Ancient Ruins, Bullfights, and Nicaraguan Hospitality

The time-space continuum is warping oddly. From our seemingly endless time in Mexico, we have now encountered a new phase of passing through 3 countries in less than one week. That being said, Guatemala was short and that was our plan all along. This idea was only strengthened by our respective sicknesses, which while they were unpleasant, were not the worst of what can happen in the "third world".

We knew that we wanted to cross the border from Guatemala into Honduras at El Florido, just 10 km outside of Copan Ruinas, the town that is the hub for touring the Mayan site of Copan. What we did not plan on, was the incredible bureaucracy of the Honduran border guards. All of our papers were in order and there were no complications, but when you bring a car into Honduras, you must go through the Aduana office (Customs) and the Aduana officer must file your car on their system, SARAH. This process, which includes going to the bank and paying the import fee, plus making 5-7 copies of about 15 different documents, can take quite awhile. Luckily, since our destination was only just across the border, and we had made sure to get off to an early start that day, we were able to still get through this lengthy process and make it to Copan Ruinas with daylight to spare. We asked around at a few places to find one that A) had parking, B) allowed dogs, and C) fit within our budget. After the first two rejections, which came with looks of "Are you crazy? Dogs don't sleep with people!" we lucked out. The Hotel Marbella, recently bought by a family that lives in La Entrada, a city about 70km from Copan Ruinas, became of refugee for the next two days. Not only did Don Carlos, the uncle of the owners and the care taker of the hotel, say the dogs were not a problem, and that we could park the Yukon in the little courtyard, but Deimy, the daughter of the owners, a cute little ten year girl, who stays at the hotel Monday through Friday to attend school in Copan Ruinas, spoke perfect English and told us we could even access the roof of the two story building to let the dogs run around. The view from up top was amazing. You could see why the valley of Copan had been inhabited by a variety of people for the past 4,000 years.

The next day, we geared up for our main tourist event of the trip, exploring the ruins. I had been to Tikal in Guatemala several years before. Jahsiah had visited a much smaller site in the Yucatan, and Timmy had never been to Mayan ruins. We were told that Copan was the most artistic of the Mayan sites and that the detailed sculptures and original paint and plaster on the buildings and walkways made this a unique site. Our guide, Daniel, at Las Sepulturas, a secondary site another kilometer down the road, said if Tikal is the New York of the Mayan sites, than Copan is the Paris. The carvings were amazing and as with all ancient ruins, the energy of the place was powerful. Picturing what life might have been like in 600-900AD, when Copan was thriving, was made possible by the great care with which the site is maintained. At Las Sepulturas, where we did decide to shell out for a guide (which maybe we should have done at the main Copan site for more information) we learned a lot about the basic structure of everyday life. Copan proper would have been where the royalty lived and where everyone from the surrounding city would have gathered for festivities and celebrations. Las Sepulturas was for the middle class, the doctors, scribes, astronomers, and fisherman, while the poorest of the city would have lived in the surrounding hillside. It is thought that Copan had around 20,000 inhabitants at one point. The main site and Las Sepulturas are no longer being excavated but archeologists are still working in the surrounding hillside to learn more about day to day life. Daniel showed us on the houses at Las Sepulturas where hinges for doors would have fit. The Maya slept up on beds with doors so that crocodiles, snakes, pumas, and monkeys couldn't get to them in the night. The river would have run right past their houses, now it is anywhere from several feet to a few kilometers from where the city was as the course has changed over time. When I asked if there were still crocodiles in the area, he explained that the fisherman had killed them over the years to make it safer and easier to fish. One of the many symptoms of civilization.

After about an hour and half of translating what Daniel said from Spanish to English so that Timmy and Jahsiah could understand, my mind was tired, and my body was tired from the day of exploring. We hopped a tuk-tuk back to town. For those of you who are not familiar with a tuk-tuk, it is a three-wheeled taxi that looks like something out of a Disneyland ride. They are incredible cute and fun to ride in. It was a nice change of pace for all of us to get shauverd around for the afternoon. We had dinner at a little spot on the way into town owned by Jessica, a Dutch woman, and her husband Esteban, from Belieze. We ended up spending the evening playing darts and talking with Jessica, her mother, who was in town visitng from Holland, and Jesse, an expate from West Virginia, who now has a jade and jewelry business, Mayan Mountain, that he started 3 years ago. It was a welcome change to spend the evening speaking English with folks other than eachother.

