Copan Ruins

 

What I did next, not willing to troop along the same path as the few tourists here did, I climbed up to the building above the ball court, dropped down on the other side, behind the staircase, and walked around the outside of the walls. The river used to run right along here, until it under-cut the walls and they collapsed. It has since been rerouted and the walls rebuilt. On the far side of the walls I found a path up to a small plaza and from there ascended to the top of the Gran Plaza..

 

Once, finally on top of the walls, I looked down at the path I had used

 

 

The small plaza where I came up, and from there climbed up to the top of the walls past the tomb
There is a tomb of a king up there, guarded by jaguars

 

 

Then, looking across the Gran Plaza I saw this and had to check it out - and WOW!

 

 

 

 

LMAO - with all of the grim imagery here, one tends to forget that they were people, too, with a sense of humor

 

There is one more thing one can do here, and it costs as much as the ticket to the ruins, which is probably why most people did not do it. There is a complex of tunnels under the Gran Plaza, which gives the visitor access to the earliers structures that are nested below or within the final buildings. I did not discover this until I saw a tunnel entrance, went down the stairs and was stopped and asked for a ticket - which I did not have. No one at the entrance ticket booth mentioned it.

 

 

 

 

Another very highly decorated building

 

Now, please look at this picture and next...

 

Here is the stairway with the sculls (complete in the museum) leading to the main pyramid, note the entrance
And there's the tree - beneath these stairs is that red building. It is being replicated in the museum

 

And then I see this pale-skinned lovely with her own guide, swatting mosquitoes and being clearly distracted. I always carry pretty much everything for an emergency, and just had to come over and apply some OFF lotion repellent to her

 

She was so glad about it and I was only too happy to help

 

Beyond any doubt, in many ways, this was the most amazing Mayan ruin of them all

 

And with that, I say,' Adios Copan'

 

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