Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! Although Honduras does not celebrate this holiday, Ken and I both got the 4 day weekend since we are on American school schedules. Cha-ching!!! We both needed the long weekend to get ready for the last leg of the race. We only have 3 weeks to go!!!!

Anyways, we decided that since we weren't really going to celebrate Thanksgiving here in La Ceiba that we would take a trip somewhere and enjoy ourselves. Plus, the weekend before, my school had thrown a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner for all faculty and staff. It was a potluck event where everyone brought a dish and shared. What do you think I brought? If you know me, dessert of course. I made my Grandma's Apple Nut Cake and Iowa Chocolate Cake. The Apple Nut Cake was a hit too :) The food was delicious and it really felt like Thanksgiving. Ken and I got our turkey, ham, and mashed potatoes fixing and felt much better going away for the weekend because of it. Since we arrived in Honduras, we have wanted to go to a city called Copan and that is exactly where we went.

Copan is about an 8 hour bus ride from La Ceiba. We took a bus company called Hedman Alas that is pretty well known all throughout Honduras. There were 2 buses that we had to take as well because there is no direct bus line. Technically you could get there in 6 hours by car but we had to take a 3 hour bus ride to San Pedro Sula and then wait for 2 hours in the bus terminal before taking another 3 hour bus ride to Copan. Because of the long travel day, Ken and I decided to treat ourselves to Ejecutivo Plus...aka FIRST CLASS! We also figured that it was worth the $4 extra to have reclinable seats that were basically like Lazy Boys. I must say looking back on it that it was well worth the extra money.

The day of travel on Thanksgiving was not that bad at all except for the second bus driver who liked to take speed bumps at full speed before slamming on his breaks just before hitting them. It didn't bode well for me, especially with all of the winding roads. The last hour was spent thinking "happy thoughts" so I wouldn't get sick.

For Thanksgiving dinner we went to an authentic honduran restaurant. I had a plate with avocados, eggs, refried beans, and cream. Ken had a meat plate with onions, beans, and cheese. It was very delicious, although nothing like a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

The next day Ken and I headed to the Mayan Ruins. It was just outside of town. Only a short tuck-tuck ride away.

The ruins were absolutely beautiful. We spent about 3 hours there just walking around and exploring on our own. We decided against the tour guide since it was pretty expensive as it was to get into the park. Plus Ken wanted to go into the tunnels as well which sounded really cool when buying our tickets. They were completely not worth it though! There really wasn't that much to see under there and we found out that archeologists had built them to excavate things which they hadn't put very much on display. We still understood the gist of what was going on and we were able to read the few signs intermittently dispersed throughout the park. Ken was fascinated with the Macao Parrots that were loitering at the entrance as well. I think he took about 20 pictures of these birds alone! I'll only put up 2 though.

There were some breathtaking views as well from the top of some of the Mayan ruins. The whole town is surrounded by mountains and it was a clear, sunny day which made it all the better.








For the rest of the weekend we just walked the cobble stone streets, bartered and shopped, watched people in central park while enjoying some ice cream, enjoyed great food, drank coffee at a cafe (well Ken did!), and sipped wine at sunset. I think the pictures can speak for us:

It was a great trip and we are excited to go back to Copan with all who come to visit us.