2-26

Two quiet days wandering La Antigua Guatemala streets and by ways…doing the tourist thing …looking, touching, smelling with some buying for friends and a pillow cover for our condo. Afternoons late back at the hotel for wine and peanuts on the porch or roof top terrace, both places have outstanding views of the volcano at the end of our street. The neighboring volcano decided to erupt last night with loud bangs of rolling thunder. We understand it also was spitting boulders according to a traveler who tried to climb it.

1,  Ruins in Antiqua 2. Antiquas Cobbled Streets 3. Antigua - Agua volcano

The town has all cobbled streets, pot holed and very rough and uneven – hard to walk on and beat you to death to ride on. (Streets of Europe are in better shape). Quaint, colorful with some gringo influence showing through in the sense of pricing and assortment of restaurant foods available. Temps are cool at night and warm to hot in the sun…puffy clouds and deep blue skys, ring of clouds capping the volcanoes…pink to red sunset, cool, dusty breezes kick up at mid day. This colonial city has been shaken many times by earthquakes so it is filled with ruins around every corner, mostly what is left are church husos with little being done to restore them…wonderful camera food!

Afternoon – a mosey through the Hotel Santo Domingo building and grounds, huge rambling hallways, built in 1600’s; was a church/cloister and is in the process of being excavated/renovated…an archeological site with museao throughout…quite subdued lighting and music of nuns singing in the background. Does it sound Relaxing!?

The grounds are jungle landscaped with walks and bridges over water courses…macaws screech from their numberous hanging perches…reds, blues, and greens seranade with the choir music…off in the distance church bellls clang to tell us it is 3:30 and time to Start back to our hotel. We leave tonight or rather tomorrow morning at 4am by shuttle van to Copan, Honduras and then on to the Caribbean.

2-28

You know what happened…no shuttle van at 4 am or 5am…back to be…7:30am Van is waiting at the door. Seems the driver forgot to pick us up so the owner of the travel service came to rectify the situation. The bike is put inside with us and the panniers and off we go up, up, up to Guatemala City through the horrendous traffic and road repairs to the road leading to the coast. Down, down, down, we go on a narrow winding road with lots and lots of 18 wheelers, no shoulder and broken pavement. We drop 3,000 ft. through high mountain valleys which are brown and dry as parchment…lots of burned roadside areas and lots of dust, into a broad agricultural valley, green and soft…then up, up, up back into the mountains and across the border into Honduras.

Cost to leave Guatemala: $20 p/p and the cost to enter Honduras: $25 p/p. We also used a money changer: Quetzals to Liemperas. Now we have to struggle once again with exchange rates into US$ so we know what things cost. No change in Honduras, only paper money. So Judee carries a large wad of bills as opposed to Guatemala where she was laden down with heavy coins.

Note--travel problems – today at the post office we were surprised to find out that there was only air mail service, no boat or truck. We almost fainted at the cost to mail two light envelopes back to the status.

After breakfast we hopped into a tuk tuk for the 2km ride to the Copan Ruinas. WOW, what a jungle setting for this large Myan city which in 570 AD had 28,000 inhabitants. This site is known for its relief and steele carvings not to mention the huge temples with monstrous Ceiba trees crowning their tops. Reminds me very much of pictures I’ve seen of Angor Wat in Cambodia…vines, vines, Tarzan would feel right at home. The overall site has barely been discovered and the surrounding jungle is filled with tree covered mounds of all sizes just waiting to be popped open.

1. Copan Ruinas 2. Copan Steeles 3. Tree in Copan

The town of Copan is a sleepy village full of small lshops, hotels, retaurants and Internet establishments. While it services both the local natives it does cater to teh tourists who come to explore the ruins. We are in a small hotel up the hill from down town: small room, two beds, private bath and TV for $15US. The dogs and roosters decided to sing to us last night at 2am just below our windows….right back to sleep with the cool breeze blowing in the windows.

3-2

Up early for our usual coffee and pancakes and back on the bike…leaving Copan Ruinas over the rough cobble stones and down the hill to smooth pavement and a quiet rural road that winds its way through the lush green valleys and up over mountain shoulders and down to the next valley. We pass through small villages alive with the days early morning shoppping, children calling out to us and goggling as we respond and pass by. No indigenous people with their native dress here, all western clothes. The men wear jeans and straw cowboy hats or ball caps and long sleeved shirts. By the roadside we see many areas where coffee is spread out to dry or is bagged in piles waiting to be picked up.

