26/10/09-29/10/09We took the early boat out of Utila to begin our long journey back to San Pedro Sula, where we took another bus to the small village of Santa Rosa de Copan. There is nothing much to see here, apart from the usual main square and church, and on our first night, we were surprised to be paying quite an expensive rate for a fairly basic room, so the next day we were determined to find somewhere cheaper to stay. It didn't take long and we were soon moved into an even more basic room, with a bathroom which I couldn't bring myself to use once, the one consolation being that it was the cheapest room of the whole trip at just $3 each!
The one interesting thing that we did here was to visit the local cigar factory, Flor de Copan. It started as a small family business more than 60 years ago and now has 1,000 employees who together make 50,000 cigars a day. 99% of the cigars are exported, leaving just 1% for local consumption. 90% of the exported goods go to the US, while the remaining 10% are distributed throughout Europe. For a small fee, we were given a guided tour of the whole process. Much of the lands surrounding Santa Rosa de Copan are dedicated to the cultivation of tobacco, and this is where the factory gets the majority of its tobacco from. Once they receive the tobacco, it first has to dried and sorted by quality and size (not only are there different types of tobacco plant but each plant has leaves of different sizes too). Once dried and ready to be used, the leaves are taken to a room, where a group of around 70 women spend all day removing the central vein of the leaves. Apparently this part of the leaf is converted into fertilizer to be reused by the local farmers, although we did not see this part of the process. The smell of tobacco is very strong here, so the face masks we had been given at the start came in handy here :) Once the vein has been removed, the leaves are smoothed out flat and put into piles according to size and quality. The next room is where the cigars are actually made. One group has the task of rolling the cigars themselves, cutting them to size and storing them in trays of 10, which are then taken to another group of people who apply the outer layer of tobacco to complete the process. The finished cigars then go through a quality check, and the slightest fault results in a cigar being sent back to be re-made. The cigars that pass the quality check are then individually wrapped in plastic, with the appropiate labels etc. and packed into beautiful boxes, which are also made in the factory, but according to designs sent by the client. If I were forced to work in this factory for any reason, I would want to work in this part, not only because I would enjoy being involved in creating the final product, but also because it doesn't smell as bad in this part of the factory :)
Our next stop was in the small village of Gracias a Lempira. Lempira was an indigenous warrior who tried in vain to protect his people and land from the Spanish conquerors. He was cruelly murdered by the Spanish when they drew him out of safety under the pretence of a truce, and is considered a national hero. In honour of his memory, the national currency of Honduras is the Lempira. Again there was not much to see here, although there is a fort on top of a hill, which we visited in the afternoon. It does not appear to attract many tourists (to be honest I do not think Gracias itself is a popular tourist destination), but rather appears to be a hang out for local teenagers! Something that grabbed our attention were two cannons just outside the entrance of the fort that were made in Seville in 1799 and 1803 respectively using copper from the Rio Tinto mine, located in Vuelva in Andalucia. Both canons bore the inscription of Charles IV, King of Spain at the time of their construction.
Our final visit in Honduras was to Copan Ruinas, another Maya ruin site. The ruins are located a short walk out of town, and the town itself, although small is very beautiful, with an interesting museum and several hotels, restaurants and bars. Despite this, it isn't overly touristic and I really enjoyed our stay there, even though it was very brief. And although we have already seen so many Maya ruins, I found Copan really interesting. Something that made it a bit different to other sites we have seen were the various stone columns, known as stelae, which are representations of the different Mayan governors. While the Mayas inhabited the area there were a total of 16 governors, all of which are represented on a stone table, situated in front of one of the pyramids. Another remarkable sight is the Heiroglyphic Stairway, with a total of 75 steps, each of which bears a heiroglyphic inscription. Several measures have been put in place to conserve this magnificent structure and restoration is an ongoing process. A final thing that caught our attention here was the number of maccaws. We must have seen about 16 of them, always in pairs and constantly making lots of noise! They certainly give the ruins an extra something.
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