Copan, our first Mayan ruins

The ferry left Utila spot on time (06:20), and after another super-smooth crossing we arrived back on the mainland. Two local bus rides later and we arrived at the bus terminal literally as a bus to San Pedro was pulling out.

At San Pedro we were met by a bus company representative to escort us across and through the massive new bus terminal to where our connecting bus to Copan would be leaving. It was here that we met up with Erin, an Ozzie girl travelling the same way as us for a bit, and so we had some lunch and a chat with her while waiting for the bus to depart.

The journey to Copan was again very comfy and straightforward and we arrived just before dark. We got a fantastic price for a couple of nights in a nice posada and then headed out for dinner. The small town is really lovely I think, and we had a fantastic meal in the lovely Carnitas Nia Lola restaurant (with waitresses balancing wine bottles and food on their heads). It was so good we went back the next night too with Erin, but of course it didn't seem as great then.

So the next morning it was another early start to stroll the nice 1km walk from the town to the famous Maya ruins of Copan. It seemed we were the first tourists to arrive and I was anxious to get through the ticket desk and into the site before the hordes arrived. But in fact we only saw maybe 20 or 30 people on the entire site for the entire day we were there - and half of those were gardeners or guides!

The site really is amazing and well deserves the hype it gets. There's no point in me trying to describe it really, it's all here.

I had deliberately waited to have breakfast at the ruins themselves, and as soon as we arrived at the Grand Plaza, the focal centre of the ruins, we scaled up the really cool temple that's smack-bang in the centre (after checking first if it was OK with a guard). So there we are in the middle of the Maya Grand Plaza of Copan, sitting on the top of the cool pyramidal temple without a single other tourist in sight just casually having our breakfast, when a flock of 4 gorgeous scarlet macaws fly straight past us in close formation - a truly spectacular sight to see anywhere, but all the better for the setting we were in of course.

We spent the entire day just strolling about and climbing the various ruins, many of which are in fantastic condition. Having the place almost completely to ourselves was a real treat, and of course the weather was just perfect too. The huge museum at the site was very impressive too, especially the reconstruction of one of the ancient temples that is actually buried inside a more recent temple.

Later in the day I strolled up to a neighbouring ruin site, and literally had the entire place to myself. Back in the town it was dinner with Erin and another early night, as it was another very early start to get across the border into Guatemala and try to make it up to the even more famous Maya ruins of Tikal.