Jahsiah and Timmy taking a break at Copan

 Our next stop in Honduras did not prove as welcoming. We headed southeast, making our way towards the 3 Nicaraguan border crossings, which are all in the southern part of the country. I suppose most people hit the beaches along the Caribbean coast of Honduras, but since those roads didn't connect with where we needed to be, we went a less traveled path to the city of Comayagua. Not much of anything to see in this city, we learned that the US has a very large air base just outside of the city. We also learned about the relationship that the US and Honduras have had in the past and to some extent, still have today. The Contras, backed by the US, used the base at Comayagua to invade and attack Nicaragua during the revolution. Honduras was also the launching point for both the US backed Guatemalan coup in 1954 and the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. The US has always seen Honduras as it's biggest alley and most strategic location in Central America. Another odd fact though, is that the US deports it's gang related felons to Honduras. Between 2000 and 2004, some 20,000 felons were deported to Central America, mainly Honduras, even if they weren't from there. This in turn, has fueled the ever mounting gang violence which was all too presently felt by us during our brief tour of the southern regions of Honduras. I'm sure most people that stick to the beaches and the bay islands never see much of this, but it encouraged us to keep moving and get to Nicaragua as quickly as possible, and we're from Oakland, mind you.

After a brief stint in Honduras, we were to the Nicarguan border, and boy, if we thought it was buracratic getting into Honduras, getting out was even harder! The same deal of photocopy this, then go here, then photocopy that, then go there. And at these border crossings, all of this is happening in Spanish, with me as the main translator. If I thought I was good at speaking and understanding Spanish before, I certainly am now. All in all, between getting out of Honduras and into Nicaragua, which was equally as buracratic but hundreds of times friendly, this border crossing took about 3 to 4 hours. Once we were finally through, we made our way to Somoto, a smallish city just 20 km from the border. This region was the hardest hit during the revolution due to it's close location to that same base in Comayagua, but you would never know that based on the friendliness of the folks in town. Somoto is also known for being the birthplace of the Rio Coco, the longest river in Central America, and one of the draws of staying there is to go explore the canyon and the river. You can hire a guide and go on a 7 hour tour, a 3 hour tour, or if you have a car, you can drive up to the where the tours end and explore the river on your own. We opted for this option. We paid the entrance fee and headed down to find the river.

We started our walk, crossing the river and taking a path. We let LaDainian off leash. He took off running. He did a few laps and circled back behind us. He likes to check the perimeter. We walked for a few minutes before he took off, away from the river, he wasn't coming back when we called, and then we heard bellows. Cows, making noise, lots of noise, we were all yelling for LaDainain to come back, more cows, more noise. LaDainian had attacked a bull. He was hanging from it's neck when Jahsiah finally caught up with them. Jahsiah pulled him off, but now the cows were pissed. They started advancing and headbutting Jahsiah. He was pulling LaDainian away while the cows were pushing them out of their territory. I had no choice but to stay back as I still had Isabelle on the leash with me and the last thing the situation needed was another dog next to those cows. Finally, Jahsiah and LaDainian got far enough away that the cows retreated to their grazing space. After getting the dogs back to the car, I went to speak with the owner of the cows and the bull that had been attacked. The owner wasn't mad and once I explained that LaDainain didn't have rabies and had had his shots, he was more relaxed. I told him I wanted to give him money to help cover the medial costs. I asked to see the cow, at the time I didn't know it was a bull, and he took me around to where the cows were hiding. The bull had puncture wounds on his neck and up and down his two front legs, but overall he was fine. I went back to the car, got some money, and returned to give it to the owner. He seemed reluctant to take it, saying that the cow was fine, but for my own piece of mind, I insisted. We decided to stay a little longer and enjoy the river, with dogs safely stashed in the car. The canyon was beautiful and after all the commotion, it was refreshing to swim in the river. When some cows headed down towards the river by where we were swimming, Jahsiah suggested we take off, still a little troubled from his cow episode. He had the right idea though, as we still had to drive to Leon and it was already the afternoon.

We hit the road, drove for a few hours and wound up in Leon, just before dark, searching for a hotel. On our way across town to check our second choice, our first denying the dogs, a gentleman on the street flagged us down. His name is Mario, he is Nicaraguan and he lives in Napa, but recently opened the Hotel Leon del Sol, a very nice conversion of an old mansion. Mario is a welcoming man whose precense fills up the room. He told us over and over that we were home and to relax. There is a kitchen that guests are welcome to use, breakfast is included, with real coffee, a hot commodity throughout Central America. If you want to do laundry, you can, and anything you might need in the area, Mario can help you out with. He offered to give us his phone number so that if we needed anything in the rest of the country, we could call him for help. And his services came in handy when we realized today that LaDainain had seriously injured his foot. Mario got a vet over here for a house call, and we learned that luckily LaDainian's foot was not broken, just badly bruised and swollen, remarkable when you think of hanging from a bull's head while it's running and it steps on your foot. We have to give him a shot a day for the next 4 days and he is to be on bed rest for 8 days. 

After a day of recharging and making good use of Mario's knowledge, we are feeling ready for the last leg of our journey. Tomorrow, we will head down to Lake Nicaragua to check out the largest lake in Central America and the 5th largest in the Americas. After that, we might have one more stop before crossing into Costa Rica. Then, it's only a matter of getting over to the Caribbean coast. Manzanillo here we come!

Leon Street Corner at Sunset.