Day 18 Copan Ruins

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We had breakfast at the Picame Cafe & walked for about 10 minutes to Copan Ruins. We hired Saul he was the funniest guide yet, he really knew his history. He related how the art work at the site was from a decadent period in Maya history. The ball court here had carved Paraquet heads instead of rings. The central plaza is the image on the 1 Lempira note. The ruling elite deformed their babies skulls by putting tight wooden bands on them, so they would look different from commoners. This probably caused brain damage & mercury poison from the red makeup they wore & in the water supply, coupled with hallucinagenic drinks & plants did not help matters. The exact reason for the Maya Civilizations collapse can only be speculated upon, deforestation, overfarming, hyperinflation & social unrest, all added together they make disaster inevitable. Modern civilization has not learnt the lessons of history.

It is a multi-entry ticket for the day so Brad & me returned after lunch to Copan ruins. I paid extra for the tunnels beneath the pyramid. I was on my own there & able to jump over the rope, & see the restricted area. Beneath the pyramid is a smaller one the Mayans built a new one every 51 years, I felt a bit like Indiana Jones down there.

They were highly cultured, advanced in irrigation, architecture, maths, astronomy but a little blood thirsty as well. Their cities were abandoned long before the Conquistadors arrived. But there are still millions of Maya living today, it was the ruling class that disappeared, the common people lost faith, left the great cities & returned to small sustainable farming comunities.

That night Sual had dinner with us, he used to be in a band, so he came with his guitar & sang for us. Afterwards I went to the plaza where there was live pan pipe music, & a dj on the street. I ended up taking my laptop to the Viva Honduras cafe to avail of the wifi for an hour before I went to bed.

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Photos

Saul our guide
He was a very funny guy & a great singer