Tried to pop off this post this morning before we left, but the power went out, internet left my life, and so here we are.
(The power was out in Copan all day – it was a scheduled outage. So just as well that we were out and about!)
First Friday:
Well, not the First Friday, but you know what I mean.
A fairly quiet day: Son had his last Spanish class, which ended with decisions to continue the instruction once a week via Skype. For lunch we went a little more American – doing chicken nachos at a place called Twisted, a rooftop place looking over the town square. It actually hit the spot very well.
We’d checked off most of the items on the “Copan Day Trip” list – with one major one remaining for all day Saturday – so we knew it would be a slow afternoon. There was one remaining museum we wanted to see – this one, which is described as a “children’s museum,” but which all accounts attest is interesting for anyone. So we made the short hike up the hill to the north of town and found…it closed for the week, for some reason. Ah well. We saw things, were given access to the small tower on the property so we could take in the views of the town from that side, did some shopping, returned for rest, then went out to dinner at a Uruguayan steak place – it was quite good. My son had a hamburger, I had (shared) a 12-ounce filet, thin, served with a steamed potato and salad, with an excellent chimchurri sauce. A little more shopping, sitting in the square watching soccer balls being bandied about – in how many places around the world was that same scene being played out in the evening hours? – and then back to the room, meeting, on the way, an interesting friend.
Saturday:
I am at a point in my advanced life in which I require only about six hours of sleep a night. At home, I usually go to bed around midnight or one and wake up at 6 or 7. But here, we’ve been tired and going to bed earlier, which means…an earlier rising for some of us. So this morning, yeah, I woke up at 4. AM. Tried to go back to sleep, was halfway successful until I was fully awakened by the voice of a Frenchwoman in the garden speaking very loudly to someone on the other end of her phone – she was Facetiming or had someone on speaker – because the Wi-Fi is strongest outside – I guess she was making her connection to someone in Europe, because it was 6 am, things were urgent and she was loud.
Ah well. Soon enough, it was time to get up anyway for an all day trip up and out to Finca el Cisne – a coffee and cacao farm northeast of Copan, and not far from the Guatemalen border. It was absolutely marvelous – although if you’re prone to carsickness, don’t do it. You have to ride (in a truck) for about an hour over twisty, severely rutted roads. I don’t get carsick, thank goodness, but I can see how it could easily cause someone some trouble
Anyway, we arranged the tour through another local hotel/bar – we went down, I think, on Wednesday night, found someone in charge, they called the farm, made sure they had room on Saturday, we paid, and were told to come back to that hotel 8 am Saturday morning to be picked up – and to bring bathing suits and towels, since hot springs would be part of the program.
The tour was led by an employee – a man who, has it happened had, a few years ago, done an intensive three-month English program at Georgia Tech – and had lived around Piedmont Park, so we had that to talk about besides all things Guatemalen (his nationality) and Honduran. There were two others on the tour – two young women from Roatan, one native (runs a nursery and does landscaping) and the other, an American who owns a B & B there. (Part of our conversation with our fellow tour attendees involved the pressing question…what the heck is it with all these French people here right now????)
After we were picked up, the bumpy journey up and down began, past small settlements, folks walking by the side of the road (as per usual), dogs (as per usual), chickens and other livestock. The first part of the tour involved an explanation of the processing of both the coffee and the cacao – they don’t roast coffee there except in small specialized batches, but they do, of course, dry it.
In the box are cacao beans being fermented – the mix is called what would be translated into English as “drool.”
Then, to the horses! These are small mixed breeds, very docile. And cooperative. I’m not a rider, but I’m telling you, the experience of riding those mules down, down, down the switchbacks at Bryce Canyon that were about half as wide as the mules, their hooves loosening gravel as we went – took any fear I might have had of riding right out of me.
It was a lovely ride. Up into the hills, seeing the mountains in the not-far distance – right over those mountains is Guatemala. We paused several times to look at plants – my camera glitched out at the coffee plants, so sorry about that, but here’s some cardamon instead.
Then to lunch – prepared by a local woman in a spot that used to be a guest house of sorts but now is used as a much-needed secondary school. I didn’t get photos, because it didn’t seem to be the time or place, but know that it was delicious. Yucca – boiled and then fried, which was the best-prepared yucca I’ve ever had – topped with a mix of radishes, onion..and some other things I can’t remember. Rice with chicken, a type of squash (that my son took seconds of…something that never happens at home), tortillas of course, and then a lovely, simple little dessert of a banana (one of the small bananas they grow here) in a delicate sauce of milk dotted with chocolate, cinnamon and cardamon. And coffee, of course, for those who partake of such things.
Then – here! To the Luna Jaguar Spa Resort – between the farm and Copan. A very, very popular and well-done hot springs. Kind of amazing, actually. It was beautifully done, with various pools of different sizes and levels. The water coming out of the hill was….ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY DEGREES. I mean, I’ve never been to a hot spring before and maybe that’s normal, but it’s also ALMOST BOILING GUYS. Our guide said that it’s very popular at night – which I can understand and think it would be amazing to experience, but I also don’t think you could pay me to drive (or even ride) back to town from there on those roads, in the dark along with all the people who’ve been drinking at the hot springs all evening….
And yah, we’re pretty tired. Returned to no power, still – but it was restored about thirty minutes after our return. We headed to town, had tacos, skewers and gringas at our favorite street place, bought a few necessities…and now it’s time to pack!
