Our first stop was at the Mayan ruins in Copan. We were told to definitely pay for a tour as it’s the only way to really know what you’re seeing. When leaving our hotel to walk over there we hooked up with a group of 4 other Americans figuring it would be cheaper to get a tour for 6 than just for 2. It was definitely a good move. There was actually a bit of jockeying to see who would get to take us. We were fortunate to get a guide with excellent English. He told us it would be $25 for the group. That’s $25 for 6 people to tour for almost 2 hours! We of course ended up tipping him more than that.
It was amazing to tour the site and thing of people all those years ago building these communities and carving such intricate statues. There were so many interesting things on the tour and I won’t try to repeat them all. My friend, Ginny, who was traveling with me, would say that I was most fascinated by this story. Apparently being sacrificed to the gods was the highest possible calling. Therefore at the end of the ball game which they played (something akin to volleyball), the best player on the winning team was sacrificed. When asked why they didn’t sacrifice one of the losers, the guide replied that you wouldn’t want to give a loser to the gods! I found this a little disturbing. Imagine your pitcher throws a no hitter and then is sacrificed. I suppose it would be much harder to have a dynasty in sports if the best player on the winning team kept getting sacrificed! I tried to put myself into their mind set – that being sacrificed is the highest thing in life – but I kept thinking there wasn’t much incentive to be the best player out there.
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