A day late and several lempiras short

Happy May Day to all! To celebrate el Día del Trabajador, the clinic closed this Monday, and since a three-day weekend resulted, I had no choice but to take a fabulous trip. This weekend's excursion: Copán Ruinas, Honduras.

The modern town and the ancient Mayan city are just across the Honduran border, a 9-hour trip, give or take, from Xela. Scott (the novio), Joe (a friend and former homestay brother), and I left at 3:45 Saturday morning and arrived without any grand problems around 2 in the afternoon the same day. The town of Copan Ruinas is pretty tiny, especially compared to Xela. From the Parque Central, Copan extends about 4 blocks in each direction. So while certainly not the 20,000 inhabitant seat of Mayan power it was 13 centuries ago, Copan today is just the right size for a weekend getaway.

Saturday afternoon, we wandered around the town and explored what Honduras has to offer in terms of licuados and beers. After this weekend, I can much more highly recommend the fruit juices (papaya, watermelon, and orange = best combination I've had in Central America) than the beers (there are 4 national beers in Honduras: Imperial is by far and away the only decent one. Barrena is a distant second, and Salvavidas and Port Royal are hardly worth trying). Also, we discovered baleadas, a giant flour tortilla (the Xela tortillas are all maiz) filled with black beans, cream, and eggs, then folded in half and lightly fried on a skillet. Delicious.

After indulging ourselves gastronomically, we climbed a hill outside of town looking for the former jail. Both Lonely Planet and Moon Guide informed us that the jail offered some scenic vistas overlooking the town, and when we found the jail, not only did the views live up to the hype, but a children's museum of Mayan history was housed inside as well. Double success! Here are Joe and I are gazing over la ciudad:


We rose and shone early Sunday morning to make it to the ruins before the mid-day crowds and the heat. Coming from highland Guatemala, it was a bit of a shock to be sweating in the jungle humidity, but then I remembered I used to live in Houston and I got used to it.

The ruins were of course spectacular. If Tikal is widely considered the Manhattan of the Mayan World, then Copan is popularly likened to the Paris. Both Tikal and Copan were major area hubs with lots of royal power and strong citizen bases, but Copan was a bit more artsy from what archeologists can tell. The sculptures and stellaes around the city are breathtaking.

Here are Scott and Joe posing next to the road sign, helpfully informing us that the ruins are straight ahead:

And we met some scarlet macaws at the park's entrance. Here is one, plotting and conspiring, in the bottom right corner of the photo. Minutes later, it would divebomb Scott as he passed by:

This photo is taken from the ruins' first main plaza. The stellae (the stone carved totem poles) were awesome. Most of the stellae displayed were from the 7th and 8th centuries, during the reigns of 18 Rabbit and Smoke Jaguar, if I remember the kings' names correctly.


And another stella!

This staircase is the largest carved staircase with inscriptions in the Mayan world. It was commissioned after one of Copan's kings was captured and beheaded by a rival city-state, and the beheaded king's successor wanted to reestablish Copan's claim as a pre-eminent Mayan kingdom. The stairway has over 60 steps, including some protruding sculptures, and tells the story of 400 years of Copan's glory.


Pretty magnificent. Also magnificent is this picture taken from atop the acropolis of the Temple of Inscriptions:

This photo is from atop the same acropolis, but looking over the Plaza of the Jaguars:


Apparently the citizens and priests of Copan used to sacrifice Jaguars to the honor of their kings, which just blows my mind. That means they had to first capture a jaguar alive, bring it out of the jungle and back to the city, and then lay it on top of an altar - still alive - before sacrificing it. I would most certainly not want to be part of the group assigned that task.

This photo is taken from within the Plaza of the Jaguars. I'm modeling the pose of the dancing jaguar king to my left:

Finally, this picture is from the residential area of the ruins. The bigshots and nobles lived here, right below all the major temples and plazas:


The ruins were a brilliant way to spend a Sunday morning, and if any of y'all are ever in (or close to) Honduras, I highly recommend the excursion.

Aside from our Honduran adventure, the rest of the week went really well, too! The new school groups coming in have been a delight to teach. Scott and I have been presenting lessons to 5th and 6th grade classes, and these kids are not nearly as surly or shy or awkward as I remember being between the ages of 10 and 13. These classes get the double whammy of basic nutrition and hygiene + puberty, and they handle it fantastically. I certainly would not want to participate in a group matching game about changes you experience in puberty, but these kids seem to enjoy sorting items like "pubic hair", "wider hips", "attraction for the opposite sex", "acne", and "erections" into categories. It's great fun. We have 5th graders coming through the end of this week, and I will try to get some pictures of the puberty matching game for next week's blog entry.

Attendance has also been excellent - each day we've been teaching two classes because over 30 students have come to their field trip. Whereas a couple weeks ago, we were asking teachers to mark on a roster which students had shown up, this week we only had to ask that they mark the absent students, and the highest number of absences in one class has been three. It's tiring but inspiring.

Since we only receive school groups Monday through Thursday, Friday has traditionally been a low-key day for the education team. We check in as to how the week went, what to expect for next week, and prepare any materials or lessons that need work. The past couple weeks, however, Scott's been called up from the education squad to the medical varsity team and has been designated as the wart burner. Every Friday the clinic applies nitrogen to any warts any community member may have, and Scott has assumed his new role with gusto. Here he is with a new amigo:

What a champ!

Between observing Scott eliminate warts, teaching puberty lessons, and 9 hour road trips to Honduras, the week flew by. I managed to squeeze in three yoga lessons, a French restaurant excursion for a friend of a friend's despedida (good-bye party), and a visit to BakeShop for handmade cinnamon buns. Life continues to be stupendous in Xela.

Hasta la semana que viene,
Katy