Copan, the Mayan ruins of Honduras

Day 11: Río Dulce - Quiriguá - Guatemala-Honduras border crossing - Copan - Copan ruins

The alarm sounds at 4:30 in the morning and today is that at 6 o'clock we have met Otilio, the owner of the boat with which yesterday we went from Rio Dulce to Livingston, the Caribbean of Guatemala to take us to Copán, the Mayan ruins of Honduras, stopping before in Quiriguá, a site famous for the incredible stelae that we can find there.
Today without breakfast, but with some snacks in the bag, we leave punctual Marine Yatch to start the route from Río Dulce to Quiriguá, already touching the border of Honduras, finishing the journey surrounded by bananas that the United Fruit Company that in 1910 bought all this area, delimiting the archaeological site, which was completely surrounded by plantations.

After just over an hour from our departure from Río Dulce, we arrive at the entrance of Quiriguá when it is 7:15 in the morning. We had already read that they opened at 8, something that we confirm right at the entrance when we see the poster. We are already waiting for almost an hour until they open, when Otilio, our driver, tells us that he has a surprise reserved and that he knows the boy at the entrance and after explaining that later we go to Copan and we have the right time, we It allows access to Quiriguá when it is not yet open to the public to be able to enjoy it in private.

We pay 80 quetzals per person and without thinking more than a minute, there we will enjoy the last of the three World Heritage Sites that Guatemala has, along with Antigua and Tikal.

More practical information to prepare your trip to Guatemala

- 10 essential places to visit in Guatemala
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Guatemala

Quiriguá was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981. Famous for its impressive carved steles, large stone monoliths, which rise up to 10 and a half meters, this is an essential stop for anyone who makes a visit to Copán from Guatemala.
Upon entering we access the Grand Plaza, where the most important stelae are located, one of the symbols of Quiriguá and the main reason for the visit.

All the steles are protected by a kind of thatched roofs that we have to say that detract from the place a bit of charm, but that does not stop looking impressive.
In the Grand Plaza we can find seven stelae, called A, C, D, E, F, H and J, all of them with the image of Cauac Cielo recorded, since they were all erected during his reign.

Once we have seen all the stelae, we follow the path that takes us directly to the Acropolis, at one end, from where we have a unique perspective of the great Grand Plaza.

In this area of ​​Quiriguá we find several zoomorphic figures, which represent different animals, both mythical and real, carved in stone blocks, with spectacular precision.

Once we have toured this area of ​​Quiriguá, we go to the ball game, finishing here our visit, which has taken us about an hour, as Otilio had told us and we had read.

Visit or not Quiriguá?

After our experience in the trip to Guatemala and Honduras, we have to say that if you have time, we find totally justified the visit to both Quiriguá and Copán in Honduras. We believe that, especially if Honduras is not planned to travel, this is a unique opportunity to get to know both sites. What we do want to highlight is that despite being Quiriguá a true wonder, if you visit after Copan, it is probably less impressive, so we consider that you should visit before Copan, so as not to surprise him

We leave Quiriguá when it is 8:15 and it has just opened to the public, an hour ahead of schedule, making our way to Copán, where to arrive before we must cross the Guatemala's border with Honduras.
In a straight line we have about 50 kilometers from Quiriguá to Copan, but the terrain makes us have to take a road along which the route is extended to 175 kilometers, which we plan to do in about 3 hours, but first we make a technical stop halfway in a service area, by the way with wifi , to have a coffee, go to the bathroom and be in 15 minutes again en route, touring one of the hottest and driest areas of the country.

It's 11:15 when we get to the Guatemala's border with Honduras, El Florido, open 24 hours a day, but they recommend crossing during the day, for precaution and safety. The first thing we do is stop in the parking lot before passing the border where there is a money exchanger who knows Otilio and with whom we change the quetzales that we take to lempiras, to a very good change, something we have to confess, little we expected. Seeing that man has no intention in cheat, we asked if we would also change euros, something that goes against what we thought since we had been told that euros only changed in banks.
Right in front of the parking lot we have the immigration offices where we approach and where we leave the exit of Guatemala in the passport without making any payment.

