Bienvenidos a Honduras

There is clearly no fear of the threat of terrorism here in Central America. Crossing the border between El Salvador and Honduras was so much easier than flying from San Francisco to LA. The bus dropped us a few hundred meters from the border [that being a few rocks blocking one lane and a couple of guys checking to see you paid your $3 entrance fee] and a taxi picked us up on the other side. We got to keep our shoes on the whole time, no body scanners or bag checks. In fact it took awhile to even find anyone who was interested in seeing our passports! Brought back memories of the old days....
Honduras is remarkably different than El Salvador. A lot less people means a lot more trees. Our bus ride to La Entrada went through some amazing landscapes [shade grown coffee plantations, steep mountain roads, cloud forests, charming mountain towns, wide valleys] and then plunked us off in a dusty, semi-grim bus station where we were hurried onto a bus for Copan Ruinas that wasn't leaving for 30 mins. Men, women, and children came onto the bus selling all sorts of tasty vittles or knock off watches which filled the time quickly. We got to share some Reeds Ginger candy with a little boy selling fried something, who wasn't too sure if he liked them [porque son picante], but liked that they came from so far away.
We met our first travelers! They were Kiwi's coming from Costa Rica who were also heading to Copan to see the ruins. Once we got off the bus and walked through the town, we began to really miss El Salvador. All the colorfully painted buses, the pupusas, the chocolate [an amazing drink made out of ground cacao beans and water], the lack of tourists, Francis and Rene, and the friendly people. Where did all these English speaking, sun-burned people come from? The town itself is immaculate. No basura, cobbled streets, kitchy stores, international cuisine, and internet everywhere. Similar to Lahina, Maui or Disneyland. Total culture shock! Within a few hours our legs were throughly attacked by blood sucking beasts while the bars cranked out techno music and touristas mightily quenched their thirst. Maggie came to the realization that she's growing old as this would have been heaven when she was 22 [minus the mosqitoes], but just really wanted a good nights sleep at 30.
Next morning we awoke chipper and eager to go to the Copan Ruins just down the road and found our first cup of amazing coffee. Hata was stoked and had a few more to make up for lost time. We got a guided tour of the ruins, which was beautiful and full of rich history, and afterwards made a change of plans. We've decided to stay in Copan and go to a Spanish school [4 hrs/day for 4 days excluding X-mas]and THEN grab a bus and head for La Ceiba. This town isn't really so bad, DEET is okay in small doses, and the beer tastes great. There is still the problem of too many tourists, but maybe they'll push on to Guatemala or Costa Rica for the holidays.....Even if they don't we think it will be worth it to improve our spanish.
Hope you are well in your respective places, sending you some warm weather in our thoughts!
xoxoxo M and H
PS for those who requested photos, we still haven't found a card reader, so for now no podriamos upload.