Last Updated on: 27th March 2025, 10:29 am
The Mayan site of El Puente is just one of three or four archaeological sites in Honduras that’s accessible to the public. Yet it’s so obscure that even many locals have never heard of it. Reachable as a day trip from the town of Copán Ruinas, this is the kind of site that only the most hardcore ruins enthusiasts should consider visiting.
If that’s you, then the following guide will inform you exactly what to expect from your visit. Or, if you’re simply curious about the background of this lesser-known Mayan site, we’ll be diving into the history of El Puente and its relationship with Copán.
For more info on exactly how to reach El Puente via public transport along with the best places to stay in the area, be sure to check the very end of the article.
The El Puente Museum
At the time of writing, El Puente is open daily from 8:00-16:00 and costs $10 USD (or the Honduran lempira equivalent) to enter.
After an eventful journey to the ruins which involved getting a ride from the Honduran military (more on that below), I approached the ticket gate and then entered the museum.
For such a remote and obscure site, El Puente’s on-site museum is surprisingly large and modern, and it even features bilingual information.
Many of the artifacts on display, it turns out, don’t come from El Puente itself, but from various sites within a radius of several kilometers. These include sites like Los Higos, El Cedral, Las Pilas and El Abra.
But as only El Puente is currently accessible to the public, this museum serves as the de facto archaeological museum for the around La Entrada, the nearest big city.
As you’ll notice by some of the pieces on display, the artwork here was clearly heavily influenced by Copán.
While El Puente was inhabited since at least the Late Pre-Classic Period (around 400 BC–100 AD), large-scale construction commenced around 550 AD – around a century after Copán’s royal dynasty was installed by Tikal.
As such, we can conclude that even though it was technically settled earlier (as was Copán itself), El Puente was largely established by Copán’s royal dynasty as a trading outpost.
And in Copán’s heyday, things like jade, obsidian, marble, and various ceramics would’ve flowed through the town from distant Mayan cities. Today, you can find many such ceramics on display at the museum.
Notably, El Puente was occupied until around 1,000 AD – around the same time Copán was abandoned.
Also on display are skulls discovered at El Puente’s numerous tombs. As with many other Mayan societies, the ruler of El Puente practiced cranial deformation, a custom which delineated royalty.
Informational placards, meanwhile, detail how a team of Japanese archaeologists helped excavate the site in the 1980s and ‘90s. It then officially opened up for visitors in 1994.
Just outside the museum, you’ll find the foundations of some structures that appear to be residential in nature. While there’s no on-site info, their presence helps reveal the original extent of this outpost city.
As you’ll see shortly, the main group of ruins are several minutes away on foot.
Exploring El Puente
Past the museum area, you’ll walk for several minutes down a dirt road surrounded on either side by private farmland. And before long, the first structures of El Puente will come into view.
Visitors enter the site from the east, and will first encounter a small pyramid known as Structure 31. It featured small staircases on all sides and a temple at its top, though the pyramid has been badly damaged by looters.
Walking around to the opposite side, you’ll find the front of the pyramid, which features an altar, stele and the main staircase. For whatever reason, the stele contains no glyphs.
No hieroglyphic inscriptions have been found anywhere at El Puente, in fact, leaving us with no detailed information about its rulers.
Numerous ceramics made in the style of Copán, however, were found within. Archaeologists believe it was largely constructed during the Late Classic period (600-900 AD) when El Puente reached its peak.
You’ll find multiple unexcavated mounds next to Structure 31. Though around 200 structures have been identified at El Puente thus far, only nine or so have been excavated.
To the north of Structure 31 is a long and short rectangular platform, after which you’ll encounter El Puente’s prominent pyramid: Structure 1.
It originally featured a temple at the top, bringing the total height up to 16 m. But with the temple now missing, the current structure stands at around 12 m. It’s comprised of six tiers with a staircase on each side.
Structure 1 underwent no less than five construction phases, most of which utilized different types of stone, such as schist, tufa and limestone.
It’s not entirely clear whether visitors are allowed to climb the pyramid or not. But as I didn’t see any signs or barriers, I decided to give it a shot.
What you can see from the middle of the pyramid, it turns out, is the entirety of the current archaeological site. Having visited dozens of Mayan sites across several different countries, this is easily one of the smallest I’ve encountered.
All in all, archaeologists regard El Puente’s workmanship as rather shoddy. This could’ve been due to a number of factors, such as the builders relying too much on soft stone like tufa.
But given its position at the edge of the Mayan world, perhaps El Puente relied on non-Mayan workers who lacked the attention to detail that the Mayans were typically known for. El Puente’s layout does indeed partially resemble Lenca settlements, for example.
At the northwestern end of the main plaza is a long rectangular building known as Structure 3, followed by two structures joined together at a 90-degree angle.
They appear to have been residences and contain stone beds resembling those of Las Sepulturas, one of Copán’s elite residential districts.
When finished exploring the small palace area, return your attention to Structure 3 and look for a way up to the top.
There doesn’t seem to be a direct or easy way up, and making it to the top was especially difficult due to the rain at the time of my visit. But once you make it up, you’ll find an opening with a ladder that takes you inside the ancient structure.
Odlly, no on-site signage indicates that it’s even there, and I never would’ve known about it had I not climbed the main pyramid!
The cavity inside isn’t original, but was dug out by archaeologists to examine the structure’s multiple layers. Inside, you’ll find a small bench or platform with traces of its original stucco.
As we’ll cover shortly, the interior of Structure 10 on the opposite side of the plaza has more to offer.
After having traveled so far and paying $10 for entry, I was feeling certain that there were surely additional structures deeper in the forest.