Cross the border from Guatemala to Honduras

If you go to Copán in Honduras, cross the border from Guatemala to Honduras You will do it for the town of El Florido.
- Before crossing the border, you must go through the immigration offices of Guatemala, where your passport will be sealed. In our case we pay absolutely nothing and when asked we were told that they never charge here. However we had read that sometimes they charge 15-25 quetzales, which is better to pay, to avoid setbacks
- If you want to change quetzales to lempiras or euros, always under our experience, there are usually money changers in the parking lot. In our case, having checked the change of the moment on the internet, we were made exactly the same, so we changed everything we needed.
- If the change does not convince you, you can change at the Banrural office at the border crossing.
- Once you have your passport sealed, you can walk to the Honduras office, a few meters ahead, where after a few minutes, fingerprint control and some questions, you will be stamped your passport with an entry stamp to Honduras.
- In the Honduras office, an entry payment must be made to the country of 67 lempiras or 30 quetzales. They admit both currencies.

It's 11:30 in the morning, that is, 15 minutes later since we arrived at the Guatemala's border with HondurasWhen we leave the offices and meet Otilio again, he is waiting for us with the car to take us directly to the Camino Maya hotel in Copan Pueblo ruins, where we will stay tonight, to leave the backpacks.
Initially we contracted with Destinations Guatemala that Otilio would take us to the ruins of Copán, we would make the visit and then take us to the hotel, but counting that Otilio has to return to Rio Dulce today, we propose that you take us back to the hotel to leave the backpacks , that takes us to the ruins and he returns directly to Río Dulce without having to wait for us to finish the visit, since from the ruins to our hotel there is a short path that we can do on foot or with a tuk tuk when we finish the visit for about 10 lempiras and so he can finish the trip 3-4 hours ahead of schedule and arrive one more hour prudential to Rio Dulce.

We arrived at the hotel at 12 noon and after doing a quick check in and leaving our backpacks, we took advantage of the fact that there is a Claro store right in front to get us a sim card in Honduras.

With our card already on the phone, now we are on our way to Copán Ruinas, which we know will be the icing on today and one of the essential points that we marked when we started preparing the trip to Guatemala and Honduras for free.
It does not take more than 5 minutes to reach Copán ruins from the town, arriving when it is almost 12:30 noon, time in which despite the desire we have to make the visit, we understand that we must eat before, so After saying goodbye to Otilio, we approached the ticket offices to buy tickets and take a step further.

Tips for visiting Copán ruins

- The price is 330 lempiras per person
- The schedules are from 8 to 17: 30h (in the guide they indicate that it is until 4 in the afternoon, but there we confirm that it is open until 17:30)
- Inside the enclosure there is no place to eat or buy drinks, so you must take them or buy them in one of the stores outside.
- At the entrance you can find several shops where they sell souvenirs, drinks, snacks ... and also a bar / restaurant where you can eat.
- Although we had read and even told us on a couple of occasions that we needed to enter with a guide, this is not correct. A guide is not necessary to visit Copan.
As we mentioned earlier in Copan there is nowhere to eat so we sat in a restaurant that is right next to the ticket office where we ordered a sandwich and a couple of grenades plus coke and beer for 212 lempiras, which by the way we They know glory and that despite what it may seem, everything is great.

As a table we are accompanied by two coffees for 40 lempiras, less than one euro, which give us enough strength to face the next visit of the day, Copan.
Once past the ticket offices and after walking about 300 meters through a path accompanied by macaws, we are in front of the main group of ruins or Grand Plaza that offers us one of the best known images of Copan.

The Great Plaza is the place where one of Copan's symbols is found: its gigantic stelae that represent Copan's rulers. Many studies show that these steles were painted in bright colors, something that can be seen today in some of them, as in Stela C, where you can see some traces of red paint.

