Notes from Honduras 6

Back to the Mayans.

After our little break, we walked all the way across the East Court to take a look at the surrounding landscape.

It's been the dry season, but soon the jungle will be even greener. And, again, it's just not the same seeing it in pictures without the sounds of the insects and birds.

Here is that awesome guy I married checking out Temple 18.

A view of the East Court from Temple 18. Off to the right is where a significant portion of the acropolis collapsed into the river.

Now an opposite view of the East Court. See the little shelter structure on the left? That's Temple 18--the above picture was taken from there. The large pyramid in the picture below is Temple 16, the tallest structure at Copan.

Greg posed above the East Court. Don't forget that the ground would not have been grass and dirt--it would have been plastered, along with everything else.

This view one more time, because why not?

Now, a look at what's to the north of the East and West Courts:

The above is a view of the Great Plaza. Important stuff! It's lower than the East and West Courts. And it was excavated first. You can see the ball court. That tarp on the right covers the famous hieroglyphic stairway. Take a good look. This is a famous view. So famous that it's on the one lempira bill.

Don't you want to get down there for a closer look? We did too, so our guide took us down to the Great Plaza.

Careful, don't trip on this guy on the way down.

Guess what! It was our super-dee-dooper lucky day! Let me explain. For hundreds of years moss protected the writing on that staircase. Way to go, moss--because now we can read about the entire history of Copan on those stairs. But when archaeologists removed the moss in order to see/read the writing, they also removed the stairs' protection. So the stairs are ALWAYS covered with a tarp to preserve the fragile glyphs. But remember that huge storm the night before? It damaged the tarp, so it had to be removed and repaired. Yes, the tarp had to be removed. Yippeee! According to the our guide, "The only time they take the tarp off is when National Geographic is coming. So this is very exciting indeed."

This view sans tarp is something you don't get to see often.

Isn't that stairway pretty darn cool? It's the longest stairway with continuous writing all the way up it in the WHOLE WORLD. (Take that, Greeks and Egyptians!) Also, it is the longest known text of ancient Mayan civilization. Those were some dang cool stairs!

Let's take a look at that writing.

Of course, there couldn't only be writing.

My hot, sticky, swollen self in front of the stairway.

By the way, that skirt gave me an "hermana" tan line. My fellow former sister missionaries in the D.R. (and other places) know what I'm talking about.

Man, since we were treated to the National Geographic view, why not take another picture?

And another!

Tired of the hieroglyphic staircase? How about this crumbling staircase?

The jungle got the best of that stairway.

A Mayan arch.

Next is a picture of the second largest ball court to be found in Central America. There is my husband, standing in the ball court where human heads were kicked around. Was this a romantic anniversary or what? (By the way, it was usually a heavy rubber ball made from latex, and not human heads.)

Also, the ball game wasn't purely for sport. It was primarily a religious ritual, perhaps symbolizing struggles between different deities.

Before the Mayan glyphs could be deciphered, it was generally assumed that the ancient Maya were a peaceful, science-oriented people. But once great progress was made in deciphering their writing, it was discovered that they weren't quite so tranquil and peace-loving as had been originally imagined. Like...they practiced human sacrifice. Oops--that came as a big to surprise to some old school Mayan scholars.

For example, they would rip out the hearts of their human victims and place it here, in that bowled area on top.

Then the blood would run down the groove in the side to be collected at the bottom. (By the way, the shape of the human heart alter is in the exact shape of those latex balls they used in their religious rituals on the ball court.)

When our guide realized Greg had a pretty good handle on the ancient Mayans (thanks to that book), he felt like he could share more freely about the gorier aspects of Mayan rituals. It doesn't seem quite so crazy and blood-lusty with a little context, which Greg had from his book.

As promised, more stelae! These were commissioned by 18 Rabbit, and this presents the height of Mayan artistry and skill. (By the way, if you think 18 Rabbit is a cool name: his son's name was Smoke Monkey. I think that is the best name ever.)

Look at the red paint still left on this one.

Here is a giant turtle. I think our guide told us that the Mayans believed the earth was on the back of a giant turtle. My memory gets a little fuzzy here because I was MELTING in the heat and humidity. You can see how excited Greg was by this point in the tour.

This stele is super cool. I love it! Look how deep it is--carved all the way through in some places. I love the detail.

Here is a closer look at that Mr. 18 Rabbit.

And in case you are wondering what's on the other side of the stele...

More of that awesome writing! Look at it! So much artistry in the WRITING.

Okay, okay, you're probably getting sick of the Mayans by now. I think we were too. Actually, we were just really hot out there in the blazing sun. (Which is too bad because out there in the blazing sun of the Great Plaza and the Ceremonial Court was probably the best part.)

And thus concluded our tour.

Because I just can't help myself, I leave you with one more picture of that darn awesome stairway!

I promise, no more Mayan ruins!

El descanso

Even with all this talk of archaeological tunnels and pictures of Mayan stelae, I wouldn't want you to forget that the reason for this trip was him...

and us...
Yes, this trip was ALL ABOUT US (hot, sweaty heads and all).

Marriage isn't what I thought it would be like. It's a million times better.

Sometimes I wonder why love like the love we share isn't often (ever?) portrayed in movies or books.

But, to be honest, this kind of love doesn't necessarily make for exciting storytelling. And that's okay. Because it doesn't mean our marriage doesn't make me happier than I had ever imagined possible. Besides, the rhythms of our relationship and the depth of our feelings are unique. And private: we are each other's refuge. That is why the most important part of my life is what I write the least about. Words can never do justice, and I'm okay with that.

Now, after that little break, let's get back to the Mayans...

