We got to the border at El Florido mid- morning and there was a long queue of people at the immigration office. Both Guatemalan and Honduran immigration services are in the same building which in a way simplified things, except that for Customs we needed a set of copies of the exit stamp in the passport and driving licence and we had to go to a small shop up the road to do that and then again to pay for the car Customs fee! Still, altogether one hour and a half for the whole process is not bad at all !
We chose that border because it leads directly to the town of Copan Ruinas and the ruins of Copan, an archaeological site of the Maya civilization. Copan was an ancient Maya city ruled by a dynasty of 16 kings between roughly A.D. 426 and 820.
it was remodeled and rebuilt continuously over a period of 400 years. In its final form, it contained a great plaza to the north and a built-up “acropolis” to the south. The city was one of the most densely populated in the Maya world, and its people built great monuments and sculptures. Among the monuments they constructed was the “Temple of the Hieroglyphic Stairway.” It’s a pyramid-like structure that has more than 2,000 glyphs embellished on a flight of 63 steps, the longest ancient Maya inscription known to exist.
[Click on image to open the gallery]
We are staying in the grounds of a hotel not far from the town of Copan Ruinas. We walked there a couple of times. It is a bustling little town with a pleasant plaza. we had our first good coffee in Central America! ( coffee in Mexico and Guatemala was very weak).
[Click on image to open the gallery]
