous in Guatemala, and rightfully so.  They are magnificent, and in a wonderful jungle setting.  It was quite rainy the afternoon we arrived.  We had been told (correctly) that if you got your tickets after 3:00 pm, they would be stamped for the following day, and you could enter both today and tomorrow.  But it was so rainy we decided to wait until the following morning in hopes of clearing weather.  We camped in a pretty field with lots of trees, right by the entrance.  In the morning it was still raining, but we decided to go on in.  As we approached the ticket booth, we met a couple of fellows who had been there for the dawn patrol (there is a trek to the top of Temple IV at daybreak to see the sunrise).  It had rained the whole time, they were drenched and unhappy, and would be delighted to sell us their tickets at a discount.  Everybody was pleased with the transaction that followed.

We entered the park and were enchanted.  It is a lovely place.  If you stayed under the canopy you didn’t get too wet, and it wasn’t too hot.  We climbed the pyramids, took tons of pictures, heard/saw birds and monkeys, and then, about 10:00 the sun came out.  We were on top of Temple IV at the time.  It was cool.  Temple IV goes up high over the canopy and you get quite a view of other tall structures.  A neat experience.  My camera had gotten a bit wet, but dried out in the sunshine.  Apparently Temple IV is the “biggie”; it was a weekend and lots of locals were in the park, most of them headed to the top of Temple IV.  Bizarrely, when they would finish the climb to the top, they would get on their cell phones and call all their friends.  

We had a great time at Tikal; we recommend the experience highly.  There are several nice hotels to stay at in the park, the area to be walked isn’t insurmountable, and it was fun.  We camped for a second night, and then went back to Flores the following morning (about 60 kms).  We had a solid recommendation for a place to get propane so we topped up the tank.  After accomplishing that chore, we had another ruin in mind:  Yaxja. 

The Yaxja ruins are off the road that runs (generally) between Flores and the Belize border, to the east.  You will have heard of them if you followed the doings on Survivor: Guatemala (we hadn’t, but the show was filmed here).  At Yaxja we found the best setting for ruins that we have seen yet.  We were tremendously pleased.  Yaxja is a relatively new site, with major restoration work having been completed just in mid 2007.  It has not yet been discovered by the big tour groups, so it is very quiet and undisturbed.  Set in the jungle near a lagoon, it’s a quiet paradise.  The howler monkeys were fascinating, we saw several different kinds of birds, and the ruins themselves are quite amazing.  We had a lovely day’s wander, climbed everything in sight, and spent two nights beside the lagoon, all to ourselves.  The guides were very helpful, and they liked the fact that we were camping with them. 

We were tempted to set up a permanent campsite at the Yaxja Lageoon, but finally decided to press on.  And we were quite close (100 kms) to Finca Ixobel, south of Poptun, where our packages would be arriving (soon, we hoped); we could take hot showers, eat good food, and generally relax and recuperate.  All this was what we’d been told by others.

And they weren’t wrong.  Finca Ixobel is an oasis rising out of the jungle.  It has some elevation (about 1700 feet) and is in a pine forest.  There is cool shade, a swimming hole, an excellent restaurant (that makes its own bread), electricity (the refrigerator is gasping in relief after all those days in muggy 90+ heat) etc. etc. etc. 

We weren’t far from Poptun, and we wandered in there a couple of times.  The first time Kathy caught a ride and did some shopping.  Catching a tuk-tuk back to the finca was a real adventure by itself.  Shortly after hailing my ride, my driver (gorgeous and about 40), stopped for a minute, stepped into a store front, and came back with two mango fruit bars, one for me.  What a delightful fellow!  The next day, we drove the truck into town to take care of some things.  My tuk-tuk guy saw us several times as he made his rounds through town, waving and honking each time we came into his view.  It was great fun. 

One reason we’d taken the truck into town was to find a welder…seems to be kind of a recurring theme for us.  If we ever write a book, it’s going to be titled Welders Round the World.  On this occasion, we had noticed, the same day the rock hit the window, that our rear spare tire was suddenly wobbling around; the welding we had had done up in Whitehorse, Yukon last summer had failed.  Fortunately, the aluminum boxes once again had proven their value by keeping the spare from bouncing off down the road somewhere we would never have found it.  So, we had the whole thing remounted and reinforced for probably about one tenth of what it had cost in Whitehorse. 

