The Exploits of a Honduran Teacher

Copan Ruinas

This past weekend we had a four day weekend because of some national holidays, so we decided to take a short trip. We ended going to the town of Copan Ruinas in the far west of Honduras- three miles from Guatemala. We left at five in the morning and took an upscale bus on the seven and a half hour long trip. Copan Ruinas is a small, quaint Spainish town with cobblestone streets and quite a bit of tourism- mostly because of the Mayan ruins that are close to it. We stayed in a really nice hostel run by two Belgium couples for $6 a night each- two rooms with a private bathroom. Friday we saw the ruins, which were absolutely amazing! It had been a city of 25,000, but it suddenly died out in 900 AD and the city was lost in the jungle until the 1800's when people became interested in it again. There are huge piles of rubble everywhere, which used to be buildings and temples, but there are also buildings that have been restored (cleared the dirt away and put the fallen blocks back into place). There are lots of carvings and different pieces of art- most of which are in pretty good condition. The Mayans were a very interesting race- a mix of asian and middle eastern culture, religion and language, but also distinctive in their own way. Anyway, I won't bore you with more history, but it was really interesting to see all that stuff.
That night (Friday), Brian started to feel sick so he went to bed early and I followed shortly after. Both of us hardly slept at all that night- we both came down with fevers and my stomach was really hurting. I spent the whole night trying not to throw up, and it worked until I got in the shower the next morning... I just barely made it to the toilet when everything came up. We were scheduled to go horseback riding that morning and at breakfast I obviously wasn't feeling too good, but we ended up going anyway. I am sure that my mother would have disapproved, but it ended up going fine. We went on a four hour ride through the mountains to an old hacienda that grows coffee and tobacco and then back down along a river. I was light-headed some of the time, but the adrenaline helped me out some when we got to canter on the horses. Then I came back, threw up after lunch and slept the rest of the afternoon. The next morning we got up at four and made the trek back to Tegucigalpa. I didn't end up eating anything else until lunch that day and then rested.
The trip was good, but very tiring. I am still not feeling very good but I haven't thrown up in a few days. It might have been the food, the change in water or maybe just a virus- but whatever it is, it is different than what Brian has- and it is the sickest that I have been in a while.
Here are some pictures:

posted by Whitey @ 4:38 PM