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Well it looks like every day is going to start with a sparrow's fart, as this holiday appears to be very active.
Today is actually a very intense day. The true reality of the atrocities carried out in Paris last night hangs over us all at the hotel. 50% of the guests last night were French and you could feel their pain and disbelief. Steve and Leslie have a niece staying in Paris but she was safe and sound, having announced to all on Facebook.
After breakfast it was only a five minute bus ride to the ruins of Copan. We were given a guide who spoke wonderful English and off we went. Our first encounter with the locals was about half a dozen squawking Scarlet Macaws who lived around the ruins. They are the descendants of some birds that had been kept as pets but had been donated to a scheme to reintroduce the species to the area due to falling numbers.
The first evidence of population in the Copan Valley dates back to 1500 B.C
With the first Mayans arriving around 100AD. The Maya leader Yax Kuk Mo, came from the area of Tikal (Petén) and arrived in the Copan Valley in 427 A.D. He started a dynasty of 16 rulers that transformed Copan into one of the greatest Maya cities. Copan was at its most important from 300 to 900AD. The city was finally abandoned in the 10th Century.
The city of Copan was a huge area and was ruled over this dynasty of Mayan kings. Each king was related to the previous one by blood until, unlucky for some, number 13, who had either been captured as a prisoner and had his head chopped off, or he had died a fairly natural death and a local king who was a relative had taken over his kingdom, depending on which side's version you chose to believe.
The hieroglyphics on the buildings show that the Maya regarded this town and the main plaza area, as the Underworld, also known as the City of The Dead
This does not mean the same as our interpretation of the Underworld. To them it was a place where their kings and their ancestors were buried, not a referral to Hell, more a place where their ancestors could meet up and be together.
It was a place that celebrated their lives and achievements. Due to the area being dedicated to those who had shifted their mortal coils, one of the main types of stone carvings that were displayed on the pyramids were skulls.
As one king died and another took his place the major pyramids were dismantled and rebuilt as a bigger, more impressive structure. However one pyramid was actually built around the tomb of the first king and what is thought to have been his wife. Harvard University has been carrying out a lot of research and they were the ones who discovered the two burials. They could tell that it was the first king of Copan as the body showed it had had an injury to the arm which left it misshapen and the carvings depicting this king also showed this injury.
The area is vast with many pyramids and also a ball court. It is thought that the Mayans didn't actually play ball in the ball court, It may have been a place for public meetings and ceremonies. There are also a large number of unexcavated buildings, showing that Copan was a very important town, or even city, in the 700s. It was a place that the Maya came to greet their kings, see them enthroned and listen to their rhetoric.
Some of them still show faint signs of the colours that were used to decorate the carvings, mostly the reds have survived but you can also see greens and blues.
One particular pyramid has had part of its staircase reconstructed with fallen stonework from the 15th step this is known as the Petroglyph Staircase.
This whole pyramid tells the history of all the kings in hieroglyphs across the steps and is unique in the excavations of Mayan temples that have been discovered so far.
The North Plaza is actually an astronomical observatory. The stelae (large upright stones covered in hieroglyphics) are orientated in such a way that equinoxes and solstices are marked by aligning the stelae with the rising (or setting) sun on specific dates of the year. Archaeologists have also discovered that Stela D, which is the northernmost stela in the plaza, was setup to function as a very accurate sundial.
To be honest the morning was extremely interesting and there was a kind of serene feel to the place. The only problem was that our guide was so enthusiastic that we all suffered from an overload of information, we all had a bit of a meltdown!
In the foyer of the main entrance we were surrounded by small children offering to sell us very pretty little hand made dolls, made of corn husks, some of which had been dyed with bright colours. Just $1 but it would get trashed in my case, so I declined.
