Honduras

     Last Wednesday through Friday, Annabella and I went with a group on a bus to Copan, Honduras! The town is well known for its large collection of Mayan sculptures, underground cities and sky high temples found by Italian archeologists. That was the main reason we decided to go on the mini trip. It was truly breath taking seeing carvings and the temples that were all hand crafted. It gave me goose bumps going underground and seeing the aqueducts (the first type of plumbing system known). You could barley could your jaw up going from one site to another. These people existed more than 1000 years before Christ and after Christ. The way they lived is beyond fascinating.
      As time allowed us, we got to see another exotic site, The Jaguar Spa, which was hot water springs an hour away from Copan. Some of the water was up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. As we walked through it was steaming and in the middle of this thick rainforest. I felt like I had just been dropped into Jurassic Park or something and some crazy dinosaur was going to pop out of nowhere, that's literally what it looked like. That or Tarzan and Jane were expected to fly out of the tree's...Anyway, we sat in the natural springs water which are suppose to "heal all in the soul", we put natural mud masks on and had stone foot "massages" (but they actually really hurt so we skipped that after one try). So enjoy the pictures because there some awesome things to see!

Jaguar Spa Hot Springs:

Cross the bridge and your spirtually reborn...if only it were that easy right?

JURRASIC PARK!

The foot "massage"
One side is hot and the other is cold and you walk around the circle SEVEN times
to help your feet. I decided my feet were fine...

The Swinging Bridge; which everyone though was funny to rock and jump
while I thought I was going to die and was NOT lauging at all.

Myan Ruins:

This is extordinary...The mayans carved this stone into a compass
that is hard to recognize. The center is the sun and what is shaped like a flower is what
they believe is a compass. The picture doesn't show the fading color that was once brightly painted but the
colors symbolize a creepy representation of the future world. You must note that this was made 1,000 years before christ.
The north a white, symbolizing caucasian people, the east was yellow, symbolizing asain people,
the south black, hence south american and african ethnicities, and leaving the west red, for the europeans.

Alter for sacrifices

Underground tunnels
Everytime there was a ruler died and a new one was elected
the Mayan people would cover the whole city and start to buliding new temples on top of it
to show respect for there new King.

Annabella and I

Turtle

Each layer of stairs meant a new generation, the highest were the gods and elders.
Detailed carvings all up the stairs symbolized this.

The Biggest temple found in Copan



Estela, the kind of stone used for the scultures. This is a very popular design
and god that was worshipped and everywhere all over the Mayan City



Group



The whole ball court

Sun God



Tomb Decor





The Ball Game Court

Where the tomb is

Some better pics and explenations;

http://gocentralamerica.about.com/od/hondurasguide/ig/Copan-Photo-Gallery/

 

 

Nueva Escuela

Traditional dance of the farmland

Annabella giving the speech she didn't know she had to make. Haha.

Our graduates!

Annabella's Room

The school

        This Friday I got to go to a school inauguration, which something amazing to see. Annabella donated land to a land right next to Juyua called Sachotitan so they could build an elementary school there. The Kindergarten graduated and it was a tear jerking moment. Education is more than lacking in this country unless you have the money to spend on the American or British schools here. The kids each told us there best accomplishment, favorite food and hobbies, then got there "diplomas" and were escorted by the cutest little men back to their seats. They named the computer after Annabella and 25 new, flat screen computers were given to the school in favor of her donation. And that is a huge deal because most of the people in these small towns don't even know what a computer is. It was an awesome experience and I’ll never forget it. It's just good to know people really are out there helping. Every little bit counts guys.

        The rest of the day I had to stamp the freaking Rainforest Alliance papers which take 54798574398578435 hours to finish. I hate them and try to avoid them as much as possible, but they always seem to surface somehow. UGHHH.

Homerun

Walking home from town!

"Jesus said I am the road to the Lord (father)"

City Center

Beautiful Church
Can't get enough of it

On the Street
That's a Taxi

Juyua Market- Only Weekends

The One I WANT

We keep these in the house in case anything happens....
I can't even lift it

          Ok, so we went to a great restaurant for lunch today, Los Patios was the name, and the owner's dog just had puppies so I could not resist putting all my pictures up of them (this isn't even all of them). They have St. Bernard in them and the dad is a mystery but adorable none the less. It took me everything I had and my mother's voice to not take one home. The coffee process is chugging along so I have no new, news for that. I forgot to take a picture of the Patios, but there completely covered in coffee now. Today, we had someone come and bite, literally bite pieces of the coffee to make sure the quality and humidity levels were all up to par.

           I finished the last of my Christmas shopping finally. Today is Saturday and Annabella and I decided to take the night to go to the beach. Salinitas again, where I was two weeks ago. Everything is sailing pretty smooth and time is flying by. We decorated the trees at the San Salvador house and the office/ houses on the farm, which made me, miss home! Christmas is always spent with family and it was strange decorating the trees without them. But only twenty more days and I will walk through Seattle's rainy city probably wishing that I was back here. So I'm going to enjoy every hour I have with this sun...and prices, for that matter :) Have a good rest of the weekend guys! Ill post soon hopefully!