Notes from Honduras 5

The big event! Brace yourself for way too many pictures! But what's the point of taking pictures if you don't share them with yourself at the very least?

Monday morning we ate a leisurely yummy breakfast at the cafe downstairs (with fresh jugo!), so we made it out to the ruins a little bit later than we'd hoped. By 9:00 am, when we got there, it was already hot and sticky. But at least the sun wasn't too high.

Greg found us a guide. This was a big deal for us! In the past we've been too cheap to hire guides, so we would just do our best with our books and maps. But more than anything, we haven't hired guides in the recent past because we've always had David. He's not an easy-going kid, so when we travel with him, we've found it's infinitely easier to do a family self-guided tour, at our own pace, on our own schedule, without the pressure of someone being privy to our family drama. So what a luxury it was to have our own personal guide, to go slowly (I can't tell you how many castles, palaces, and ancient ruins we've literally run through because of a certain crying, high-maintenance child), and to hear every word without the distraction of whines, dropped toys, or poopy diapers.

Before we set off, our guide (whose name I can't remember!) gave us an overview of the site. Looking at the model, we would start at the top end and work our way to the closer end.

Because of that obsessive-compulsive streak in me, I labeled some of highlights of the ruins for reference (mostly my reference):

Temple 16 is the tallest structure. (Beneath it is Rosalila.)

Temple 11 symbolizes the portal to the underworld.

That stairway is covered with hieroglyphics. More on that later.

More later on the ball court.

And I hope you're excited to see pictures of more Mayan sculpture!

On our way out to the ruins, our guide stopped to point out a young ceiba tree planted a few years ago by a Japanese princess.

I thought it was such a cool tree that I decided to be obsessed with la ceiba.

When it's young, it has very soft bark, so for protection, it grows these freaky spiky things.

As you can see, this next ceiba tree is a little older--you can see that it has fewer freaky spiky things because its bark is getting tougher.

The next tree is three hundred years old!! That beast of a tree hasn't had freaky spiky things for centuries!

When it blooms (which only happens every 4--or 5?--years), the pods are filled with this cottony silk floss.

Cool tree, huh? You will see lots of them in the following pictures, growing on and around the ruins.

When we walked toward the major site, we passed these unassuming mounds. The jungle is filled with them. They are the collapsed ruins of some Mayan structure, covered with jungle. Only 40% of Copan has been excavated. There is Mayan stuff everywhere.

Can you find E.T. in the picture above?

Here is a close-up. There he is, just sitting in the jungle for a thousand years.

Copan today looks nothing like it once did. Everything was plastered and painted in bright colors. But Copan today definitely has its own cool aesthetic. There is no way my pictures capture this, but it is amazing to be walking through the misty jungle (loud with bird calls and buggy hums) and then suddenly there it is. You stumble through the mist onto a Mayan temple. It's a neat experience, to say it lamely.

Here was our first glimpse as the jungle opened up. This is Temple 16.

Move out of the way, please, Husband.

Temple 16 is the tallest structure at Copan. (It's nothing compared to the temples at Tikal, but Copan is all about the sculpture, remember?)

Greg standing in front of Temple 16.
Below is a picture of a corner of Temple 16. (Notice how the trees and its roots have attacked the temple.)

Want to know what's under there? It's Rosalila!

The temple nicknamed Rosalila was so sacred that the new king did not destroy it--instead the temple was carefully encased inside Temple 16. (If you recall, we saw a replica of Rosalila at the museum.)

This is a view of Temple 11 (the portal of the underworld) from Temple 16 across the West Court. Look at the trees taking over the temple. You get the feeling that you cannot fight the jungle.

Next we peered at homes of the elites. At first, archaeologists thought is was a cemetery because they found so many human remains. But soon they realized that the Maya buried their dead next to their houses, not in cemeteries. Below is a view of the most upscale Copan neighborhood.

The elite lived in stone homes with thick walls that supported stone roofs. It seems that these homes were passed down from generation to generation. (Obviously, those not among the elite, lived outside of town in dwellings not made of stone.)

Here is a little closer look a single house.

This is a view from the backside of Temple 16 looking out across the East Court.

This guy, the jaguar, presides over the East Court.

Here we go, down under Temple 16. Do you remember what's down there?

Rosalila! This is the real one:

Then we descended into the Jaguar Tunnel.

An important note on the tunnels. They were built by ARCHAEOLOGISTS--NOT BY THE ANCIENT MAYA. Each successive ruler constructed on top of his predecessor's buildings. (As you can imagine, the city got higher and higher with each new king.) Copan has layers upon layers of ruins. So archeologists tunnel into the ground to investigate why lies beneath. Copan has about 4 kilometers worth of tunnels. We were only allowed to see a small portion of that (and for a hefty fee--but I thought it was worth it).

So what we saw was more sculpture in relief:

And more of that cool writing:

And this:
It's plaster. Everything was plastered. Even the GROUND. So when we look at the acropolis now, the courts are grassy. But in ancient times they would have been plastered and painted white. They Maya performed their religious rituals at night--and with the moon and torchlight reflecting off of that white plastered ground, there would have been plenty of light.

Down, down deeper.
This is some king's steam room. Or toilet.

The kings lived in their temples. (Unlike the ancient Egyptians.) They were also buried there. Somewhere down here were discovered the tombs of the founder of the ruling dynasty, Sun-eyed Green Quetzal Macaw, and his wife.

In the below picture you can see the East Court to the right. To the left is the major landslide site. Centuries ago, the Copan River changed course and took down a huge chunk of the acropolis with it. You can see that steep drop off to the left of the fence.

By this time, the sun was beating down on us. It was hot, hot, hot. And sticky. We found a small shady spot on the steps and took a break.

Are you ready for a break too? I know I am.