We looked into any and all options to try and avoid having to make the journey from San Salvador to Copan Ruinas by chicken bus. We found some evidence of tourist shuttles covering this route but they appeared to be infrequent and very expensive. Ticabus and Transportes del Sol etc were also expensive and gave us conflicting information so we decided they couldn’t be trusted for the journey we wanted to make, and most of the info we could find online about using the local buses suggested circling back through Santa Ana and Guatemala which we didn’t want to do. In the end we decided to attempt this long and arduous journey via El Poy. This one is not for the faint of heart but with a lot of planning and a very early start, I can confirm it is doable! We went via El Poy, Ocotepeque, Santa Rosa de Copan, La Entrada and finally made it to Copan Ruinas after around 11 hours of traveling.
The market in San Salvador was already in full swing when we left at 5am
Our journey was as follows:
We arrived at the terminal in San Salvador just before 5am and took bus 119 to the border at El Poy. The bus left just after 5am and cost 2 dollars each, arriving at the border around 8:15am. The bus to El Poy leaves from the Terminal de Oriente in San Salvador (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ut5NngMbH3TR9wPK6), this is the old bus terminal. Be aware that there is a new terminal in Soyapanga but that is not the correct terminal, you need the old terminal for bus 119 heading to El Poy.
On the chicken bus at 5am
The bus in El Poy terminates a hundred or so metres from the border. On the way from the bus to the border it is possible to change money with guys on the street, this is recommended as it is (as far as I’m aware) impossible to get hold of Honduran lempira elsewhere in El Salvador. We changed $30 for 700 lempira. We then passed through the border point, El Salvador was hassle free, the guard on the Honduran side was very thorough in looking at all our passport stamps and asked a lot of questions about where we were going and what we were doing, but let us through eventually.
The open road after crossing the border into Honduras – a little further along here you will find transport to Ocotepeque
The next step was getting from the frontera to the town of Ocotepeque. After leaving the border point, we walked a hundred or so metres down the main road and found a parking area with taxis and colectivos. We were able to get a colectivo for 12 lempira per person but had to wait for this to fill up before it set off, we decided on balance to wait but if we had wanted to go straight away to save time there were taxis offering the journey for $4. The colectivo set off about 10 minutes after we arrived, and when we told the driver we were heading to Santa Rosa de Copan he dropped us off directly at a coach on the outskirts of Ocotepeque rather than driving us into the centre of town. We gave this guy a small tip as he was very helpful.
We arrived at the coach at around 9:10am. This was a coach rather than a usual chicken bus, we confirmed that it was heading to Santa Rosa de Copan and would be leaving at 9:30am. The coach was parked up to the south of Nueva Ocotepeque and departed with only four passengers around 9:38am, however it stopped in the centre of Ocotepeque and regularly along the way to pick people up. We eventually arrived in Santa Rosa de Copan around 12:30pm.
After leaving the coach at Santa Rosa (which dropped us off at the side of the road rather than a terminal) we were greeted by many people shouting about various destinations. We told one guy we were going to Copan Ruinas, he told us it was 180 lempira each and ushered us into his colectivo. This was a little more expensive than expected but we decided to go with it to avoid the hassle of trying to find/walk to the bus station and then potentially having to get two more buses anyway.
On the coach from Ocotepeque to Santa Rosa de Copan
The colectivo driver from Santa Rosa drove us to La Entrada and then took us to transfer to a different colectivo. We were worried that the driver was trying to scam us and that they were going to try to make us pay again for the second colectivo, Dan made sure to confirm with both drivers that we had already paid for the whole journey to Copan Ruinas and in the end they were true to their word and we didn’t have to pay again for the second colectivo. The 180 lempira we had originally paid covered both journeys.
Crammed into the colectivo near La Entrada
The colectivo from La Entrada took a long time to depart. We eventually arrived to Copan Ruinas around 4:30pm, tired but feeling a sense of achievement after successfully making this difficult journey.
We finally made it!
If you’re attempting this route, the key is getting an early start. If you don’t catch the 5am bus from San Salvador then I’d say forget about it as there is no guarantee that all of the onward transport you need will still be running by the time you arrive in Santa Rosa etc.
For more Honduras content click here, and for more El Salvador content click here! For my guide to public transport and chicken buses in Central America, click here!