Copan

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01/23/06

This morning started with the realization that I was here still and that this has not all just been a dream. I got up and went to the shower. The water never got the slightest bit warm and I just splashed a little water on myself. I had a breakfast of Kellogg’s maize flakes and milk with plantains. The house cats were going after the milk so I had to swat at them with the napkin to keep them away. I started my classes this morning at the Guacamaya Language School. My teacher’s name is Idalyma and she speaks very little English if none at all. We tried to chat for a while but it was difficult and I think we got across to one another in small ways. My Spanish was much better than her English. She has a brother who lives in Ohio. I spoke of my family and friends in Virginia. The class was one on one and set in a lovely garden in the back of the school. We had a little roof over our heads and it was raining off and on the entire morning. We went over a little vocabulary lesson with adjectives and nouns. We took a break and walked around the square and then went back and studied some more. It went well and was fun. I came back to the house where I’m staying and Reyna fixed me lunch. I fought off the cats that were trying to attack my plate. I had chicken, cold slaw and tortillas.
This afternoon I went for a long walk down to the ruins. I met my Austrian friends outside the gate. They had just toured the ruins and were covered in sweat. We sat on the veranda of the little café beside the ruins and talked about the ruins that they had been visiting all over Central America. They’d been to nearly all the ruin sites in the Yucatan and Guatemala and Belize. They were very impressed with the ruins of Copan. They gave me their ticket for the smaller suburban ruins two kilometers down the road. I said goodbye hoping to see them again and took the pleasant walk down the road. Hondurans were flying by in their trucks and cars. I passed several men in the local style of blue jeans, cowboy hats, and machetes. I toured the ruins with a young guy in cowboy boots. He smoked cigarettes and spoke to me in incomprehensible Spanish. The ruins were very interesting. I had never been to a ruin before of ancient world category. It was interestingly built in step structure using many stones. Only one area had detailed carvings. The ruins I will see tomorrow or the next day are more intricate. I left and took the walk back to Copan, about forty-five minute. Seniorita Reyna met me in the road in a flat bed truck at the bottom of the towns hill. She yelled for me to hop in. I did and we hauled through the bumpy, hilly, cobblestones streets of Copan. She blew the horn at everyone and we bounced around in ecstasy. I laughed so much at her. She is a nut of the first order. When I got back the little girl who I think is a midget Honduran or a dwarf or something greeted me and laughed at my experience.
I went out and used the Internet and then just walked around a bit before I came back at six for dinner. The food was good, huevos and frioles wrapped in tortilla. I drank a coke with it. Afterwards I worked on my Spanish homework for a while then went out and checked my mail again at the internet place. Then I joined my Austrian friends one last time for cerveza at the little restaurant on the edge of town where so many tourists hang out. It’s a great little two story quaint place that’s so lively. Afterwards I came home and got some sleep.

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Photos

the suburb ruins
These are some of the smaller ruins located about half a mile from the main ruins complex.

the suburb ruins
The suburbs have some of the best preserved carvings.