Copan and other stuff

My four day excursion to Copan was nice. Copan itself is a tiny little touristy town with cobblestone streets and tons of artesan shops lining the square. It sounds piteresque, but don't be fooled! It's just as dirty and whatnot as everywhere else in this country. But the hotel we stayed in was a really nice Colonial style place with a pool, restaurant, bar and any other ammenities you can think of. We arrived Thursday afternoon and just relaxed at the pool and ate dinner at a local place. Most of the eateries are outdoors with lots of hammocks to lounge in. The big "thing" there is

Chilling in Copan

for the waitresses to carry drinks and food plates to your table on their head and in both hands.

Copan as it would have been in its glory days

Friday we went to the actual ruins. They are Mayan ruins that were inhabited from around 300-900 AD. Having obtained my BA in Anthropology, I thought for sure that it would be an awe-inspiring experience to see my first Central American ruins...as I'd only ever seen them in print and video. It was still a very awesome experience, but just not quite as magnificent as I expected it to be. It has been explained to me, though, that the other ruins located in Mexico and Guatemala are known for their archictectural significance. One of the reasons Copan isn't is b/c the excavation projects there are still fairly new and have only picked up momentum (and funding) in the past 60 years or so. So they still have much more to uncover.

Copan ballcourt

The most important part of the the ruins is the massive hieroglyphic staircase. It was commissioned by the 15th King (around 600 AD) and basically relays the entire history of the Mayan kingdom at Copan. So in that respect, it's one of the most comprehensive and important archaeological finds. Unfortunatley, b/c of concerns over the damage to the

staircase by the weather--it's covered in a huge green tarp--so it takes away from the experience a bit. The other cool find here is the ball court. It's the second largest uncovered yet. The Mayans played a game similar to soccer called "pelota"...except the ball was made of 100% rubber and weighed what felt like 20 lbs. They used their hips and knees to hit the ball. It's said that often the best player from the winning team was sacrificed to the gods, and that this was an honor, b/c only the best things were ever sacrificed. Aside from that, there's tons of stelae all over the place that various kings commissioned. A lot of early stuff hasn't survived b/c the practice was for the new king to destroy the monuments the previous king had erected. This practice didn't stop until about the 10th king or so...and there were 16 known kings in this culture.

Copan birds

So around 900 AD everyone started to head out of town b/c of fighting and revolutions. They joined surrounding communities and today there are still tons of Mayan communities in the area--especially since it's only about 10 miles from the Guatemalan border. The ruins at Copan were pretty much completely abandoned around the 1100s. So there's everyone's history lesson for today!

Saturday we pretty much just shopped and went to a few museums and hung out at the pool again. Sunday we headed back and it was an awful ride b/c myself and another lady had apparently eaten some bad food the night before--so it was no fun driving home on twisting mountain rides and being sick the entire time.

Copan hieroglyphic staircase

Other than that, it's been pretty much just the same old thing at work. The past two days have been very busy, but today is terribly slow. I'm excited, though, b/c we got word that 8 new interns were given posts here (but of course not all will end up accepting). One girl from Texas A&M arrives in exactly two weeks--so it'll be cool to have another girl around (although she'll be in the ECON section). Plus, we have a guy coming to work here in my section-he's from George Washington Univ. in DC, and he'll get here around Memorial Day weekend. But the really great news is that I have interim housing from June 10 through July. I mentioned before that Joyce is leaving June 16 to get her next assignment and I had no housing lined up. My boss found this kick-ass 3 bdrm house with a swimming pool in a neighborhood near the Embassy where tons of other people live as well. The only other people who have pools are the Ambassador and the Marine house...so we scored. It'll be myself and the other POL intern living there

Copan Ruins 1

and I guess the 3rd bdrm will go to whoever else may show up.

I guess that's about it. We're going out tonight to celebrate the arrival of a new Marine. Then this weekend we have a day trip planned and I'll hopefully be going to my first championship soccer game here in Tegus. I hope everyone is well!

Copan Ruins 2

Copan ruins...some coloring still remains

Copan, the Old Man of Copan

Copan...model reconstruction of the layout

Copan...various rulers

Very typical dinner in Copan