Copan - Macaws and Deadly Ballgames
So after getting over my rapturous delight at finding real, cheap, food again - island food was getting old - we went to Copan Ruinas, the best preserved site in Honduras for seeing ruins. On our way, we stopped at the local market. As usual, I almost missed it - a tiny hole in the wall 5 feet wide lined with fruit enticed me in, then I found myself inside this gigantic flat space filled with booths selling all sorts of food and fruits. We had Tilapia and soup and tortillas for about 1.50$, bought a pineapple for 90 cents, then went to the ruins, just outside town.
The ruins were a bit pricy, 15$ each for entry, plus for once I decided to splurge on a guide since I would have had no idea what I was seeing. It was 25$ extra for a guide for 1.5 hours. It was worth it though.
About Copan.. what can I say. It was a well preserved, even opulent, pile of rocks which a great many peons spent millions of manhours carving and building for the enjoyment of a privileged few hundred people, and the honor of a few hundred pagan gods. It was impressive, yes, but… I dunno. You can find plenty of pictures of the statues and carvings and things like that on the net if that sort of thing interests you more than me.
Anyway, they had some beautiful scarlet macaws at the entry to the park…
Along with some Agoutis, I think they are called…
One interesting anecdote about Copan, is that this complex was built to have a gigantic ampitheater to watch a ball game played with a rubber ball weighing about 8 pounds. No hands or feet were allowed to touch the ball, and bouncing that off your head HAD to hurt.
This is the playing field, and the object was to touch one of the 6 goals on the sides of the field with the ball. But this game had an added twist - the winner got to be the next human sacrifice! (Should we really call him the winner? I mean, really??) Anyway, only the best was allowed to be offered to the gods, which was done on this altar here:
Again, I have to wonder if anyone ever took a dive for the team… I can imagine a comedy of players trying to under-play the others, trying to lose… at least, that’s what *I* would have been trying to do… professional sports just doesn’t have a future in a society like that.
Anyway, we got back to the actual town and it was about 4:30. We didn’t want to stay here for the night, but I didn’t really care where we went as long as it was south or west, towards El Salvador or Guatemala. So we walked through town, asking people, and everyone said the last bus had left already, but maybe THAT place would have a bus still… after playing this game for about 30 minutes, we finally found a FULL collective taxi headed in what I hoped was the right direction. Actually, I didn’t know where it was going but the road headed towards where I wanted to go in either direction, so… I figured I couldn’t lose.
Some people on the collective told me where to go next, so after a few more bus changes and several hours later we wound up at the border to El Salvador at about 11pm. Unfortunately, most of the hotels in town were full. One that wasn’t was a bit expensive, so as I was walking around looking for more hotels, a local saw us and decided to help us. He spoke English somewhat and had lived in Houston for awhile.
Well, he told us this certain hotel had rooms and he had a reservation there and they would let us in. I had already asked there and they said they were full, and told him this, but he insisted he could work it out, maybe a bribe was all we needed he said. I found the situation quite interesting so I decided to play it out and see what happened. Well, he banged on the door, the hotel clerk came out andsaid they were full. He said he had a reservation, the clerk said he didn’t, he said he did, then he said some people in the hotel knew him and could vouch for him, so about 15 minutes went by with the guy going back and forth into the hotel looking for people to vouch for this guy on the street. I found it all quite amusing, since I knew I had at least one option for beds and sincerely appreciated this guy’s help for us strangers.
Well, to make a long story short, (and you really had to be there to appreciate it) he finally said there were no rooms, but that his wife was in his room there and that we could take one bed and he could take the other with his wife. I explained to him that I appreciated his overwhelming kindness, but that we would seek out other options. He said that the town got unsafe later at night and we needed a place to sleep off the street and I told him again that the other place had beds and that we would go there, but if it was full we would come back and perhaps take him up on his offer. We finally agreed that if we didn’t come back in two minutes, it would be a sign that all was well with us. Thanked him again, and left and got beds in the other hotel.
It was just an example of how much out of their way people will go here to help complete strangers. I doubt that would have happened in my own country, but we have met this sort of behavior all the time here. Earlier that same day a local walked 3 blocks out of his way after dark to make sure we found the bus station to the next town alright and safely.
But I think of all the countries, El Salvadorans were the happiest, nicest, most helpful, and healthiest. It was my favorite country, and you’ll hear about it next post…
Leave a Comment
Posted on February 22nd, 2009 by Natnee and filed under Honduras |
