Copán July 26-29^th

When you look at the dates of the 26^th through the 29^th you can see that we only spent 4 nights in Copán which was about one day short for we would have loved to have a day just to relax and enjoy the beauty of the area.  You will see that as you read through our trip, SO let’s get started with this adventure.

 John and Kathy from Mystic Moon, and Hank and I took the launcha from Marios Marina to town and met our driver Carlos who would be taking us all the way to the city of Copán Ruinas.  It was about a 4 hour drive and we made two stops, one at a gas station for water and snacks and the other at the border.   The border crossing was painless for Honduras did not take our Guatemalan visa and just gave us a small piece of paper saying 2 for Copán.  The cost of check in and out was less than $10.

We stopped in the town of Copán Ruinas to meet Doña Flavia Cueva who was the owner of the bed and breakfast Hacienda San Lucas where we were staying.

The town had slopping cobblestone streets, white adobe buildings with red-tile roofs.  The streets were narrow and many of them one way. The town had lots of hotels/hostels  and several nice restaurants.  Probably the nicest hotel in town was the Marina Copan Hotel.  We might have stayed there but we prefer B&B’s.

Carlos proceeded to drive us to the outskirts of town to the Hacienda San Lucas which was quite a ways up the hill, so the views were fantastic.  This would be our home for the next 5 days. Argi met us, ordered us a beer and explained a little about the hacienda.  There were 8 guest rooms but only two other ones were occupied. The building and property had been beautifully restored so that you felt like you were in a tropical garden. Breakfast was served at 7 and dinner anytime after 6:30pm. Our first meal was a five course dinner that was wonderful; the main dish was chicken with adobo sauce.  Dessert was spiced papaya over ice cream.

When we walked back to our room, we found candles in the windows and the room aglow with the light from at least 15 candles.  It gave a magical feel to the evening!  The candles were necessary for the hacienda was eco-friendly and only had two small 12 volt lights by the bed and one light in the bath.  They relied on solar power too.

Pilo drove us to town in the hacienda truck where we met our guide Yobani (sounded more like Giovani but he was not Italian) in the parking lot where we headed together toward the ticket booth.  It cost $22 dollars per person to enter the park.  It was more if you wanted to go into the tunnels, we were told to save our money and do the museum but not the tunnels.

The guide book describes Copán as one of the most important of all Mayan sites. The architecture is not as grand as Tikal’s but the city produced remarkable sculptures and hieroglyphics.  Its culture was so developed; it is often labeled the “Paris of the Maya world.”  It is believed that people lived in the Copán valley since at least 1200BC.  Around 426AD the building of Copán began--the leader Great Sun Lord Quetzal Macaw is credited as the founder. 

Before we even got to the ruins we saw the scarlet macaws of the park flying free right in front of us.  Yobani put some nuts down on the ground and ten or more macaws fly at us.  They are so beautiful and special to this place for the Mayans believed they represented the colors of the sunset.  We would see many macaw statues throughout the day All park guides carried a stick with a red macaw feather attached, this was their pointer.

We followed our guide to the east plaza that features the dancing jaguar and IK, the wind god with the thirteen doors.  Of course not all the thirteen door are there but you get the idea.  Since there are two dancing jaguars it is called Plaza of the Jaguars.

Also in the East plaza was the temple where you could enter the tunnels.  A woman sat in the shade by the door taking tickets.  One noticeable thing was that there were very few people visiting the park.  This added to the enjoyment of the area for it seemed appropriate that it was quiet. 

From the East Plaza the path leads to the West Plaza.  This is where temple XVI is located which is one of the taller temples in the region.  Many times the Mayan builders would build over an existing structure.  There is an altar in front of this temple that shows the sixteen kings of Copán with the first ruler of Copán handing off his power to the last king. 

The ball court of Copán is different from the ones we have seen in other areas; this one had macaw heads at the top of each wall.  It is believed that there were not hoops for the ball to pass through but that the ball had to touch the macaw.  No one is sure about the outcome of the game, what happened to the winner or the looser.  More likely it was just used as an exercise activity for the warriors. 

One of the very special things about Copán were the stelea, or stone carvings.  They were eight to ten feet tall and very delicately carved.  They almost resemble carvings that are made of ivory from the orient.  These stela date from 613 to 738AD and were thought to have been originally painted for some have traces of red remaining.  Many have vaults beneath or beside them in which sacrifices and offering could be placed. In this picture notice the macaws at the top and the crocodile on the side.  The center strip is also very well carved and preserved. 