As so often happens in these situations, our encounter with the welder and his family provided us with a nice experience and a great story to share.  In order to do the repair we had to first remove the storage boxes, and to do this we needed to empty them out to make them lighter.  Well along with the tools and hoses and other items, there were two cans of Campbell’s Chunky Soup and a big jar of Jiff Peanut Butter being stored back there.  Well, the welder commented on this while we were unloading, and then later on an older woman, presumably his mother, came out and showed great interest in a can of the soup, so Rick graciously gave it to her and she scurried back into the house with her new treasure.  Well, the uproar of excitement that ensued convinced him that the second can needed to follow the first; but he made a show of hanging on to the peanut butter, and laughs were shared all around.  Along with the welder calling to a passer-by to come help remove the boxes, and Onises, the welder’s son helping to reload everything into the boxes, a needed repair job evolved into a cultural exchange of the sort we enjoy so much.

We stayed at Finca Ixobel about a week.  Our packages arrived (the mail, via the postal service in thirteen days; the window, via UPS – at exorbitant cost – in five days) and we began preparing to head for the Honduras border.  We had one more ruin to visit in Guatemala, at Quirigua, then we would be on to the border, and the Copan Ruinas, right on the other side.  (In Guatemala it’s Coban; in Honduras it’s Copan; I haven’t a clue as to why.) Just before leaving the Finca we arranged to buy some coffee.  They are well known for their coffee and were happy to put together a bag for us; when she was ready to seal the plastic, she used the flame from a candle she had lit for just that purpose.  It was an old-fashioned candlestick just like out of Dickens.  It was a special moment.

Leaving Finca Ixobel, we headed for Rio Dulce, a very well known watering hole right along – guess what! – the Rio Dulce.  This large river flows out of Lake Ixobel and into the Caribbean.  It’s a favorite spot for boaters; they pull in for fun and supplies, or protection when the weather is unfriendly further out to sea.  It’s a lively place, and the cool spot to camp is at Bruno’s.  Bruno’s advertises its location as “under the bridge” and that’s pretty much just about right.  “The Bridge” is the longest such item in Central America.  It crosses over “The River” and lets the traveler go further south along Guatemala’s eastern border.  Tons of truck traffic, so it’s not a quiet place, but still a pleasant if slightly weird experience. 

We liked being there.  Rio Dulce is international in flavor, so we were able to do some interesting grocery shopping; the boating crowd tends to have American-type food needs, so that was great!  I’d been looking for Italian seasoning for weeks, with no success, and finally had arranged to have some shipped to me: but there it was on the shelf of the first grocery I walked into!  Damn!  And Rick was able to locate a new bomba – a pump to boost the low water pressure we so often have to deal with.  We filter all of the water we put into the fresh water tank on the coach, and often the local water pressure is too low to get the water through the filter; hence the need for a booster pump.  We’d gotten one at a Home Depot back in Mexico, but it wasn’t very satisfactory.

We had hot showers (there are two – the one closest to the river is hotter), a nice chat with the manager of Bruno’s, Steve, who is an expatriate who’s been in Guatemala for about 15 years, and gave us lots of good information, even walking Rick through town to get La Bomba and assorted hardware.  He is very active in the local area, involved with building a school, teaching English classes, etc.  Very busy, and never a dull moment.

Moving south, we were getting into lush countryside, with banana plantations everywhere.  Along the road we were following we encountered bits and pieces of a traveling circus, heading north up into the Peten.  We were reminded that Semana Santa was fast approaching.  We made a great stop to visit the ruins at Quirigua, on the edge of a banana plantation.  The ruins there are quite special.  They are famous for very large, intricately carved stelae.  The setting is tropical and lush, and these monoliths rise up out of the grass; they are protected with thatch-roofed structures, which seem to add to the scene.  We were very impressed.  Stelae carved in a similar fashion are in evidence at Copan, right across the border into Honduras, a much more famous site.  But we found Quirigua pretty darn special, and the setting much more interesting than at Copan Ruinas, which is much drier and filled with tourists.  (More on that later.)

So Quirigua was cool.  We could have stayed the night outside the entry gate, but we were anxious to head for Honduras.  After a quick stop in Chiquimula for some shopping – there is a Paiz shopping center right on the highway --  (and one last ice cream at Pollo Comparo – which quickly melted in the deadly heat), we were border-bound.  We crossed at El Florido (not to be confused with La Florida – what is this?????) and found ourselves in a New Country.  Again, an easy border crossing.  Rick is beginning to think he’s magic!  He admits that dread of all the border crossings was the main thing making him think twice about this trip of ours, but so far, so good.  As before, we were required to present passports, title of the coach, and Rick’s driver’s license.  Everyone was courteous and organized.  This is a wonderful crossing.  And Copan Ruinas is only a few miles away!

As I say, we wanted to spend the night in Copan Ruinas; however, had we been caught by oncoming darkness, we noticed a big gas station under construction at KM 194  just inside the Honduras border, which would have made an excellent overnight spot; should be finished soon. 

