Copan: home of some special ruins (Feb 2008)

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Nestled in the Copan valley surrounded by jagged green hills this pleasant town is cooler than the low lands. Each morning women religiously throw water into the street and sweep to keep the dust away. Its choc full of cowboys, and they all wear the same brand of hat.

A good place for us to lick wounds, recouperate & formulate a new plan now that we cant work our way round the world as dive instructors.



Put putts imported from India transport the many tourists around, the local syle of travel is crowding inot the back of pick ups.



We stayed in a very neat hostel with wonderful showers, light airy rooms and a pleasant couryard.
They don’t give us a key for the main door and at night we have to be let in by a security guard who kips on the sofa. Dave previously asked me how much for a horse and I guessed a few hundred and Mexico might be the cheapest. Dave then went on to suggest I write an imaginary diary of the trip just of my speculative thoughts as I have so many, “don’t bloody ask me then, I’m not a horse dealer!”. Then it turns out the security guard used to be, and would you believe he brought horses in from Mexico for a couple of hundred and sold them for more in Honduras? I smugly rest my imagenary case!

Anyway, we are not buying a horse and traveling the world on it, this is not an episode of Monkey.



The first night knowing no better we went to a restaurant where the waitresses wore the food on their heads to deliver it to your table. But naughty tacos at Picame (above pic) was our preferred eating once we wised up (as always the street food was also very tasty and cheap).

We walked to the ruins that hold the best preserved Mayan carvings in the world. It was a very important place back then and it is said the first meetings of astronomy took place here (not to mention the thousands of human sacfrifies).



In the huge grassey space that was once the great plaza we marvel at the detail and wit of the craftsmen in the many stelae monolithic carvings and alters. The work dates from around 613 to 738 AD. The leaders around at the time had crazy names, such as ‘smoke mix’ and ‘18 rabbit’, far out man.



This stone staircases several thousand glyphs were found all jumbled up in a heap and the steps were reconstructed. consiquently no one knows the correct order so frustratingly no one can read the story hidden with it.

The restorers are in the process of creating replicas of all the major carvings so they can bring the originals into the museum for protection and leave the copies in situ outside. Below is a copy, 3rd block from the left is the hyrogliph that represents Copan with head of a bat symbol
bottom left.




Grimus


Who would have thought these were 14,00 years old?





Inside the museum theres life size replica of a temple they found within one of the pyramid temples. In this era they had a habit of building up and over the top of old mouments with the coming of a new ruler, leaving the previous completely covered, a cacooned treat for future archaeologists. It wasn’t a small moument to build round either, here’s part of it…



Wiped out from too much sun and history we take our shrunken brains off for fresh pinapple & coconut Pinacolardas, classey!

The next day we visit the smaller town museum and fill in the gaps.



All the pre Columbian peoples of Mesoamerica shared the use of the 52 year cycle calendar to measure time. It consisted of a 260 day ritual calendar and a 365 day solar calendar. The ritual calendar was a cycle combining 13 numbers with a series of 20 days. For the Maya this rotation began with 1 imix followed by 2 ik then 3 akabal etc. The solar calendar consisted of 18 months of 20 days and one final month of 5 days. In this system the day numbers run consecutively within each month for example 0 pop, 1 pop… until 19 pop, followed by 0 uo through to 19 uo, etc. The combination of these two different cycles of time meant that any given day of the calendar round only repeated once every 52 years.


Individual glyphs representing towns


Click image to enlarge


Teeth from a skull with set stones drilled into them


One piece of flint was used to make this sacrificial knife, equally amazing and nasty!


The belly button fertility cup


Replica carving

The circus is leaving town. They have everything crammed into the back of a cattle truck, mattresses piled high and the troupe balanced right on top. As they pass we see a sad wide eyed spider monkey hanging off the side.

We visit a bird sanctuary and meet 3 more wonderful types of toucan. They don’t have a release program though, also our guide rattled the cages and picked a wild butterfly up by its abdomen, idiot. Progress for wildlife conservation is still very much in its infancy in Honduras.

Top bird, who's been painting his beak?

He kept trying to eat my camera case, they love a bit of a beak workout Toucans.


Long john Dave (the wrinkely heads)


Ants with copper abdomens formulating a master plan

When chatting to a TEFL teacher we find out this town is religious to the point of ostricising a foreign teacher who is trying to teach evolution, they call her a heathen witch.



Hot springs on a hot day? Oh go on then. Actually amazed how relaxed we were after bathing for an hour or so.


Free Public pool at the hot springs


New friends met while waiting for a ride.

Its quite a way out of town and even though its only luchtime there are no more buses back so we go local and drosely wait for a pickup in a cetimeter of shade we share with a family of 4. The little boy in the above photo falls asleep in the back and Dave gives his mother my wet towel to keep the sun off him. They laugh as its pink and he’s a proper little man (Honduras is an extreamly macho society).Saturated greenness rushes by, the human cattle relax into the ride.



Valentines day we book a table at the rustic hacienda san Lucas which has been in the same family for hundreds of years. It’s up on the hill and take an 2 hour amble out there in the afternoon. Here’s some pics from the walk…


you can make bowls from these fruits


The local carwash


As well as tourisum the valley is full of farm land.


And very attractive cows


The unscary crow


Almost there, Copan in the distance


Silly animals


Toothy grins all round


The kitchen at the hacienda


Posh central American Jay in the garden

In the evening the whole garden was candle lit and we were served a fine traditional 5 course Mayan meal on the veranda overlooking the valley.
Met and dined with a great couple, Rina and Dan who were on the last night of their trip before heading back to rainy Seattle. Rina had been collecting woven things for an exhibition she was corating, I wish I had an excuse to collect woven things, getting quite a taste for them. Dan (looked a bit like Gav) collected vinyl so we had lots of topics to enthuse about.


instant friends & valentines


The dashing g g g grackle, the most common and vocal bird in Central America and our favourate of the moment.


The improbable foot

As it was so very relaxing we hung out in Copan longer than expected.
Read 2 great but twisted books: “The Mosquito Coast” by Paul Theroux set on the very coast la Ceba (the town we just escaped) is on. A true story of a mad idealist inventor that takes his family to live in the deepest jungle with dire consequences. And “Running with scissors” by Augustus Burroughs he’s a very funny man describing his barmy dysfunctional upbringing, opening quote:

“Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it” Jules Reynard, 1890


Local kids with a good vantage point



Finally we move on (gluded to the bus window all the way). Time to check out some more of Honduras.