the copan ruins

the ruins in Copan are considered as important as those at Tikal because of the abundance of stone with Mayan writing that document the civilization at it's height between 300AD and 900AD.  it reminded me of visiting first the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and then later seeing remnants of that same civilization 500 miles away in Vietnam. 


the more time i spend in the region, the more i am learning of the Mayan civilization and how advanced they were.  right after i arrived in Antigua i met an american woman who had been living in Guatemala for about 30 years.  she spent her career studing Mayan civilization.


whenever i get by for a glass of wine i learn a little bit more about the ancient Mayans.  she believes that Mayan medicine was so much more advanced that the arrival of the Spaniards set back medical advancement by about 500 years.  that's not something you are going to read about in the west.

we find the main site and a guide [arranged by the Hacienda] and as we walk to the gates we are welcomed by a very large group of wild macaws.  more on the macaws in the next post.  

this UNESCO site is well preserved and much of what has been uncovered remains in it's original position.  the stones tell the story of the dynastic rule in Copan [today we would call it political propaganda] and the rituals that help historians understand the belief system.  the stones show a special reverence for animals.  those that live both above ground and below ground were believed to travel between the living and the dead.  the dead dwelling being inside the earth.  those that fly above were revered as carriers of the sun and responsible for the sunrises and sunsets.

the ball court here and it's importance in the rituals is all new to me.  at some mesoamerican sites the ball courts were used for gaming.  no so here.  the leader of the winning team was sacrificed and this was considered an honor.  the sacrificed winner would decend into the dwelling of the dead to apease the gods and become a communicator with the rulers of the living.  

the temples, the writings, the construction all point to a very sophisticated civilization and as more secrets of this ancient world are uncovered many people theorize they were more advanced than other civilizations like the Egyptians.

here comes the preachy part .... coming from a culture that places little value on animals beyond a food source it's really hard to wrap your mind around how much the Mayans respected the animals, the earth and worked with the cycles of the year to live in harmony with the environment.  there are really important lessons to be learned in the telling of their story.  it is now recognized that the decline of the civilization was in part caused by over population and poor use of the land.  they could no longer produce enough food to sustain the large centers of population.  the land surrounding the Copan ruins had been completely deforested and it's impact is still present today as the old growth trees aren't present to protect the valley from mud slides.  

back to Copan, the ruins and town are not as commercialized as most UNESCO sites which is good to see but reflect how out of the way and less visited they are.  it's a minimum of six hours by road and most trips are longer than that.

i feel so blessed to be able to see these amazing ruins.  El Mirador is next on the amazing ruins list ... but it is only accessible via a multi day hike or via helicopter.  the first being scary to me because it's on horses through the jungle and the second option being a bit pricey.  

the place of tea and chocolate and vanilla

having navigated the border and washed out segment of the road to Copan, i get a lovely note from my Guatemalan phone provider - only $2 per minute for roaming in Honduras.  i only pay about $15 per month in Guatemala for my phone so this is not a welcomed note.  

it is just another 10 minutes to Copan.  my first stop is the tea and chocolate place  to meet up with the vanilla guy - David - that i was introduced to by the macadamian guy.  i get a tour of the vanilla experiment he is running and i'm not disappointed.  in fact, being a vanilla geek, i am shocked and amazed at the work he is doing.  vanilla is only native to mesoamerica so i was excited to see it in that environment.  instead of the hand pollination methods used elsewhere, he is cultivating the insects that naturally pollinate these flowers and getting very high yields.  i totally geek out about this amazing work he is doing [not just on vanilla but on other levels as well] in awe and humbled by how we all have such different ways to contribute to making our world a better place.

the tea and chocolate shop they run by his family is only open for a few hours in the afternoon but it is charming and rated very highly on trip advisor for a good reason.  the tea they give me is heavenly.

next we set off to find our accommodations.

off to Copan in Honduras

this is no short tale and will require multiple posts for the telling.  

there are currently two major sites that tell the story of the Mayan civilization.  the most well known is Tikal in the north of Guatemala which i previously visited on a different trip.  it was phenomenal and ignited my interest in the Mayan history.

the second site is Copan which is in Honduras just a few miles over the Guatemala border.  it's a bit of a trek but one i know i must do.  after much debate a few friends and i decide to rent a car and drive Antigua to Copan.  i'm as excited as a kid at christmas.  i got quite a bit of noise from both expats and locals who thought we were crazy to get a rental car and drive.  i hate when you tell someone about what you are going to do and they start projecting your fears onto you but i digress.  security and decision making is a different post.

there is a third, very exciting site emerging named El Mirador which still has limited access.

but there is a second reason i want to visit Copan.  there is a guy there growing vanilla.  when i was at the macadamian finca [Valhalla] Lorenzo had called him to introduce me because of my passion/fixation/experience with vanilla in Africa. 

the drive is fantastic... we avoid the traffic and an uncomfortable ride in a van and get to see a lot of the southern part of Guatemala just bursting with color ... until we hit the border.

i was expected by the vanilla guy so i was anxious to arrive but as we approach the Guatemala/Honduras border there is a very long [like 1 mile] line of semis [what we call 18 wheelers in the US].  after waiting a while and chatting up a bunch of miscellaneous people [did i mention none of us was fluent in spanish?] at the border we hear there is a washed out road on the the Honduras side causing delays.  what?  washed out roads in Honduras ... i expected it so i wasn't surprised.

being resourceful [like i think i am] i follow a tourist shuttle as it weaves in and around the semis to and over the border.  this is a good strategy and we avoid hours [or days] of delays.  

after driving on the wrong side of the road for a mile dodging oncoming traffic to the border, customs and immigration was for us no problem.  we parked, entered a building were 'fingerprinted',  stamped and paid our $3 in less than 10 minutes.  i say 'fingerprinted' because the machines don't work and i watched as the agents would eventually give up and stamp the passports and wave people through.  Honduras is part of a C4 coalition [guatemala, honduras, el salvador and nicaragua] which makes the borders less formal like in the EU.  except they all keep their own money - so we went in with american dollars to exchange not knowing exactly what to expect.  at the rental car agency we had paid $28 border fee for paperwork to cross the border with a car but no one wanted to see the documentation and we could have easily crossed the border without either a stamp or the car paperwork.  

turns out there was a spot on the Honduras side where where the road was washed out and they were using a massive tractor [like a front end loader] to pull the semis up the muddy hill.  i follow the tourist shuttle and make it up the muddy, rutted, washed out hill.  i don't recommend this for everyone.  i have years of experience driving off road in the mountains of Colorado in winter and driving in Africa.  that seems to be the right balance to be comfortable navigating in 3rd world countries. 

the biggest hassle was dealing with the car rental agency in Antigua [Budget] which was typical gringo BS but that is a whole different post.