Our time in Guatemala was enjoyable and instructive.  We stayed in the country a total of about five weeks and could easily have stayed longer.  We were impressed by the beauty of the mountains, forests, and jungles we saw.  Lake Atitlan is truly an extraordinary area, as promised.  The high mountain roads and old villages; the large numbers of indigenous people, both women and men, wearing traditional dress and the variety of that dress from one region to another; the neat and prosperous looking fields of fruits and vegetables with irrigation systems and signs of constant attention from the workers; all these things and more have impressed us.  As mentioned earlier, the roads are built and maintained to higher standards than in Mexico, and are generally far cleaner as well.  Indeed, we saw numerous crews along the roads not only picking up trash, but patching potholes and painting the concrete drainage channels installed along the roads – we’ve never seen a clean up crew in Mexico.  The people we met were unfailingly friendly and helpful and added immeasurably to our enjoyment.  And, there’s Pollo Comparo, a frequent sight along the road anywhere near even a medium sized town.  The Colonel done in a south of the border style; clean, modern and obviously very popular… and with hands down the best fast food ice cream cones anywhere!  Fast food is pretty darn big down here, with McDonald’s being the most common after PC, and they really do it right.  They generally have large staffs of neat and friendly workers handling large crowds in efficient fashion, and the food tastes… just like home.  All in all, as our first stop on our Latin American journey, Guatemala got very high marks: just a terrific country to travel in.

By now, you’re wondering about our adventures in El Salvador:

We had a nice experience crossing into El Salvador; their borders are very organized, with professional people who know how all is supposed to be done.  In about half an hour we were on our way; success!  Border crossings have a reputation, you know; everyone has wild tales to tell, from “it took us 3 hours and was a total hassle,” or “absolutely terrible; never again” to “just stay cool and it’s easy.”  So far we’ve made it through just fine.  Rick handles everything himself; we’ve found that if we try and share the burden we get into trouble.  (Does this mean that Kathy is a buttinsky and keeps trying to “help”?  Yup!)  So Kathy stays in the truck and gets out the new map.  More fun anyway…..humph.  A further note on El Salvador borders, everyone says that crossing between Honduras and El Salvador at any crossing is really difficult, lots and lots of stories of delay and corruption.  These two countries are not good friends and their border is in dispute in several places.  Exactly the opposite is true of El Salvador and Guatemala, and the reputation for easy crossings between these countries was another factor in our decision to both enter and leave El Salvador via Guatemala

All in all we spent 8 days in El Salvador.  The country gets a bad rap from folks; kind of a step-child to other Central American countries; and with good reason.  The scenery isn’t as spectacular; the forests have been destroyed to provide firewood for the greatest population density in Central America; the beaches aren’t much (we’ve been told; they aren’t our bag so we don’t often visit); the churches have all been destroyed by earthquakes so there’s no splendid architecture; civil war took a very heavy toll on the population; etc.  To that we would add that despite the fact that the country has the highest per capita income in CA there appear to be even more people sitting idly around than in other areas we have visited.  And there seem to be more really fat people than usual.  And the country has lousy maps!  But…..we still had a darn good time.   The counterbalance to all of the above is that the people are charming and friendly, and there are several cool things to see there.  And some of their volcanoes erupt quite regularly. 

We did our best not to miss anything important.  We visited Cerro Verde National Park, camping up on the volcano, just over 6,000’ elevation.  It was an interesting experience.  We started up the road through sugar cane and then coffee plantations, then into fog, and it just got worse and worse.  Pea soup for real.  We were slowly moving along at about 5 mph, with flashers on, when we could sense the road starting to widen out.  We figured we’d better stop, not knowing where we were; it was getting late.  After about 20 minutes the fog started to lift and we realized we were in the parking lot at the end of the road!  It was the jumping off place for hikers up the mountain, there was a refreshment stand, and people were coming down the hill after their trek.  We were back in civilization!  We spent some time chatting with folks, and then had a quiet night; the fog disappeared totally, it was a full moon, and we had a wonderful view down on the small towns that nestled at the foot of this lovely volcano.  A real treat.

The area below Cerro Verde is known by the tourist folks as the Ruta de las Floras and is the prettiest area we saw in the whole country.  One special town was Juayua, where we had a simple lunch, enjoyed the lovely church and plaza, bought some local coffee and had a friendly encounter with some fellows eager to pose for a picture in front of some of the truly wonderful murals that decorated some of the downtown walls.  An oft-recurring theme of our CA travels is the desire to increase tourism with all the possibilities for income that entails.  It seems clear to us that over the next ten years or so, many more tourists are likely to come to these areas, and lots of these small towns are gearing up for it.

