Day 3 A.M. Visit the Copan Ruins

Day 3:
The meals at Hacienda San Lucas blew us away.  It is all traditional Central American flavors with a bit of a gourmet presentation.  The menu was set for each meal but we were happy with everything we had.  After a delicious traditional Honduran breakfast of black beans and eggs wrapped in freshly made tortillas, we headed down to the Copan Ruins. 

Located near the Guatemala border, the ruins are a UNESCO world heritage site and are famous for their hieroglyphic staircase and 3D statue carvings.  It is considered one of the most preserved sites of the Mayan civilization.  This area was the capital city of the kingdom during the  Classical period, AD 300-900.  The city has been incredibly reconstructed it doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine what it would have looked like.   The most interesting parts were the staircase and the ballcourt.  The hard natural rubber ball was hit with knees or elbows and the object of the game was to hit one of four Mackaw shaped stone markers that were lined up along the top of a wall.
 

Hieroglyphic Stairway

Ball court where the last version of the markers can still be seen

Lempira in foreground has picture of ball court in the background

The original sculptues can be seen at the nearby museum, but really the replicas look so good you really don't have to go see the originals.  The main point in going to the museum would be to see the replica of the Rosalila temple which was discovered when archaeologists were tunneling under the top temple.  The buried temple is actually on top of five other temples.   It is perfectly preserved from the floor to the roof and has perfectly preserved painted stucco.  You can only see a portion of the original if you pay an extra fee to see the tunnels. A life-size replica was built at the museum.



a drawing of the Rosalila Temple

These are the best preserved Mayan ruins thanks in part to the Andrew Carnegie foundation who restored much of the site in the early 1900s.  Much of the ruins had been washed away by the river but the Carnegie Foundation built a towering wall to preserve the rest of the ruins.  Huge preservation efforts were made in the 80s and 90s and most of the original sculptures have been moved into a museum nearby.

The most amazing part for me was that this entire site would have been coated in white stucco from the ground up.  What is now a beautiful grassy courtyard was once brilliant white.  It was once thought that activities around these temples happened during the day, but now they think that perhaps the white helped illuminate the grounds for night time rituals.

After a long morning, the kids were hot and ready for lunch.  We ended the day at the ruins and headed back into Copan for a refreshing break at Via Via Café.