Saturday, June 14, 2008

Sta. Rosa Copan & The Mayan Ruins

I had an amazing 2 days in Copan, it was everything I thought it would be AND then some! We woke up early Thursday morning and headed out from Siguatepeque, it ended up being a 4 1/2 hour trip excluding stops.... still no air conditioner in the car, so we needed to get out every few hours to cool off at a gas station or something. Rebeca slept in my lap pretty much the whole way, such precious times! Once we made it to Copan, everyone checked into the Hotel Granditas Mayas and then Jess and I went shopping! We mostly just looked because we knew we would be able to shop again the next day... BECAUSE the water park that we thought we were going to.. ended up being 2 swimming pools and 2 slides! So disheartening, haha! See for yourself:



One of the most beautiful sites was just walking in the city of Copan. The streets are cobblestone, ALL of them! Most of the streets are just dirt roads here in Honduras and to see something as pretty as cobblestone is rare! The town was so quaint, one could tell that it is a tourist hot spot but never the less it was so great!



Thursday night we went out to eat at a restaurant in town, Jess and I had the typical Honduran meal : beef, refried beans, tortillas, fried plantains, cheese, avocado, and rice. I love the typical food here, I am going to miss it when I am not here anymore!


So Friday morning we woke up and headed to see the Ruins. The weather was gorgeous, really sunny, about 85 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky! We walked up on the first set of ruins and all Jess and I wanted to do was run up it! Just to think that I walked on something that is thousands of years old, blows my mind! These ancient Mayans had a nack for building things :)



As fun it it was to run up it, we realized that it may be even more fun to jump off and taking fun jumping pictures! We must have done this 10 times each and let me tell you, it was a workout!







I was able to get a good picture of our sweet family here in Honduras! I love these guys, they are my heart!


We walked around to each site and read a little bit about the history and talked about how amazing the intricate carvings were. Most of the separate statues were used as alters to sacrifice animals or people to their pagen gods.



There were TONS of "Guacamaya", birds that look like HUGE parrots! They are native to this area and apparently were there when the Mayans were in Copan as well. They used them in many of their carvings and for a mascot-like figure for the game they played with a ball. Not like games we play these days, it was a gruesome story about how they through this concrete ball at the Guacamayan statues and if they hit them they got a point.. which ever team lost, one of their women had to be sacrificed to their pagan gods. Crazy!





After walking on the ground and seeing everything up close, they had a place you could hike up to see an aerial view of the whole Mayan Temple. Quite the hike I would say but SO WORTH IT! Everything was so full of vegetation, color, and life! The Lord overwhelmed me with His goodness and His glory as I stood there on the mountain. I felt so alive as I stood there.





This little one was such a trooper! She did the whole ruin tour with us and did so well! I love her so much!


Once the tour was over, we headed back to our hotel for a rest and then for some more shopping! Before supper, Jess and I decided to go up to the roof and relax in the hammocks. As I was laying there, I had another unexplainable moment with the Lord. His beauty just amazes me and it takes my breath away. I realized that I was laying in a hammock on the roof of our hotel in Honduras, Central America, watching the sun go behind the mountains. It does not get any more surreal than that!



Woke up this morning and I can honestly say, I do not remember the last time my legs where this sore! Okay, maybe when I went snowboarding.. but you would think that snowboarding would make your legs sore! We picked up Jamie and Sarah from Eldorado, Arkansas, at the San Pedro Sula Airport and then headed home to Siguatepeque! I have enjoyed getting to know them and I am sure that we will have a great week! Jess and I will be working our normal schedule in the mornings and then doing VBS with them in the afternoons. I cannot believe that Jess is leaving in one week.. I will sure miss her when she leaves but we are going to have such a GREAT week!

Please pray for us as we wrap up our time together here in Honduras, that the Lord would continue to use us in whatever ways He sees fit! We are here to be His hands and His feet... pray that His light would shine through us.

4 comments:

Leslie Young said...

Hey, sweet girl! I know you had a great weekend and I'm praying for a wonderful last week with Jess! Bec is here and we were just talking about praying for you extra hard once your constant companion heads back home! I'm confident there are still blessings in store as you faithfully serve! Love you!

Anonymous said...

I love you, and I am so happy to see all of your pretty pictures! I am praying for Jess's last week, and for you and the 2 girls there. I love you so so much, and I can't wait to hear more!

ps- I love the one of you with bec sleeping on your lap. SSOOOOO precious!

Christin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christin said...

thank you for sharing the beauty of Copan with us! the pics are breathtaking...i cant imagine it in person! and Rebeca is a doll!

I'm continuing to pray for your & Jess's last week together...i've been doing so for the past few weeks now & it will far surpass what you girls think it holds! I know the Lord has some amazing things in store for the week! VBS sounds like so much fun! And yay...some girls from Arkansas...new faces and hearts for our Lord! I can't wait to hear more about the clinic this week...praying for continued growing of relationship & new opportunities there. Praying for you my friend always! I love you!