At our snack stop, we found that we were across the street from a large coffee plantation and decided to take the offer to explore and learn more about how coffee is grown, harvested and roasted. For $10 we could take the grand tour. We got into the back of a large truck in which we stood as we wound our way up a steep farm lane…way up to the top of the mountain, traveling through coffee fields growing in the shade of large - some huge - old trees. As we drove, the manager of the plantation explained what we were seeing as we passed workers on the hillsides. At the top we were droppped of with a guide to walk back down to the plantation work area. The path lead us down deep hillsides covered with coffee bushes. We learned that it takes 25 months for a coffee bush to produce its first usable beans. We saw red and yellow beans and tasted both off the bush. They are rather sweet when chewed. The actual bean itself is three layers inside the outer layer. As we walked our guide pointed out plants, bushes, trees and birds. One tree was full of large hanging weaver nests and the sound the birds made was loud and distinct as well as the bright yellow tail markings and red backs.

1. Road from Copan 2. Coffee drying 3. Coffee plantation - suspension bridge in jungle

The farther down the mountain we went the more jungley it got: over hanging trees and vines, plants with leaves 3 ft. across and large ferns everywhere. We were following a babbling stream when we came upon a beautiful structure built on pilings out over the deep ravine…a restaurant that is almost finished…beautiful Word decís and railings…felt like you were in a tree house! At the bottom of the mountain is where the processing takes place. Beans are soaked and the husks removed, the beans are then dried for 3-5 days and the second shell removed. Then by hand, the beans are sorted with the imperfect ones removed, then roasted, cooled, some ground and then packaged. We were given a cup each of the fresh product to taste at the end of our tour. Overall a wonderful learning experience with warm helpful people, proud of what they were doing.

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88km ride over hills and dales to Cofradia where we found a ride to Buenos Aires and the Eco Albergue Buenos Aires (www.ecoalbergue.com). The ride was in the back of a small pick-up loaded with both people and supplies, bananas, coffee beans, cases of soda, bags of snacks, water bottles, fruits and vegies, all our gear and Bici plus 6 adults and one child. I stood on one leg as we bounced, swerved, slid, jounced, pounded, ground our way up 26 km of single lane dirt trail, crossing and recrossing streams, wallowing through mud up to our axles. This felt like an Out of Africa experience. Very steep winding climbs with just as steep downs and drop offs at switch backs. The panaromic views kept getting better and better as we gained over 2700 ft in altitude. Warm at the bottom and cool to cold at the top!

When we reached the top, Bici and most of our stuff drove off with the truck and we went with our guide, Carlos, to his house for dinner. He lives in an adobe/wood three room (kitchen, living/dining, bedroom) with his wife, 2 daughters and a son. No electricity or running water (washing area outside and out house). The kitchen has no fridge but a wonderful adobe wood stove with one large round burner (concave ceramic plate). All the pots sit around on this plate which is hotter/cooler depending on how the stove is stoked. The stove (as was the house) was handmade by Carlos, our guide and host. His wife prepared dinner for us – coffee and tamales Honduran style – corn meal, potato and vegetables with a piece of chicken in the middle and wrapped in a banana leaf, served piping hot (stemed). We each ate 2 and took 2 and beer with us to the lodge.

1. Truck to Eco Alberque, Buenos Aires 2 & 3 Carlos and family

The Eco Lodge was down a steep trail about 1 km below the village; set out on the mountains side looking over a deep valley across to more mountains and valleys. The lodge is concrete block with plaster, wood doors and wood shuttered windows. No screen or glass. The window shutters swing in - the view is jaw dropping!! Solar powered lights and cold running water serve the five bedrooms with two single beds in each. Showers and toilets are comunal in a separate building as was the kitchen and dining room. We chose not to take a cold shower as we were already freezing and tired, so we powered up the propane stove to get hot water for our sitz baths in the kitchen after our second dinner of tamales and beer.

We were the only guests so the whole place was ours. How very quiet and restful. Before lights off at 9pm we went out to look at the stars….so many, so bright, it makes one feel very small. With so many how can we be the only intelligent beings?

