In the hills of Western Honduras

From Copan we explored the hills around; including 'Macaw Mountain', so called after a mythical Mayan place. The Scarlet Macaw is the national emblem of Honduras.

On the way we saw a procession by local school kids highlighting animal and people trafficing in Honduras.

This was fitting because Macaw Mountain educates locals to try to prevent the trafficing of these magnificent birds. The project is very impressive focussing on rescue (mostly unwanted pets) and rehabilitation (alot are taken in suffering with stress). They also have a very successful breeding program where babies are very carefully released into the wild.

There are also some other rescued birds including toucans and owls. This one is a Keel Toucan and it looks like its beak is made of colourful plastic! We have seen quite a few of these in the wild, but this is an ex pet so is quite tame.

Below are the magnificent Scarlet Macaw, Great Green Macaw and the Blue and Yellow Macaw. Poor Mr Owl hardly got a look in!
A lot of the birds are free ranging, only going in a cage to eat. They either can't fly anymore, or they just don't fly away.

We hiked to a peaceful spot, Los Sapos to find the toad carvings made by the Maya.