The morning was a pleasant drive through hilly country with small pine forests dotting the hill sides. We took a short side excursion to the small village of Yuscaran noted in the guide book as a good example of a colonial mining town. It was perched on the side of a hill and had narrow cobblestone streets that made driving into the central square a bouncy affair.
Back on the main road we eventually found ourselves at the North East entrance to the capital Tagucigalpa (pronounced Tah-goosee-galpa, nick named Tegus by the locals). As we entered the city we had good dual carriage way roads and passed a number of modern gas stations and shopping malls. The roads even had signs directing us to our next destination San Pedro Sulu. But then the dual-carriage road just stopped and all traffic headed off into a tight little side street. It felt like a different city. We spent the next hour winding through tight, severely pot-holed streets, squeezing around buses and trucks, and navigating by GPS and guesswork. We agreed afterwards that this was one of our more difficult city transits.
From Tegus the road to Guatemala goes north west to the town of San Pedro Sulu and then south west to Copan Ruinas and then to the border at La Florida. Travel was slow. While the road was in fair condition there were lots of trucks and passing was difficult. Thus night caught up with us before we made it to Copan.
Camping
We camped beside a small road-side restaurant a few kms before (North of) the town of La Entrada. Had we continued there was a Texaco gas station on the northern side of La Entrada that had a large truck parking lot at the rear and maybe a guard. This would have been a better spot.
In Ruinas de Copan the next morning we heard that the gas station next to the ruins no longer allowed overnight parking by RV's - we did not confirm this. Also one of the tour guides at the ruins now allows RV parking in his property across the road from the ruins. Contact details are:
Mauricio Tejada 9870 6395 office number 651 4968 maurytej@hotmail.com Copan Honduras
