Life in Copan: part 1 of 2

Copan Ruinas is a busy tourist destination. Though my group is in town primarily to help out at the primary school in the nearby community of San Rafael, we have been able to take advantage of many other activities in and near this laid-back Honduran town. 've had significantly more free time here than I did in Antigua, and as a result I've been able to visit many interesting attractions nearby:

Copan Ruinas Archeological Park and Museum
Most people visit Copan to see the nearby Mayan ruins. They are a short walk from the city center, and I was enchanted enough to return several times. Much smaller than Tikal, the carvings in Copan are better preserved and had been more ornate to begin with. I've enjoyed seeing both, plus nearby Quirigua.

HISTORY: Ancient Copan began ~200AD and within 200 years grew into an important Mayan city with a peak population of 20,000. The city thrived during the 420s to 850s when Copan was ruled by a single dynastic lineage of 16 kings. A slow decline followed, and by the time of the Spanish conquest the former ceremonial center had been swallowed by the jungle. Today the ruins cover about 12 acres along a river valley. The site is best known for well-preserved intricate carvings and hieroglypic inscriptions, including a large series of portrait stelae (symbolic statues). The guides say that if Tikal (in Guatemala) was like the New York city of ancient Mayan civilization, then Copan was like Paris.

TO VISIT: The archeological park has several parts with different admission rates. $15US/pp gets you into the primary archeological site. Two hours is plenty to see everything, and it is well worth the additional $25 per group for a trained bi-lingual guide. For the hardcore Maya enthusiast, an additional $15US gains you admission to a few short stretches of the archeological tunnels cut under the tunnels (I don't think it is worth the price.) Not to be missed, though, is the nearby sculpture museum ($7/pp) which houses some of the more elaborate original carvings and stelae, plus a full-size vividly colored replica of an ancient temple. There is no charge to simply walk the nature trail, with informational signs, plenty of wildlife and a restored Mayan ball court in the center of a peaceful glen.

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Luna Jaguar Hot Springs (Agua Calientes)
I enjoyed the hot springs enough to go twice. The resort is an hour drive from Copan through astonishingly beautiful countryside and the Sesesmil community, just 5 KM from the Guatemalan border. The steep mountains are covered with a patchwork of wild jungle and cultivated fields established hundreds of years ago by the descendants of Spanish settlers. If I return to Copan, I would like sign up for the two-day horseback trip, including five hours in the saddle each way and an overnight stay at the resort hotel.

The resort has two parts with a different admission ticket for each. The picnic grounds, blue plaster swimming pools and unimproved riverbanks are available for ~$2US. This is where locals hang out is they're coming in for a soak. For an additional ~$10US guests (mostly tourists) have access to the improved resort designed to resemble a Mayan holy site. To begin the "journey to the underworld", guests cross the river on a suspension bridge and then walk through a cave-like tunnel decorated with replicas of Mayan carvings. A guide leads each group of guests through the grounds to explain the steam bath, foot bath, massage temple, ritual areas, and hot to adjust the water temperature in some of the pools. guests are then left to explore or settle into a pool of their choice. The resort is truly in the jungle with exotic birds, butterflies and flowers surrounding stone pools of sulfurous hot water streaming out of a natural spring. If you go, plan to stay through sunset to watch and listen to the jungle life shift from day to night, with bats and frogs waking up as the sun goes down. It is well worth a visit.

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Birds and Butterflies
Two popular attractions are only a short taxi ride from the city center. The Macaw Mountain Birk Park (Parque de Aves) is a private sanctuary for rescued birds, mostly prior house pets. On the grounds visitors walk a zoo-like path between large cages to view captive Macaw, parrots, toucans and other colorful Central American birds. In one area visitors are invited to pose for photos with a few friendly birds. Visitors are also given a short lesson about the coffee plantation managed by the owners of the bird park, and the tour ends at the plantation's coffee shop.

At the other end of Copan you can visit a private butterfly and orchid garden. When we went, only a few unspectacular butterflies inhabited the butterfly enclosure, and only two of the 117 varieties of orchid were in bloom. However, I can imagine this to be an amazing stop in a warmer season, when both the butterflies and orchids are in full color. For the orchid enthusiast I would image the garden of interest at any time of the year. Even with somewhat bland inhabitants, with landscaping and buildings were interesting and comfortable to walk around in for an hour.

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Hacienda San Lucas and Los Sapos archeological site
About half an hour's walk out of town we went out to enjoy the sunset from a lovely vista at Hacienda San Lucas. We didn't stay for dinner or overnight (it is one of the most expensive hotels in the region). Before dusk, we walked through the Hacienda grounds to the interesting Los Sapos archeological site, with giant carved stone toads that were part of an ancient Mayan holy site related to fertility and childbirth. Before dark we returned to the Hacienda to sit out in the grassy hillside to watch the sun go down over the valley. It was well worth a nice walk along the river and through Copeneco farmland for the lovely view.


Guacamaya Spanish School
The Guacamaya Spanish School served as base camp during our time in Copan. I've heard it is rated as the second best Spanish school in Central America, and I believe it. The one-on-one instruction is marvelous (especially my maestra Yarely) and the teachers have a well-defined curriculum with three workbook levels based on student competency. I'll have taken 30 hours of instruction by the time I leave, and feel that my Spanish has improved enormously. It would be significantly better if I practiced more -- but that's not the fault of the school. In addition to providing instruction the school arranges transportation and tickets for many of our activities, and they coordinate all the homestays. The school serves as a general meeting place and internet cafe for GVI volunteers. The school hosted an Obama inauguration party, and the schoolmaster Enrique is generally helpful with anything related to life and travel around Copan. If anyone is considering a Spanish immersion program with homestay in Central America, this is ABSOLUTELY the place to be.


Horseback riding to La Pintada

We mounted up on horseback for a three-hour ride including a stop in the indigenous Chorti pueblo (village) of La Pintada. The pueblo is a popular tourist destination that has received quite a bit of funding to develop a school, a textile workshop, and and small market for other handcrafts. Tourists are welcomed, and immediately surrounded by children selling corn-husk dolls. While in the village we were invited into a home very close to the market building for a demonstration of tortilla-making. After patting little balls of masa (corn dough) into flat discs, our tortillas were fried on an iron plancha (grill) over a wood fire in our hostess' home. While this experience was clearly set up as a tourist attraction, I have since learned that what we witnessed at La Pintada closely reflects the cooking setup of many homes in the mountains surrounding Copan.

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Stay tuned for part two...