Copan
When we wake up, the sky is cloudy, many dark grey clouds appear above our heads.
We are back on a concrete road ... Great !!!
We arrive at " Copan " under rain and we find the garden of an almost empty hotel to spend the night.
We visit the small town with colorful houses but the bad weather does not make it pleasant .... The cobbled streets are muddy and there is nothing exciting to see. Travelers stop here only for the archaeological site.
Copan's nicknamed is " Alexandria of the Mayans " or " Athens of the New World ". The site owes these appellations to the finesse and beauty of its architecture and to its beautifully carved steles.
The Mayans made " Copan " a scientific landmark where priests studied astronomy.
The site was mentioned to King Philip II of Spain as early as 1576, but it was in 1834 that archaeologists actually began exploring the site.
It is inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage Site in 1980.
It is on the large square that we admire the most beautiful steles erected between 711 and 736.
As in most Mayan Cities, the " Juego de Pelota " is one of the most important buildings and it is the largest ball game in Central America after Chichen Itza in Mexico.
* the Acropolis with its two squares surrounded by high structures
* the Hieroglyphic Stair where we discovered the longest Mayan text with 2,200 glyphs.
* The reconstruction of the Rosalia Temple is not the most beautiful attraction of the Maya Sculpture Museum ...
Our arrival on the site is greeted by a colony of bright color " Scarlet Macaw " parrots.
We stay for a long time in their company trying to film or photograph them in mid-flight ... without success.
Santa Rosa de Copan
Another border crossing today.
We leave the capital city towards the north through beautiful landscapes and on a good road.
The border crossing takes two hours ... not because of the crowd but because of a very disrupted bureaucracy.
We got a 90-day visa in Guatemala, covering four countries: Guatemala/ San Salvador/ Honduras/ Nicaragua.
* El Salvador side: at the immigration office, the employee absolutely wants that Jean-Pierre entered the country on January 7th ... although it was on the 6th !!!
Hard to make him understand that we left Guatemala on January 6th (exit visa in our passport) and that it is impossible that we entered El Salvador the next day ...
Unless we spent one night between the two borders ...
20 minutes for him to understand!!
* Honduras: At the immigration office, both employees take more than 20 minutes to calculate the number of days already consumed on our visa and the number of days remaining.
With the help of the computer, the calculator and the intervention of a 3rd person, the calculation is established ... 49 days used, 41 days remaining ... during this time the queue behind us tripled !!!
At customs, we meet an apprentice.
He does not know our case and with the help of his colleague spends 1 hour recording the temporary import title of the vehicle on his computer !!!
He even consults the procedure book !!! At the end, he gave us a handwritten document !!!
We go back under a gloomy sky and take one of the most dangerous roads we have ever taken.
It is tarred but not maintained ... The pot holes look more like huge holes ... and we are forced to make " Gymkhana " by deporting us on the opposite track ... a real drag to avoid cars and trucks.
Impossible to enjoy the landscape of coffee trees, pines and firs.
We arrive at the end of the afternoon and find refuge in the parking lot of a gas station "Texaco".
The city smells of coffee ... There are many coffe factories in the valley and this is the harvest season.
ROAD BOOK 083
MAVROS ODYSSEE