We woke up at 6, and the other girls. My stomach hurt and I spent a good portion of the morning in the bathroom. After an hour, I started feeling a little better. I have felt like this since the Saturday in La Ceiba. Maybe we ate something bad. I tried to check my email, but Gmail wasn’t working. I sent a message to Elvira to say that I would not be coming back until a day later. We ate hot ham and egg sandwiches. Amber still didn’t feel well. We took a picture with Tio Victor and we left for the bus terminal at 7:25. We arrived and bought our tickets for 130 lempiras each. Tio Victor insisted on walking us to our bus and he carried my bag. The bus arrived a little before 8. It was an old school bus with bucket seats. I sat in front of the other girls and put my bag above my seat on the rack. A man entered the bus and preached for a while. I guess this was to make up for the fact that we have missed church the last two Sundays. The bus left at 8:10 and was supposedly going to only stop twice, but, in reality, the bus stopped more like 10 or 12 times. Each time, vendors would climb aboard and try to sell their wares before the bus pulled out again. An old lady sat down next to me with a cat wrapped in a plastic bag (except for its head). His name was Javier, and his owner told me that he likes to travel by bus. I’m not so sure. I took a photo of him and then I peeked back at Amber and Lauren. They were both asleep with their mouths open. They both looked dead. I took a picture of them, too. The next time we stopped, the police climbed aboard and randomly began checking people’s IDs. They asked for Lauren’s and Amber’s passports, but for some reason, they didn’t ask me. They asked the girls about our trip: where we were coming from, where we were going, and other questions. I don’t know why. We arrived at Copan Ruinas at 12:15 instead of the scheduled 11am arrival. Amber had to go to the bathroom right away, so we stopped at Hotel Patty so she could go. Then we walked to a hostel nearby where we reserved a room for 210 lempiras at Hostal Posada Honduras. We paid and registered and went to the ruins. We found them easily. There were lots of semi trailers parked along the road. The drivers hang hammocks underneath them and lots of them were taking an afternoon siesta when we walked to the ruins. We didn’t have a lot of money with us, but we wanted to get a guide. The entrance fee cost $15 or L285 each and our guide (Obed) cost $25. We walked with Obed to the biggest estelas (I am not quite sure how to translate this word… basically it means the different temples and buildings that are there… the “ruins”). Amber sat down on benches or rocks whenever she could. She is such a trooper to participate with us even though she was feeling awful. The Mayan structures at Copan are incredible! I learned that the Maya constructed temples and houses over already existing structures. For this reason, there are four other temples under the biggest temple. There are still many structures that have yet to be excavated. The guide told us that the archeologists estimate there are enough structures to excavate that it will take 300 years to uncover them all. The Mayan had three main gods: the god of the sun, the god of the rain, and the god of the corn. It made me laugh to see the god of sun shaded by a roof to keep the sun off of him. We saw the giant stairway covered with hieroglyphics. The stairway is a “book” about the history of Copan. The stairway was ruined when it was discovered, and for this reason, the stones are not in the correct places. We saw the field where the Mayan played their famous ball game. It was much smaller than I had anticipated. The best players were sacrificed to the gods three times a year after the game. We saw the altar where they did the sacrifices. We also saw the “disco” of the Mayan people. It was interesting to learn that there were three classes of people in the Mayan society. However, it was possible for a person to change classes simply by studying or playing the ball game well. The women were honored in the Mayan society and had certain rights in the community. The women were the astronomers and dentists. Finally, the community and the land could not support the population of 30,000 people. There were diseases and not enough food. All the people either died or moved. There were 16 kings in Copan, all from one family. The first king came from Tikal, in Guatemala. The Copan river was very near the ruins and it was eroding the land and destroying the structures of Copan, so the archeologists changed the course of the river to protect Copan.
After the tour, we returned to our hotel and lay down for a while. The other girls slept, and I wrote in my journal. I decided to walk through the town. Lauren woke up, but since she wasn’t feeling well, she decided to stay in the room. I went to the park and found a street of souvenirs. I looked at the earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. I talked to an old man named Carlos who makes jewelry. He had a necklace made out of a Honduran coin. I liked it a lot, but I didn’t have enough money with me. I looked for information about a shuttle to Antigua, but there was no more space on the 6am shuttle. There was only one spot left on the noon shuttle, but that was really too late for me. I bought ice cream: one scoop of lime and one scoop of caramel in a cup for L25. I returned to the room, and we decided to go walking together. I asked in two more places about a shuttle to Antigua with no luck. Each time, the owner assured me that there was room, but when he called to check, there was not. I realized that all of these tour companies share a common shuttle. I went to look for souvenirs with Lauren and Amber. I bought the necklace from Carlos and took a picture. We asked him about a good place to eat baleadas. He recommended a restaurant near his table called Vamos a Ver. We went to look for more souvenirs and information about buses before returning to the restaurant. We ate humongous baleadas (flour tortillas with beans and cream inside) and licuados. I had a watermelon licuado, Amber had mango pineapple, and Lauren had chocolate (which had a flavor similar to chocolate milk). The baleadas and licuados cost L30 each. A child served us. There was a man at the other table that looked very much like David Durica. After we left the restaurant, we went searching for an internet café. We tried in four different locations, walking all over the town, but it seemed like all the places were either closed or did not have working internet. We went to a small shop and bought water and cookies for Jenny. Lauren and I went to the hotel to get Tio Victor’s number while Amber went to call her dad. Lauren and I found the place where you can make international calls. Amber was talking with her mom and Kevin since her dad was at a church meeting. Lauren called Tio Victor and tried to call her family, but they didn’t answer. It only cost ten cents a minute to call the U.S. I tried to call my mom, but she didn’t answer. I left a message and paid two lempiras. We returned to the hotel and I gave Amber a foot massage. I showered, and then she gave me a massage while we talked. We went to bed at 10:40.
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