When I was looking at my options of day trips from San Salvador, I found one that was ambitious but very interesting. It was doable to head into Honduras to see the ruins of Copán, which is a Mayan site that I was interested in seeing!
And when I say doable, it is still a long way. Over four hours by car each way, crossing through Guatemala. Four border crossings in total, for the very motivated who really want to see UNESCO’s cultural heritage site of Honduras. My tour picked me up at the crack of dawn, and I headed out. There were six of us total.
After a gas station breakfast in Guatemala and watching the sun rise from the car, we made it to the ruins! As it turns out, they are a fantastic place for bird watching. They have scarlet macaws who frequent the area around Copán, which were so cool to see flying around us.
I also got to see toucans, which was a bucket list item for me! I had desperately wanted to see them when Megan and Matt and I were in Costa Rica, but they were elusive there.
Once we had all finished taking photos of birds, we headed to the ruins. Copán was a very important city to the Mayans, and today it remains significant because the sculptures and architecture is so well preserved. I’ve seen quite a few Mayan ruins throughout my travels in Central America, and Copán certainly ranks up there – the detail in the carvings was very cool!
The site was pretty large, and while there were other tour groups, Honduras doesn’t see the same number of tourists as many of its neighbors. Most of that is a reputation for being quite dangerous, as it has one of the highest murder rates of any country. In data I found from 2023, it was ranked 4th after Jamaica, Haiti, and Ecuador. That’s more in the cities, though, and I certainly didn’t feel unsafe in Copán. But it did mean that it doesn’t have the same overtourism problem that places like Chichén Itzá are facing. We saw a few other tour groups, but it never felt crowded.
Copán is a huge national symbol in Honduras, so some of what we saw was even on their money! I love seeing the architecture that’s represented on a country’s currency where I can.
Our guide was excellent as well. She knew a lot about the history of the site and what all the carvings meant. She told us how she wished that the government focused on developing tourism to Copán more, and investing in the infrastructure around it, since they have a world-class historical site in their backyard.
After the ruins, we headed to lunch in the adjacent town, which has the helpful name of Copan Ruinas. The food was very good and we had just enough time to do some shopping in the market before we got back in the car to head to San Salvador.
All in all, it was a great day trip. A lot of time in the car, but worth it to see one of the more interesting ruins in Central America and to get a chance to see a little of Honduras!