Museum replica of Rosalia (under ground Copán temple)
Last Thursday Julio and I crossed the border to Honduras to visit the Copán ruins, the most southern site of the Mayan empire. We took a guided tour of the site which was founded around 100 A.D. and deserted in 900 A.D. when food, water, and medicine ran out. While not nearly as large nor quite as impressive as Tikal, Copán has some incredibly well-preserved carvings of Mayan hieroglyphics. Quite extensive excavating and preserving is currently being done there, which make it necessary to really use your imagination to visualize what it would be like without the scaffolding and protective tents set up to preserve the ruins. While invaluable the efforts being made, it would be nice to visit sites like this and feel like truly going back in time or feel like the first person discovering it.
The town of Copán is small enough to easily explore in a few hours, and while rather touristy still has a strong local culture. Julio and I sampled all the (four) national beers, ate good food, and visited a bird park. There were really spectacular birds that we saw while hiking along a path through the woods along a river. We wanted to see the butterfly park, but were told there are not many butterflies this time of year.
Our second evening there we watched from the balcony of a restaurant serving up great happy hour specials a children’s Christmas parade complete with a Santa and kids dressed as angels, sheep, and Christmas trees. The parade ended in the central park where there was a huge, festive gathering all night with fireworks and street venders.
On Saturday, we returned to Guatemala, to the town of Esquipulas, not far from the border. Esquipulas is in the department of Chiquimula and is the most visited spot in all of Guatemala. People flock from all over Latin America, especially on January 15. Esquipulas is famous for its black Jesus, carved of balsa wood in the late 16th century and responsible for many miracles. We stayed at Hotel Payaquí, a really nice hotel right next to the beautiful Basilica that houses the black Christ. We had to queue around the church for over an hour with the masses of people who pilgrimage there. A well-packed mass began while we were passing the glass encased Jesus at the front of the church. When we left I got a good view of the church alter and walls and ceiling enshrined in gold. High above and center is a large golden triangle with an eye inside. Perhaps this should be the location for Dan Brown’s next novel!
We took a ride to the Piedras Compadres on the outskirts of town, a place of Mayan rituals. There is a huge stone balancing atop another stone, below which many candles and offerings are burned.