We can say that all the steles have reasons to be worthy of the greatest admiration, but there is one especially, the stela A to which we advise you to devote special attention, despite being a reproduction, since the original is in the Museum of Sculpture

After approaching each and every one of the steles of the Grand Plaza, we get closer to structure 4, the one that catches our attention the most and to which we have a good time, delighting in the visit at this time of noon, in which we are practically alone.

From the Grand Plaza we head south, arriving at the ball game area, the second largest in Central America, very similar to those already seen in Tikal or Yaxhá in Guatemala, but that does not call us less attention, since it is the entrance doorto another of Copan's symbols, the Hieroglyphic Staircase.

The Hieroglyphic Staircase It is the most famous place in Copan, the work of King Humo Caracol. The staircase consists of 63 steps that tell the story, in hundreds of hieroglyphs, of the royal house of Copan.
To this day it has not yet been possible to decipher in its entirety, since when it was discovered the stairway was destroyed and many of its pieces mixed.

Today the Hieroglyphic Staircase It is covered with a tarp to protect it from the weather, something that visually is not appreciated, but if we think about it, it is totally necessary to preserve it in the best possible way.

South of the Hieroglyphic Staircase we find some steps that take us to the Acropolis, where we will pass through the Temple of the Inscriptions in the first place.

At this point, heading south, we find the western courtyard, where altar Q is located, another of the symbols of Copan, which is currently in the Sculpture Museum, finding here a reproduction of it.
Behind the altar, we find a crypt of sacrifices, where archaeologists found the bones of several macaws and 15 sacrificed jaguars.

This area of ​​Copan was considered the spiritual and political center, reserved only for the nobles, where they were also staying.

In this area of ​​Copan, if we climb to the highest area, we can find much more elaborate carvings and also the Temple of Meditation, restored in recent times.

We visit the most important areas of Copán, leaving aside the Rosalila Tunnels and the Jaguars, from which you have a vision of the structures below those that we can see today and also the Forest and the Sepulturas, which are just outside the central area of ​​Copán.

We have been visiting Copan for about 4 or so, if we had visited the Tunnels and The Sepultures, we would have needed a full day to be able to visit everything in peace. If you have enough time, we believe it is well worth spending a full day getting to know Copán, a much more recommended visit.

It is 5 in the afternoon when we are satisfied with the visit and decide to leave the premises and look for a taxi or tuk tuk that will take us to Copán Ruinas town, which is about a kilometer or so from the ruins. When we ask for a taxi, he asks us for 40 lempiras and a tuk tuk 30, so we opt for the latter, not for the price but for the experience of riding one here in Honduras.

It did not take us more than 10 minutes to plant ourselves in the Main Square of Copán ruins town, where we spent the next two hours walking and losing ourselves among its streets overflowing with color and good atmosphere, which make us think that it would have been nothing bad to stay around here How many days to enjoy the place with more tranquility.

There is still a time for the sun to fall, so we took the opportunity to make a stop at the hotel bar, where we took a couple of great lemonades for 50 lempiras, which serve us to regain energy to end the day.

It's 8 o'clock when we decide that it's time to have dinner and after a walk around the downtown area and see that two of those they recommend are closed, we end up at the hotel restaurant where we ordered a hamburger, some quesadillas and water for 380 lempiras (which include another hamburger and one more water;)) We have to say that the hotel is very good but the restaurant really is not the same level. Not bad, but neither "Bush".
The surprise of the day comes when we have been having dinner for 5 minutes and look at the restaurant door to feel "observed"Guess who is at the door: Enrique, who was our driver of Destinations Guatemala the first days in Antigua and Lake Atitlan, who is on the road with some clients and knowing that we were in the area has decided to venture to meet us ... and it has done!
So we invite you to sit with us and enjoy a nice dinner and a table talk about Guatemala, Spain, our lives and of course, exchanging directions to keep in touch once the trip ends.
Without a doubt if Copán has been the icing on the cake today, the meeting with Enrique has been the best way to say goodbye to the "pure and hard visits"This trip to Guatemala and Honduras is that tomorrow we leave for Cayos Cochinos, what they say is the last Eden of the Caribbean.