Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Copan Ruinas, Honduras - UPDATED with photos

Anna´s entry

I really enjoyed Copan! It is a very cute village located close to the famous Mayan Ruins. Copan has a nice architecture and a very laid back attitude. The nature around Copan is stunning - rolling green valleys, streams, mountains, etc. It totally makes sense why Mayan leaders selected this place for establishing the settlement here centuries ago. The first day we spent in the ton itself - we got a nice deal for a hotel at $8 a night. On the way from Antigua, Guatemala we were practising our Spanish skills with a van driver, which he liked, and we used his referral to get the special discount at the hotel. Also, on the way to Copan we met a nice guy from Great Britain, and we exchanged our travel stories. At night Rob and I went for some delicious tacos at a street stall, and watched a local open air concert in a park. Copan was very pretty at night, the square and houses all lit up with lights... The second day, Rob and I headed out to the ruins. Designated by UNESCO asa world heritage site, the Copan archaeological site is an excellent evidence of the Mayan civilization dating back to AD 426. Until recently, the collapse of the civilization at Copan has been a mystery. Now, archaeologists are starting o understand what happened. The population growth at unprecedented rate, and exhaustion of agricultural resources are two main reasons. Eventually, the royal city of Copan was reclaimed by the jungle. The ruins are stunning and depict in detail the history of the royal family, customs, believes, etc. When we were walking around the altars, acropolis, stairs with hieroglyphs, and squares with sculptured serpent heads, glyphs, and sacrificial vaults, it felt as if we ourselves went back 15 centuries ago!























Other Copan links -

http://www.hondurastouristoptions.com/images/Copan%20Ruinas%201_JPG.jpg

http://www.stanford.edu/~tsaig/Photos/Honduras016.jpg

http://www.travelsongs.com/albums/copanruinas/IMG_0056.jpg

http://www.stanford.edu/~tsaig/Photos/Honduras017.jpg

http://www.lucidelmondo.net/Honduras/0437---Copan-Ruinas.jpg

http://www.honduras-travel.de/images/steelecopan.jpg

http://www.arrecifetours.com/images/guaras%20parque%20de%20copan%20ruinas%20honduras.jpg

posted by Rob and Anna @ 6:09 PM

1 Comments:

At 11:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comment.
Good question. I do not have a lot of experience with UNESCO projects other than Zacatecas and many in the Czech Republic, so I am not sure how useful my assessment would be. That said, I felt that many features of the city were well preserved, and well excavated from the jungle that reclaimed. Not really related to the ruins themselves were the grounds that were well taken care of. Overall, I would give it a thumbs up.
Cheers,
Rob

 

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