Copan Ruinas

 

Kim: We are in the quiet town of Copan Ruinas in Honduras. It is a town that was established when the Mayan ruins started being excavated in the late 1800’s. There are not too many other tourists here, especially from the USA! We are staying at a beautiful and simple bed and breakfast where we have a delicious breakfast every morning with a view of the smoky and hazy valley. Coffee is grown AND served here. Normally the good stuff is exported, but luckily for us, not here. There has been a lot of smoke from a volcano that is erupting in Guatemala.

We have wandered the Mayan ruins just outside of town with a guide, and afterwards sat under a 200 year old Guanacaste tree and drew and wrote with hardly anyone else in sight! There were wild scarlet macaws making a racket in nearby trees while the day heated up. The ruins are still being excavated, but there are many examples of intricate carvings on stellas, big stone pillars, staircase facings, and buildings. The Mayans recorded their history with detailed hieroglyphics. Many of the kings built new temples atop existing ones, and we were able to go into archeologist’s tunnels to see the buildings below existing structures!

We went back two times to a Macaw Reserve that has many scarlet macaws, as well as blue and green ones, parrots, toucans and owls. Marino and Lucia were able to collect feathers, play in the river, and have the birds sit on them. The grounds were cool and lovely and filled with local tropical plants that we strolled about for hours the first day.

Yesterday we went to some aguas termales, some nearby hot springs where the water comes out of the ground at 90*C! Beautiful cascading pools have been built into the hillside leading down to the river and the agua caliente mixed with the cool river water to create a variety of temperature pools. Some were too hot to even stick your toe into! We covered ourselves with warm mud from the river and then soaked it off. The hot springs were covered by a lush green canopy up in the mountains and the afternoon was cool enough that soaking in hot water seemed reasonable. I slipped and fell at the end of the day on a slimy rock and am really hurting, but nothing is broken at least!

Today is our last day in Honduras, our home for the year! We depart for la Cuidad de Guatemala on a bus this afternoon and by evening will be swimming in the pool at our hotel!