During our time in El Salvador we moved back and forth between mountainous and lowland areas.  Dropping into the lowlands sometimes got a bit bizarre.  At one point alongside the road were folks holding up iguanas for sale; we were unable to tell if they were alive or dead.  Yuck. 

Another special spot we visited was Joya de Ceren, a genuinely interesting Mayan site that is quite unique.  This site was discovered on the edge of a small town as new construction was begun in 1971.  It has been extremely well preserved and is unique in that it is the only Mayan site that shows details of daily living.  This happened because in about 640 AD the town had been suddenly buried in a deluge of ash from a nearby volcanic eruption, preserving the buildings to the point that pottery and utensils and even evidence of the food on the table have been recovered in near new condition.  Much like Pompeii, except that in this town the populace had enough warning to clear out.  Very interesting, and a charming woman guide who did her best to explain it all to us with her limited English. 

We spent one night in the pretty little town of Suchitoto, about an hour up into the mountains from San Salvador.  This town has made a name for itself as a music center; they have a famous concert series that occurs in – guess what – February!  We came into town, started chatting up the tourist office, and found out there was going to be a guitar concert that evening.  It was really great.  We made arrangements to spend the night at a piscina (swimming place) outside town.  Unfortunately, it was too far to walk into town, and the busses weren’t running in the evening.  But we talked to the manager, and he said he was going to the concert and would be delighted to give us a ride.  Well cool.  Well ….. it turned out we, in our Sunday best (which admittedly isn’t all that different from our Wednesday best) would be riding in the back of his pickup truck.  We managed just fine, but it was a first for us.

Suchitoto is a university town, and evidently a very cultural area.  The concert was well attended, including two local beauty queens (one complete with tiara and sash), and a large Canadian contingent (the performer was from Canada) including a representative from the Canadian embassy in San Salvador.   The town is a weekend get-away spot for folks from the city.  We had a good time.  The venue was the old National Theater, with peeling walls and hanging draperies to frame the stage area, and a dirt floor.  At the start of the concert a bat started flying around.  There were speeches (long ones), three patriotic songs, and every other person taking pictures with their cell phones.  Surreal, but nice. (Anyone recognize that quote from one of our favorite films?  Notting Hill.) 

Oh yeah, the active volcanoes?  We never saw one get very busy, but the El Salvadorans are very cleverly harnessing what’s inside – geothermal energy – and using it, wanting to rid themselves of dependence on foreign oil.  Smart.  We did go through one area with large pipe lines, a plant of some sort, and steam rising from the mountain side.

We traveled to the far northeastern corner of the country to see what had been promised as a special experience.  To get there we took some mountainous back roads that are partly paved, and really enjoyed it.  We were at a high enough elevation to be going through pine forests (wherever all the trees had not been cut down).  Cool and breezy.  We were headed for an area of El Salvador that had been the scene of some of the worst and heaviest fighting of the civil war that ended in 1992.  In Perquin, the guerrilla headquarters, the town has created and maintains the Museum of the Revolution (and we spent the night in their parking lot).  This was a very rewarding, sobering experience.  In a nearby town, El Mozote, down several miles of dirt road, has been erected a simple wall memorial listing all the people in that village who were murdered in a single massacre by government troops (who had been trained by US advisers); over 900 of them, mostly children, many only a few days old.  Beside the church, which is beautifully painted in whimsical, brightly colored murals, a garden has been planted; it’s the site of a mass burial of many of the victims.  This was a terrible civil war; as you probably know, our country supported and trained the brutal government forces.  Yet another example of our badly flawed foreign policy during the Cold War: “Any dictator is fine so long as he’s not a communist”.  But enough.

We both entered and left El Salvador at its western border with Guatemala.  Traveling west from Perquin was very pleasant; we traveled along a series of paved/dirt rounds high in the mountains. The people were friendly and delightful.  Chickens, turkeys and pigs alongside the roads were healthy and happy.  Oh yeah: one way to know you are in El Salvador is because every town has a police kiosk somewhere along the road, and it’s marked by a couple of traffic cones, holding a parking spot for the police car.  Yes, you just go around them. 

We stopped for a last night in the country at a lovely hotel in La Palma, high in the northwestern mountains.  We were surprised to find the entire hotel jammed, although they found a spot for us to park (and had free wi-fi!).  It was the Hotel La Palma, on the road into town but towards the southern end.  It seems about 75 medical missionaries from Virginia were there, preparing to spend a week doing outreach work in the mountains.  They were great folks, medical students, and we had good chats with them.  They were all hyper when they arrived, but exhausted when returning the next day.  Such energy! 