After the ruins, we were taken into the town of Copan Ruinas and set free to wander the streets. I teamed up with Sharon from Pennsylvania and we trotted round the market. I bought some lychees and then we decided on a beer and a glass of wine. We had to be back for the bus at 12.15 but we managed to find ourselves a quiet little bar overlooking the central plaza. We got up to go at 12.10 and it was then that they informed us it was Happy Hour and would we like our second drink now?
b*****!
We then walked to a lovely restaurant in the town. I feel that I have been eating far too much food, I just can't take three meals a day, so I ordered Tilapia.
This was based on the fact that I don't like fish! So, if I don't like fish, I wouldn't eat too much. Quite sound and reasonable really, don't you think?
We returned to the hotel for a change of clothing and a bit of a rest before heading out for our trusty steeds.
Sharon and I decided we were too young for a sleep and headed to the bar where we slurped on a bottle of Sauvie Blonk. We parked the residue behind the bar for later. I think everybody else had gone off for a snooze.
It only took about 20 minutes to reach the horses and within no time we were trekking up to a genuine Mayan village. This was the place where all those little dolls were made and also where all the children had come from.
The Mayan people in this village were horrendously poor. However they were happy with their life, they were all smiles and welcomed us into their homes.
They live solely on maize, beans, squash and peppers. No milk, no meat and only limited fresh water. The whole place was totally insanitary but they knew no different and were happy with their lot. They didn't really appear to be malnourished at all, despite the restricted diets.
The lady of the house had been party to an arranged marriage to a friend of her father's at the tender age of 12 and now has nine children. Her eldest child is now 35 and she is 48. Her eldest child, now 35, makes the corn husk dolls that the children were selling.
The house was little more than a shack and all the cooking was done outside over an open fire. She showed us how she ground the maize to make tortillas. She makes one hundred tortillas, three times a day. If they aren't all eaten, they are burnt over the fire and then put into water to make their version of coffee. This is highly carcinogenic and many of them die of cancer.
The water that she was using to wash the corn was very muddy and looked as though it had come straight from the dirty brown river we had just ridden along.
The man of the house, Francisco appeared with his old battered violin and gave us all an impromptu, thankfully quite short, concert . He said that he had paid £60 for his violin but that was robbery as it had a big hole in the sound box!
I wonder how his wife felt about him blowing so much money on a tatty, smashed up old fiddle. If it was down to me he would have had a good slap!
We also visited another home, this one was a bit more substantial. It was made of blocks and had just been extended to form another room for the growing extended family. One of the children was 14 and he spoke to us in perfect English. He has been lucky enough to win a scholarship to a bilingual school and he's learning English so he can become a tour guide.
Whilst we were in San Salvador, Ivania had bought a pinata. This was brought up to the village by tuktuk. One of the fathers hung it up from a tree and all the children appeared, as if by magic, complete with big sticks.
The first casualty came a couple of minutes later when one of the boys got whacked in the face by someone else's stick. So that made it injury time whilst he was attended to.
Three minutes later and the pinata finally disgorged its sugary treasures and it was time to mount up and move 'em out.
The horses went back a lot quicker going home, partly because it was downhill and partly as it was the end of a long day for them. By the time we were back on the coach, night had fallen and it was spitting with rain.
We were given an hour to change for dinner but Sharon and I managed to find enough time to have a couple of glasses of wine before departure!
The restaurant was back in Copan Ruinas and was covered in fairy lights, Christmas is coming!
Most people had ordered either a beef, or a beef and chicken 'kabob'. I had ordered a chicken fajita just to be different.
For some absurd reason, meals were carried in, on the waitresses heads, no idea why. Even a bottle of wine was carried in like that. She didn't manage to pour any out though!
The size of the kabobs was unbelievable. I did try to get them to call it a kebab but failed miserably. My fajita was a tortilla which was piled high with chicken, onions and mushrooms and was very tasty. I think the majority of the people who ordered the kabob left three quarters of it. This was put into doggie bag boxes and taken back to the hotel. I must ask if anyone managed to eat it because I am feeling.absolutely stuffed.
And so to bed ......zzzzzzzzzzzzz
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