Copan Ruinas, Honduras

I never thought I would visit Honduras. The news out of Central America during my teenage years was pretty grim, and even now, things are a bit dicey in certain parts of Honduras. In particular, the cities of San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba are really dangerous. One of our property managers in Belize is Honduran and he flat-out told us not to go to either of those places. We did careful research and decided there were two places we really wanted to see that seem interesting, fairly well-touristed, and safe:  Copan Ruinas, right near the Mayan site of Copan, and Lago de Yojoa.

Our 4:00 am shuttle from Antigua to Copan was very convenient, but the terrain became increasingly mountainous and the road increasingly winding as we neared the border. Our driver, like all Central American drivers (as far as I can tell) was a complete maniac and drove about 1,000 miles per hour at all times. We were sitting in the back of the van, and poor Liam became so car sick we had to get the driver to stop so he could puke his little guts out on the side of the road. I think the driver felt pretty bad, so he slowed down a bit, and Liam and I sat in the front. That helped a lot.

Apparently Optimus Prime lives in Guatemala

A mountain that looks a bit like King Kong

We crossed the border with little trouble and were in the town of Copan Ruinas within twenty minutes. The town is surprisingly charming, with a cute little park in the middle of town and close-packed buildings on the hilly streets. There were also men with guns EVERYWHERE--police, military, private security guards, you name it. We must have seen over 100 guys carrying weapons within this tiny town. I think they are trying really, really hard to get a handle on the security situation and Copan Ruinas is a very important tourist destination. It was a bit unnerving, but it actually did make me feel that if I had a problem these guys would come down on the perpetrator like a ton of bricks.

The weather was quite sunny, and given our experience in Antigua the previous day, we decided to head straight for the ruins even though we were all tired from our early morning.

We made it!

Downhill view from our hotel room

Uphill view from our room

View of the Copan valley

Enjoying the national brew of Honduras

We walked about 1 km to the ruins, paid our entrance fee, and hired a guide. We have visited many Mayan sites, and I felt like we didn't really need a guide, but I'm actually glad we hired one. Copan is quite a bit different than all of the other sites we visited. It is not noteworthy for massive temples, but rather for an abundance of intricate carvings.

However, what made it most notable for us is that Copan is the site of an intensive effort to reintroduce the scarlet macaw. There are have been several reintroductions, and there are numerous birds and a handful of breeding pairs flying wild and free in and around the ruins. When we first saw them, it was truly magical--they are such startlingly beautiful animals, it almost doesn't seem real when they zip over head or land in a tree just a dozen feet away. We spent a long time looking at the birds, photographing them, and just watching them fly around.

Our guide did a great job explaining the meanings of all of the carvings and answered all of our questions quite thoroughly. He lead us through most of the important excavated structures and carvings. The structure that made the biggest impression on me was the 'history temple'--a building with steps that tell hundreds of years of history of Copan and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, when archaeologists first discovered the site, the facades of the steps were all in a heap and covered with vegetation, and they put them back in place in random order. They are now going through the painstaking process of reassembling the steps correctly and interpreting what it all means. It was very interesting.

We had a delicious Honduran dinner that evening and sacked out early to catch up on sleep.

This is the stone they would use for sacrificing humans. The channel carved along it is where the blood would flow. Seriously.

In front of one of the many representations of 18 rabbit

At the ball court

One of the history steps

The history steps

Lochlan doing the Silly Jaguar dance

The next day we decided to walk up into the hills outside of town to visit Macaw Mountain, the bird sanctuary that is spearheading the effort to reintrocude the scarlet macaws. The center was founded several years ago by an American businssman. Apparently he ran a fish processing and freezing plant on Roatan (a Honduran Caribbean island) and his wife was passionate about birds and bird conservation. She had amassed a huge collection of tropical birds, particularly of parrots, but when they got divorced she moved back to the USA and he was left with this huge collection of birds. He bought the land for Macaw Mountain and they are still going strong. The facility is in a beautiful setting, up in the mountains with a stream running alongside and through the property. The enclosures are all very well constructed and the animals are clealry well cared for. All of the birds are donated, and they are either former pets or injured animals that cannot be reintroduced to the wild for one reason or another. Our guide showed us dozens of parrot species, hawks, and owls. We ended the tour at the interaction area where we all got to hold scarlet, blue and gold, and great green macaws. That was fun, but a little intimidating for me. The boys also made friends with a keel-billed toucan who seemed to take great joy in attacking all of our shoes!

The boys and our guide on a bridge across the creek

We walked back home in the blazing sunshine as a storm approached, and watched the torrential downpour from the safety of our hotel's rooftop deck.

When it rains, it REALLY rains

We were all really impressed with Copan Ruinas and the surrounding area. If we'd known it was so cool we definitely would have stayed an extra night or two.