After traversing a difficult but scenic unpaved road from La Palma west to Metapan, we crossed back into Guatemala at the same border crossing where we had entered El Salvador; again, an easy time was had.  We’d had a good time in this country, and hoped that others would spend some time here.  We worked our way back up through Guatemala and then entered Honduras at Copan Ruinas. 

Honduras: 

The entire time we were in Honduras we were concerned about and reacting to the onset of Semana Santa.  So, Semana Santa you say; what’s that?  Well, officially, it’s Holy Week.  But practically speaking, it’s more like Labor Day weekend in the United States, only bigger; lots bigger.  All of Mexico and Central America (and, we are told, South America as well) takes the week off.  We travelers try to find someplace to hide.  Literally.  We try to locate a place to get to that’s not popular with the holiday crowds, and hunker down until it’s all over.  So our plan was to enjoy the countryside, try to stay away from “happening” places, and endure.  On the whole, we thought we did quite well.

So… the town of Copan Ruinas is only a few kilometers from the Guatemalan border; this was our first Honduran destination.  We arrived there on the Wednesday before Palm Sunday, i.e., eleven days before Easter.    And already the circus was in town (different part, we guessed, from what we’d seen going up the road the day before) and they were celebrating the town’s fiesta week, in order to get an early start on the holidays.  So you see what we mean!

But this is a nice town, and famous ruins; we stayed two days.  Upscale enough to be ready for tourists, with coffee houses, cobblestone streets, tours to nearby fincas, and pizza.  A very popular boondocking spot, which we used quite successfully, is the Texaco station right beside the ruins.  Noisy until dark, it was quiet at night, and had electricity available.   At this Texaco station, one day we ran into a couple of fellows from the states (Arkansas and Mississippi, by their accents); one has a house here and the other is a beekeeper who was visiting him and teaching the locals about honey production.  It was great to hear American voices.  We also shared our parking area with a German fellow traveling alone in an old US van.  Oh, and we filled our water tanks – given the near total absence of campgrounds down here, such basic necessities can be few and far between, but we’ve learned that water can be had at many gas stations.  Typically we buy fuel there as well.

And the ruins are quite nice.  They contain the most intricately carved stelae in the Americas, and people go ape over them, even though we liked Quirigua better.  Frankly, we were a little bored; and then we went to the museum they have erected on site.  And this is one hell of a museum; built in 1998 and by far the best museum/visitor center of any of the ruin sites we have visited.  You enter through the mouth of a serpent, and go down a tunnel which suddenly opens into an open-air two-story museum that contains some of the best of the sculptures from the site.  The explanations were excellent, there is a replica in full color of an interior temple, and many detailed carvings.  It is jaw-droppingly cool.  The museum saved the entire experience for us.

Also at the site are some semi-tame scarlet macaws that are happy to let you take their picture, as long as you don’t get too close.  They feed them, so they hang around.  We really enjoyed them, as the scarlet macaw is very difficult to see in the wild.  There is a refuge for them in northern Guatemala, and we had given serious consideration to taking the trip, but ultimately decided to wait for another opportunity.  So we were pleased to be able to see a bunch of them up close and personal.  There were wild agoutis near them, happily eating whatever the macaws let drop.  So we got pictures of them, too.  An agouti looks like a brown rabbit with no tail and smaller ears.  They are apparently becoming endangered, but not at Copan.

As we left town we made a brief stop at a local eco-tourist park that had a lagoon where herons are supposed to over-winter in great numbers.  Way down a dusty road, across a stream, we found the lagoon; unfortunately, the herons either never had come or had already left.  But we had a chance to exchange greetings with locals washing their trucks in the stream, and the lagoon was pretty anyway.

We worked our way north up the valley from the ruins, a lush valley with coffee growing on the hillsides; we were really traveling into Honduras for the first time now.  We noticed we were seeing many more men on horseback, not merely carrying a burden but ridding for pleasure.  Some mighty fine horseflesh.  We had heard that Hondurans are proud of their horses.  And the other end of the same day we saw a fellow trudging along with his machete in one hand and talking on his cell phone with the other.  (Please remember that machetes are work tools, not just weapons!  He didn’t appear threatening.)

Well, no mas ruinas.  We had come to the end of our visitations to the archeological sites preserving the remains of these interesting ancient civilizations.  Over the years we have visited locations from outside Mexico City all the way into Honduras.  This is not a passion with us, but we are very glad each time we stop; we learn and appreciate, and feel fortunate to have these opportunities.  Copan Ruinas marks the southern boundary of the Mayan civilization.  Early dwellers further south have not left such distinctive monuments, although signs of them do exist.  We’ll continue to keep our eyes peeled, and of course Incan sites await in South America.