South of the ball court is Copán’s most famous monument, the Hieroglyphic Stairway which is the work of King Smoke Shell.  Today it is protected from the elements with a tarp, this lessens the beauty of the stairway but you can still get an impact.  The flight of 63 steps bears a history of several thousand glyphs.  We later found out while visiting the museum that they feel that the steps have been about 61% incorrectly reconstructed; so there is work to correct the mistakes. The stela at the base of the stairway is probably King Smoke Shell in a feathered cloak, glyphs tell of a solar eclipse in that year.

We spent some time in the museum where they have made models of some of the understructures and where they have some of the original stelae.  We crossed the parking lot to look at the souvenir shop and then got two Tuk-Tuks to Macaw Mountain.  Now a Tuk-Tuk is a small three wheel vehicle that is perfect for the narrow streets of Copán.  Our problem was that our drivers were friends and they thought it was fun to race each other the 2.5km from town to Macaw Mountain.  We held on for dear life as we flew along the ruts and bumps of the cobbled streets.

After paying the entrance fee of $10, which was good for three days, we entered a beautiful area of tropical plants and large bird cages.  This facility was started on Roatán when the owner started taking in rescued abandoned and endangered birds.  The collection became so large that this beautiful park like setting was designed.  You wonder the paths, looking at flowers and plants which have been identified for you. Many of the cages are so large that you can enter at one end while still on the path.  Taking pictures of birds in cages are difficult, but I wanted to remember some of them so of course I took many.   I took many pictures of flowers too but will only include two of them for you here. We had a very good lunch in their restaurant, where we enjoyed a plantain salsa and chips that was fantastic.

Back at the hacienda we were prepared for a lighter dinner which would be fish, we were not prepared for 40 some dinner guests joining us.  The staff was so apologetic; they thought we might be upset that they were doing a banquet for the Cargill Company which had a group doing a leadership school in Copán.  It was a rainy night with great flashes of lightning; the guests were arriving in the rain after traveling a very bumpy road.  We were happy to sit back with cocktail in hand; waiting for the staff to take a breather before we sat down to another great meal.  The group was enjoying their meal and when the mariachi band arrived, they entertained us with many impromptu songs.    Around 10pm returned to our candle lit room, it was not long before we were both sleeping soundly, not even noticing the pitter patter of the rain on the roof.

We had a nice breakfast and enjoyed our time listening to all the birds and watching the butterflies flutter by us.  The Blue Morpho was all over and it has such a brilliant blue color on the inside of its wings but Betsy could only get a picture of it with its wings closed, which were brown and spotted.

Our plan the second day was to visit the area of Mayan carvings on the Hacienda San Lucas grounds with the cook’s son Manuel.  The area is called Los Sapos, frogs and it on the property so we didn't have to hike too far.  Manuel led us on the path and explained all the plants as we went.  We did pretty good understanding his Spanish so we were able to give English names to many plants.  This is an area used by the women.

Following Los Sapos, we were going back to town to the ruin area but this time go 1km further up the road to the area called Las Sepulturas. This is part of the park so our ticket from yesterday allowed us admittance.  We didn’t need a guide for there were signs and this part is not too large.  It is not striking but the excavations have shed light on the daily life of the people.  This area was once connected to the Great Plaza by a causeway, was possibly the residential area of rich, powerful nobles.  One huge, luxurious compound seems to have housed some 250 people in 40 or 50 buildings arranged around 11 courtyards. We noticed one that had a small opening near the bottom of the building.   It was dark inside, so I set the camera on flash and got a picture. Now I am not sure this was made by the Maya or by the later explorers but you definitely can see some supports in the tunnel.  In one of the buildings called the House of Bacabs there was a huge hieroglyphic bench and other carvings.  All were very interesting! 

In the afternoon we headed back to town to visit museums, have lunch and for John to purchase some cigars.  The main municipal building in town had a display of reproductions from glass plates from the Peabody museum at Harvard.  We saw pictures of Doña Flavia’s grandfather who was the original caretaker of the park.  It was also interesting to see pictures of the piles of fallen blocks and to wonder how they knew which way to reconstruct the temples.  After a late lunch in town we only had dessert at the hacienda.  We knew we needed to cut down on the food consumption but we just couldn’t pass up dessert!

Our last full day was going to be a visit to Finca El Cisne.  This finca or plantation was founded in 1920 and is still in operation.  Our host and guide Carlos Castejón is the grandson of the original owner.  This finca is 24km from downtown on a very bumpy and washed out road.  It took us an hour and 15 minutes to travel the distance that usually would take 45 mins. Luckily Kathy and Betsy got to sit inside the truck for Hank and John complained loudly about the ride. We did see some beautiful green country side as we constantly travel higher and higher in elevation.  We knew that we were very close to the Guatemalan border.

