Small ruins but tall stelae
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2006
1
38
59
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
We said goodbye to the jungle lodge today and got the boat back to Rio Dulce and then a bus to a small town called Quirigua. Got off the bus in the rain and walked through a very quiet town to find a hotel. Once settled in we headed out to the Quirigua ruins. From town we walked to the ruins taking a muddy dirt road that went through the heart of a banana plantation. I was skeptical at first but Casey was all for it, it turned out to be a great walk. We got a bad case of plantation foot (just real muddy) but learned some stuff on the way. The bananas on the trees are all covered in blue bags to keep the bugs off, how this works we donīt know cause the bags are open at the bottom and have holes in them. Men walk the plantation and chop of the bunches and hang them on a wire and push them to the packing facility. We walked by the building and watched for a bit. Large tubs to wash them and an assembly line to box them. It was pretty neat. As we walked we passed many of the men working on the plantation, I can only guess what they thought of two gringos walking down this muddy road. The ruins themselves were pretty small and not too exciting, but the Stela (tall rectangular pillar with glyphs on them) were amazing. This site is famous for having the tallest stela in Central America. The carvings of the glyphs were the most detailed and coolest we have seen yet. They are all covered by palapas to keep the elements off them, this does take away some of the beauty of the site. After exploring the stela and the ruins we headed back along the banana road to town. Cleaned of our plantation foot and got some dinner at a no name restaurant which was real good. Tomorrow Honduras!!