Aside from ruins, Honduras is cattle and coffee, with bananas on the side.  Virtually the entire country is given over to these commodities.  What deforestation has occurred (and it’s not as bad as El Salvador), has created pasture land given over to cattle, and beautiful cattle they are.  This is true throughout Central America, beautiful, fat, healthy, almost groomed looking cattle.  Coffee grows on the hillsides, in shade fortuitously.  And the northern coastal part of the country was developed by U.S. interests many years ago as banana paradise.  More on that later.

In west-central Honduras we visited several small towns with nice churches.  Gracias (you’re welcome) is a pretty little town ripe for stardom.  It has reportedly the oldest church in the Americas, a nice central square, and is totally torn up because they are laying new streets.  We suggest a visit in a couple of years, after they are all finished – right now it’s a mess.  We had thought to spend the night in town, at Finca Bavaria, a well-known spot.  But we weren’t impressed:  the place looked vacant and run-down, and when we found the proprietor, she wanted much more money than we had been led to expect.  So we wandered on.

Near Gracias is Celaque National Park, in a cloud forest.  We decided to check it out.  We took our usual trek up a tiny, windy, nasty road, heading for the visitor’s center and a quiet night’s sleep.  We got most of the way up, and then chickened out.  Not being sure what we would find at the top, and it getting late, we opted to sleep beside the road.  This left us on a steep slant, which was (just) okay for an overnight, but put the refrigerator into rebellion.  You may not know this, but the type of refrigerators normally used in RVs require being level in order to work right.  Ours said “noop,” and turned itself off.  Well, all we lost was the milk, and my frozen blueberries I’d picked in Alaska last summer were all a mess, but we were concerned about further damage if we lingered there, so we contented ourselves with a hike up the rest of the way to the visitor’s center in the morning, and skipped taking a hike in the woods.  And….we wouldn’t have found a level place to camp up there anyway.

From Gracias we took a dirt road over to La Campa, through a pretty pine forest.  Another town with a nice square; this one pretty dry and dusty, but It was a nice ride.  We wanted to see the town, but also afterwards we were headed for the town of San Juan, and then on to La Esperanza; our map said we could get there from here.  Hah!  Damn map; this road doesn’t go to San Juan, said the nice man on the side of the road.  We were talking to him because we were stopped; we were stopped because the road was blocked by equipment trying to pull a huge truck out of a huge ditch where it had slid on its bald tires.  That was going to take awhile, and we weren’t going to get where we wanted to be anyway.  So back to Gracias to pick up the “main” road to La Esperanza. 

Well, let me tell you about this road through the mountains.  It’s even paved part of the way, to east of Belen if you’re keeping track.  Then it becomes dirt and rocks and climbing and ugly.  We stopped for the night at the end of the pavement.  In Miguel Guancapla, a dusty little town with dirt streets.  We were parked kinda on the main road where it went through town because the bridge was out.  We were surrounded by curious folks for the entire evening. 

We were the entertainment most of the time (although at one point a rooster across the street decided to take on a turkey he didn’t like the look of, and it was very exciting for awhile; it seemed to us that the turkey finally prevailed, ‘though both birds strutted off looking self satisfied).  We had decided to watch a movie, and happened to choose The Motorcycle Diaries.  It was great, because the kids gathered around and watched with us, at least until the motorcycle gave out and there was less adventure involved.  Then the kids disappeared and the older folks stopped by to take a look.  At one point we were approached by a fellow bringing another man with him; the man was sick, and they were hoping we had some medicine we could give to them.  We passed along some aspirin, but were reluctant to go further than that.  Afterwards we remembered that there has been a lot of public service medical work done in these rural areas, and they probably thought we were visiting doctors.  We hope the aspirin helped.

Okay, up we got in the morning and tackled this road ahead.  We knew all about it from others who had passed this way.  Well, it lived up to its reputation; this was the worst not-under- construction road we’d seen yet in our travels.  But we finally reached La Esperanza, and it really was well worth all the trouble.  You see, it was Sunday, and La Esperanza has a really good produce market that day each week.  And being Sunday, all the people in the area are in town, so it’s a good day for people-watching.  And there’s a nice (lovely, in fact) church, and…..it was Palm Sunday and morning services were just letting out.  How many reasons do you need?  We had a wonderful time.  Great radishes and carrots, great people-pictures, and even an ATM (thank you, thank you!).

