It had been a long journey just to look at stones, but we went in anyway. We flew from the island of Roatan into San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city at 350,000, and picked up a rental car at the airport. When we asked for directions to the Copan ruins, the agent at the rental counter laughed. It was a cultural eye-opener, especially for my girls, whose only foreign travel experiences have been in Europe. Nothing, though, was more surprising for us, visitors from the land of freeways, than seeing people lying in the road.
Few people own cars, and a walk into town can be long and hot.
The pavement is the smoothest place to rest, and nappers figure that what few cars there are can just drive around them. Here we found, to our delight, a quaint colonial town of narrow cobblestone streets and little houses with red-tiled roofs set against the lush green hills. It was getting dark and beginning to rain when we pulled up to the Hotel Marina Copan, a Spanish Colonial-style inn with flickering candles in the courtyard, a cozy restaurant and marimba musicians. But the woman at the counter shook her head apologetically. Our faces reflected our confusion.