Will we ever learn?

After our disappointment in Roatan we were still desperate for some beach time so we decided to give Tela, Honduras a try. Everything we had heard and read indicated there was supposed to be a great, clean beach with kayak trips to local mangroves. Just up our alley.

We arrived late Saturday night and checked into Villas Telamar, a giant beach-like resort (again, the only place we could find without a gross humid feeling). Yuri, a really nice, young Honduran guy who had lived in the US for 15 years, walked us through the dark streets to the place where we would be staying. The complex appeared huge with tons of houses on stilts, just like a beach neighborhood in the Outerbanks.

The next morning we awoke to a little sun, so we walked down to the beach to check it out. Wow – not a soul in sight and we quickly could see why. The beach was huge with beautiful white sand, but it was disgustingly dirty with piles of raked up trash up and down the shoreline! Guess we won’t be hanging out here. We headed over to the hotel’s restaurant to have some breakfast to find ourselves as the only guests. Upon questioning the waitress we learned that there were only 4 rooms rented in the entire place! Wow.
Later that morning we strolled into town to check out the market and inquire about the kayak tours. Well, the market took about 2 minutes and we were disappointed to learn that there is a minimum of 4 people required for a kayak tour and we were the only tourists in town. Boo! At least we had spotted an internet café to check our email. While inside the café, it began to pour outside and within 15 minutes the streets were flooded with at least 8 inches of water. Great – how we’re going to get back?

After spending the afternoon catching up on movies, later that evening we ventured out another time for dinner. Pay close attention because this is the 1 positive experience we had in 4 days! Our shrimp dinners at Cesar Mariscos were fabulous….over priced…but fabulous!

With obviously nothing much happening in Tela, we decided to leave and purchased our tickets (on Hedman Alas of course) for a 12 hour ride to Guatemala City the following morning.

Roatan or Bust.....What a Bust!

When we finally arrived in La Ceiba, Honduras we hopped a taxi (and an expensive one I might add) to the ferry dock, only to find out there was no ferry service that day. Why? Apparently the sea had been rough from some recent storms. Well we had come all that way, and we weren’t turning around, so we had 2 choices: #1 - spend the night in La Ceiba and see if the ferry would run the next day or #2 - head to the airport. Determined to get to our destination, #2 was the obvious choice.

$50 a person later (note: Lonely Planet is wrong as it states flights cost $21 from La Ceiba to Roatan) we boarded a plane bound for Roatan. This however was not your typical island-hopping, beverage service only plane. If you’ve ever wondered where United’s retired planes end up, we feel pretty comfortable saying they are in Honduras. Dirty, smelly, and downright scary, by the grace of God we somehow made it to Roatan in under 20 minutes. Once we collected our luggage, we grabbed a cab and shared a $15 ride to West End with some other gringos we met during our 2 hours stuck in the mud with Hedman Alas (see yesterday's blog for details).

Apparently not so spruced up during the off-season, we weren’t so impressed with the accommodations we encountered in West End on Half Moon Bay, so we headed over to West Bay (another $10 cab ride for 3 miles). We ended up at the only place that seemed somewhat reasonable, a smallish all-inclusive, Italian haven of a resort. Good enough for 1 night – it was getting late and our meals were included. Morning came and no signs of sun. What the heck? According to Lonely Planet (error #2) there should only be a few random days of sun during the month of October. Well, it didn’t look like we would be using that free-kayak service at the hotel anytime soon and the all-inclusive food wasn’t so good, so we checked out and returned to West End (where the action is supposed to be) to try to find an acceptable place to stay.

Definitely not even close to a Holiday Inn, we ended up at the cleanest, least humid smelling hotel we visited, a short walk from town. Still no sun. Maybe a walk around town was what we needed……..or maybe not, as it turned out dodging mud puddles should be a sport in West End. Hoping to be able to get dive certified, we stopped by a local dive shop to inquire about trips. Well it seems that even money can’t buy you fun when there is rain in Roatan. We pretty much got a straight up “no” on the diving, as it seems it wasn’t really worth their time to teach us (a couple of the only tourists in town). Plus we were told that even if we did go out the water was too murky to see more than 5 feet in front of you. Guess we won’t be diving.

Don't what the animals?

Hmmm……what to do now? Forever optimistic, Ben turns to our faithful companion Lonely Planet (never mind the fact that we’ve been deceived twice already). Ah-ha! There’s an Iguana Reserve on the other side of the island and they even have the rare white-faced monkey. Say no more, of course I was in. Feeling a bit ripped off by the taxis on the island we hopped on the public mini-bus and 1 hour later were dropped off by a sign for the Iguana Farm. We hiked about 20 minutes down a dirt lane, following teaser signs the whole way, and ended up at a house. Weird, we thought it was supposed to be more farm? As we wandered down the drive macaws sqwacked at us from a nearby cage. A young girl sitting at a table in the garage looked like she might be able to help us, but before we could say “hola” a man came out of the house, looked at us, yelled at the girl, they both disappeared and we were left standing alone. A few minutes later (after she had fed the chickens without acknowledging us) the girl promptly told us it was $8/person to enter, but that we would be seeing any iguanas as they don’t come down from the trees when it is rainy. (Error #3 Lonely Planet – “around 3000 iguanas live here, some as long as 5 feet”). If we wanted to pay $4/person we could still see the monkeys, since the iguanas weren’t around. Suckers we are, of course we paid – afterall we had come all that way. Well we should have turned around right then and there because the rare monkeys turned out to be 3 sad, emaciated-looking monkeys living in tiny cages. A few turtles living in a pool of nasty water later, and we were out. Wow – things aren’t getting better.