The morning brings bird songs and bright sun. Judee is up at 6:15 to go sit on the porch and watch the morning develop. Clouds cover the mountain tops, drift up the hillsides, shafts of sunlight pierce the clouds. Are we in Brigadoon? Mists, clouds, trees, pastures with a horse whining “good morning” as we wander out to take pictures. Locals, men with straw hats, rubber boots, machetes, say “Buenos dias” and wave on their way into the fields to cut wood for their stoves.

Carlos comes to pick us up for breakfast back at his home and then off for a walk toward the National Park of Cusuco. Since we don’t have boots, we will have to stay on the road because of snakes and insects. We wander on dirt paths through the village (pop 48) up a very steep pitch of a very rough road past shanties with tin roofs, mud walls, dirt floors with no doors or windows, but happy, laughing children who greet us playing with sticks and hoops.

Carlos is a good guide, pointing out flowers including orchids growing wild, exotic birds, and talking about his job and training as guide and admisitrator for the lodge. Two hours later we are again boarding another pick up for the trip down the mountain. After a bite to eat and a brief downpour, we are back on the road to Sula. Thank goodness for the rain which cooled the afternoon.

3-5  Tela.

After breakfast at McDonald’s (only place open at 7 am) we took off in the cool overcast morning for a 90+km ride through a gentle vallley to the Caribbean/Garfunian culture. The green of Honduras's warm Caribbean climate is amazing. Ferns and philodendrons cover the trunks on grove after grove of date plams. We saw massive washouts, where wide, wide rivers washed away 500 meters on each side, including the bridges, roads, and any buildings, businesses, houses in its raging path. Water must collect quickly in 10” rains as it races to the ocean down the steep, ever present mountains on both sides of the broad valley. The Hondurans are wonderful, happy, gregarious people. Many stop their cars to ask us what we are doing, where we are going, where we came from, and to wish us well, or to offer us a beer. I love Honduras. The scenery is lush, extremely diverse; the people are living without the desperation we saw in Guatemala. I like being able to interact and not be pressured continually to buy something or give someone a hand-out. Hondurans have some drinking problems. but not as evident as Guatemala. Mexico had extensive support from AA, developing a culture that was trying to control the epidemic in their country.

We are going to settle here a bit and explore this area of the Caribbean – swim, snorkle, possibly kayak into some jungley eco areas near here. The brisk breeze feels wonderful and everyone here bicycles – perfect! Oh, and our room is $13 a night!

1. On the road to Tela, Honduras - River washout 2. Entering Tela 3. Swimming in river

NOTE – On our way to dinner we strolled down to look at the water and beach - dirty with lots of litter. Judee said the water was like “bath water”! As we got back on the board walk we noticed a tall black man rummaging through the trash can pulling out stuff and throwing it on the ground…all the while mumbling to himself. We passed him and he quit what he was doing and walked past us and exited at the next street. We walked in front of the hotel and around to the river and toward the restaurant we had chosen for dinner. As we started across the street we noticed a church service in process with dancing and music, so we went to match for a few minutes. Then we resumed our walk to dinner. We had only completed 10-12 steps when I was hit from behind several times, knocking off my glasses. Judee started to holler at the man who was hitting me “What are you doing” and some men sitting at a sidewalk café came to my asístanse and scared the man off. The men from the restaurant know the assailant and said he was crazy and had put an American woman in the hospital. We retrieved my glasses and the right lens was broken. I was really shaken up, hit more than three times on my head, on my shoulder, jaw and the side of my head. Not a warm fuzzy experience. After dinner we reported the indicent to the Tourist Police and completed a report.

3-7

We are recovering from the attack, but are not going to spend as much time here as originally thought. This kind of experience tends to color one’s feelings and general response to a place.

1. Street scene in Tela 2. Dugout canoes 3. Evening over Tela 4.  Morning from Eco Lodge

Today, we awoke to a beautiful morning, so after breakfast we hopped on the bike and rode out to a local arboretum that is known as one of the most complete in Latin America for not only local plants, but world wide diversity for tropical climates. It was originally developed by the Chicita banana people back in the 1920’s. It was a beautiful place with a wonderful, clean, cool swiming hole which we enjoyed with a fun local couple. We took a walk on the beach which was considerably cleaner than our first view of it on Sunday evening. It has been cleaned up since the weekend crowd. But we are still looking for the vistas and postcard views that we have seen in the travel literature. One does not resemble the other!

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