Honduras, Pt. 5

 After camp was over, we got up bright dark and early to head to the city of Copan, which is close to the border of Guatemala.

 It was Nathaniel's 19th birthday, so Hanna and I gave him a very sarcastic birthday card (very fitting for him) with a little present inside.

 We stopped at a neat little place which was pretty much a convenience store with a little breakfast bar and seating area attached. We ate breakfast there and waited for the group from Bell Gardens to catch up with us so that we could all travel to Copan together.

 The place had a nice area outback with peacocks!

 And pretty flowers!

 Charity managed to get in there with the flowers. :)

 When we got to San Pedro Sula we dropped off the Schreckhise's van and all got aboard the rented bus! All of us in that one bus made for a fun ride. We were blessed to have a really cool bus driver named Franco! Franco actually came to the family camp and was touched in the services! It was pretty awesome.

 Josiah Schreckhise providing entertainment over the bus speakers while we chugged along... We ended up stopping for some snacks/Espresso Americano! Espresso Americano is a big coffee chain in Honduras. We went there multiple times while we were in Honduras.

 Before even heading to the hotel, we went straight to the Mayan Ruins for our tour once we got into Copan. It was a nice tour and a big comical, thanks to our tour guide and Bro. Trevino's comments throughout the tour!

 Our guide did a tour in English, but you could pretty much tell that he knew what he had to for the tour and could not understand questions in English very well. He pretty much answered "yes" to everything he was asked, even if he did not understand correctly.

Example...
Bro. Trevino: So, you mean that Moses got the 10 commandments from the Mayans?
Tour Guide: Yes.

We had to hold in our laughter and try to look serious during the tour, which proved to be a little difficult! I ended up walking away at one point to avoid offending the nice little tour guide man!

 We walked through some really pretty areas on the tour and saw some HUGE tree trunks and branches. Click on the picture below to see better.

It's sad that the Mayans sacrificed themselves to their gods. If I remember correctly, the best player of a game in a Mayan sport would be sacrificed to their gods. Bro. Trevino spoke up and told the tour guide that our God sacrificed Himself in giving His life for US! What an awesome God we serve!

 Sarah and I! I love this girl. She is spunky, lots of fun, and has a heart for people and for the work in Honduras. I appreciate the Schreckhise kids and think of/pray for them often.

 The lovely Hannita

 After we finished our tour we headed to our hotel to get checked in and settled before going to a restaurant for dinner.

 I loved the view from the balcony! The (what looked like) cobblestone streets and the hanging flowers reminded me of pictures of Europe.

 The hotel was beautiful! I would say we got a pretty awesome deal, too.

 We walked down the street to this neat little restaurant that had great food and waitresses that balanced plates and drinks on their heads! You could tell they were very skilled with what they were doing. I'm sure if I tried, there would be a nice mess of food and glass everywhere!

 See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil! Little statues outside the restaurant.

From left to right: Charity, Lydia, Lanna, Allana, Hanna, Sarah, and Teresa. And Steven in the background... I think he was adjusting the fan to keep the yucky smell from people smoking right outside the open window from taking over the area we were seated.

 It was Nathaniel's birthday, so we sang happy birthday and cheered him on to take a bite of the flan... which took a while.

 Some of the yummy food!

 It was a great first day in Copan!