C-c-c-Copan

What a morning it was°! I got up at 330 and waited outside my hostel, JUNGLE PARTY (!) in Antigua and got on a micro to Copan, just across the Honduran border. The seats were too close together for me to get even remotely comfortable and drift off to sleep in any meaningful way, but somehow I managed and slept awkwardly. At around 7 we pulled up to a roadside hotel for breakfast and bathroom breaks. I got me a typical breakfast of eggs, beans, and plantains then went to the bathroom and when I came out...Guess what? The micro was gone! Boy was I pissed. How the fuck did that jerk of a bus driver leave with one less person? Didn't any of the passengers notice there was one less person? Jesus! My big backpack with some important stuff was strapped to the roof of that thing. Though I suppose I could have told the driver that I was going to the can and chill out until I was done, but no, I just assumed. So I talked to the receptionist-who was not terribly sympathetic-about what I should do and she told me that another micro had pulled up while I was in the can and on their way to Copan too. So I talked to the driver and his pal who were eating their breakfast and they said that they could give me a ride. I tried calling the travel agency that I booked the ticket through to see if they could call the driver and tell him not to pawn my backpack and get it to me somehow. But, as it was a little after 7 in the morning they weren't open so I got on the other bus and we were off to Honduras after agreeing to pay them Q35 more even though it turned out to be the same company!!! The country side was beautiful with rolling hills and mountains all around. I started thinking about what it would be like if I didn't get my backpack back and all the equipment therein and eventhough it would have set me back a bunch of dollars it would have been really liberating only having a bookbag with all I needed to get by down here. And I'd have smelled really bad. We got to the border and all had to get out to pay bribes to both the Guatemalans and the Hondurans, but it only set me back a total of $5. There were dudes with stacks of money on the border trying to change our money, but I figured I'd be better off going to the bank and taking out money and letting Chase penalize me $3 like the assholes they are. I should have supported the local moneychanging racket like a good Jew, but instead supported the megalomaniacal American banking industry, like a powerless, thoughtless American. We got back in the bus and crossed the border and were in the town of Copan shortly thereafter where we pulled up to the curb and infront of us I saw the asshole bus driver of the other bus and my bag in the doorway of a restaurant or something and I said "Alla es mi hombre!" and opened the door and yelled to/at him way too loud and he was seemed embarrassed. I got out and was all WTF, but instead of trying ot articulate myself in Spanish I just said "Tienes mi mochila! Porque sali sin migo?" (You have my backpack, why'd you leave without me???)The dude knew he was an asshole and said nothing. I went to find a hostel and right by the central park there was a horribly manged dog spasming violently, frothing at the mouth in the street. It was wet all over and had what I thought was a dead puppy between its hind legs. I asked some dude if it was giving birth and he said yes, but I didn't think normal births were so violent. I continued on but decided to stop and get a photo and then realized that it wasn't a female giving birth because it had a dick. Rather the lump of flesh or whatever it was was not a puppy. I got out my camera and took a photo as a couple of taxi trike drivers looked on and joked while the dog writhed in what looked like a hell of a lot of pain. I stopped by a bank to withdraw some Lempiras and asked a revolver toting bankguard if he knew what the deal was. He said that it was probably poisoned in the local fashion. I said someone should just shoot it and throw in a dumpster for everyone's sake. He agreed. I got my money and dropped my bag off at the hostel and then went to the Mayan ruins. They were alright. Not that I have anything to compare them to, but they were merely alright. Climbing the tallest temple was not allowed, but the grounds were really nice, like a massive fairway of beautiful green grass. There were two tunnels that cost an extra $15 which I didn't pay. I started to go in anyhow since there wasn't a sign saying I needed a pricy ticket and a worker came in after me and asked if I had the ticket. So I said yes and showed him my ticket to the ruins and he told me what I already knew so I followed him out. He then proceeded to tell me that for $5 under the table he'd let me into them tunnels and so I paid him a mix of Quetzals and Lempiras and checked out the tunnels which were alright, but barely worth the $5. I find that everytime a local offers me something like tour or entrance to some tunnels it's not worth it. Maybe one day I'll learn. On the way out there was a path into the forest that I took for a while until it got boring, but it was really nice to walk through a new type of ecosystem. I saw what looked like a capibara, but smaller, scurry by. Then I walked back to the town and went to a restaurant/hostel called Via Via where I ended up taking all my meals because they were relatively cheap/delicious/veggie. On the way to Via Via the poisoned manged dog was still shaking violently, but now on the sidewalk. How it got there I don't know. You couldn't have paid me $200 to touch that thing. Maybe they called in a forklift. The entire day I couldn't stop thinking about that fucking dog and it's disgusting body, disgusting lump-thing, and the crazed look of pain in its eyes. If it were a human I would have puked. Additionally there were lots of other stray dogs all lookin' pretty rough. There wer tons of stray dogs in Xela, even in roving packs and they never made me feel queasy. That dog has ruined me forever. I went back to the hostel and took a shower then went out wandering around the little place where there's literally nothing to do except buy souveniers so I went back to the hostel again and read for a while then joined a card game with a gal and a guy who were sort of traveling together with another girl. We hung out all night, played an Israeli card game that was sort of fun, and drank some beer. They were alright, but nothing to write home about. Put that in your skull-bong bought a souvenier market in Honduras.