Have you ever heard of the place Copan?  You probably have not and you should consider yourself lucky.  The previous team stopped by these ancient Mayan ruins on the way back from the village a few weeks ago.  When we got there I found out that it was a tour guided event, so I, my dad, Andrew (the other missionary’s son) and Ricardo (a 15 year old translator) stayed out of the tour.  There was a little place to get something to eat right outside of the tour, so we went and ate the Honduran special, baliadas.  It is basically beans, eggs, cheese, sour cream and lettuce all wrapped in a flour tortilla.  Once you’ve eaten one you’ve eaten them all.  After that, we heard that it was going to be another two hours before the team would be out of the tour.  We then decided to take a Moto-Taxi into the city of Copan.  For those of you who don’t know what a Moto-Taxi is, it is a vehicle that is pretty much like a four-wheeler with a cover on the top that drives on the main road.  Every town has at least twenty of these “taxis” that ride around and wait for people that need a ride.  So, I, my dad, Andrew, and Ricardo all pile into this motorized buggy and head into the town.  My dad rode up front with the driver and there was only one seat up front so he had to share with him. The other three of us rode in the back that is only designed for two people. The taxi would go about 30-40 MPH, which is very fast when you are in buggy with nothing preventing you from falling out. On top of all of this the driver was not what you would call safe.  If you were to look up “reckless driving” in the dictionary I’m pretty sure you would find a photo of this man.  At one point we were halfway on the curb and halfway on the road just cruising.  We got to the city and the roads were all laid with stone.  It looked like roads that would be in Italy or something.  The driver let us out and we all paid him 20 Lempiras each, which is a dollar. This shows you how cheap things like that are here.  We walked around the city for a few minutes and found a store that sold fake Justin cowboy boots. It wasn’t all bad though because the place had air conditioning and a television, in Spanish of course.  The lady in that store was always staring at us and thinking, “Either buy something or get out of my store you Gringos.”  By then it was time to head back. We took another Moto-Taxi back to the tour place but this taxi was not as fast this time.  It wasn’t as much of a thrill as the ride into the town.  When we got back we sat on a curb until the team got out of the tour.  During that time, we had all thought that we were closer to home than we were when we left the village.  I looked at our location on my phone and we actually drove two hours in the opposite direction to get to these precious ruins.  We were pretty frustrated at this point.  We left the village at nine that morning and didn’t get back until about eight that evening.  It was a pretty long day if you ask me, but I am glad that I experienced it so I know what to prepare for in the coming trips.  As we prepare for another team to get here on Friday, I keep hoping that there is not another Copan Ruinas somewhere in the depths of Honduras.  Please continue to pray for my family and the mission as a whole.  With prayer everything is limitless!

God Bless,

Brantley Henderson

Moto taxi