Poor monkeys in sad little cages.

Help me, Gringos!

That night was Halloween and we gave it another go. We went out to an expensive (no surprise there) disappointing Thai dinner with intentions of hitting up a public Halloween party we had heard about afterwards. Well on our way to the party we got stuck in a downpour. Drenched to the bone, with our pants stuck to our legs, we gave up on the idea of going out and headed back to our room where we promptly went to bed. The next morning we gave it another go, checking out another hotel (where Temptation Island was filmed) but upon learning we would be the only guests in the hotel we gave up, headed to the ferry dock and boarded the first ferry out of Roatan.

Final thoughts: Roatan = Ripoff (at least based on our experience)
Lonely Planet lies (at least in the Guatemala book)

The only photo we have with sunshine.

What is that smell?

Early Tuesday morning we huffed ourselves to the bus station in Antigua to begin our long journey to Honduras. Since we both agreed that travel by chicken bus was not even an option (can you imagine 12 plus hours squished amongst strangers for days at a time?) we splurged for Hedman Alas, the “first class” bus that services Honduras. Though definitely better than chicken bus, Hedman Alas didn’t exactly live up to the hype. Our ride was comfortable enough, with blankets (if you requested one), snacks (a package of cookies and a juice box), movies, and reclining seats. The biggest problem we had was the smell coming from the bathroom……but not what you’re thinking. These buses use the strongest smelling air fresheners imaginable – probably not even available for purchase in the US, these suckers could make you high in seconds! Lucky me, I was nauseas with a migraine the entire ride to Copan.

When we finally arrived we were pleasantly surprised with the town. So quaint and charming, Copan may just have been the highlight of our entire trip. We stumbled across a great little hotel (definitely a step up from a backpackers place, but not crazy expensive) that is too new to be in any of our guide books. The staff there was fabulous and lucky for us we ended up being their only guests, so we got all their attention! I just about died and went to heaven when I got a look at the brand new, spotlessly clean, free-flowing hot water shower. If you’ve been following our blog you’ve seen what we showered in for our first 5 weeks in Guatemala. Enough said. So, if you’re planning a trip to Copan Ruinas, Yat B’alam is a must stay.




Copan is a small town best know for Mayan ruins that are about a 15-minute walk outside of the center. Archeologists believe that settlers began moving into the area near Rio Copan around 1400BC to take advantage of the areas rich agricultural potential, but didn’t begin construction of the city until 100AD. Near the end of Copan’s “heyday” the popluation grew at an unprecedented rate. This in turn greatly strained the agricultural resources of Copan and thus began the downfall. No longer agriculturally self-sufficient, food had to be imported from other areas. Deforestation became a problem as the urban core expanded and forced agricultural and residential areas into the surrounding valley. Although the Copan valley was not abandoned overnight, as it is thought that agriculturalists may have continued to live there for another 200 years, but by 1200AD the royal city of Copan became reclaimed by the jungle.





Aside from the ruins Copan is best known for, there are some other attractions worth checking out, including a bird park and butterfly sanctuary. We spent an afternoon taking a tour of Macaw Mountain Bird Park and Nature Reserve where we interacted with macaws, parakeets, parrots, toucans, hawks and owls. Although we have never really been “bird-people” this place was pretty cool – another must see.

There's no place like home...

Well, we're back in Xela and already settled into the swing of things! We spent the morning enjoying the sun in Parque Central (FINALLY SUN!) and doing a little studying! This afternoon Ben is in the gym and I'm at our favorite coffee shop, Cafe Baviera (it's on Calle 4, not the one near Parque Central), blogging.

We know you all are dying to hear about our trip to Honduras, but we're going to need some time! Let's just say Honduras wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but Guatemala sure was nice! I guess there's no place like home!

Stay tuned for a day-by-day update on our trip!

We missed you. Hope you missed us too!

Escaping to Paradise!

We're taking a well deserved break after 5 intensive weeks of Spanish school. For the next 2 weeks, we'll be traveling around Guatemala & Honduras. We plan to visit Lago Atitlan, Copan, Rio Dulce, Livingston, the Bay Islands and Coban if we have time. If we find some time and internet along our travels, we'll keep you posted. If not, you'll have to wait! Sorry! Hasta Lluego!