COPÁN RUINS

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The plan was to go by ‘Tica Bus’ from Leon to San Pedro de Sula in Honduras arriving on time for the last bus to Copan Ruins. Unfortunately a small group of Indian travelers severely held up the border crossing and then later again at a random police check point. The poor guys were made to line up like in a firing squad and have their pictures taken one by one holding a placard with their personal details written. This put us well behind schedule forcing me to spend the night of 3^rdMay in San Pedro de Sula at the well over-priced Hostel Tamarindo. Given the length of time I spent in Nicaragua I had to abandon the plans I had of heading up to the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras. I was slightly disappointed not to make it there as I’d heard great things, but then my main motivation to go was to dive with whale sharks which I’d heard had moved on by then anyway. I spent a grand total of 3 nights in Copan – a day just chilling out and another to see the impressive Mayan ruins, the first of three important Mayan civilizations I would see on this trip – the others being Tikal in Guatemala and Chichen Itza in Mexico.



The town of Copan Ruins was very cute and quaint and picturesque. The streets were all cobbled, the main plaza was pretty and peaceful and everywhere you look you see funky little three-wheeled taxis zipping around town. I decided to walk to the ruins given that it’s no more than 10/15 minutes to the east of town. Upon entering the archaeological site, I saw a plan of the ruins and then a short walk ahead I arrived to the ‘Great Plaza’ filled mostly by various stelae (stone slabs bearing inscriptions) portraying most but not all of Copan’s rulers. Walking around the site I tried to imagine how the place must have been back in it’s heyday over 1200 years ago and when the city was home to over 20,000 people. Although there are theories, it’s hard to fully understand how such a city can be so easily forgotten and allowed to disappear not to be fully discovered again until the 19^th century.



All the stelae in the Great Plaza show impressive carving skills, most of all on Stela A, which I got a glimpse of in the museum that lies next door to the ruins. But the most memorable monument was the Hieroglyphic Stairway built in the 8^th century by one of Copan’s last rulers. The stairway consists of 63 steps that, through thousands of glyphs, tell the story of the royal house of Copan. It was a very memorable sight although it is unfortunate that it has to be slightly blighted by the hanging canopy used to protect it from the elements.



After walking around the ruins I paid a visit to the adjacent museum where the original Stela A of the 13^th King is housed. Also here was a full scale model of the Rosalila Temple that still exists below Structure 16 – the central building of the Acropolis. It does seem that the Mayans had a strange tendency to build things right over the top of older structures rather than knocking the original building down first. In fact, even below the Rosalila Temple sits yet another, even earlier temple called Margarita. I guess it does save on the hassle of having to demolish stuff first.



I liked the town of Copan and it’s ruins and a couple of days was just about right. Besides the ruins there wasn’t really a whole lot to do. This was all I managed in Honduras. On the morning of Sat 7^th May it was off to Antigua, Guatemala: The “heart” of the Mayan Empire!



Photos of Copan (pages 8&9) here:



http://www.flickr.com/photos/14643121@N05/



So long chupadores!

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