Another early 6am wake up this morning! After yesterday’s invitation to join Eduardo and Manuel on their adventures in the area of Copan Ruinas, how couldn’t we say yes? The job of these guys is to repair telecommunication towers and even though they’re from El Salvador, they operate also in Guatemala & Honduras. Having them on your side will definitely make any trip better, especially if they let you stay in the backseats of their super nice truck while outside it’s raining.
Before dropping us off at Copan Ruinas (we tell them several times that they can drop us off anywhere on the highway to there but we can’t convince them ahah!), they need to drive up at a tower so that while Manuel starts trying to fix it, Eduardo can drive us to Copan Ruinas. Long story short, after a 3-4 hours we eventually reach the town of Copan Ruinas and infinitely thank our on-the-road friends for having gave us such a long-lift!
At a first glance, the town seems to be the perfect place where to spend a couple of days in relaxation. Cobblestones roads stretching all around the place, loads of tiny local tiendas selling anything you might ever need & people ready to give you a tour around for the sake of showing how great their home is. Is this already not a great start? More than that, the hostel we booked online has given us a very spacious private double room (for less than 7USD each) which, we later discovered, is no less than one set of stairs away from a lovely chilling area with hammocks overlooking the southern bit of the city. Spot on!
Local Market
The main reason for which many travellers end up stopping by is the Ruins of Copan (or Copan Ruinas); funny enough, this breathtaking complex of mayan temples shares the same name of the town and as you would expect is located just a 10min walk away. As mentioned, the complex can be reached on foot, by tuk-tuk (20L each way) or hitchhiking just after the bridge that leads to the ruins. The entrance ticket to the ruins includes access to two different archaeological sites, the first being Ruins of Copan and the second being La Sepultura (located just 1km from the other). Foreign visitors pay 15USD for a “simple” ticket (which only includes the visit to both sites) and have to pay an additional 7USD for visiting the on-site Mayan Museum or 15USD in case they want to visit the tunnels.
QUICK TIP: Did you know that if visit the ruins early in the morning you’ll have a big chance of seeing Red Macaws feeding? Make sure to be up and ready by 7.30am!
Another nice place to visit around town is the Macaw Mountain. This place welcome individuals with no house from all over the world but is also a rehabilitating center for Red Macaws which will potentially be reintroduced into the wild and also. The entrance ticket is good 10USD investment but included in the price there’s a guided tour and even a swim in a little natural pool. Thankfully the ticket is worth for three days, so you can simply come back and have a swim again anytime!
Other activities in the surrounding mountainous landscape include zip-lining one of the world’s longest zip-lines (35USD), going out for a horseback riding (c.a. 15USD for a couple of hours) and visit the small butterfly centre (mariposario) just outside town (20L).
The town’s main plaza adorned by a beautiful colonial church is also a very nice place to have a walk, either during the day or night, to visit the most active part of town. During the day you can find food stands, small local restaurants ready to serve you the tastiest dish and hard-to-refuse ice-cream sellers but during the night… that’s when the place turns alive! People chatting on a bench, others enjoying a handmade tamales and the rest setting up a pretty artisanal market.
Whether you’re planning to spend one day or a week, Copan Ruinas will always have something to offer that will fit your taste. Make sure to not miss it!!!
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