We finally arrived at the finca and stopped at the guest house for a bathroom break and to let two other visitors put their backpacks down for they would be staying the night. We drove on up to the main house, met Carlos’ mother and then went out to get our horses.  All the horses looked really well cared for and Carlos got on and gave us all a little instruction on riding his horses.  Then we mounted, practiced a bit and took off after Carlos.  He led us down a trail until we came to the first coffee plants.  He stopped to explain about the two different areas that they have coffee on the plantation.  Hank’s horse was quite a mover and so he always seemed to be at the head of our group; that made it easy for Betsy to take pictures of him from her horse.  Betsy’s horse was constantly testing her to see if she was in control or the mare was.    There were seven riders and one other cowboy who was riding one horse and leading a saddled young horse that was in training. The finca raises cattle and grows coffee and cardamom.  They also produce corn, avocados, breadfruit, plantains, beans, oranges, star fruit, cocoa, and even teak trees.  They have some 40 families living on the finca so many of the things they grow are eaten by the families. We got off the horses to give them a break and walked to where they have ponds that they are raising tilapia fish. 

When it was time to get back on the horses we noticed that the clouds were very big and dark with rain eminent so Carlos said that we would be traveling a lot faster going back.  Have you ever trotted a horse for about an hour?  Well if you haven’t ridden in a while, which we hadn’t, we knew that we would be feeling it the next day or two.  We made it back to the hacienda for lunch about 2pm.  Lunch started with a watercress salad, fresh cheese and tortillas, and then we had the main part of the meal which was platters of local vegetables.  We had beef with potatoes, squash, and yucca, fried root patties, green beans, chufles (which is like asparagus but is a flower.) Dessert was a small banana with a cinnamon sauce and of course strong coffee.

We enjoyed resting on the veranda of the hacienda and then we got a tour of the coffee grinding operation.  The coffee is dried, sorted and bagged in February and October.  Most of it is shipped green, unroasted, to the coffee co-op that the finca belongs to.  A small amount is roasted and bag for local sale, this was being done by two young men who looked no older than 9 and 12. So much for child labor laws!

Our last stop on this outing was to the Luna Jaguar Spa and Hot Springs.  This facility was relatively new and we were impresses with the many well maintained trails, steps and pools.  We got a tour before we decided on what degree of heat we wanted to try first.  We saw the spot where the water comes out of the mountain; this was called the birth of the spring. We changed into our suits and then started to soak.  Betsy found a waterfall that was so warm, but felt so good on your back and neck. The pools were designed so that they flowed down the mountain and got less hot as they went.  It was late in the afternoon so there were only 4 other people in the pools besides our group.  We tried several of the pools but soon it was time to leave.  As we soaked in the hot water we realized that the only thing that was missing was a frosty cold beer, but maybe this establishment didn’t want to mix alcohol with hot water.  We crossed the suspension bridge back to the other side of the river and bought a beer in the picnic area.

Carlos drove us back to Hacienda San Lucas and went inside with us.  I think he wanted to tell Doña Flavia why we were so late for it was about 7:15pm or maybe he wanted to apologize for having paying customers sitting in the back of the truck.  I am not sure, but he did come in and talk to Argi.  We went back to our rooms, showered and came back down for dinner.  It was our last night and we were tired but we didn’t want to miss any experiences.  Our last dinner was again, superb, so I will just include a picture of the main entre. We ate leisurely and invited Doña Flavia’s son Tyler Orsborn and artist wife Frida Larios to join us.  Turns out Frida is an artist of note as well as a former beach volleyball player, who won a gold medal in the Central American Games in 2001.  Tyler will be headed to University of CA Berkley to work in an advanced degree in the fall of 2010.  More info on Frida can be found on our favorites page.  That's Frida between the Equinox and Mystic Moon Crews on the left.  It was a great time getting to know these fascinating young folks, albeit, too many bottles of red wine, but hey what is a good dinner without wine. 

When we returned to our rooms, we found the beds turned back and flowers and chocolates displayed on top of the covers.  It would be a while until we were treated so royally and we were sad to see this adventure end.  But soon it was morning and Carlos would be arriving to drive us back to the Rio Dulce.

The morning that we left we stopped again in town to say goodbye to Flavia and hopefully to be able to say that we would be someday returning.