Venturing out

This past weekend we went to the state of Copan in Honduras to see the Mayan ruins there. I'm always so fascinated by these sites. It was amazing to see them and I learned so much. On the way we also stopped at Lago Yojoa and saw an amazing waterfall.

Perhaps the most awesome part of the trip is that Damaris rented a car while her mom and aunt were here. We were like, "FREEDOM!" It's very hard to share a car between six people. Especially when you live in the boondocks. PLUS it was an automatico. Now that's a car! It was a cute little red car that hardly had any pick up and strained to drive on the mountainous roads of Honduras, but awesome none-the-less.

A few words about Honduras driving. It's not for the faint of heart. If you are the least bit passive, nervous or uncomfortable driving, then this is not the place for you. I finally figured out why everyone drives so crazy here. It's because the police only have "checkpoints". They don't really go out and patrol or make routine traffic stops. At least not that I've seen so far. The driving rules are merely a suggestion. No one is ever going to really enforce them. So that stop sign, yeah, don't worry about it. Passing on the side of a mountain on a blind curve, do it. Pedestrians on the side of the road? Who cares. With babies, you say? Get closer!

Sidenote: All the drivers seem to be in such a hurry all the time, yet no one gets anywhere on time and nothing ever starts on time. Two weekends ago we went to the town of Santa Lucia. They have a marvelous little church there. The bells rang for everyone to come inside and fifteen minutes later the priest was still talking to people outside as more and more cars drove up.

Lago Yojoa-We got to the lake late at night. And by late, I mean like 8 pm. It gets dark here early, so anything after dark is late. We stayed in this cute little (overpriced) hotel with lots of dogs. Like big, German Shepherd dogs. I took this opportunity to pet them, as most dogs in Honduras you want to stay away from. These dogs were cool, though. The next day we went to a waterfall. We're totally going to go back and do a zip line over the falls. No time this trip.

Copan-Very cute town. Cobblestone streets, colonial style buildings. Lots of shopping. Tons of stores with all the same stuff for sale. We even got a descuenta de maestros. I used to ask everywhere I went, all the time if they had a teacher's discount. I even asked at Disneyworld. They don't have one. Turns out you can totally get a teacher's discount in Honduras. Who knew?

We went to a Jardin de Mariposas-Butterfly Garden. They do not offer a teacher's discount, but I'd say go anyway. Before we went into the garden, we got to see all the stages of a butterfly's life. Awesome! We even saw a newborn butterfly and got to touch it. Amazing. So when it came time to go into the garden, I was stoked. I was secretly hoping that one would land on me. Be careful what you wish for. A beautiful butterfly the size of a bat landed on my hand and I freaked out. They don't like it when you freak out in the Butterfly Garden.

The next day we went to the Mayan ruins. It was very interesting and I learned a lot of facts that I'll soon forget. Maybe I should list them here so I don't forget.

Here I go:
1. 18 Rabbit was the most popular king and had many statues built in his honor.
2. They made human and animal sacrifices.
3. Human sacrifices were decided by a game of ball. The winner was sacrificed.
4. The lower class rebelled and left the upper class.
5. The upper class had to abandon the site and moved to other places nearby.
6. They do not like it when you sit on the monuments.
7. The Mayans believed that butterflies could be your ancestors coming back to visit. That could explain the butterfly encounter at the garden.