Woke up and took the bus to Copán. Feeling pretty good even though yesterday was pretty frustrating. I think that hanging out with some fun people last night helped perk me up. Saw Haley and Ginnie (friends I met during Scuba course) on the bus. I keep running into them everywhere!
Went to En La Manzana Verde in Copán. Pretty cool backpacker hostel. Dropped stuff off and went to lunch with Haley, Ginnie and Erin (another girl in our room). Pretty fun time.
Get back and meet this gray-haired (that’s uncommon in a hostel) English guy name John who biked down here starting in Alaska! He’s travelled all over the world teaching English, French and Spanish. We had an interesting talk in which he was saying he can’t understand why working class people in the U.S. vote Republican when that’s against their best interest. I tried to explain how a lot of it just that conservatie ideology in the U.S. contains the issues that many people care about for religious reasons such as abortion. Canadian guy named Chris was backing him up on this. It’s pretty simple and I think that they were just trying to prove a point. I guess it’s hard for someone like them to understand the concept of someone they disagree with being blinded by ideology when they are also blinded but with just the exact opposite one. At first they made me feel bad about having been ideologically conservative when I was younger but at some point you just have to realize that ideology is empty and feel thankful that you realize that. It took me years in which I switched from conservatism to liberalism to libertarianism to non-ism before I realized this. Sadly, I think many, if not most, people go their whole lives without ever figuring out that ideology is stupid.
Later, we all went out to Via Via Cafe for food and drink. Very hick guy from Wisconsin came too. He was kind of being the loud jackass American that people think of when they stereotype Americans which kind of embarrassed me until I realized that the Canadian guy (Chris) who was acting so critical of him was just as much of a tool for being so aloof. It’s pretty unreasonable to look down on some for acknowledging the fact that shooting guns is fun (I actually agreed with the Wisconsin guy on this). Next, some proud Canadian girl was talking down to us about how the Canadian gun control policy was so much better than in the U.S. She was one of those people who acted as if that was her accomplishment or something and that we were at fault for the United State’s policy. People frustrate me when they act like this because they aren’t bringing the world any closer to solving real problems.
Booked a trip to Finca El Cisne for tomorrow. That’s the local ranch the couple I rafted with recommended. He said that he didn’t have helmets which is nuts. I told him I wouldn’t ride a horse without one, especially after falling off a horse hitting my head (with a helmet on) last fall.
