The Ruins at Copan

Saturday morning in Copan, Honduras, saw us at the famous Copan Mayan Ruins.  There is evidence of a settlement here dating as far back as 2000 BC.  However it was neither prosperous or advanced until a warrior prince came here with his army from central Mexico in 426 AD.  He took control of the city and declared himself the king.  He is known as Great Sun First Macaw, the first king in a great Mayan dynasty.  The Mayan rulers of Copan were able to sustain their political and military power for 400 years, with a dynasty of 16 kings overseeing the city's growth and expansion.  Gradually Copan gained more military and political importance within the Maya world.  The city prospered and its population grew.  They traded with other Maya cities in the region.  They constructed increasingly greater and more ambitious ceremonial buildings, and commissioned lavish works of art.  Following Mayan tradition, new temples were built on top of older ones, each iteration being larger and taller the previous one.  However after 300 years things started to get bad as people were dying off due to bad water and lack of expanding out of this small land tact.  So when the last king died in 822 there really much of an empire left!

All Mayan cities were built using the same basic architectural ideas, that reflected Mayan religion and mythology.  The pyramids were constructed to provide support to temples dedicated to the Maya gods, while flat platforms were built to host public ceremonial events.  All structures were rendered with stucco, painted over with a range of bright contrasting colors, with a rich dark red color, cinnabar, being the dominant color.  The buildings and open areas in the ceremonial center were orientated north-to-south and east-to-west, as the Maya believed that each cardinal direction had a special significance in their myth about the creation of the world.  Maya ceremonial centers were also split vertically: there was a "lower" and an "upper" level (the latter called "acropolis" by modern archeologists), access to which was reserved for priests and nobles.  Another common feature of Mesoamerican cities was a ball court for playing a ceremonial ball game.  All of these features were present here at Copan.

Drawing of what experts believed this site looked like at its height

Temple in the middle of the great plaza.  This plaza was used to celebrate the solises.

This statue is called a Stella.  Several Kings had them created to memorialize themselves or their ancestors.  The king's likeness was on one side and their life’s history was told around the other sides.  It turns a reddish color due to cinnabar (no, not Cinnabon!) which is due to Mercury sulfate.

This is the plaza.  Spectator for the solis celebrations would sit on the stands in the rear.

Ball court.  One of the best preserved examples anywhere.

Hieroglyphic Stairs - How they look today and how they may have appeared at their peak around 700 AD.

Note the position of the tree in the picture and the diagram.  This is the same tree.  The colorful building is actually covered over by the pyramid-like structure

The colorful building as reconstructed by experts in museum

“Neighborhood" buildings.  Note: The dead were buried under the floors the buildings as well as in the adjacent lots.

This Mayan tribe’s most famous King was “Rabbit-16”.  This is the remainings of his palace (The Mountain).  Note: the top of the building was destroyed by the river water.

View of the ball court and plaza from the Mountain

The most famous of all the Stellas.  This one is in museum.

After the tour of Copan, we visited a bird sanctuary where they rescue pet birds.  The birds that can be retrained are ultimately released in the wild.  Birds that cannot be released (due to injury or domestication) are used to breed ones that can be released.

The middle Macw is only 6 month old.  It will be released after about a total 2 years.

A toucan

The birds wouldn’t stay off me.  Yea - right!

On Sunday morning we left Copan and headed towards the goal of the day, Guatemala City.  Along the we saw this statute and platform that will be used to carry it in the Christ is King of the World parade:

Then we stopped at a coffee processing plant.  This is a plant that pays for independent farmers’ coffee.

First the coffee is weight and the price is determined.  Next the raw coffee is washed and its hulls removed.  Then it is left to ferment in the water and the dried in the sun.  Finally it is further dried in a furnace.

Raw Coffee beans just dumped from truck.

Coffee being washed and hulled

The waste water and hulls are shoot out below.  The hulls will be used for fertilizer and by-products

Coffee beans fermenting

Coffee beans drying in the sun.  They are only left here for about 3-4 hours, just long enough to get rid of most if the water.  After this the beans are further dried in a furnace before they sre ready for export.

8 year old boy working near his father.  The boy makes $2 per day and the dad makes $15 per day.  The father thinks it is great to have his son there learning a trade and staying out of trouble.  Note it is presently coffee season which is a school holiday here.

The final processed coffee beans ready for export.  Of course the coffee will be roasted and ground in the import country before ultimately being consumed.

We had two more quick stops on our way to our hoel in Guatemala City.

Here we are witnessing a town's saint day parade.  Most towns here have a saint and this is that saint's day.  Note the horses have splints put on their lower legs so they prance!  This is horse country and these horses are very valuable.

Is is a rare skeleton of a giant sloth.  I never knew sloths were ever this big!