Comayuaga, Honduras’ historic early capital, was next.  We were now back on pavement, and quickly moved through Siguatepeque toward our goal.  It was that hot; when we hit town we noticed it was 99 degrees – in the shade.  Sunday afternoon was quiet in the old town square, a lovely spot.  We wandered around anyway, seeing several ancient and lovely churches and other assorted old buildings.  We had hoped to overnight here, but our information required starting at the tourist office, and they had closed at noon (on a Sunday!) and were closed on Monday as well, so we ultimately beat feet back to Siguatepeque, at a higher elevation, and with a known secure spot at a Shell station along the highway.  it was noisy, but we managed.  It was north of town, across from a Wendys and a Domino’s.  We are finding fewer and fewer official-type places to camp and having to make do with what’s possible.  At least we had a security guard, water, and a place to dump tanks.

Everybody on the road was headed up to the coast for Semana Santa.  We hadn’t been able to come up with someplace to be for the week, and so we decided to grin and bear it.  Our plan was to follow the route we’d decided on, stay somewhere if it was possible, and if not then just move on.  This is a bit risky, of course, but we did make it work.  We left Siguatepeque on Monday morning, knowing in a week it would all be over with.  There are two main areas where Hondurans head on holidays, the Lago de Yojoa area, and the northern coast/Bay islands.  We were headed for Lago de Yojoa.  (By the way, you just try typing that word – it’s hard!)

The Lago de Yojoa area is stunningly beautiful.  The lake is surrounded by lush tropical foliage.  There are many restaurants and fishing villages around the lake, along with coffee fincas, vineyards, and lovely homes.  And lots of eco-tourism.  We stayed at the Finca Las Glorias resort for the night, mingling with the well-to-do Hondurans up from the city.  We were down by the marina, with a great view of the lake, under some very large trees.  It was delightful.  There were loose horses on the property, munching on the grass, and they kept drifting past our chairs set up under the trees.  Management would have let us stay for a few days, but we felt a bit Bohemian (?) in this crowd, and the crowds were getting larger, so we spent the morning relaxing under the trees (it was quite hot) and then moved further on around the lake in time for lunch… at the D&D Brewery we’d heard a lot about.

The Brewery is owned by an American (they are all over Central America), and we met several English-speaking folks during the very fine meal (and beer) we enjoyed.  It was great to compare notes on traveling, and hear from a local birder all about what we could do in the area.  It all sounded great, but as you know by now, getting up at 5:30 isn’t for us.  We aren’t even dilettantes when it comes to birding. 

But this area is so lovely.  We started to move further north, the road ever more lush and gorgeous.  With the bright red dirt and sugar cane, we were strongly reminded of Kauai, where we had spent many happy times.  We stopped at the famous Pulhapanzak Falls on Rio Lindo, really cool.  The falls are 43 meters high (you figure it out) and drops down from a large swimming hole.  Actually, the site is operated as a private balneario with restaurant, water slide, and several play areas.  People camp here, and we had been considering it, but not during Semana Santa, no way!  There were people everywhere, enjoying picnics by the water, playing music, and generally having a marvelous time.  Let’s party!

We took our lives in our hands, and headed for the north coastal area, home of the Bay Islands (think Roatan) and Tela - La Ceiba - Trujillo, all popular beach towns along the Caribbean coast.  What were we thinking!  Well, we really did want to see some of the coast, regardless of (1) the crowds, (2) we aren’t beach people, and (3) it was already hotter than hell and we were still up 2000 feet in elevation.  The road to the coast is the main road through the country, and it was very busy.  We had been warned that it was a dangerous road at this time of the year, because of all the drinking and crazy drivers, but what the hey.  We took it cautiously, there were plenty of police trying to keep things under control, and we did all right. 

We headed toward Tela, with the idea of staying the night at the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens.  This turned out to be a good choice.  They had already closed when we arrived, but we talked our way in.  These gardens were begun in 1927 by United Fruit (one of the big banana outfits here) as experimental gardens, trying to see what else they might be able to successfully put into production.  The gardens, primarily varieties of trees actually, are extensive and lovely.  We had a very quiet night listening to the birds in the trees (it’s another huge birding spot) and an even lovelier walk in the gardens the next morning.  A real highlight of the park is an enormous stand of big fat bamboo that has grown across the road and forms a canopy; it’s almost dark inside, but cool and cozy.  One of the park workers, Roger, attached himself to me as I was walking by myself at the far end of the park; he walked all the way back with me, chatting about this and that.  He practiced his English, and I practiced my Spanish.  I suspect that he was making sure the “crazy gringa” didn’t get lost.  Rick, by this time, had retreated from the extreme heat and was holding down the fort at the coach. 