Walking further west of the main plaza, I even encountered a sign which referred to an additional ‘Recreational Area’ and ‘Nature Trail.’
But despite my best efforts, I didn’t end up encountering more ruins. I did, at least, find the Chinamito River, which long served as El Puente’s lifeblood.
Back in the main plaza, it was time to explore Structure 10. Thankfully, it was a lot easier to climb than Structure 3 mentioned above.
Again, the space here was dug out more recently by archaeologists – not unlike the tunnels you can explore at Copán.
Here, a large passageway leads all the way to the opposite end of the structure, where you’ll find another staircase taking you back out.
While there’s no artwork or stucco decorations within, getting to explore this tunnel is easily the most unique and memorable aspect of visiting El Puente.
And that sums up what visitors can currently see at El Puente. In addition to numerous unexcavated pyramidal mounds, some of the plazas are also lined by long rectangular mounds. But who knows if further excavations will be happening anytime soon.
While I’d only recommend El Puente to the most devoted ancient history enthusiasts, I have no regrets about setting a day aside to see these ruins.
But obviously, if time is tight, visiting Copán and Las Sepulturas should be your top priorities in western Honduras.
Additional Info
While the nearest town to El Puente is La Entrada, most of those interested in Mayan sites will already be basing themselves in the town of Copán Ruinas. And getting to El Puente from Copán Ruinas involves a couple of different steps. First, you’ll want to hop on a minibus bound for La Entrada.
At the time of my visit, buses run by the Casasola bus company were departing at 6:00, 7:00 and 8:00. Not knowing what the day would hold in store, I woke up early to catch the 7:00 bus.
The one-way journey from Copán Ruinas to La Entrada costs around 80 L (around $3 USD). However, you don’t want to go quite as far as La Entrada, but to a village slightly before it along the same highway called La Laguna.
Without stopping, the journey there is supposed to take around 80 minutes. But shortly into our journey, our driver stopped in a small town for thirty minutes with zero explanation. This is something you should anticipate when planning out your day.
Be sure to save the main intersection at La Laguna on your Google Maps app and keep an eye on your phone during the journey. The driver will be able to let you off there as long as you request a stop.
Unfortunately, El Puente is not right by the main road (CA11) but further north along RN127. If you were to walk, it would take about 90 minutes one-way from the intersection, so the logical option would be to take a tuk tuk. This is where I made a mistake.
Before my visit, I could only find a single El Puente trip report online, and the author mentioned that tuk tuks to the ruins should cost 20 L.
So I wasn’t very pleased when the local tuk tuk driver quoted me 50 L and refused to bring it down. That was over double what I’d been expecting! Being stubborn, I decided to start walking toward El Puente in the rain, figuring another driver would eventually pass me by.
I had just arrived in Honduras a couple of days prior, and still had no grasp of how much a Honduran lempira was in other currencies. It wasn’t until I was well on my way that I did the conversion on my phone, realizing that 50 L was merely $2 USD!
So while it may have been more than double what I was expecting, I only later realized how stupid it was to turn down a $2 ride to potentially walk for 90 minutes in the rain (I did, at least, have an umbrella). If you’re visiting El Puente independently, it’s probably best to just accept whatever the tuk tuk drivers quote you.
I continued walking through the tranquil rural area for 20 minutes or so, and didn’t end up seeing any other tuk tuks. While shared pickup trucks pick up passengers along this road, the only ones I spotted were coming from the opposite direction. But eventually, a random truck slowed down and motioned for me to get in.
Inside were three soldiers, and the one in the back had to move his large gun over to make room for me. They were quite friendly but were curious as to why I was walking alone down the road, to which I didn’t have a good answer.
Eventually, they dropped me off in front of the El Puente ruins and wished me a safe journey.
Heading back, I intended to wait by the road in hopes of catching one of those pickup trucks. But the kind staff at El Puente kindly insisted on giving me a ride back to the main intersection. All in all, the kind hospitality of the locals was just as much of a highlight as El Puente itself.
Despite being one of Honduras’ most popular tourist towns, Copán Ruinas is far from easy or simple to reach. It lies at the far western edge of the country near the border with Guatemala, and is far from any major city.
We’ll be going into more details on transport in our extensive Copán planning guide. But in summary, when it comes to domestic bus travel, Copán Ruinas is currently only directly linked with San Pedro Sula.
Previously, a bus company called Hedman Alas ran direct routes between Copán Ruinas and Tegucigalpa, but it’s currently out of business due to ‘Incidents of extortion towards our company,’ according to their website (Welcome to Honduras!).
Therefore, to get to/from either Tegucigalpa or La Ceiba (from which ferries to Utila and Roatán depart), you’ll have to transfer in San Pedro Sula.
Given its proximity to Guatemala and Honduras’ poor transport infrastructure, you’ll likely have an easier time getting there from Guatemala instead.
While basic public transport exists to and from the borders on both the Honduran and Guatemalan sides, most travelers end up paying for private tourist shuttles. There are abundant routes from Antigua, while I also managed to find one from San Salvador, El Salvador.
Again, learn more details in our dedicated planning guide.
The town of Copán Ruinas is a charming small town with plenty of accommodation options. Regardless of where you stay, you should be able to walk to the main Copán ruins in 15-20 minutes.
I stayed at a hotel called Hotel Brisas de Copan, which was a short walk from the central square. The positives were that I had a private bathroom and management responded promptly to all my questions before my arrival. The negatives were that it was quite noisy in the evenings, while the internet barely functioned.
Other popular options to consider include Berakah B&B- Central Park, Hotel Acropolis Maya and Hotel La Escalinata.