Honduras at last!

After two days of resting and hanging out in a fun little town, we regained our composure, sense of humor, and proper amount of humility, then headed to El Florido, another border crossing between Guatemala and Honduras. Our latest theory was that Puerto Cortes, being a big commercial port, had extra procedures because most things, including vehicles, arrive via containers and ships. El Florido was the crossing most people in Guatemala take to get to Copan Ruinas (Mayan ruins) in Honduras - big tourist attraction, and maybe smoother procedures.

Got up early, took deep breaths, braced ourselves like we were heading into battle, and off we went. The whole procedure took about an hour (even including the time several of them spent arguing over how to file all of their 2004 files into a gigantic box) and cost us about $30. It took us 10 km and arriving in another town before we believed we were in and legal. Yay!

Arrived in Copan, parked in front of a little cafe that advertised coffee and bagels(!) sat down and were euphoric in our little victory. The cafe is run by Liz, who grew up in Texas, came here to learn Spanish, met a Honduran man, got married, and against all the advice of her friends and family, has been here happily for 15 years ever since. Lovely conversation, shock at our previous border experience, and lots of assurances that Honduras is a friendly, fabulous place.

We've gotten a room for the night and booked ourselves in for an all-day and overnight excursion to a coffee and cardamom finca (farm). There, we will tour the farm, go horseback riding, dip in hot springs, and eat lots of big farm meals. We're told it's an awesome eco-tourism adventure. Our first official tourist-type tour, we're pretty excited. After that, we're off to the beaches we were trying to reach in the first place.

By the way, for friends in Minnesota, I've got to share, it's about 75 degrees here and flowers are blooming everywhere. Sorry, don't mean to rub it in, just hoping to share some vicarious happiness. And we're starting to get tan. {very relaxed sigh}

Note to Emily (I can't seem to get the hang of replying to comments): Alan did not break his hand, nor even bruise it. He didn't punch that hard. But it did impress our "custodian." Later, our custodian told us his favorite kind of movies are action - Jean Claude Van Damme mostly - and he asked if Alan knew karate. Cool, huh?