We spent a short time in Tela, right on the water, dipping our toes in the Caribbean.  It is a lovely beach, and we had found a spot at a nice public park that wasn’t crowded - yet.  But hot – whew!  And lots of evidence of the big holiday festivities ahead.  Off we went, on along further east and La Ceiba.  We stopped there because we knew there was a real grocery supermarket.  We are having real difficulty finding things – decent cheese, stuff like that.  So we stocked up, noticing that we could get stuff we hadn’t seen in weeks; but the prices were terrible.  It was a beautiful sunny day, green and lush, and as we navigated the northern coast, we saw lots of small streams and larger rivers coming to the coast from the mountains, each one lovely and clear and rocky.  There were Cruce des Ganados (livestock crossing) signs everywhere, with all kinds of critters all over the roads mixing with the trucks filled with bananas and workers on their bicycles.  This is a nice area, if it would ever cool off!  The refrigerator is panting again; I’ve lost milk, orange juice and bread to the heat and humidity.  Whine… but a really pretty area. 

We bought a watermelon (our favorite fruit these days, and available everywhere along the road) from an old man riding a cart filled with them that was pulled by an old horse; I got to pet the horse for free; the watermelon cost me about a buck and a half.  We ate off it for four days.

We turned south when we left La Ceiba, fleeing back into the mountains.  We had toyed with the idea of continuing along further east and visiting Trujillo.  Trujillo is where ole Chris Colombo landed, and has several interesting things going on.  But we’d just had enough of all the crowds and the heat.  We decided to spend the night in Saba and then head for a national park above La Union that we’d heard about.  Once we made the turn south toward Saba we lost all the traffic; yes!

Saba was interesting.  By now it was Wednesday evening of Easter Week.  Saba is a company town (Dole) that is a stop-over spot on the way to the coast.  We had heard about the Hotel Executive that would probably let us park in their lot.  We had to circle around town awhile before we found it; it’s on the road out of town toward Olanchito.  They were, indeed, happy to have us; there was a pool which we enjoyed, and we were certainly the entertainment for the other guests.  We’re getting used to this.  The hotel was interesting because it was kind of a business traveler’s spot.   We had a quiet night, our fans kept us within reach of cool enough, and the next morning we were ready to move on but needed to find an ATM.  (By now you may have figured we are using cash for everything and relying on ATMs for funds.  This works very well except in rural areas where you may not even be able to find a bank.)  well, hmmmmm, all the banks are closed.  Big signs, closed from Thursday to Sunday for – guess what – Semana Santa.  These countries really take this holiday seriously.  And, there are no ATMs in town anyway.

We knew our day involved heading down a dirt road, into the mountains, and there would be no sources of money in our near future.  So we took a short detour.  We went partway up the road to Trujillo, having been told there was an ATM in Tocoa, 20 kms away.  And there was – the bank was closed, but the ATM was working.  I felt very sorry for the young couple standing in front of the bank trying to figure out what to do; I’m sure they had no ATM card and had counted on being able to get money out of their account.  (And by the way, you should have seen the lines at the banks on Monday morning, after the holiday was over.)

Anyway, back in Saba we headed south, taking a dirt road that headed into the mountains toward La Union, leaving the lovely pavement behind.  And it was a bitch of a road (my language is getting worse as the roads do the same; sorry).  But, we had a beautiful ride; the country is really great, with neat views at every turn.  It got drier as we climbed and we lost that lush quality to the countryside we’d been enjoying.  Hours and hours and hours later, we found ourselves in La Union, a scruffy little mountain town that was thoroughly enjoying the holidays.  Looked like a town party was about to start as we traveled through, heading toward La Muralla National Park, up in another of Honduras’ great cloud forests.

The road up the mountain was another of our gems; in parts it was really good, but where the heavy rains had done their job well it was a real mess.  But we got all the way up to the visitor’s center, and found a nice spot for the night.  The place was deserted, no caretaker, but a couple from the city was staying the night, and they had gotten the key and did let us into the building to look around.  We had the pleasure of signing the guest book, and found the names of friends who had been here in 2003 and who had led us to come here ourselves.  There were many trails into the forest, and we knew our friends had seen quetzals here, but in the intervening years the trails have badly disintegrated, and there was no reliable signage, and, as mentioned, no guide on site for the holidays.  As far as we walked, it was beautiful; we had rain off and on while we were there, so it was all misty and damp.  I do love cloud forests!  The couple departed in the morning and we had the entire area to ourselves most of the day.  Two or three small groups came through, leading to interesting experiences. 

The first group was a family who owned a coffee finca 4 kms down the road; they were checking on their plantings.  At this point we ran up against some of our fears.  This is hard to put to paper.  We know we are on the edge of our comfort level at times here in Central America