Stuff To Do When You're Not Underwater

Car and moped rentals are very popular, though getting around by local bus is easy, cheap and fun. Horse back riding is available at Kifeto's, and dolphin encounters can be had at Anthony's Key. Snorkel just about anywhere. The Carambola gardens in Sandy bay offer several nice walking tours and one or two heart stoppers up the mountainside. Tropical Treasures bird park is a delight to spend time in. The birds are well cared for and the staff is wonderful. Sea Safaris offers jet ski's, banana rides and parasailing. For the truly fearless, Karl will take you to five hundred feet in his yellow submarine. Watch the sunset at Eagle Ray's, enjoy some local cuisine and hang out with the folks that make West End colorful, across at the Twisted Toucan, or head down the beach to Loafers for some beach volley ball and pool.

Four to fourteen day rafting trips are available through the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve. The Rio Platano River drifts through some of the most beautiful stretches of broadleaf rain forest in Central America. For the thrill seekers, there are one day rafting packages on the Cangrejal River, where rapids reach class V in the rainy season.
Sea kayaks are available for rent by the hour or day, to test your strength, sense of direction and adaptability to your environment. Guided day trips and weeklong excursions can be arranged around the islands as well as the Caribbean and Mosquito Coasts of the mainland.

Day Trips

Copan is visited by thousands of people every year, and is by far Honduras most famous attraction. While the ruins of Tikal, Coba and Chichen Itza are larger, no site can match Copan for the elaborately detailed artwork. Copan was declared a World Heritage Site in 1980 in recognition of its importance to global culture. The Honduran Instituto Nacional Antropologia e Historia took over the site in 1952 from John Lloyd Stephens. Since then the scholars working under the institutes auspices have radically changed the world's conceptualization of the Maya world in general, and Copan in particular. Copan was first settled about 2000 years ago, though recent discoveries indicate that it may be much older. The golden age of the city occurred between AD 628 & 800. Copan ceased to be agriculturally self-sufficient around AD 900 and began to decline. By AD 1100, the jungle had started to reclaim the city.

In 1994, a 3,000-year-old ossuary was discovered in the Talgua cave containing the skeletal remains of about 200 people. You cannot visit the Ossuary that lies two kilometers inside the cave, but there is a new visitor center, where you can see how people lived around the cave, 3000 years ago.