Beginning the Ruta Maya

Copan Ruinas, which is confusingly the name of the town rather than the ruins themselves, which are simply Copan, is a small, attractive town which pretty much owes its survival to the tourist attraction on its doorstep- the ruins of theMaya city of Copan. Its pretty hot with a regular late afternoon downpour, in fact the rain here has been some of the heaviest I have experienced- bouncing with spectacular thunder and lightening. We found a really nice little hostel, the Iguana Azul. It is very well preserved and basically a pleasant place to hangout for a couple of days particularly in comparison to the rest of Honduras (except the Bay Islands which are like a different country). We visited the ruins the day after arriving, geting to the park early to avoid the worst of the heat, the afternoon rain, and hoping to get some of the ruins to ourselves before the crowds arrived. Copan is the most southeaterly site in the Mayan kingdon and for us was the start of our Ruta Maya which we intended to follow up into Mexico taking in several more arcaeological sites. The ruins are enhanced by an excellent museum which now houses many of the original stelae (carved stone blocks some over 6 feet tall which the Maya used to record events) in order to protect them from the elements (they have been replaced by very good replicas). There is also a life size reproduction of the Rosalilla Temple which was found buried underneath another temple. The site itself is very picturesque with the temples standing in a open grassy area surrounded by trees (through which we took a pleasant nature trail). At the entrance to the site a horde of parrots chatter noisily. The ruins date back to around 600-900AD- impressive to find them in such good condition then, and able to take the pressure of tourists clambering all over them as you are allowed to. The beauty of the site is in the detail which has survived- you can make out clearly the detailed carving which covers large portions of the stonework. Originally much was apparently covered in paint or plaster which was also sculpted. Portraits of the ruling dynasty, and complicated glyphs denoting key dates such as birth, marriage, death as well as deeds and lineage are all engraved into the stonework. The Maya had a very accurate calendar based around units of 20 days, with 18 months of 20 days and a 19th of 5 days giving a 365 day year, this was part of a greater cycle of 1800 million days. Copan declined in the late classic period, around 800-900AD, the reasons is unknown but one thoery is that the population grew too large for the valley, leading to deforestation for building wood and fuel which in turn lead to famine.
From Copan we are crossing the border into Guatemala and heading straight for the former capital of Antigua.

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